February - those weeks between winter and spring

It really is still very much winter here on the meadow but we've had lots of warm sunny days that tease us into thinking spring might be around the corner.  We are at a high elevation and although we are not 'northern' by any stretch of the imagination, our friends and family a little further south will see spring a good deal sooner than we will.  Still... February feels like the bridge between hard core winter and the sweet green edges of early spring. 

Our moose have been hanging about. Waking up here and grazing on abundant willow. David almost always knows when our four legged visitors are here before we see them.  Moose sense.

 The rising sun turning the snow covered meadows mauve and pink.

Back and forth ...some snowy days and those are pretty too.  Nothing like a fresh coat of white to perk things up after a few sunny days of melt.

Blue skies most days now.  We drove out to see where two new bridges are being set in to replace old and worn out crossings...

Sunday morning... bright and beautiful and pretty chilly too.

 Thanks for dropping by.   Till next time ~ be well and may spring find you early.

A meadow morning

 

 The last few days we've been completely socked in, with gray skies and falling snow.

  This morning a bit of blue sky at the far end of the meadow

 Sure enough the sun came out 

and gave us a spectacular day ~ lots of power from the solar panels.

Brightened us up too!

 It's Another Morning Glory Day

 I love this mug, bought it for myself.  It's been my favourite for more than 15 years.

A lovely way to start another

day on the meadow!  With an old friend and a good cuppa joe.

May yours be a Morning Glory kind of day too ...

Chinooks and swamp donkeys

We are basking in a Chilcotin Chinook right now.   
Beautiful warm days ~ t-shirt and picnic kind of weather.   Well, almost.

What happens to the Nivean world in a Chinook?  It would be like the roof of your house dropping in on you. On these warm winter days the crust drops as the snow melts... 
‘Nivean/sub-nivean; a term I just learned ….  the world under the snow.  It describes the winter environment of voles and mice and insects who set up camp in that layer between what we see as the crust and the frozen meadow below.    Fascinating. 

Beautiful.  

These warm January days have offered the most magnificent light shows at sunup and sundown.  

We've barely seen moose on the meadow since the big wildfires here a few years ago.  We were sitting at the kitchen table the day before yesterday and David said "I can feel someone watching me.  There is a moose out there."   Three moose on the meadow !!! that he sensed were there before we saw them.  He is uncanny like that. 

 

We were on the lookout again this morning, knowing that once the swamp donkeys arrive, they generally stay for a while.  Lo and behold David burst out laughing as he spotted two BIG ears poking out of the snow down by the flagpole.

Sure enough there’s the young’un of the three moose … and once he was up and about we got some good pics of him.

Onward, ever onward. 

Lots of power, courtesy of the sun.

Life is good.  

For us and, methinks, for our 4 legged visitors too.

A new dawn

Do you see the wee snow gremlins I'm seeing, sitting atop the tree here, enjoying some quiet conversation, and the sun setting on another day, another month, another year.

 

 

 

 

With love from David and I to all our friends, old and new ...

May each day of this new year dawn bright and beautiful for you.

Christmas Eve Day on the Meadow

With love, Nicola and David