When you say "bleak", I know (linguistically) what to expect the pictures to look like, but (psychologically) they're pleasant and inviting and glamorous, to someone as photophobic as me :) It's the blue skies and sunshine that are oppressive and brutal when your eyes are as crap as mine!

Well...for one thing...without serious polar fleece or gortex or something, you'd not have spent much time at Harbor of Refuge Wednesday. My hands and face were burning with that "frostbite is just around the corner" sensation after only a few minutes.

For another, the older I get, the more I seem to need the sun. I'm not the nocturnal thing I used to be (no matter how my sleeping habits might beg to differ).