Where did the winter go? It started so late – not until the middle of February when it got to forty below. Since then it’s been an absolute roller coaster with excessively warm spells followed by cold plunges. As the temperatures change, we got snow – finally enough to say it was a real winter.

One of the falls was about 25 cm. My little ATV might have been able to handle it, but previous ploughings had left a small bank, and the alternating thawing and hard freezing had made the banks rock hard. The ATV could not widen the road enough so we called on our good neighbour Christoph from the Terra Nostra Guest Ranch.

And we could finally enjoy some real snow.

Still not quite average for a snowpack – it was boot top level as opposed to close to knee deep. Still, a lot better than it had looked at the beginning of winter.

Further east, though, there was almost no snow at all. I took my first trip to Williams Lake in early March – hadn’t been to a supermarket since November, although one or two neighbours had been there and picked up a few veg for me now and then.

I drove into town in the dark and the sun went down as I was driving home.

The last of the sun gave me a nice little light show.

Shopping took a while as I decided I needed a new laptop. My old one was having charging problems and I feared it would die any moment. It is a Mac laptop – turns out that the nearest repair place is Kamloops, about 7 hours drive away, and the guy on the phone told me at 9 years of age my computer is too old to repair. I looked on line without having much idea as to how to translate all the info. Three computer places were listed in Williams Lake but only one, Staples, sold Macs. Not cheap but I bought a demo model a year old. I might have got a cheaper deal if I’d known what I was doing, but I figured it was easier to take it back to Williams Lake if I had a problem. So I have been sorting through 18,500 pictures and other data, wiping off everything I don’t want to keep so the backup hard drive is not cluttered before I plug it in to the new computer. It has taken several days. This blog post might be the last thing I do on the old computer as I see the battery is dying again.

On a walk I found that my friendly beaver have been helping to fire-smart my place. It’s quite a distance to the pond through tangled willows, but there is almost no debris left.

After the nice cold, sunny spell, it warmed right up again.

We had several days of temperatures up to 15C with strong sun and so the snow started to go rapidly.

With the warmth came the first migrants.

Redwing blackbirds

And juncos.

A week ago there was one of each – today there are about 20 of each. They are sure gobbling up the food.

A couple of days before the equinox, the sun clears Nogwon before it sets.

We have entered the light half of the year.

Still warm today, but it’s supposed to cool off again. In the mean time we will have this delightful landscape to deal with.