A few days up island

Chrome Island

Much progress on the boat

Qualicum Beach

Just like the good ole days

Nephews Lunden, Kailen & Sebastian

Goldstream Park

Sunny Christmas morning

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas and blessings of the season.

Christmas Eve

Clayton's neck warmer.

We met Larry and Anne Marie E from Barrie last night at the Candlelight service. Their daughter lives here in Victoria. When I was 10, my Dad and I were in a motorcycle accident and spent 3 months in hospital. Larry was in high school at the time and he came every lunch break to visit me and bring me a bag of chips. I have never forgotten.

Christmas Tree Kitty

You have to put the delicate and breakable ornaments up REALLY high for Karma. Even then she manages to get to them.

Wind and Rain

Water, water everywhere. If it is not trying to get into the basement, it is pooling up in the Firepot patio.

Last night's wind upended the Camellia and the Pyracantha.

That's not supposed to be there!!

Old Spaghetti Factory

Dinner with Uncle Dave and Colin. A good time was had by all. Clayton was home manning the sump pump to keep water out of the basement from all the recent rain.
Thanks for Dinner Uncle Dave!!

After two massive wind storms another one tonight

Back to normal for Victoria

Except for the little diminishing bits of snow still lying around.
The rain this weekend will make short work of them.

Victoria - A week after

As the rain is falling, you can see that we are not out of the grips of our 'winter' yet.
Due to freezing temperatures over night since last week, the snow has not receded as quickly as it normally does. The roads are fine, power was restored to the last households on Saturday.
November set daily records for highs, lows and precipitation. It was also the wettest Month on record. Glad it is behind us and we now look forward to Christmas.

Victoria Pictures from Snowstorm

These are not my photos, but they are great. Overnight we had rain, then the clouds moved away and it went below freezing again. This morning many roads were like the proverbial skating rink with black ice.

Winter Wonderland Day 4

Cold and clear last night. As you can see, the smaller roads are pretty slick. They will not be cleared by the city. The plants will struggle from the weight of the snow as today the forecast is for 10 cm more, then turning to rain. It is that transition from snow to rain that really causes the damage. The buses are back to normal on most of the routes, and the schools are open.
However, there are still upwards of 10,000 hydro customers still without power, some of which may not have it restored till Saturday.

Winter Wonderland Day 3

This icicle is about twice as big this morning.

One more cold night ahead of us - they say it will hit -16 which will be a record. Then highs of 10 degrees by Saturday with lots of rain. That will translate into wet, slippery, icy roads for a few days and no doubt flooded basements as the storm drains will be blocked.

Winter Wonderland Day 2

Well, rain turned to snow in a hurry. In a hint of things to come, during Clayton's soccer game on Saturday there were the occasional snow flakes. Sunday morning as we left for church, it started to snow. When we came out, there was 5 cm on the ground and the roads were in bad shape already. Debra and Trista went downtown to the Royal Theatre for a 2 pm showing of "The Nutcracker". Our friends drove them down in their 4 wheel drive vehicle.
This morning we woke up to loads more snow. There are power outages, the buses stopped running and all of the schools/college/Universities are closed. Now our only worry is breaking branches and plants in the garden and the trees.