I just love foggy days.  Mostly because I love any excuse to curl up inside, nap, read and drink tea all day.  ​​It actually lightens my darkness, so I end up having a peaceful, content day.  Depression is an old friend of mine, who is easier to embrace when the whole world matches its mood. ​ I have permission to embrace the gloom as normal that day, and it lifts me up.  ​ Sunny days ironically bring guilt and gloom to me, as I feel all the "shoulds" to get outside and enjoy them.  Of course, if I lived in a place where fog was the norm, I might feel differently.
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I also love foggy days because like snow, fog totally transforms the landscape and makes it totally new.  I love the mystery of it, and discovering what's just ahead.  Even though I already know because I walk or drive these routes every day.  But today it all seems new and fresh, and ready to be discovered.  This is both metaphorical and real, of course.

If you don't feel the same sense of wonder and content that I do, that's OK.  Perhaps some fun facts will intrigue you enough to spark some wonder and lightness in your perception.  

1. If you could look at fog through a high speed camera, you would see hundreds of tiny droplets of water moving through the air.
2. There are TEN different types of fog, which is extremely useful to know if you are a pilot.
3. Shadows are cast through fog in three dimensions that appear as "beams" oriented parallel to the light source.
4. Many ancient cultures collected water from fog.  Scientists today have developed screens that can collect up to 100 gallons of water a day!
5. The Redwood forests in California get 30-40% of of their moisture from coastal fog.
6. The presence of fog has often played an important role in historical events, such as battles.  It provides great cover for an escape.
7. Ever heard of a FOGBOW?  It's a rainbow made out of fog!

You can turn a foggy day into a science experiment with your children too (or with a curious adult).   Click here to learn how from the masters of meteorology - NASA.

If the gloom of a foggy day continues to get you down, perhaps remembering that there's still a bright blue sky above all those clouds.  If you can just muster the means to fly high enough over your own clouds to see it.

It's that beautifully hard time in Texas where I want to be outside in this gorgeous weather so bad, but if I do, I suffer all night long (& beyond) from Cedar Fever.  It's torture really.  I hate these trees and wish they would all just go away.  So what do I do to combat this (besides the dozen remedies I take daily)?  I wonder and learn.  

They are not cedar trees, they're actually Ashe Juniper.  And every year at this time, I wonder about their history and their benefits, because they surely have none.  They're native, but were not nearly as widespread as they are now until cattle grazed all the grasses that competed with Juniper for space, and until fire was suppressed so much (fire killed the juniper, but not the grasses) that they began to spread into all of the now eroded and rocky areas where they thrive best.  100 years later, and they cover the hill country like a blanket; a blanket covered in yellow pollen December through February.

So now I know a little history.  Does this horrible plant have ANY benefits to the ecosystem?   Well, it's an evergreen, which is comforting in the winter, and it's drought tolerant, which is helpful.   As a tree, it provides shade, which provides more moisture for other small plants underneath it that are trying to grow.  Both male and female trees form the helpful blue berry-like cones that feed wildlife and give some excitement to homemade remedies.  I made juniper gin as gifts one Christmas, and there are a ton of other recipes you can find online, like these.  Native groups use the berries in their medicine, and its leaves are burned in their rituals as a blessing, just like sage is used to clear a space.  Many people use the trees bark for fires, and rot-resistant wood for tools and construction.  Today we see many fenceposts and furniture made from cedar.  The scent is also said to repel some insects, though other insects lay their eggs in the tree and feed off its nectar.  There is an endangered bird called the Golden Cheeked Warbler that uses the "furry" bark to make its nests, and this area is its only known breeding area.  

If you suffer from allergies like I do this time of year, learning these things helps me appreciate this (horrible) tree a little more, and helps relax my fear and anxiety around what its pollen triggers in my body.  In nature and in life, when you find yourself afraid of a plant or animal, or just having a strong dislike for it, use a little wonder to learn about it.  I guarantee that your wonder and curiosity will lead to more knowledge, which will soften your fear and loathing of it.

Some other examples I've studied recently with my students at school are paper wasps (who ruin our outdoor picnics), and mistletoe, which covers the trees on our playground.  Mistletoe is another fascinating plant that has people both loving it and hating it.  If you want to learn more about this semi-parasitic plant, check out this article or listen to the Stories Podcast for some fun Norse mythology of this plant.