"Still round the corner"

And here we are,  a few hours out of 2025. Hard to fathom. It was just yesterday we were all worried about Y2K, right?

Here's hoping the new year holds more good than evil, more laughter than tears. And plenty of love.

Happy New Year, 2025!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bueno, aquí estamos. En unas pocas horas, llega el nuevo año, 2025. Difícil creerlo. Pues, apenas ayer estábamos todos preocupados acerca del "Bug del Milenio", ¿no?

Espero que este año nuevo traiga más cosas buenas que malas, más risas que lágrimas. Y mucho amor.

Foto: cita de un poema de J.R.R. Tolkien:

Y a la vuelta del camino podremos encontrar

Un árbol repentino o piedra erguida

Que nadie ha visto sino nosotros solos.

Y texto: Ojalá encuentren muchos gozos inesperados en este Nuevo Año 2025.

Best wishes for 2023

 December 31, 2022. And that's the last time I type that number! Happy 2023, y'all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y esta es la última vez que escribo este número 2022. Que este nuevo año sea lleno de felicidad para todos es mi deseo.

Feathery

And here we are, in the final hours of this terrible, lonely, heart-breaking year. 2021 is (for me, plagued with insomnia as I am) one short sleep away. I'll sit up tomorrow, as usual, watching the celebrations as they wend their way around the globe, reaching here in the far west after almost everyone else has gone off to bed, with just Alaska and Hawaii still waiting.

And then? There are vaccines coming. And maybe a bit of sanity. Maybe a re-thinking. Time with family and friends again. Brighter days ahead. I can hope. 2021, I'm counting on you!

Quote: Emily Dickinson.

So: Happy New Year, everyone. In Spanish, we say "Prosperous New Year", and in French, just "Good Year!" (Bonne Année!) May 2021 become good, prosperous and happy. And hopeful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y aquí estamos, en las horas finales de este año tan terrible, tan desolador. 2021 dista (para mí, atormentada por la insomnia como lo soy) apenas un sueño cortísimo. Mañana, como acostumbro, me ocuparé observando las festividades mientras avanzan alrededor del globo, llegando finalmente aquí en el oeste después de que casi todo el mundo se ha ido a la cama, aparte de Alaska y Hawaii, que tendrán que esperar un poco más.

¿Y luego? ¡Vienen las vacunas! Y tal vez un poco de sentido común. Quizás un cambio de ideas. Nos reuniremos otra vez con amigos y familiares. ¡Días con más luz! Puedo esperar. 2021, está en tus manos.

La cita en la foto, "La esperanza es la cosa con plumas", viene de un poema de Emily Dickinson.

Pues entonces, que tengan ¡Un Próspero Año Nuevo! O como decimos en inglés, ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!, y en francés, ¡Buen Año! (Bonne Année) Que este año 2021 llegue a ser bueno, próspero, y feliz. Y lleno de esperanza.

2020!

So here we are. 2020. It's just gone midnight here; we're late to the party in slowpoke BC. I know the rest of the world has given up and gone to bed already. But we get there, eventually.

So it's 2020. And just last week, wasn't it, I was staying up all night working on my daughter's computer on New Year's Day, 2000? Seems like yesterday; seems like a century ago. Time's a funny thing.

Anyhow, here's to 2020! Wishing you a good year; wishing you courage, wisdom, and fortitude: we're going to need it.

From my windowsill while it blew and stormed outside.

There's always hope

Somewhere the sun is shining ...

Light on the far shore. And a moon.

And that's it for 2017! Let's hope 2018 is brighter!

Sundown

Also yeardown.

Sundown over the Campbell River estuary.

And tomorrow is another year. To quote Anne (of Green Gables): "with no mistakes in it yet." Although I'm sure we'll provide some, soon enough.

Here's hoping 2017 will be better than we anticipate and that happiness will surprise us when we least expect it.

An end and a beginning

2015 is done with. And here's 2016, all fresh and new.

Our markings of time, the ticking of the clock, the turning of calendar pages, the march of decades, mean nothing, really. Time - real time, as we experience it - goes on at varying speeds, sometimes backtracking, sometimes leaping ahead, sometimes freezing in place. Some years (by the calendar) are longer than others.

2015 was one of those long years for me. Too much has happened, too much has changed to be contained in 365 days, although some of them had more than the required number of hours. I'm glad it's over.

And now? Nothing is the same as it was a year ago. I've moved house, I've settled in, I've winterized. I've scoped out the boundaries and made a new mental map, found my landmarks. I've said goodbyes, and tentative hellos. That done, what next? Where do I go from here?

