The sun quit a day or two before Christmas, and it didn’t shine again until this morning.  A phenomenon of this area is to have clear, starry nights, but before the sun climbs over the hill, the overcast rolls in.  This is hard on my power system.  The long wakeful dark hours are illuminated by tiny beams of led lights, and I must ration the computer time.  In extreme cases, I must download my email, unplug the satellite internet, which uses a lot more power than the computer, write replies, then plug in the internet again.

It continues to be extremely mild, and every day fresh dirty water oozes over the ice of the ponds.

It has also been extremely windy.  The mountains were visible on this day, and the snow is boiling off them like smoke from a forest fire.

On the 23rd, when I drove to Anahim Lake to meet friends for lunch, I had to cut 4 trees off my 4 km of road.  The chain saw lives in the van, now.

Yesterday we had a powdering of snow.  Just enough to cover the glazed skating rink of the yard.  My snowshoe trails are solid ice.  Walking anywhere, especially to the outhouse, would be impossible without creepers on my boots.

Then finally, this morning, we had 3 hours of good sun.  There was enough power in my batteries so that I could upload this post.  And what a difference it made to the world!

That is Mt Nogwhon behind Harry.  Even the spike goldenrod seed stalks took on new life when a finger of sunshine touched them.

On top of the north bluffs, a strong snag glowed in the morning sun.