Apocalyptic Clouds, Superheroes

2006-07-16

We've passed through another battering storm, this time without any damage to anything. Nature rewarded us with apocalyptic skies and enough light to cast shadows. Back home a gale would announce its coming with menacing clouds, in the distance spears of rain strike out from under deep, dark fortresses in the sky. Trees rustle in anticipation and thunder shakes the earth. Here at Halley the weather builds slowly then holds. Storms, while fierce and inconvenient, whip up so much snow that everything more than a few footsteps away disappears into a syrupy gloom. The strength of the wind is spent shaking buildings that rattle inside like trains passing over points.

The glorious skies reserve themselves for less violent times. Today, while still without sunlight, a conjunction of clouds above with a clear band hugging the coast gave us a picture worthy of the end of the world. Low clouds and dark red mist brooded behind the buildings, small orange patches were picked out over our heads, bright against the thick layer of darkness.

Ominously for our winter trips we could see darker patches of cloud to the West over Precious Bay, an indication that the sea ice there has broken up. This could be bad news for the penguins at Windy creek, as the chicks need a stable place to live for their first few weeks.

Apocalytpic sky I

Apocalyptic sky II

Flat shadows

This weekend we celebrated nothing in particular with a superhero theme night. Halley's normally low levels of crime were kept that way by (top row) Calf-boy, Supermario, Electra, Popeye, Haribo-girl, CASLab-girl, Super-gash, Hulk, Batman, Bicycle-repair-man, Zorro (or, perhaps, the Princess Bride's Man in Black), Thor, (bottom) Fart-man, Spiderman and, finally, Kite-Boy. No jewels of great value were stolen, many natural disasters were prevented, and no super-villians discovered our secret Antarctic hideout. Only one mystery remains unsolved: the Strange Case of the Disappearing Ducks.

Superheroes of Halley

Today we were treated to another beautiful sky. I was on snow digging duty this week so had plenty of excuses to take a short rest and admire the colours and gradations of shade about us. Lunchtimes, around local midday, see almost day-like day light, the best shows are now reserved for the four to six slot as the light diminishes and deepens in the distance. Despite the cold and the wind I can happily spend an hour just wondering over the ice, devouring each unique view.

Purple-pink sky

Purple-pink-black sky