Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Saturday, 5 April 2008

4-nights, 3-men, 1-tent...a sitcom in the making?

I don't know what our fellow winterers must have thought occured during the few days myself, Rich and Joe were living in close proximity to one another in a small tent in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Antarctica. But, upon our return, the outburst by myself when walking into the dining room for lunch that "I feel like a new man", and the appearance of a blemish on Joe's neck which suspiciously looked like a lovebite, certainly fuelled people's imaginations.

Yes, indeed there were three men spending the majority of their time stuck in a tent due to bad weather. The risk of boredom being very real in such situations may lead people to think that we may have "entertained" ourselves (for "entertained", read "big gay three-man gangbang") but this was certainly not the case.

When walking into the dining room I was in fact referring to the euphoric feeling following a nice hot shower after spending 4 nights without such facilities, and Joe's unfortunate lovebite was the result of mild frostnip from the skidoo journey home.


More later.


Saturday 15th March 2008 Cambridge Science Festival Live Link-Up

The atmospheric chemistry group at BAS participated in the week long Cambridge wide science festival organised by the Cambridge University departments. The BAS exhibition included a pyramid tent, various Antarctic clothing for people to try out, a reconstruction of one of the 10 low-level ozone monitoring sites deployed from Halley by Andy Rankin during the summer, various BAS scientists and an exhibit where people can talk (through the power of modern technology) live face-to-face with a real Antarctic scientist...me.

I was linked via webcam and VOIP to a computer terminal in the exhibition room, and the display was projected onto a screen. The idea was for people to just come up and have a chat to me about life and science here at Halley. I was on a wireless link with the laptop, so I was free to walk around the Simpson building showing different bits of science and give live views of activities going on outside, such as base commander Ags making snow angels in the soft snow we had the night previously.



The exhibition lasted all day, and the main purpose was as an educational tool for the various children walking around. They were each given a question sheet to answer by finding out the information by asking me.
I was ill prepared.
Although I had received a copy of the types of questions that would be given out, I hadn't done my research. I was soon finding myself being asked questions to which I could not answer, such as "how big is the ozone hole over Antarctica?" (particularly embarrassing as I am the guy who does all the ozone hole monitoring here), or "how old is the oldest ice-core"?

My guesstimates were quite accurate (being mulitple choice questions), but not brilliant. Luckily for me the exhibit stand was overseen by the lovely Rebecca to assist/chaperone the whole thing. She saved my skin serveral times, thank you Rebecca. :o)

I had an amazingly fun day, and I like to hope I have provided inspiration for all those scores of children I spoke to. They did all seem generally interested in what I had to say, some even lucky enough to witness a snow angel being made live 14,000miles away.



Sunday 16th March - Thursday 20th March 2008
Winter Trip - Sledge Echo

The following day I was off on me holidays. 5-days camping Antarctic style in the Hinge Zone with the aim of exploring ice-caves, climbing ice-cliffs and abseilling into crevasses.



Myself, Joe (who's original trip got cancelled in the summer due to a 4-day blow) and GA Rich all packed up, kitted up and headed off on skidoos towing sledges to the Hinge Zone.

Each skidoo/sledge combo had to be linked to the skidoo/sledge combo in front in case any one of us happens to fall into a crevasse. So we made a nice long train approx 150m long. Each person was also clipped into the system via a harness so that if a skidoo did drop into a crevasse, the rider would not fall to his doom by falling off the skidoo itself.




As explained before somewhere in this blog (I think), the Hinge Zone is where the Brunt Ice Shelf is fed from the Antarctic headland. Therefore, it is adorned with natural features where the ice shelf buckles and bends as it flows over the rocks below. This creates lots of brilliant features for us to climb around, and plenty of hidden crevasses to avoid also.

And so we headed off on our skidoos. The temperatures were about -20C, and so it was wise to wrap up properly if riding on a skidoo. This meant donning the special gortex face masks we get issued with. They keep the windchill of your face...and they also make you look like a gimp. Again, another unhealthy image to associate with three men about to head off to go camping together!

Rich has a beard.

When you have a beard and you breath in -20C, your breath condenses onto your beard and freezes instantly.

Rich breathed a lot during the 2 hour journey to the Hinge Zone. Thus, he had a lot of ice on his beard as a result. A lot of ice which was sticking his gimp mask onto his beard. The facemask Rich wears just happens to look like a cricket batsman's box!

