Crystal Flowers

I'd noticed these growing in our window a few days ago but today the temperature has dropped (-24°C) and they have expanded a bit more.
This photo was taken about 30 minutes before the sun rose from the grey cloud on the horizon. (Extra now on flickr)
It is 11 days since it was last sunny. Apart from very brief glimpses of sunlight reflected from clouds it has been grey and snowy weather.  The sun is SO, SO welcome, even if it brings colder weather.
We felt we had to take a walk in this sun so we layered up our clothing; long johns, thick trousers, padded over-trousers - similar on the top half too. Jan has a good extra showing how well-wrapped we were. The walk (extra 2 - flickr) was good and by the end we were actually feeling a bit too warm. I can report that sunny, no wind, and -24°C is a lot easier to cope with than the  -5°C with gale-force winds we had a few days ago!
And then off to Rose's to help clear an amazing amount of snow from her veranda roof (flickr). The pile of removed snow reached nearly to the veranda roof and you can see from the neighbour on the right just how much snow there was.
We are now feeling very tired which I put down to the cold weather. We were mostly warm, or even hot, when outside and walking or working hard, but maybe it's still a lot for the body to cope with, breathing in all that frozen air that needs warming and humidifying before it hits the lungs.
Another very lovely day, especially seeing that glorious sun that kept shining from sunrise to sunset (and no snow falling)!