Lengthening Daylight

It was with great excitement that I got the sun in my eyes at 9:35 this morning as the sun rose over the peaks. This is my view from my desk as I sit in the loft on the computer, and though I generally don't care for sunshine in my eyes, I appreciate every minute more of sunlight we get each day. The sky starts to lighten behind the mountains at about 8:00 for a 9:30 sunrise. The sunset is around 5:30 now I believe. According to my husband's last update, we are gaining about 4 minutes of sunshine per day. Funny that we didn't count the minutes in the lower 48. And the increasing sunshine is a hot topic of conversation, even for people who have lived here a long time. They say one never quite gets used to the very short days, and one never gets over appreciating the lengthening days. The sun is actually providing some warmth now too, which it didn't seem to a month ago.

The peak you see in the picture is very often swathed in clouds that cover the Harding Icefield from which it comes. In this picture there is strong wind and the snow is blowing off the peaks creating the haze you see.