Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

You know it’s winter when, quite suddenly, the tens of thousands of geese that have filled the skies for the past two months are gone… when the cats’ enthusiasm for the outdoors dies within a second of opening the door to their eager meows, and when the morning ritual includes an extra five minutes of sweeping snow off the car and scraping the windshield. Oh, there’s also the freezing temperatures of course, the monochrome palette that suddenly sets in… and other telltale signs such as overshoes by the door, snow-covered Westies parked all in a hibernating row, and ‘the greeters’ outside Ev’s studio sporting white toques and scarves.

I returned from a quick trip to Taiwan four days ago to find a complete change of season—not unexpected of course, but still a surprise…