It is truly developing into a classic El Nino winter: calm, mild and reflective. The moisture in the air just hangs around at different levels. Sometimes it forms a layer of cloud that turns pink in the sunrise. Other times it sits on the water as thick fog, as it did the other night when the fog horns out in the Strait sounded long and dreary as the freighters plied the inside passage. And some times, like last night, it dissipates into the air and we get a clear day and a night full of comets and planets.



There has been very little rain and no real wind yet, not like we had back in 2001 for example, when the southeasterlies lashed the house several times during the fall. There is no new snow on the mountains, and the water is so calm it looks slack all the time.



Take lazy summer days and move them to December, make them 20 degrees colder and that's what we have.



Also, the coho have returned. A small school of them were gleaming in the lagoon the other day, their red sides glowing eerily in the murky water.