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It's been a very warm weekend here in mid 40's and sunny. So I decided to go on a bike ride at the park. Conditions were between hardpack snow in the shadows, dry dirt in the more exposed areas, and too muddy in the medium exposure areas. All in all, it was a good time. I even sweated a bit and managed not to fall. Sweet socks eh?

A good friend...

Are pretty... guess the places, It'll be fun!

I was browsing through some older photos when I came across this. I read about these but didn't realize I had a photo of one. John took this a couple of years ago. It's sort of a rare phenomenon known as a Broken Spectre. Pretty cool name if you ask me. A Brocken Spectre can only be seen when specific conditions are met: The sun must be directly at one's back and there must be many suspended water droplets in the air where the Spectre's glory appears. Sunlight enters the water droplets and reflects off the back of the droplets and the light comes back towards the sun and the observer. This phenomenon is called diffraction and causes the circular rainbow-like bands around the shadow. Even if you are in a group you can only see your own shadow and glory (rainbow) ring, or your own Brocken Spectre. Therefore Brocken Spectres are confined to high-mountain areas when the sun is low. Legend has that the name came from the Brocken , the highest peak of the Northern Germa...

And off to bed..

We went to Kara's hometown this Christmas to spend some time catching up with old friends and family and such. It was a good time, winter on New England is quite pretty, bare trees and white snow look pretty good together in my opinion. The obligatory airplane wing shot: These were all taken with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, a Christmas present from my parents. It's a pretty cool lens, really sharp and has a wide aperture for shots in low light and shallow depth of focus. Kara got to spend some time with her old friend Misha: And some time with mom: Explored an old haunt of mine: A bit of real scrabble: And a happy new year to all!