January 2021

The Weather, Of Course

January started off on a fine foot with a walk along the canal in Oliver, about 45 minutes north of us.  Winter to that point had been benign with warmer than average temperatures, and little snow in the valley.  Notice the nice green grass!  Unlike last year, the lake has not frozen over, and there is merely a little ice forming around the edges of the water.

January 13 brought high winds throughout the night; our weather station measured a gust of 101 km/hour.  This created some roof mayhem, with us awoken to the sounds of a very large crash in the wee hours of the morning.  Merely a spring avalanche coming early…..

We got snow on 10 out of 31 days, accumulating almost 14 inches during the month.  In a deviation from the norm, the snow was heavy, wet “snowball” snow rather than the light powdery western snow, so Brian ended up cleaning the driveway 7 times.  Amusingly, Brian is the only one in the whole development that seems to use a snowblower; every other landowner uses a tractor or a quad with a plow blade.  They are inevitably astonished to find out this septuagenarian does such hard work.

 

Critter Update

We were amused mid-January to find that John Deer and a slightly lesser buck were vying for corn underneath the bird feeders.  I saw them both racing to the area, but Senior got there first and used his antlers to poke Junior in the bum with a clear message to buck off.  I had claimed that Senior was an 8-pointer, but learned that was the American way; Canadians count the most prongs on just one antler.  So both of these guys were 4-pointers, but Junior just had 3 prongs on his second antler.

 

We found the game camera worked much better after we put fresh batteries in it (duh) but only have deer pictures to show.  John Deer obviously hung around at night and I did get a poor picture of 3 does in one place.  They are now stepping more gingerly into the deeper, heavy snow.

 

Covid Lack of Life

As usual, there is not much happening socially because of Covid, although we are reaping the positive benefits of social distancing.  One thing I have been able to do is to go walking with someone (Debbie) on Wednesdays and we quite successful in getting some good exercise, solving the problems of the world, and making up for the exercise by indulging in treats after the walk.  We managed to book one of the geodesic plastic domes at our new coffee place, and discovered that the heaters they provide work wonderfully to create a comfortable environment.  It is a class joint—there were fresh flowers on every table, indoor and out.

 

Family Losses

Regrettably, both of our families suffered some losses in January.

On January 23, Brian learned that his favourite uncle, Jack Malloy, had passed away from cancer.  Jack lived in Nova Scotia and was a warm Maritimer his whole life.  He took Brian out camping in Brian’s formative days and the love of the outdoors has endured with Brian to today.   He will be missed.

 On January 29,  I lost my brother, Gord, suddenly at the age of 58 due to a heart attack.  Gord had had a very difficult life, having been diagnosed as bipolar in his 20’s.  Alcohol abuse led to worsening conditions over the years.  In earlier times, I remember his immense capacity for empathy, his love of little kids, his love of motorcycles, and a desire to tell a superior and surprising joke to make you laugh.  I hope he is in a better place now.

To add insult to injury, on January 31 we learned that Brian’s aunt is in palliative care and will pass within a couple of days.  Hopefully this meets the conditions for “threes” and I will have more cheerful news next month.

 

Thanks for visiting, and keep safe.