glittery bits: the ear, Lent, and falling snow.

The human ear has parts called "the helix crest" and "the oval window."

The word "Lent" (the Christian season) is related to the Anglo-saxon word for "lengthen." It's part of the AS word for spring, the season of lengthening. Lenctentid, spring-tide, or March. Lencten-fœsten, the spring fast, introduced in the fourth century.

The average snowflake takes an hour to fall.

And World Wide Words, bless them, gives this explanation of the phrase "tide one over," (this muffin will tide me over till lunch. I just got fired and we don't have the savings to tide us over) -- "The idea is that of the swelling tide, which will carry you over some obstacle, with the implication that it won’t require effort on your part"