When he finally ripped off his mask, it was probably the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. For in this instance, it looked like a cricket box with a good set of curly pubic hair stuck around the rim!

Have you ever laughed and gagged at the same time?!
I have!


We set up camp, pitching up the 3-man pyramid tent, the HF radio, setting out the inside and outside supplies. And finally, most important...pitched the poo tent. It is a converted pup tent with the floor cut out. A hole is dug in the snow, with a ledge in the middle and a deeper hole on the other side for the crap and the tent is pitched over it. A wooden seat with a hole is the added for the finishing touches. And presto, a toilet in the field in Antarctica, complete with shelter and a seat. It is luxury compared to the alternative.

Mind you, the deep hole end was facing the wind and so a nice breeze would get in under the canvass to blow down between your cheecks when using the toilet tent, so one had to be quick when doing ones business. And it was imperative to restrict ones trips to as few as possible, i.e. building up the bowel pressure somewhat during the day and releasing it in one go!


Anyway. I digress.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best it could have been. It was cloudy the majority of the time and the wind picked up now and again. These conditions affect visibility and contrast and so it would be silly to go out in crevasse fields in conditions like that. We did get a good couple of 1/2 days out though, and got in a few trips climbing and skidooing around the large chasms.







We had one complete lay-up day in the tent, but it wasn't too bad. I was totally chilled out, reading a book, in a nice warm tent, with the wind whistling outside buffeting the tent, the primus stove soporiffically lulling me to sleep. I was so relaxed. And then it would be ruined by the need to nip outside to the pee flag of the poo tent.




The pyramid tents are quite efficient. Although it would be -20C outside, in the morning the temperature inside the tent would be a mere -9C!!! It quite an experience to wake up in the morning with ice all over your sleeping bag where you've been breathing.

Conversation was never lacking in the tent, with Joe routinely reminding Rich and I how "regular" he was prior to visiting the other tent, and coming out with classic quotes such as "ooh, I need a p*** do you need a hand Rich" or "I really could do with a McDonalds".

The other good day we had out, we walked to what is known as Stony Berg.
I had no idea why it was called Stony Berg, but it all came apparent later on. It's got stones in it!



Stony Berg is unique. The Brunt Ice Shelf is exactly what it is...a shelf of ice.
But, within all of this ice there happens to be just this one special feature. The aeon slow churning of the ice as it slides off the Antarctic mainland has obviously caused some rocks to be dragged with it. And years and years later, the rocks have been spat out on top.

After being here for 4 months and seeing nothing but snow and ice, it was quite surreal to actually see some real rocks. I was quite outstanded. And to think that for millions of years these rocks have been covered by thick ice until they were disturbed by the flow of the ice, eventually rising to the top of the very ice that had incarcerated them all that time. And here they were, silently sitting on top, the only visible rocks for miles and miles to be seen, waiting for residents of Halley station to stumble upon them several years ago.


On the Thursday it was time to pack up camp and head home. We had heard on the radio sched the night before that the weather was going to turn nasty.
We returned home on Thurday with a westerley wind coming from our left. And that is how Joe got the lovebite on the left of his neck.




All in all, it was a fantastic week. It was fun to get out and about away from base, and live life in a tent in Antarctica. Not many people will ever get to do that in their lifetimes. People would in fact probably pay tens of thousands of pounds for a holiday like that. Me...I get paid to have a holiday like that.

I am also proud to say that I survived eating out of the manfood box a packet of freeze dried macaroni cheese which was dated mid-1995!


Friday 21st March 2008
Winter BBQ

Back home and straight into some proper self-made winter entertainment.
a BBQ in -19C!

-19C has become quite a balmy temperature for us of late. Whenever the communal weather display in the dining room shows anything above -20C we see it as being quite a warm day.
It just so happens that it turned out to be a warm evening for the planned BBQ on this particular Friday.

Paddy excelled himself by proving a brilliant meat-tastic spread of BBQ steak, sausages and burgers, jacket potatoes and salad (of the salad we had remaining from the shipment in January)! It was all finished off with some lovely freshly made toffee apples for pudding.

The BBQ was splendid, and although I got some photos, none of them does it any justice and so I am not going to even bother put any on this blog.

