I’m not quite sure what the “rules” are about wishing you a Happy New Year but I have long been a member of the “better late than never” ( on most things) club. The new year has started off with the same old busy stuff the old one ended with… but we did have a great break in the middle of it all!

Ned and I had a very white Christmas! we headed north along with our friends Elizabeth Harris and Runner-bean to the Peace River area of BC to visit family for the holidays! It was a true winter wonderland in all sorts of ways.

Once we got out of the Vancouver area the roads were wide open and not many folk around! the drive was lovely with sunny skies and OK, a bit of snow on the road.

There wasn’t much of a view out the back- it was a challenge to keep the windows clear of road gunk! but one of the dogs was usually awake and keeping an eye (or ear!) out for trouble.

This is a stunningly beautiful part of the world! and I have hundreds (literally hundreds!) of images even after weeding out the bad ones. I know this trip is going to turn up in my work at some point , hopefully sooner rather than later. I can see why Elizabeth is so inspired by the landscape.

Here’s a few of my favorite shots…

It was cold there!!

Yup! it says minus 24 Celsius. Which turned out to be one of the warmer mornings…the coldest was minus 37 Celsius. But you know the old saying” it’s a dry cold!”

In the midst of the holiday celebrations Elizabeth taught a life drawing workshop and I got to hang out and  draw for 2 days.

I had so much fun trying some new things and playing around with my drawing, something I need to do more of. I did my very best to sit quietly in the corner and not disrupt the class.

I really enjoyed having the time to explore areas that I haven’t put the time into I would like. It was a treat to work on a few of the “details” that I tend to skip over when I am in a hurry, like hands and feet.

There are loads more images to share of my trip  and now that life has settled down a bit, my cold is almost over, the new roof is on the studio ( not as bad as it sounds, but bad enough)  I will post a few more images next week!

Bye for now, Catherine