Apologies for being late. I don’t mean for our calendar new year, but for Chinese new Year, which started 2 days ago. I had hoped to catch a picture of the new moon, which sets right around sundown, but it was too cloudy on the horizon.

The moon is already about 3 days old in this next picture – taken on 2nd January – photographed on what was for then a surprisingly clear evening. You can see Mars hovering nearby. It was supposed to be very close to the moon when it was full, but of course it was cloudy on those nights, too.

Other than that precious glimpse of the sky, the first part of January was just as mild and gloomy as December. Any gleam of sun was a precious treat.

Our sun ration for this day.

Otherwise it was mostly grey.

Fog was common

Then finally, by the middle of January, the weather changed. Still warm, but we began to get a lot more sun. It is now setting to the north of Finger Peak.

On sunny afternoons I worked on the greenhouse. I built 2 raised beds out of logs lined with roofing metal I got off the dump.

I filled up the bottoms with rotting aspen logs. They would disintegrate slowly and provide a small amount of heat, and also retain moisture. The bark dust from the woodshed floor has gone in, as has the winter’s kitchen scraps. Soil buildup can’t happen until the ground thaws.

Our snow level is still very low. Instead of a little below knee deep it barely covers the ankles.

With the clearer skies we’ve had some pretty sunsets.

The waxing and waning moon was brilliant on the snow but I didn’t get a good photo until it was past the full.

The cat has made himself completely at home.

In the evening, he and Pepita have play fights, but it’s usually too dark to get a good photo.

The trail camera is usually just full of vehicles, especially when my neighbour drives back and forth to pick the kids up from the school bus. But coyotes are also common, mostly at night when they are blurry. This one was up late for some reason.

Two days before the new moon we had a fantastic afterglow.

But that was the last of the cloudless skies. Now there is a mix of clouds. It has been ridiculously warm this last while – up to +7C in the day. (That’s 45 degrees US). Dirty patches are showing through the thin snow cover. But tomorrow it is finally supposed to get cold, with temps down to -30C by midweek. We’ll see.