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.