On 21 December, all over West Penwith, people will be marking midwinter by walking to stone circles and holy wells, to hill forts and ancient beacons…
Winter Solstice 2025
In keeping with today’s theme, here’s a gorgeous sunset photo from Jude at Cornwall in Colours. To see more of Jude’s beautiful photography, please click the link above.
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.
When the sun breaks through in winter …
… the clouds are constantly trying to …
… re-establish themselves.
This is our season, they adamantly say.
But the sun does try its best.
Happy Solstice. Our days are about to become longer. 🙂
… gave us this.
Some blue sky …
… a calm lake …
… and sleeping wine grape vines …
… before we got more of this. At least the white stuff was at the mountain top but in any case, in December it’s important to enjoy the weather breaks when you get them!
Happy Saturday.
… arrived!
It’s still very soggy – you can’t have all that rain and then dry out quickly – but it was so nice to see a little sun.
We’re supposed to get some more tomorrow – wow! – sun two days in a row!
I plan to enjoy it as much as I can, especially that I’m beginning to feel better, too.
Happy Thursday.
Not a huge pink fan Sunsets and sunrises shine With pink licks around Bernie
Pretty in Pink
Stunning pictures from Bernie at 3six5Snap2. I hope you visit her blog to see more of her gorgeous photography.
We have a lot more rain coming our way in the form of another water-logged front and while out walking it was clear to me that it was on its way. The occasional breeze ruffled the lake’s surface but it was otherwise very calm and smooth with the blue-grey overcast gathering quickly.
There are lots of warnings about heavy rainfalls with the possibility of landslides in the mountains, so I think I’m just going to stick around here where it might be soggy but it’s 12C (53.6F) and as long as I have rain gear I’m fine.
The ducks don’t mind this at all, though. Bring on the rain, they quack!
For them, rain is a terrifically good thing and they can’t understand why we humans would like things to be a little drier.
Nevertheless, wherever you are, I hope you have a very duckie Monday, rain or not.
We finally had a break in clouds and a little sun!
I understand that this is not for long; we will be back to our regularly scheduled monsoon-like conditions very soon.
But while it’s here, I’m definitely going to enjoy it!
Happy Sunday.
The almost continuous rain that we have been getting – although nothing like the inundation that the coast is presently experiencing – stopped for a bit during my afternoon ramble which made picture collecting a bit easier. Here’s a bit of what I saw.
A backlit pine cone …
… some very calm water highlighted by the merest hint of sky-pink as the blue hour settled in …
… and some lovely water reflections of both the sky and the city lights …
… while in the meantime the rhododendron buds await spring.
Happy Saturday.
If I waited for the rain to stop before going for a walk, I would never make it outside! So suiting up in rain gear has very frequently been the thing to do.
Here at the valley floor it’s still relatively warm with 10-ish degrees (50F) so we have a comfortable temperature despite the rain.
Everything was dripping and I’ve noticed that mosses and lichens are beginning to grow everywhere. We have been getting an extraordinary amount of rain!
Our dear duckie population has no problem with this at all, though! For them this is a sort of watery paradise.
Do you see how the rain has beaded up on the drake’s back?
The view across the lake was very, very overcast but also windless which was a nice thing. The above picture shows a small crabapple in the foreground. I was surprised to see several of them; usually the birds have eaten them by now. They look a bit like tree ornaments.
Although there’s the distinct possibility that I might grow webbed hands and feet, I’m still happy that we’re not getting snow. Definitely no shovelling!
Happy Thursday.
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