Catching Up

These photos were actually taken before our big dump of snow. I am very behind in my posting, but that's part of holiday hibernation--catching up on those niggling little tasks that just take pure time and patience to complete. A week ago the trees were still bare and I was noticing wasp nests in the high branches of some of the magnificent old trees in Vancouver. "My heart is laid bare, like a wasp nest in leafless branches," I thought and I planned a whole post of photos of wasp nests in trees. Wouldn't you know it, I couldn't find any wasp nests to photograph before it snowed.

Next year I plan to record these seasonal changes, the minimal and the dramatic shifts. That will be part of a project on studying bees and their relationship to climate change. So yes, the New Year's resolutions start now. I make a note. Take photographs of wasp nests in early December.

The snow has created travel chaos for some, so I was relieved that mom and dad didn't fly here on Sunday as planned because they would have been trapped in that holiday hell. Still, we miss them. It's awfully quiet here. Today we will bake cookies and make chocolates. Our kitchen will be transformed into a Christmas factory powered by sugar-seeking elves. Stay tuned for stories from the factory floor.