November 2019

The weather--naturally

November has come and gone and we still have no snow on the ground so it can’t be winter yet--really?  The ski hills have been opening up regardless since there is more snow to the north of us.  We’ll wait a bit until the base gets a little deeper.

Despite the lack of snow, we have been getting typical winter conditions for this time of year.  Although the lowest temperature has been a little below minus twelve, we have received very little frost because of the low humidity.

We have already had a couple of our winter fogs that envelope the house completely. 

The side benefit of fog, in contrast to the terrible driving conditions, is that we do get hoar frost, which highlights some of the cobwebs on the exterior of the house.

If the fog doesn’t rise up to the level of our house, we get to enjoy it from above while it fills the valley.

We have enjoyed some really spectacular sunsets this winter, and it is very easy to stay up for them since the sun set at 4:03 pm on November 30.

You would think that winter would be marked by the stoppage of the fountain at the waterfront.  NOT!  The Santa Claus Parade was held on November 29 and the fountain was still running despite the icicles.

Snooping on the neighbours

I have mentioned in previous blogs our fascination with people building below us down the hill. 

Summer featured numerous blastings of rock.  This was followed by huge rearrangements of rocks, including trucking out at least 100 heavy truckloads of blasted material.

This last week a huge piece of equipment was moved back to the site and numerous truckloads of sand were delivered.

We had to check it out!  The rock hill has been hollowed out, and sand established for the foundation of the house.  Down the slope you can see the huge amounts of rock tumbled over the edge.

In our (often) idle moments we ponder how much the blasting, excavation, removal of rocks, and delivery of sand has cost.  This is without even starting to build the house! (And they had a well drilled, electricity brought in, and will have to arrange for septic before they even get a building permit…)  A little fixing up on our property looks positively benign in comparison!

The Saga of the Game Camera

While we were in Ontario last month, someone snitched our game camera.  The most likely suspects were a survey crew who worked on the neighbour’s property during that time, because it wasn’t in any obvious view.  After grumping for a couple of weeks, I relented and bought a new one.

The pictures seem good and clear, and we got a couple of surprising ones featuring birds (stellar jay and woodpecker). 

The deer cooperated by moving by nicely although the darn stag first stopped on the patio to try eating my plants.

The deer decided to prove that we didn’t need the game camera so we got some great shots from the bedroom windows over the last couple of days.

Brian is Improving

After being taken off the immunotherapy drug, he is starting to regain energy, appetite and better sleep.  This will take a while to get back to fighting trim because he is a svelte 156 pounds (maybe 25 more than me) and he is working hard to ensure I don’t pick him up in a fireman’s carry and force him to do housework.

We’re looking forward to December and the festivities and hope you do too!