for the cold.  After enjoying a few days of +8 or so, we are back in the deep freeze here in Sandnes.  That’s around -10C.  Not cold by some standards, but as a young Norwegian lady said today, it’s the kind of cold that gets into your bones.

It’s been -25C or so in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, where I’m going.

After spending the past three days either sorting papers in the house, or holding a flashlight in the garage for David while he replaced the rear brakes on the car , we went out for lunch today. The sun was shining (it does that on cold, frosty days), and  the hoar frost was incredible. It was standing up on each blade of grass, making it look like new snow.  Here it is on some Rhododendron buds:

And bushes –

The stream in the park with the rocks helmeted in ice –

And the grass looks like it is covered with snow.

Post script – I started this post on January 13, but got caught up with life and didn’t  complete it.  It’s been -16C on my thermometer the past two mornings.  They keep saying it will warm up. It hasn’t yet.  The frost is STILL sitting on the grass, in the sun every day, looking like snow-

The house is cold and the fireplace smokes.  Will summer come, ever?