View from Tyee Spit at the mouth of the Campbell River. Just before sunset.

I'm making plans. While winter lasts, I'll spend time in the museum archives, researching, poring over maps, getting ready for summer explorations. I'll do a lot of birding, whether or not I can get any decent photos. And I'll take a few trips; I made it to Victoria and back in one day, 8 hours of winter driving, with a wild party while I was there, and it was all fine, a good trip. (Even if I did sleep most of yesterday recovering.)

(And I saw a black bear on the side of the road near the Malahat Summit in the middle of the night. And a deer. Maybe I should be planning more night excursions.)

Late sun, peeking over the clouds at the float plane dock, Tyee Spit.

And then, spring! The beaches will be free again; the tide goes 'way, 'way out. Beachcombing! Critters! Seaweeds! Can't wait!

And there will be green lights in the forest understory, mushrooms and slime molds beneath them. And singing birds! Flowers! More bears!

And a garden to plant and tend! And feed the birds in!

Light and shadow. And look closely; can you find the eagle? Look for a bright head and tail.

In the summer, I'll be heading out, across the Island to Tahsis; north to the end of the road, at Port Hardy, southwest to Ucluelet, across the channel to Quadra Island. And more, following my whim; wherever I may go, there will be goodies to discover.

From Tyee Spit, looking north. Dreaming of boats and that long, blue road.

2016 is going to be a good year!

Red sky in the morning ...

.. means it must be winter; if that shrub had leaves, I'd never see the sunrise from my window.

8:05 AM. Sunrise officially comes at 8:20 this week.

It also means the flock of starlings will be here any minute now to continue the work of gobbling down the suet put out for the smaller birds.  (In the cage barely visible at lower left.)

I'm driving down to Victoria in a few hours, and won't be back here until next year. Tomorrow, in other words.

See you then! And have a great, fun New Year's Eve, but drive carefully! I will.

Dressed for a party

In fashionable black and cream stripes*. Very elegant.

His companion wears a green fleck jacket, and a long, striped skirt.

I'll provide the menu; fish nuggets, with shrimp crunchables. Now, all they need are some noisemakers and shiny hats, and they're ready to ring in the new year.

*The shell is an import that I brought home from the aquarium store. Not their usual choice.

Just starting out

3 mm. snail, looking for adventure.

2014, here we come!

Is it that time already?

2014?  2014?!  2014!

Where did the time go?

2013 was a good year; I hope 2014 will be, too. For all of us, wherever we are.

Graffiti on rock, White Rock beach, 2010

Happy 2014, everyone!

Gotta wait out 2012 to the last gasp

2013, finally. Except in Hawaii; they've got another 18 minutes left in 2012, as of now**.

The year went out quietly for us. Laurie and I sat and listened to a CD of the Mikado, then I treated myself with a pot of ginger tea, and checked in with my kids on Facebook. All very peaceful.

But 2013; what will it bring? It's a year of 13s; 50 Fridays teamed up with the number, another two doubled: Friday the 13th, 2013, in September and December. Will someone decide that's a good excuse to foretell yet another end of the world?*** There are two good dates there! And when was that 2013 comet arriving?

Well, if you believe in bad luck omens, there are also the good ones. I've got mine; today, in a first for the year, in a short burst of 5 minutes, four starlings, one flicker, and a varied thrush all dropped in to visit. I think that's the first flicker or starling I've seen around here since a year ago. And all at once! It must mean something, surely!*

Here's proof, at least of the first two, photos taken without leaving my desk, which would have chased the flicker far away.

Flicker waiting for a starling to get off the suet feeder.

Still waiting. He eventually gave up; the starlings were not sharing.

Starling and suet feeder. The other three were on the ground underneath, collecting the falling crumbs, and keeping the juncos at bay.

The varied thrush ran past twice, pausing just long enough to be identified. The place was too crowded for him.

*I think it really meant that they were hungry. But sometimes I'd rather be silly than sensible.

**Just checked the time again. It is now officially 14 minutes into 2013 in Hawaii. And that's the very last gasp of 2012.

***Not that I'd worry. I've survived a fair number of world ends already.

2012 critter sampler

December 31st! Already? I'm still doing end-of-summer catch-up!

Alex Wild is curating "Best of 2012" science and nature shots on Scientific American. I was reminded, again, by BugGeek, who posted her collection. Beautiful shots; I've seen them all before, and will review them again tomorrow. Not tonight, because it's hard to blog when you're green with envy.

I looked over my photos, picking out the favourites, not to submit, but just as a year-end summary. And there were too many! I cut them down to just critters; still too many, and I kept remembering more. But I've finally trimmed the list down to a dozen favourite critters, not without difficulty.

