And so it hasn't really stopped snowing in the last few days. Over the weekend we had something like 20 centimeters of wet snow that fell, and for awhile Sunday morning, all you could hear in the forest were the rifle cracks of branches falling from the Douglas-firs and the odd alder plunging to the ground. I had to walk to Xenia on the weekend as we were snowed in and I was running a retreat there. Sunday morning was eerie. By Sunday afternoon, the temperatures had plunged to at least -10, which is cold for the coast and the snow dried out a little. It kept snowing though and all through Monday and Tuesday more snow fell.

Around our place there is probably 30 centimeters on the ground. It took us 3.5 hours to shovel and salt the driveway enough to get the car free today. We ran out of time though and drove a borrowed car to make the ferry. It kept on snowing today and is expected to turn to rain tonight. There have been some power outages on the west side of the island but we have only suffered the occasional flicker and a plugged bathtub drain which I suspect has to do with freezing. Other wise, we're just fine, having weathered the storms of November 2006 quite well.

This November has been the wettest month on record of any month. In Vancouver 350 mm of precipitation has fallen, and we have gotten more, maybe as much as 400mm. I'm not cure we have had a day this month that didn't have rain or snow. The salmon are happy though, with lots of chum returning to Killarney Creek. We're waiting for the coho to come in any time now I should think.

In other news, unrelated to the storm, Andrea and Mike have sold The Snug, which is very sad for us, but I understand the new owners, who are local, have the same loving intention for the place. Andrea and Mike, and their son Finn have been amazing, letting us play Irish music there for the past year, being insanely generous and kind and just amazingly inspiring as business owners. They are moving to Mexico for a while to try out living there, which will be great for them, although they will be deeply missed around here. And in other business news, Dr. Sue has opened her medical practice finally. She moved to the island with her family in 2004, partly because of this blog, and now she has become the first female doctor to open a full time general practice here, which is great news and long overdue. Hopefully, we'll soon see her return to blogging after her year-long hiatus. At any rate, we'll be playing some tunes for her official open house sometime next month, so look for that.