Almost Equinox 2025. | Wilderness Dweller

During winter, the moon’s path is high and long; it rises in trees and sets in trees and travels remotely far above my roof. As the sun’s trajectory gets higher, the moon’s gets lower so it is more visible. I wrote last during the January new moon; the following full moon was fuzzy with cloud.

The next new moon reminded me that it was a month since I’d posted but somehow I never got one written.

Then came the eclipse with its famous “red” moon. However, the red showed for me only when the eclipse was partial; the full eclipse was black.

And finally, yesterday’s ghost moon still palely visible at sunrise.

On Feb 5 we had an extreme weather warning. It was somewhat unusual to get an extreme cold warning when it was only -30C. However, in view of the exceptionally mild winter I guess they had to use their warning system somehow. It was never super cold but this pattern lasted for most of three weeks. And my drain pipe froze. It is buried 6 feet down but last fall was unusually wet so the ground was soaked. The thin snow cover provided none of the usual insulation. The pipe will likely stay frozen until May. My drain is not the only one; other locals are having the same problem.

The sun, however, was glorious.

The sunset point began to travel rapidly over the horizon. (It’s well to the left of Finger Peak on the shortest day.)

As it warmed up, it snowed a few inches. Here is Jade ploughing with her new ATV; her new dog running alongside.

It was by now quite a while since I had been to town or received fresh vegetables from people passing through. So it was sprouts time. Bok choy on the left, kale in the middle, broccoli on the right.

Not long after I last went to Williams Lake at the end of November, my dog got hold of my hearing aids and chewed them into smithereens. Apparently, this is not unusual; both dogs and cats love them . They were 7 years old so way past their sell-by date anyway. I can manage without but I miss a lot and I particularly like to have them when the spring birds arrive. New ones will cost $4,500 but because I don’t spend money for several months during the winter, I will be able to afford them. Late February, I made my first trip of the year to Williams Lake. The road was bare all the way.

The sun rose about 3/4 of the way there, casting a pinkish light over the hills near Riske Creek; these are natural grasslands and will be home to the balsam root daisies later.

The weather turned mild again.

The snow almost disappeared.

It was about this time that a map of BC’s snow levels was published. It might be a bit difficult to see the figures in this photo. Basically, snow levels are low everywhere, ranging from about 75 – 85% of “normals.” The darker the colour, the lower the figure. The Chilcotin is only 16% of normal.

Unstable weather seemed in the offing – one evening there was a sun dog, an indication of ice crystals in the sky

And then we had some real snow. It was wet and heavy. It was also thawing most of the time it fell so accumulated only 3 soggy inches. Then it turned to rain.

However, it has cooled off a bit; we are now in more “normal” weather for the time of year. On 2nd March, the redwing blackbirds arrived – 2 weeks earlier than usual. Not so many this year, in fact most of the species are down in numbers.

Right now, my neighbour is away and I’m looking after her dog. They fought at first, but now get along fine. My cabin is wall to wall animals – and all are shedding. Note that the cat is totally unfazed by all their shenanigans.