According to my earworm, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year”. But: is it, really? If I look at the news headlines, no, it is not. And yet, here we are, at the end of a year again, looking for winter.

For me, the holiday season, however it manifests, kicks off with a wedding anniversary. Somehow, we’ve made it through quite a few years, so we try to acknowledge that. This year, our choice was booking a weekend in Penticton, not knowing that getting there was pretty much impossible last week. Flooding in Washington and BC’s Fraser Valley had other plans for those roads, those farms, that livestock.

A day later, we putted along an alternate route with all the trucks struggling with their deliveries, and managed to get over multiple mountain passes to the Okanagan valley. And yes, we found a bit of winter — in those passes, with fog so thick we needed four-way flashers to find the road and any cars nearby, in the distant peaks, once we could see them, and at the top of Mount Baldy, its own adventure to find.

What I’ve brought back with me is some images for the season, and a wish for peace in this year and the next, if we can at all manage it.

These images are available on my Redbubble print-on-demand shop, should they resonate with you. I hope you find some version of wonderful in your year end, even if it’s within a small locus under your control.

And thankfully, my earworm has moved on, to “Song for a Winter’s Night” by Gordon Lightfoot, the source of these titles. Ahhhh, better!