As I’ve noted here before, Penticton is situated between two lakes – one at the south end and the other at the north – and is one of only two communities in the world that is so established. The other is Interlaken, Switzerland. For a change of pace I recently decided to take a walk along Skaha which is at the south end.

There was some serious wind coming out of the south causing choppy waters and lots of scudding cloud …

… but then I realised that we now officially have winter!

The solstice doesn’t just mean that we’re headed in the right (springy!) direction again, it also means that we first have to get through winter.

And then I remind myself that I’m no longer in Yellowknife where today’s high will be -31C (-24F). I don’t have to wear a parka, shovel snow, slog through snow banks, walk to work in the dark, dark, dark of winter or defrost my eyelashes when I step inside. We have about four to eight more weeks of very mild winter before we will again begin to see the first signs of spring, so what is there to complain about?

Really, not very much!

Happy Monday.