Rainbows, Ice, and Clouds

I couldn't believe my eyes. A rainbow halo above a white, fluffy cloud. I took off my glasses. Nope, still there. Cleaned off the polarizing filter on my camera. Nope, still there.

Either someone spiced my peach mango tea, or I was witnessing a wonderful phenomenon of nature.



A couple of days ago my Dear Professor and I visited our favorite retreat center. I'm all about running away from my life for a brief time every now and then to get perspective and rest from the hectic chaos we call living. So, we are in the habit of taking a step back, inhaling a deep breath, and living very simply with our thoughts and some beautiful scenery for a few days.

Try it, I know you'll like it.

(If you want to find out more about our retreat, go over there on the right hand side and click the square button thingie that says "iron acres now". It's a new blog dedicated to thoughts on the meaning of life.)

I couldn't wait to get back to civilization(read: the internet) and do some research. I found a couple of references to something called an ice cloud. If a certain type of cloud is a certain height in the sky and filled with certain flat shaped ice crystals and the ice is sitting a certain way in the cloud and the sun is shining from a certain angle, VOILA! Ice cloud rainbow. There are other pictures on the internet (here or here) that are certainly more spectacular than mine, but that's ok.



I like mine just fine. Yesiree bobtail!