Here's the collection: Critters only:

Ant nest uncovered, with the adults rushing to drag the larvae down the holes, out of sight.

Aphid in a moss forest

Caterpillar in morning sunlight

Garden snail, feeding on glass.

Grainy hand hermit, in human hand

Harvestman volunteer

I had trouble choosing my favourite of all the spiders. I have to smile at this fat mama, who does NOT like lime and pepper chips.

Life's an adventure. Hermit crab in aquarium.

Lazy moth in jar lid and morning sunshine.

Spider #2 Long-jawed orb weaver, on hosta leaf.

This was an exciting find; a molting ghost shrimp.

Ok, I give up; I can't choose just one or two spiders! Spider # 3, Ozyptila, the spider-eater's spider eater.

Spider #4, Mother toting her eggs.

Would have been #12, if I hadn't snuck a couple of extra spiders in there. Plume moth on outside wall.

And tomorrow is 2013! I never thought we'd get here. May it be a good year, the best year so far, for all of us!

Well, look what Father Time brought me!

A whole, brand-new, unused, not even test-driven, sparkling-fresh year to play with! Wonderful!

And here's a brand-new hermit, to go with. He`s just molted and is hardening up before he goes hunting for a new shell.
A favourite from January of last year.

Now what shall we do with it? (The year, that is.)

That's it? 2011 is over?

Where did the time go?

"Amazing!" he says; "I'm gobsmacked!"
(This is the strangest chickadee photo I have ever seen.)

Happy New Year, everyone! May it bring more joys than troubles, may your new wrinkles be laugh lines, and your store of good memories be overflowing!

Blazing farewell to 2010

The last day of 2010, the sun put on a show for us. At dawn, it set the clouds on fire:

7:56 AM. Sunrise is at 8:07.

In the early afternoon, we drove in to New Westminster to check out the plantings along the Quay. It was chilly, barely above freezing (it had gone down to -6 overnight) and the air was clear. It seemed like nothing was between us and the sun. And it was outdoing itself, making up for all those dull days last week; I had to dig out my darkest sunglasses. On the quay, what with the sun glaring at the glassy river, the big-windowed offices and hotels, and all the white railings, my camera rebelled. "Too much light!" it said, blinking madly at me. I closed down the aperture, sped it up to its maximum, forgot to reduce the ISO. The camera kept blinking. Any photos I took turned out mostly white.

Laurie's camera was a bit more co-operative, but not much.

There's always a way around difficulties. We could take advantage of those shining windows, and take photos of the view in the reflections:

In a dusty window, a "vintage" photo of the river and the Alex Fraser bridge.

Coming around a building, I happened to look right up at the sun. Even through my sunglasses, it blinded me for a while. But for that instant, I saw a rainbow-like halo around it. Ice crystals.
This photo, taken through a corner office window, shows the halo, as I had seen it.

Logs and barges on the far shore, and the glare off the water.

I found a shadowy window, and got a photo of the mountains, the Port Mann, and the Skytrain bridges.

Paddlewheeler.

Another solution was to zoom 'way in, take macros, which reduces the light entering the lens.

Miniature cotoneaster.

Moss

White ornamental cabbage. Looks better close-up than at normal distances.

Or find bits of shade and then zoom in:

Lichen on a black tree trunk. 

Pansy under a hedge.

I even tried taking a photo through my sunglasses:

Ornamental cabbages and kale.

Laurie took photos of the reflections underneath the promenade:

White railings and the blackness under the pilings.

On the way back, now close to sunset, the light was dimming, finally. And with our backs to the sun, we didn't even have to squint!

Viburnum. I love how it flowers at New Year's every year! No leaves, just the flowers and buds.

Unidentified tree that keeps its leaves, long and skinny and curly, all winter.

We went up to 6th and 6th for tea. It was a relief to drive into the dark basement parking lot. When we left, just before 5, night was falling. Beautiful blue night!

A Skywatch post.

... y un Próspero Año Nuevo!

Only 21 hours left in 2010, at least here on the Pacific coast. Time to review the last year, good and ill, and get all philosophical about it; time to make resolutions that I will never keep; time to party!

Forget those first two; time's a-wasting! It's celebration time! 2011, here we come! (There; I've used up those last left-over exclamation points, saving one for the photo caption. Must fill the quota, or I won't get as many next year.)

So, here's to all my fantastic co-riders of the dancing electrons, and to my amazing "real-world" family and friends; may 2011 be the best year ever for you and yours.

Happy New Year!

And now, off to make silly party hats ...