The same evening was a chance to take a group photo of the wintering team. Not in any way our official winter photo mind, but rather one to send to our neighbours...the Germans at Neumayer (800km or so away) who had kindly emailed us wishing us a successful winter, complete with attached picture of their team. I see that they have a metbabe also...a proper female one at that too!



And then we went indoors into the warm to continue the evening's entertainment, which absurdly ended up being a gaming-fest of mastermind, pool, darts and battleships. Oh how we live it up here on a Friday evening.


Saturday 29th March 2008
80's Theme Night

Oh yes...this was it. A chance to fulfill one of my life long dreams and have a totally 80's themed evening, complete with dressing up!

Ags turned the lounge into an 80's themed restaurant (deliciously named "Simply Irresistable") and I was to be her waiter. A waiter is in no way like a butler, so I was excused to be a bit slack in my approach to serving the tables.

The restaurant came complete with video screen displaying 80's pop videos, and plenty of 80's style posters. There was even on the wall an "employee of the month" award. Coincidently, I happened to be the employee of the year, (probably something to do with the fact that I made the award myself).



Everyone made an effort and dressed up. I took hardly any pictures all evening so I cannot show you the wonderful costumes we had. I came as a New Romantic, we also had a punk rock chick, John McEnroe, The Karate Kid, some eccentric entrepreneur (or it could have been Scott just being his usual self), what I can best describe as an 80s rock singer, and an 80s disco king.




After dinner, we partied the night away to 80s classic after 80s classic. And you've got to admit, there were plenty of classics from that decade, huh???


Sunday 30th March 2008
The end of the 1st month of Winter

And thus proves that, with a lot of hard work and team spirit, Halley station can be run with a skeleton crew of just 11 people.

That is, of course, until I have to step into the role as Sunday cook! As was the case on Sunday 30th March.

Even the chef needs 2 days off during his week, and so we all take it in turns to cover those days and cook for the rest of the base. And it was soon my turn. Little did they know what they had let themselves in for!

But, it turned out alright in the end, and everyone survived my lamb hotpot. The only thing that didn't survive was my ill-fated attempt to make honey pudding. Well, it was edible. It just didn't turn out to be how Linda McCartney told me it should look.


The Melt-Tank

The following week I was on melt-tank duty with Bryan and Hannah.
Melt-tank duty is another responsibility shared amongst us.


Our water supply comes from the snow that surrounds us. In order to get it from the snow surface into our pipes we have to dig it and chuck it down a chute. The chute feeds the Laws melt-tank which is now under 18 years of accumulated snow (some 30m below the surface). The melt-tank melts it, and the melt water is pumped up into a day tank on the Laws platform where it is filtered and treated with UV light en-route.





Digging for the melt-tank each takes a team of 3 people 30 mins to fill to the appropriate level. And this has got to be done in all weather. Luckily, this last particular week I was on MT duty was good for weather. The time previously was during a good blow.

And that concludes the activites during the remainder of March.
What wonders willl April bring the team at Halley? Only time will tell. But a heads up from the chief scientist at Halley (the only scientist), yours truly: April 30th brings sundown, the final sunset at Halley for 3 months. The dreaded 24 hour darkness is nigh.
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Saturday, 23 February 2008

Summer hits its peak

The summer science programme draws to a close, Halley VI construction winds down, the sun starts dipping lower and lower in the evening skies and temperatures begin to drop. The summer season has peaked and is now nearing it's end.


 Regardless of having an extremely sweltering afternoon at +3.4C on 15th Jan, a sudden noticeable drop in the daily temperatures mid-Jan gave us newbies an insight into what it’s really like to feel cold. Evening temperatures dipped to -15C to -20C as the sun got lower on the horizon in evenings.

Towards the end of January we started to see an average daily daytime temperature of around -15C. But it’s amazing how quickly one adapts to these conditions...and also how quickly one learns not to put things like metal fittings and bolts between ones lips when working outside.

Needless to say, it is my pleasure to report as the Halley meteorologist that we experienced the coldest January at Halley on record (since 1956). Average temp -6.5C.


22nd Jan 08 – Snowblock samples

“I have to do what?” I exclaimed, “Dig a couple of blocks of snow, pack them up and send them back to Cambridge?”

I was sitting in a meeting in an office in BAS HQ, Cambridge, UK in late-September 2007 when I was requested to dig blocks of snow for analysis in Cambridge. As part of my training I was meeting with many scientists and taking notes of the tasks and jobs I would be doing for them once I was at Halley.

