Valentine’s day. Sunrise this morning was at 8:53 am; sunset will be at 5:18 pm, for a day length of 8 hours 23 minutes. We’re now gaining 6 m 48 sec a day, and the gain is pretty uniform through the rest of February. The sun is 12.3 degrees above the horizon at solar noon (1:05 pm for most of the month) and gaining about .3 degrees (a little less than half its diameter) each day. Sun on snow was painfully bright yesterday.

We’ve had a cold spell–43 below yesterday–but that’s nowhere near record-setting for this time of year. The forecast is cold again tonight, but increasing clouds and warming later in the week. It’s not good weather for the Yukon Quest mushers, with Eagle Summit just ahead.

Indoors, the cactus is blooming and the seed catalogs are calling their siren song. I hear them, but I’m going to have to ignore them in favor of editing Tourist Trap.