What a great Christmas present we have had from the weather god. For almost a week now we have had clear skies, dry air and no wind. It has been cold at night, dipping below freezing with frost on the ground and then warming up in the day time to sweater weather.



We had a nice Christmas with Caitlin’s parents and sister visiting. Nice to spend the first one here, with a young Douglas-fir cut down from behind the composter serving as our Christmas tree. Living here, I immediately feel more connection to Solstice aspects of the mid-winter. There is little commercialism to speak of on the island, and avoiding town for the last few days has meant the focus of the season turns to friends and family and what is happening in the natural world around us. And what is happening of course is that the North Pole is tipping back towards the sun, and the days are becoming longer. There is a palpable feeling of this change in the air around.



We have discovered a new walk too, along the slope in front of our house. It’s a mile long loop that goes around through Miller’s Landing with lots of views through trees of entrance of Howe Sound to our south and the peaks of the Brittania Range stretching away to the north. Yesterday, Finn and I walked up to the beach at Miller’s Landing and sat together watching gulls whirl in the clear late afternoon air. The moon rose through a clean blue sky, and the sun began to set, turning the mountains, snow-capped and silent, into purple ramparts.