Weekly snapshot #43

The temps still say winter...

...and I'm super excited that in this week's weekly snapshot, you can see the glow of an aurora against the black of the sky (and a few squiggly stars--darn my shaking hand...).

The reason I'm so excited about that aurora glimpse because I have a feeling it's the last time you'll have the chance to see stars or auroras in a weekly snapshot. And the reason for that is clear in this next photo--one of two bonus pics this week. I took this shot just a few minutes before taking the one above, but had the camera pointing off the opposite end of the station. Seein' is believin', and that, my friends, is the glow of the beginning of the 2016 South Pole sunrise.

It's a pretty incredible thing to see at this point, let me tell you. I'm so excited for the parade of beautiful sunrise colors headed our way, but also very sad to see the stars fading from sight by the day.

And here's a second bonus shot, just for fun. Since spring is about to be sprung, we're soon going to have to start thinking about the tasks on deck for getting ready for the influx of summer people that will start happening in just a couple of months, and the busy summer season. So my boss/friend K and I walked out to one of the Jamesways in the "backyard" that acts as storage for a lot of housekeeping supplies. The main access door was miraculously free of drifting and we didn't need shovels at all to get inside. But when we opened the back door, it was a different story!