Robert Stenseth captured this image of the local "Stone Butter Church".
In November, the weather quickly became more varied and unpredictable, leading to rainbows, toques, and umbrellas. Robert Stenseth captured this image of the local "Stone Butter Church". We walked at the Cowichan Bay Estuary, watching the happy birds. We made three more trips up Cobble Hill Mountain. We attended the Remembrance Day service at the Lake Cowichan cenotaph before enjoying lunch, drinks, and a visit with Shaun & Debbie. Mid-month, the skies unleashed a torrent of rain across southern BC, with some areas receiving over 250mm in under 48 hours. Severe flooding led to the evacuation of Merritt and the Sumas Prairie. Highways, including the Coquihalla, were demolished, bridges collapsed, roads were washed out and mudslides wreaked havoc. A provincial state of emergency was declared and at least four people perished. Vancouver was no longer connected by ground travel as many highways and major connector routes were closed, disrupting Canada's supply chain. Houses and lives were lost. A barge washed up on a Vancouver beach. Fearing shortages, panic buying ensued once more. Sumas Lake refilled, the border was temporarily closed, and the Trans-Canada was closed in many places. Gas sales were limited to 30 litres. The local flooding temporarily "trapped" us as the highway north to Nanaimo was closed, while the Malahat was closed south to Victoria. With no need to go anywhere, we were personally unaffected. Meanwhile, the fowl were in all their glory, as the marshes, estuaries, and wetlands expanded. Throughout everything, we continued to walk each day. I planned two entire vacations, hoping that we could travel in February 2022. The deeper I delved into the details concerning the impact of ongoing Covid-19 protocols and testing requirements, the more apparent it became that we are still not at the point where we will return to travel. Just when we began to hope that life was on the verge of improvement, the Omicron variant appeared, further complicating things and throwing travel plans back into doubt. Several more evenings were spent watching new movies. Sports remain an entertaining distraction and I spent way too much time managing my fantasy football team. (I managed to assemble an extremely impressive lineup, only to have it decimated by injuries in week 12.) The Warriors are off to a hot start as the best team in basketball, while the Canucks have been a huge disappointment in the first quarter of the NHL season. We watched several TV shows, with the highlights definitely being "Marco Polo" and the return of "Yellowstone" for season 4. I read another six books in November. Laura Salter provided this image of the moon rising over Cowichan Bay. Ken Thorne captured this Cowichan Bay sunrise.
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