The job of digging uncontaminated blocks of snow seemed like a simple, relatively painless and somewhat fun task to add to the list. And now here I was, at Halley, performing said task, dressed head to toe in a clean suit and other paraphernalia to protect the precious snow from contamination.

And it was not simple, nor was it painless but at least I was having a little fun though.

 The preparation and physical nature of the job meant it took a solid 4 hours to complete. Assisted by our winter field GA Rich, and summer admin and general station lynch-pin Nicola, we cleaned all tools and items which would be used in the dig and donned our beautiful outfit.

The only boxes available for the samples were very large metal Zarges boxes. Large boxes meant large samples. And large sample meant large weights. As the samples were to be dug in the Clean Air Sector, these large, heavy boxes had to be manually hauled the 1.5km to the freezer store.


The curses streaming out of my mouth as we man-hauled a pulk with 170kg of carefully dug snow over the 1.5km were not ones to be repeated to man or beast. I was knackered.
But the satisfaction that yet another task completed in the Antarctic for the sake of global science made up for all the hardship.

Apologies for the quality of the pics. It got quite overcast and the contrast dropped making photography difficult.



 23rd Jan ’08 – (more) Field Training

The 2008 wintering team were given the day off normal base duties to head to the coast and revise the skills we learnt on the field training in Derbyshire, UK (all those months ago in September ’07). It was good R&R and a chance to escape the base for the day. It was also the first time that the ’08 winter team had been together as a group like this since the field training.

It was also the first time that the ’08 winter team had been together as a group like this since the field training. Although we all live and work on the same small base, it is a very rare thing to have all of us together in one place at a time. The chance to work together and enjoy one another’s company was just excellent, and enabled us to bond together again and refocus ourselves as to why we are doing what we are doing.

Ags: winter base commander (BC),
Lance: vehicle operator/mechanic
Scott: vehicle mechanic
Joe: electrician (sparky)
Bryan: generator mechanic (genny mech)
Rich: field assistant
Hannah: doc
Paddy: chef
Les: plumber
Dean: comms manager
And myself: the beaker

We couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was sunny, it was warm, it was calm, and it was fun. It was in all essence, generally a beautiful day at the seaside.

We practiced skills such as roping up, walking over steep inclines, climbing up and abseiling down ice cliffs, performing crevasse rescue, among other things. Such as stomping up and down a cliff in single-file.

We were told we were going to learn to walk on snow
(photo courtesy of Agnieszka Fryckowska)

(photo courtesy of Agnieszka Fryckowska)




...finishing big.
(photo courtesy of Agnieszka Fryckowska)


We stopped for lunch on the cliffs and watched the calm Southern Ocean below silently glistening in the afternoon sun. In the second half od the day we roped ourselves up and done some linked glacier travel before chucking weighted bags over the cliffs and practicing crevasse rescue.






We finished the day with a BBQ at the caboose. Splendid.


25th Jan ’08 – Burns’ Night

Another excuse to celebrate was upon us, and it was proposed that we shall celebrate Burns Night.


Considering the short notice of 2-days to prepare and the fact that everyone were still on long days, it was amazing how quickly things were organised, providing a true example of how people pitch together to make an evening out of the basic materials we have to hand.


Jimbo spent the spare time in his day creating a “Toss the Caber” / welly-throwing range.
It was a Friday after all, and gospel that we have our fish and chips (as resident Kiwi Scott would put it) shark and tatties, but the chefs bravely forfeited our usual battered fish and chips dinner and fed us a hearty Scottish dinner complete with Haggis. Rich, wearing kilt, gave a recital of a Burn’s poem during the dinner while we all enjoyed a shot of whiskey each, setting the evening off.

And then the games begun.
It was cold and it was crap visibility, but we still came out in our droves to have a good ol’ toss together!


Wellies and cabers were flying left, right and centre.

Someone’s mukluk boot was liberated from the boot room and used as a substitute welly. The wind was cutting perpendicular across the range and made accurate throwing difficult. Nonetheless, people learnt to throw into the wind to correct for wind shear. However, some people over corrected. Ant (’07 chef) unfortunately miscalculated somewhat and sent a mukluk “bomb” careering from the heavens into the crowd standing behind him. Calls of “incoming” and “run away” rang out and the crowd dispersed in blind panic to avoid mukluk induced coma. Oh how we laughed.


