February at Ginty Creek has been mostly cold this year.  We’ve had a fair amount of sun, though – certainly more than last year.

I had intended to write earlier, but was extremely busy for the last two weeks, all because of this guy.I have been helping Harry work with his first editor.  She has read the MS, corrected a bit of spelling and grammar, and made suggestions to pull the book together.  She had not read any of my other books, which was great because there were areas that needed explaining to the uninitiated. Another editor will take over now – she will be really picky about punctuation and grammar (I can’t spell either) and will make sure I have not said anything that might offend someone. I enjoy the editing process as a whole – I learn a lot and don’t have to pay for it!  I have had two unedited books published and I feel they did not have the spark of the others.

We used a tracking program.  This is really neat as both the writer and the editor can make alterations or comments and they are all recorded, with the date and time listed as well.  Each of our comments are in a different colour.Since I last wrote, there were a couple of days when the temperature climbed above freezing in the afternoon, but then it got cold again.  Night temps were often into the -20Cs with highs of -5C to -8C during the day.  Sun occurred on most days, but there was quite a bit of cloud as well.  The full moon heralded a big change, though.The temperature began to rise.Warm weather often means storms.  The snow became too rotten to go into the bush and the road turned slippery.Then the days turned black and we had a mega thaw.It created a horrible mess in the yard.  It rained for two days.Then the sun shone and it was like spring.  The yard turned to mud.I could hang the laundry out on the line.When the wind got up, the blowing snow on the mountains was spectacular.Basically, when there is cloud, the temperature is moderated; when the sky is clear at night, it is cold.  Often cloud starts only at first light so a clear night might end up with a cloudy day.  Here, the cloud stayed over the mountains and did not cover Ginty Creek.

Because of the wet, everything was rimmed with frost.

The yard froze solid and then we had a little more snow.When my neighbour is away overnight, his dog sometimes wanders the 4 km to my place.  It is a weird looking dog with one brown eye and one blue eye.  He caught a rabbit, adding to the weirdness of this photo.  He is called Gilbert!With fresh snow now covering the re-frozen yard, I didn’t see the trail I had made using sawdust.  Thoughtlessly I stepped away from it to call Gilbert – and crashed on my back on the ice, splitting my head open.  Blood everywhere!  I phoned the nurse at the clinic – she has been there for years and knows far more than most doctors.  It was the weekend but she kindly agreed to phone me every few hours to make sure I was OK!  And apart from a big shock and an enormous lump, I had no lasting effects. But I now don’t take a step anywhere without ice grippers on my boots.

The moon finished it’s cycle,and the weather turned cold again.  It got down to -26C one morning (that’s about -15 American)  I’ve been going to yoga every Monday, and on this occasion the hall was so cold we had to start our exercises in down coats!To get to the yoga class at Tatla Lake, I must drive through downtown Kleena Kleene.  The two signs bracketing the place are only a few hundred metres apart and there is not much in between except fields and an old log building that used to be the store.  The signs have different spellings.  The easternmost one is as I have written it above, and this is correct.  Whoever made the westernmost one ran out of space and missed off the final E.  On both signs,  the word “unincorporated” is written underneath the name.  However somebody has decided to improve the western sign by adding an F. (And no, it wasn’t me!)Despite the cold, there are signs of spring.  The river is breaking up in places – I love the colour of the ice that sinks into the water.And the very first pussy willows are showing.  Much later than last year, but things are definitely moving now.