Bleak (?) mid-winter. Some of the most beautiful sky pictures can be seen this time of the year.

Tower Garden harvest.  This is our harvest for our salad December 27.  Yes, that is a tomato, vine-ripened, with the lettuce, kale, arugula and cilantro that went into the daily salad.  It is not so remarkable in warmer latitudes, but this is Minnesota! It's a very first time in my over 70 years!

found object.

Christmas sunset. The days are getting longer, not enough for you to notice four days past the solstice here at 45 degrees north latitude, however we know they are longer. If we lived in Scandinavia or Alaska four days from solstice might already be an appreciably longer day.

Winter! This picture shows the cold of our season here in Minnesota. Snowbirds who live these moments in some warmer climate miss out.

Winter sky. Some interesting and beautiful colors of the December sky are kind of elusive.

December harvest! Do those words go together in the winter wonderland where we can get more than a foot of snow in a 36 hour time period?  Well, it's a first for me but it's work I enjoy and adds to better health. This was from my Tower Garden yesterday and went into our meal.

http://melvins.towergarden.com

Record snowfall! That was just for a 24 hour period. We had two back-to-back so that the snow here in Andover was more than the "official" measurement from the international airport.

White Christmas? I think I see one coming. Andover got about 15 to 20 inches of new snow: last night, yesterday and the night before. Everything is covered in white.

Found Object.

You know the time of the year when the weather is cold and gloomy. Now all of our snow is eaten up by rain and the landscape longs for the brightness of new snow. Yet there are still a few bright spots as:

Found Object.

Found Object.