Happy New Year! Still cold and snowy here,(That's our dock and lower deck in the picture.) so we spent a quiet new year's eve at home. As did many people across the province. The weather is just too lousy to risk driving out there! No matter, a bottle of bubbly, some snacks and a good video are all we need for a great evening.
It was great to hear from family and friends far and wide this holiday. Seems we are spread all over from N. America to S. America and Europe. Best wishes in 2009 to you all. How wonderful that we have the Internet to stay in touch. A place where we can watch children grow, celebrate good times and learn what is happening in each other's lives.
Guess we are all gearing up for Monday, when kids go back to school and we have to deal again with the real world. Jim and I have been enjoying kicking back, sleeping in and reading all those new books we got for Christmas.
It hasn't all been easy going however. This cold weather has frozen our water line, so we are hauling water. It will be some days before the long pipe that runs through the forest from the stream to our house thaws out. We must also keep the wood stove going along with the propane heater in order to stay warm downstairs. Going through wood twice as fast as normal. Ah, life in the wilderness.
The animals are having their own difficult time in this weather. We found a varied thrush 
in the wood bin. Brought it in to warm up and gave it some water. It was alert, but didn't try to fly away. Sat in my house plants all night, but was gone by the morning. Beautiful bird. We are keeping the feeders and suet out for the birds and the squirrels. Lots of Stellar's jays as usual, also vaired thrushes, sparrows, juncos. A large flock of thrushes was here for days nibbling the red berries off the arbutus (manzanita) trees, which have an abundant crop this year.
