Groundhogs & Moon dogs...

Old Groundhog stretched in his leafy bed.
He turned over slowly and then he said,
"I wonder if spring is on the way,
I'll go and check the weather today.
If I see my shadow between eleven and noon,
I then will know that I'm out too soon.
I'll crawl back in bed for six weeks more,
Pull up the warm covers and snore and snore.
But if no shadow gives me a scare,
I know that spring is in the air,
I'll wake my friends and wish them cheer,
With glorious news that spring is here."
(unknown author)

I don't have any groundhog photos for you but if one was around he definitely wouldn't have even came out of the ground today! We have windchill advisories for -20 to -30 degrees. These shadows of summer are much "warmer" to think about.


With this cold weather we have seen "sun dogs" around the sun several times this week but last night was my first time I ever saw "moon dogs". What is a moon dog? Wikipedia defines it as "A paraselene, or moon dog, is a halo caused by the refraction of moonlight by hexagonal plate shaped ice crystals in high-atmosphere cirrus clouds. Moon dogs appear to the right and left of the moon approximately 22° away. They are exactly analogous to a sun dog. Moon dogs are somewhat rarer than sun dogs, because in order to produce moon dogs or other types of halos, the moon must be bright and therefore full or near full."