Catkins, open water and early signs of spring...

Ah, the awakening of our 48 acres after her winter sleep. 

The mornings are still cold and hard edged. Fat little catkins gather on the willows and the creek ice has begun to melt.  

I have a little hopscotch of photos to share from my morning walk.  
Thanks for coming along.

Here's to a magical day!!

Still Winter

You've likely seen some of these fantastic images of snowflakes.
They've made the rounds of the interweb, and for good reason.
They are breathtaking.
Alexey Kljatov is the photographer and he freely shares his process.
http://chaoticmind75.blogspot.ca/
Beautiful work!

Less well known is the pioneer of snowflake photography Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farmer; the first to successfully photograph a snowflake. His methods later became known as photomicography. Bentley, aka the Snowflake Man, became famous for photographing more than 5,000 jewel-like snowflakes on his Vermont farm in the late 1800's. http://goo.gl/25UFSI


And so here I am on the 5th of February pondering the beauty of snowflakes, while our neighbours to the south are entertaining daffodils. It's still very much winter here on our 48 Acres. And when the sun comes out ... it's a sparkling white wonderland. Join me on a little walkabout if it's not too chilly for you and lets ponder the piles of snow. Made up of zillions of these.

It's a good life.

Welcome to the Homestone. David and I (Nicola) live very remote in the Cariboo-Chicotin area of British Columbia. We live in a kind of surrealist paradise that a friend described as 'our solar powered idyll'. We live off the power grid and without telephone. We rely on satellite internet for all of our communications. David's handcrafted wood rings have connected us with folks all over the world - people we are proud to call friends and because of our remote lifestyle, we don't see our family as often as we would like. "The Homestone" seems a good way for us to stay in touch with friends and family.

We live a blessed and mostly uniteruppted life. It's just the two of us here and the things we do. Our nearest neighbour is 10 miles away down the old logging road that leads to town. Our nearest small town is an hour down that road.

Our life and our work is powered by the sun. We heat our home and our outbuildings with wood. We cook with wood and we work with wood. The wood we use in our home comes from the wind-fall and bug killed trees on our 50 acres.

The animals we caretake and those who wander wild through our lives are sometimes the only other creatures we see for months. Our sheep have names and distinct personalities; they give us the best fertilizer and create fire breaks around the property. And they give us their delightful lambs in the spring. The chickens (our baker's dozen of 13 hens) look after our kitchen scraps. They give us beautiful eggs in return. Our greenhouse and gardens produce a short but spectacular season of fresh organic vegetables.

We have each other and the work we do. We are blessed with wonderful families and friends. We thank God and all our angels. It's a good life.

Welcome to our world.