Maniy, one of the South African labourers on Halley VI, snapped the caber in half. With no replacement caber, he caber tossing was abruptly stopped as a result. He’s a big chap is Maniy.


And finally the evening was finished with a good ol’ fashioned tug together!
A tug-of-war contest was fought (best of three making the winner). After playing in one I gave up. I was too knackered and my hands were frozen. Besides, my skills as referee were required.

And that was the end of the evening entertainment.


 29th Jan ‘08 – Major Incident Plan

“All station, all stations. We have a major incident between the garage and the Drewery. A doctor is required.”
Was the call on the radio, Tuesday 29th Jan at 1630.

But don’t worry. We were expecting it.

It was just a simulated exercise, the purpose of which was to test the operation of the base staff in response to a big incident.
Read on, and comfort yourselves in the knowledge that if things were to go awry here at Halley, we have the properly trained people on station to deal with it...

The scenario:
a crash involving a sno-cat, a nodwell crane and a skidoo pulling a happy sledge, resulting in a series of broken people. One with a head wound, another with a broken arm, someone with a serious compound fracture of the leg and finally...a dead person with missing legs!

Of course, a scenario completely unlikely to occur, but all the same, it was a good idea to plan for the worst case. The big test was of course to see how the new doctor would cope in such a situation. And I have to give it to Hannah, she performed admirably.

Hannah attends to an "injured" Shaggy
(photo courtesy of Pete Milner)

As soon as the call went out on the radio, we all leapt into action. The plan for a major incident is to muster at the signpost outside the Laws, unless you are on scene or (of course) part of the incident itself.

Hannah kitted herself out and headed straight to the incident site while the rest of us calmly proceeded to the signpost outside. Being one of the first to arrive I was given the roll call list to account for everyone and to determine who may be involved in the accident/incident. Imagine my horror when I had accounted for all, even those who were injured, and found out over the radio that there was also involved the incident an “unidentified” female.

Oh, the questions running through my mind at the time.
We all know each other here and there aren’t that many females on station, how come you can’t identify her? Are you sure it’s female? Has her face being completely mangled by the crash? Have we got a stowaway on station smuggled in by some randy chap who gets his sexual needs tended to? Had the Basler flight which stopped off earlier in the day left one of its party behind? I was in a bit of a panic. Who was she?

It turned out to be Annie.
Resuscitation Annie.
The standard basic life-support dummy had been dressed up in a boiler suit and thrown under the tracks of the sno-cat to act as one of the casualties.


I was insulted. I had previously approached Rich C (the 2007 doc) offering my acting prowess to help in the incident exercise. He turned me down. And instead opted for the lifeless, limbless plastic dummy? Had it come to this? Was my career as an actor to be overshadowed by an inanimate object?

Truth be told, I actually wasn’t allowed to be a “casualty” as I am a winterer and I need to participate in the exercise proper.

Turns out that the dummy was wrongly regarded as a fatality. In the debrief afterwards, it was explained by Rich that the idea was for “Annie” to be treatable too, but everyone just assumed it was a fatality and zipped it up in a body-bag and stuffed it in the freezer! Heh...I hope that wont happen in a real life crisis. It wouldn’t be easy to explain oneself out of that situation.

The makeshift hospital in the Drewery
(photo courtesy of Pete Milner)

All in all, the exercise was a complete success. Everyone played their respective roles very well indeed. In a scenario such as that, the first people on the scene take the coordinating roles. And Ags (our winter base commander) and Paddy (our wintering chef) did an outstanding job running the resources and the makeshift hospital respectively. And of course Hannah fixed everyone in time for dinner.


3rd Feb ’08 – Tractors and fun

The 3rd of Feb was a Sunday and for a change I had a completely relaxing day. I had a lie in and got up the latest I have done all summer. I then watched a movie or two which were being played in the lounge. And then I drove some of the big vehicles we have on site: The John Deere and the Challenger.

As a bit of afternoon recreation, Martin, our summer chief plant mech / logistics manager type guy offered people the chance to learn to drive the big machinery. I jumped at the opportunity, purely as a chance to relive those moments of playing with the little John Deere tractor in my grandparents garden as a toddler, and put closure to the sadness endured all my life when it was thrown out.

