One good thing - a winter glory

It was a very cold day here in Aberdeenshire.  The snow has gone from the low ground to be replaced by hard ice, the snow on the higher ground continues to build.  Freezing fog in the morning began to lift at lunchtime as I headed out for a walk; my timing was incredibly lucky.

The last tendrils of fog were dispersing and with my back to the sun an ethereal phenomenon appeared, just at the edge of vision.  A fogbow is an uncommon optical effect, similar to a rainbow but with the sunlight acting on mist rather than water droplets.  It appears as a pale arc and is just so beautiful.

The effect didn't last long before beginning to dissipate.  I've seen fogbows just a few times - the last during a crossing of the Sound of Gigha with my friend Douglas on another day of fragile beauty.

 The evening light was just lovely; a quiet, delicate pink which gradually faded to indigo and then deep inky black, studded with stars.

During the lockdown of 2020 I looked for "One Good Thing" to offset the tragedy of the Coronavirus pandemic.  We enter 2021 in a similar lockdown and maybe I'd thought that it would be more difficult to find natural beauty in winter.....I was so very wrong.