Day 316 – Winter

Winter continued...

-140C in winter

The snow returns and the temperature continues to drop. With visability down to 50 meters and flat lighting, ‘scenic’ shots are limited. Deer tracks are everywhere unlike the other day when it seemed only squirrels had ventured out. The weight of wet snow on some tree branches has forced them down to eye level in places forcing me to duck under them and the air is wet with fine sleet. I name this the first day of winter.

My thoughts last night turned to Mars the red planet, don’t ask me why but with a summer temperature there of 20C it sounds warmer than here (OK, the winter is slightly cooler). Looking at pictures of Mars I cannot help thinking that I am looking at a planet that was once an ‘Earth’. Could it be that Mars is in fact how Earth will be in a few million years, by which time a few of us will have no doubt already left for a new home somewhere in the Milkyway galaxy (Keep working on those warp drives). By exploring Mars now we are in effect obtaining knowledge about our own planet in the future. A future time when it will no longer be possible to do the research because by then our present planetary environment will be too hostile and we will have moved too far away. Put another way; when looking at Mars we could be looking into the future … not just into the past of some expired planet. Spooky…