F.F. (Fricken Freezing)

Well, I feel like we've been really blessed this winter so far in Harbin. This is my 4th winter here and it's really not so bad or long as it used to be. It used to be that winter would start in October and go straight through to April, but not anymore.

Here it is January 15th and were are now experiencing our first really, really cold snap. It's been really cold since last Thursday. It was -27C when I got up this morning at 7am and snapped this photo. I had to open my window and I could hardly bear it.

The sky was an amazing orange colour, from smog I'm sure but whatever, it looked beautiful. I love when there is only a touch of wind in the mornings and you see these smoke stacks spit out their billowing white-ness softly into the crisp morning stillness.

And yes, that is a photo of the sun...directly...with no filter. See all you need is just the right hint of smog to look directly at the sun, ha ha.