Joys of January : early January Days 2026

Joys of January

birding   knitting   painting   skating

With the blink of an eye a Chinook rolled in, the rime frost melted, the Chinook rolled out, everything froze, another Chinook rolled in! By timing it right, I experienced many sweet seconds throughout each day.  Maybe I should say, I was in the right place at the right time!  There is loads of Joy in January, go in search of it! My joys to share with you come by way of four short stories.     

Story 1: My arrival time at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary for birding on this day was a tad later than normal.  The sun was high, it was cold, it was the calm before the Chinook.  My boots made that loud scrunchy sound with each step on the packed snow but it was not loud enough to drown out the sound of the Chickadees' chick-a-dee-dee-dee! 

While many sights caught my eye, these drew me in for a little longer. I am calling this collection of ice crystals hanging from a bridge railing, a "crystal ice necklace".  That's a Merlin. A Black-capped Chickadee with a treat.  I watched these two coyotes across the river. They frolicked about, then mated, then dashed away.

Story 2: After all the knitting I did over the last few months, I have lots of left over yarn.  There is not enough in each left over skein to complete a project.  I want to use up the leftovers, this is the outcome of that. With the partial skeins that are gathered in a bag, I should be able to knit a few pairs of slippers that will look similar to these.  I will call them "my slippers of many colours that I made for me"! 

Story 3: With each of the challenges in the January Watercolour Painting Challenge, there is a lesson to learn.  I am learning more than I bargained for. One thing I learned for sure is that after January 13th, I will need to prepare a new page for the next number of challenges.  I will only make two to three squares on each page instead of seven.  I forgot the lesson I learned with the Advent Calendar, I don't like painting tiny details.  

I created this painting using the Chickadee in the collage above as a reference.  It was the background I wanted to get right.  It turned out exactly as I hoped it would.  The Chickadee was secondary.  It's not the best Chickadee I painted but I will take it.  

Story 4: Before the next Chinook blew in, I got another round of skating in.  The sun was bright yet it was lovely and cold.  The ice is holding up OK given the fact the parks people are not permitted to flood the ice due to Stage 4 water restrictions in the city and surrounding areas.  Fingers crossed, this could change within the next few days. I could tell the ice was not as good as two days prior.  On the other hand with double digit temperatures in the teens well above freezing forecasted for a few days stretch, that will take a toll. I made this day's skate worthwhile and went for fifteen kilometres rather than the eleven which I have been doing.  

skating Bowness January 6, 2026

 a second yet a first

Today was my second time skating this season yet my first time this year! I was putting off heading anywhere to skate given the city of Calgary is under Stage 4 Water Restrictions due to a catastrophic watermain break on December 30th, the second time in less than two years. That means no flooding ice surfaces.  It means lots more too that I won't get into because it is not pleasant. This new norm means not taking for granted that we have water. We have been told this is the new norm for Calgary and the restrictions could be in place for up to two years. When I saw a sign saying that Carburn Park is flooding their ice with nonpotable water, I thought maybe Bowness would be too.   

I arrived to see the ice had just been swept on The Lagoon and The Canal.  There was no one flooding the ice while I was there.  The sign said the ice was in "rough" condition.  I took a closer look at it before lacing up. It looked fine to me!  I laced up and skated off!  

a panorama shot from the far end of The Lagoon looking west

Yes, it is chinooking!  That means all the rime ice disappeared just like that. It was not that windy while I skated but the chinook winds were picking up as I drove home later.  I feel like I want to shout out "chicken little the sky is falling"!

As soon as I arrived I captured photos of what rime ice was left!

view along The Canal looking west at the chinook cloud

getting ready to make a video

Here's The video with my first skate greeting of the year!  I sure hope to make many more but will take each day as it comes with the skating thing! I keep checking the Lake Louise webcam, they still have not cleared the ice to skate nor have they built the ice castle yet.  

some colour along side The Canal

ready for a fire to be made

It appears they have more Ice Bikes this year!

the moon holding up the chinook cloud

I'll shout it out again "chicken little the sky is falling"!

Just like when I skated The Ice Trail on Dec 29th, once again I skated just over eleven kilometres.  If this is as good as the ice will be on The Lagoon and The Canal, I will take it. I have skated on it when it was not as good.  We are in for warm temperatures over the next while so that will be another thing to watch when it comes to ice conditions.  

an extraordinary wintry WOW

Wolf Supermoon and Rime Frost

painting a feeling

From the second I pulled into the parking lot at Carburn Park this morning, I was wide-eyed with wonder seeing an extraordinary wintry WOW! The Full Wolf Moon, the first Supermoon of the year, was still high in the sky lighting up the rime frost that blanketed the entire Park.  In fact the rime frost blanketed the entire city.

No new snow fell. 

The fog froze over night and deposited frozen droplets on all surfaces.

That's what created the wintry white!

amazing archways were formed

fantastic frames were designed 

pretty pathways were created 

At this time of the morning, only a very few other people dared to venture out. 

They too were in awe of the beautiful views. 

A load of layers was necessary to stay comfortable with all the stopping that occurred.  

When I ventured further into the forest was when I saw a brown fluff of fur.  

