Well, what can I say?
Thank goodness 2020 is over. What
a unique year….
Clouds
Our December, as might be expected, has been very quiet. To keep ourselves entertained, we decided to
keep track of the clouds we saw in the skies from our eyrie. That proved to be far more entertaining than
we thought! Although we are sometimes
under the cover of overcast skies and fog, we can also look down on clouds in
the valley. Each morning now, as we have
our coffee, we do our meteorological assessment of water vapour at various
heights and mark our list accordingly. The
scenes can be somewhat dramatic.
We live in a very social neighbourhood, which has been somewhat
dampened by the Covid restrictions.
Nobody is complaining, but we are all starved for social interaction. In desperation, in mid-December, I decided to
build “Christmas Boxes” of treats to be shared with others. Three days were spent making 6 kinds of
cookies and 2 kinds of candy. Finally,
the Christmas Troll (a good one, of course) went door-to-door delivering treats
as appropriate as well as (very small) bottles of bubbly. Everyone was thrilled. In return, we got a number of visits over the
next few days with amazing goodies offered.
This seems like a keeper tradition for next year. Besides, it was fun!
Critter News
Although I can’t offer you anything impressive from the game
camera, we did get some interesting visits at the bird feeders from John Deer,
plus JD junior. John Sr. is an 8 point buck; I think Junior is only a 5
point one. He wouldn’t approach John’s
territory, but it looks like he is learning from an expert.
Anarchist Mountain and Christmas
All of the major roads in Anarchist Mountain have life-size
sculptures of local birds and beasts.
The fun part is that they get decorated for Christmas.
I will admit to a little bias in naming everyone. All the major quadrupeds are featured in the
male version, because of their wonderful horns, of course. Therefore, the others will be assumed to be
females.
Mr. Bull Moose was decorated, but was under a bit of the
snow that we have experienced at times this month.
Mr. Caribou was in fine form, and because of a little solar
panel, his sleight lights blink at night.
Mr. Wapiti was also looking at his peak. We did find elk tracks on our property this
month, and were chagrined that the game camera didn’t catch him. Now we are on the hunt! (PS:
They were BIG tracks.)
Ms. Raven clearly was displaying the Christmas spirit.
Ms. Falcon was presiding over a bunch of presents, but it was
a bit difficult to appreciate because of the snow that has fallen.
Ms. Peregrine was impressive and regal. Her humans had not only decorated her, but
the stone gates leading to the neighbourhood as well as the community (unofficial)
mailbox.
Ms. Cougar had found appropriate Christmas prey to take
home.
But, of course, I had to save the best for the last.
Mr. Sasquatch has turned into the Covid Grinch.
Now, just to cap this year off in a terribly appropriate fashion,
on the evening of December 24, about half an hour before “Big Bird” was coming
out of the oven, we had a sewer blockage and overflow. There is good news in this. The overflow was contained and didn’t contaminate
floors. We had a neighbour with a
plumbing background come over immediately to help us assess the problem, and another
one who was willing to come over on Christmas Day to help us out. It took 3 more days before the problem was
solved, but in the meantime, we had a toilet, sink, and shower in our garage,
so it was more than bearable. Mind you,
the 2 am visits out to the garage were a bit challenging…..
We hope you’re looking forward to better prospects for 2021. Thank you for visiting.