Within minutes I was churning huge troughs in the snow by whipping the Challenger into tights donuts going round and round in circles. You can do amazing donuts in those things as they can turn on the spot. And, yes, I was feeling like a great big kid...all over again. Whoopee!




7th Feb ’08 – Tunnel Rescue Scenario

Another week and another day of training for the doc and for the ‘08 winter team. This time we were stage a tunnel resuce.

The scenario:
to tend to and rescue someone who was seriously injured in the service tunnels 30m below the snow surface.

You see, when Halley V was constructed, service tunnels providing power, comms, plumbing, fuel tanks, etc between the Laws, Simpson and Piggott buildings and the and melt-tank were built. These tunnels were designed to bury over the years as the snow accumulated. They are now approx 30m below the surface with tons of pressure pressing down on them from the ice above. Space within them is tight and they are gradually collapsing under the pressure. And there is always the risk that fumes within them could overpower someone.

So...they have a significant level of risk and we, as a wintering team, need to be prepared to handle a rescue situation if ever the need was to occur.

Hannah had prepared a beautiful dummy as our victim, and he/she/it was a good weight. This was essentially lobbed down the access shaft to the tunnel systems (ensuring that any medical attention was a necessity) and we set to work.

Preparing to place the victim in the tunnels
(photo courtesy of Pete Milner)

Soon we were all kitted out with whatever rescue gear we needed. Rich was coordinating the rescue operation up the shaft, Hannah was coordinating the medical side of things down below and Ags was coordinating the crew up top (winching, belaying, etc).

And then the operation commenced. I’ll spare you the boring details of the step by step process. What is important to tell you is that we managed to successfully rescue the victim (whom only had mild concussion and a broken leg) out of the tunnels. Unfortunately, his head got snagged on a rung of the ladder up the shaft as we hauled him up and thus his neck snapped.

Hannah’s urgent screams to stop went unnoticed by us up top and so we just kept on winding the winch.

Although we did manage to get him out of the tunnels, he was quite dead.

Oh dear. The irony.


However, the theory worked and in the wash up afterwards it was concluded that many lessons were learnt. As I said to the group, I was glad things went wrong because we learnt from it. If it all went perfectly, then we would never know of the extra risks like ladder rungs and unsecured lolling heads.

Heroes -Paddy, Hannah, Me and Dean (on floor)
(photo courtesy of Pete Milner)


 9th Feb '08 - GEF data collection

Flying to A80 and A77 yet again.

This time I was joining Joan in collecting the recent data logged on the new GEF (Geo-Electric Field) monitoring stations he and Jules installed in January. I was to observe the process in servicing and checking the system on the premise that I might be requested to do it next season.

And, damn, those sites truly are getting bloody cold.


Joan and Jules were living in a field camp for almost 2 weeks setting up the two systems, and so there was some evidence of their time at the sites.

Igloo, built by the GEF team, complete with armchair.
It was successfully tried and tested by Jules one night too

The GEF measures the electric field of the earth through some magical whizzy science.
One of the detectors is a big shiny globe suspended in the air.

Joan checking the GEF globe

And then we returned to base landing approx 2300hrs.




14th Feb ’08 – Valentines Day

Another year, another valentines, and another day lacking in romance.
Once again I did not receive any cards. But this is probably a good thing when it comes to an Antarctic research station comprising of 95% males. However, I am always hoping that several cards will be arriving with the post when the ship returns in November. *subtle hint ladies* :o)

The 14th also brought the very first setting of the sun of 2008. All 2 hours of it.
It was predicted by the helpful computer programmes at my disposal that sunset would occur at 0103GMT on 14th Feb. As we are currently on GMT-3, it wasn’t too late to stay up and witness it.


Quite a few people were out that evening to witness it. I myself was on the Simpson platform preparing my masterpiece for the Folk Night on Saturday. But, I stopped and stood on the balcony all alone with thoughts of romance and love, watching that sun dip below the horizon. The weather was kind to us, and gave us a perfectly clear evening sky in which to see the spectacle unfold.

We've also been experiencing some low mist on some evenings, which freezes on the cold surfaces outside and forms crystals. It's called rime. It can give some amazing effects, and will no doubt get better as temperatures drop even more.



After the sun set, I returned to the office and continued compiling the extravagant performance I was piecing together for my moment on stage for Folk Night the following weekend!
More on this to come
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