This is one of four coyotes I saw.  It watched me for a minute then..... 

.....went about its business of searching for food.  

The next two coyotes I saw were dashing through the snow chasing each other.  They came out of no where too quickly, I was not able to capture photos of them.  This was the fourth one I saw.  It was walking towards me yet was still far down the trail.  I was able to use my full zoom to snap this shot.  Just after I did, it veered off into the bushes.  

A few more people were beginning to show up as were the deer. 

I believe the two that are behind are following their Mother!

This is a panorama I took after the deer crossed to the other side. 

The deer are those three darker spots in the centre.

Remember, that is not snow!

view along the Bow River 

Canada Geese and Mallards huddled together!

It was time to see what I could see down where the Carburn Bald Eagles hang out.  The pair were perched together high in the tree.  I believe they may have been watching the Magpies below on the edge of the river feasting on a kill.  I opted out of taking photographs of the Magpies. There was no nest building nor any other kind of activity while I watched the Bald Eagles which was for about fifteen minutes.  

a close up of the two Bald Eagles with a Crow or Raven at the left

a stare down

the Bald Eagle won

With all that wide-eyed wonder while at Carburn Park, I wanted to portray what that felt like. When I got home I put watercolour shades on paper, along with lots of salt and some white gouache, to come up with the painting at the first of this post. I didn't want to create a frigid freezing feeling because I did not feel that with the way I was dressed.  I felt the warm hearted touch that comes from the wonders created by Mother Nature!  That's what I feel when I look at my watercolour painting!  

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I hope your New Year is starting off in the right direction

being cheerful & bright and full of what brings you joy!

In fact, I hope your whole year stays on that track!

On December 31st, I had my last trip of the year to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. It was cold, it was quiet, it was beautiful!  All was wintry white but not near as white as Banff was for those four nights I spent there over Christmas. I just read that during those Christmas days, Banff received 380% more snow that average for that time of year.  What a great gift that was!  Another great gift was..... 

.....being afforded the enjoyment of watching this Juvenile Bald Eagle, at The Sanctuary, for thirty minutes or so while it perched mid-way down a tree right beside the trail. Myself and two other regulars admired the young bird of prey, all of us taking an endless amount of photos.  One of the guys suggested it was probably drying as it perched with its wings spread for minutes at a time.  

After admiring this young one, it was time to move on down the trail.  I noticed two more Juvenile Bald Eagles and an Adult in the trees on the other side of the river. This could be an interesting winter at The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary if these three Juveniles stay in the area.  This interests me so I will be keeping my eyes open whenever I go there again!  

🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅 🦅

The fog rolled in later on the 31st and is still with us. This morning, I made the short drive to Confluence Park. I did not want another white knuckle drive with my hazard lights flashing like I had on January 1st driving Stoney and the 1A. For the short drive this morning, I could see the intersections well before I arrived at them which was not the case on New Years Day.  This was the view from inside my vehicle as I pulled into a parking spot this morning shortly after sunrise.   

Bright colours are my favourite but I certainly saw beauty in this whitish greyish tone.  

No one had been here yet so I got to break trail in the new soft fluffy snow.   

the only bright colours along the way 

This bench look inviting to me!  

❄ ❅ ❆ ❄ ❅ ❆

Instead of enjoying time on that bench, I opted for sitting on a chair at home and finding more cheerful colours.  I am participating in a 30 Day Watercolour Painting Challenge. It will last 60 days because prompts will be posted every second day.  I will be learning and practicing watercolour techniques.  The majority of participants will be doing the challenge in a journal.  Not me, I will be creating squares of various sizes, as needed, on the large pieces of paper from the pad I bought to paint the Advent Calendar.  

🎨 🎨 🎨 🎨 🎨

Inaugural skate of the season! December 29, 2025

 

When I walked out the door yesterday morning it was -22C (-7.6F) a very icy cold, when I walked out the door this morning at the same time as I did yesterday it was +2C (+35.6F).  It was not cold yet where I went was icy because that's what I needed for my first time on skates this season. Bowness opened for skating on December 20th yet today was the first available time I had to go.  This was the view as I pulled into the parking spot across from The Ice Trail at Bowness Park. Down here by the river it was -5C (+23F).  The guy just finished flooding the ice surface which meant I would be making the first etchings on it as no one else was around with their skates.  

The trees were still lit as I skated away!

a five second video as I am finding my skating legs

my favourite section along The Ice Trail

my favourite time too, when no one else is here, the lights are still on and

there is still early morning shades in the sky

that's my collection of etchings after three times around 

If you are a curler you would enjoy Crokicurl!

This patch is directly across the way.

It was just groomed and ready for curlers.

with the lights long out

the golden glow now came from the sun

view behind me

Being my first time skating this season the plan was to skate five kilometres.  I got lost in the beauty, lost in my thoughts, lost in the sound of the blades stroking the ice and of each breath I took.  It felt so easy and so good to be skating.  I stopped to check the distance I covered so far and it showed just over 10 kilometres.  I continued until I reached the bench where my boots were which brought my distance to 11.07 kms. All I can say is that life feels good right now!