The weather has been variable to the extreme here the past week. First we had 4 inches of snow, then the temperature plummeted to single digits for a day, then it rose to just below freezing. That brought freezing rain, then rain, then snow, then freezing rain again, all in the same day. Yesterday the winds scoured the the hillside, gusting around 50mph, and literally stopping me in my tracks more than once. Today, it’s clear and beautiful, and happily well below freezing (everything gets harder here when it’s above freezing, until summer arrives for good).

What we’re left with is a thin crust of ice over about a foot of soft snow. Below that, it’s several feet of solid snow pack. Later today, I’m going to shoot some video of Ashlee fetching a ball on top of the ice crust, which is unbelievably hilarious, and I’ll post it here.

This morning, however, I broke my self-imposed moratorium on sunrise pictures, because: 1. I have a new camera to try out, and 2. the ice crust is reflective.