The ice candle is lit! It's in honor and memory of special people in my life who are now gone. The thoughts are warm.
I'd like to share this flame. Look in on my live web cam tonight and let the flame help you remember a special someone in your own life. Hope your memories are wonderful!
One flame... many blessings!
Good wishes.
Dick MacKenzie

View from my chair at camp December 29. One is the waning moon at about 7:15 a.m. and the second is an hour later as the sun rises. Last morning at camp in 2013, following a glorious Christmas week out here.
Tonight at home I'll light an ice candle on the deck to remember and honor special people in my life who have meandered down the final happy trail.
If you'd like to let your remembrances flow please look in and share the glow anytime tonight after dark.
Very best wishes! Happy New Year, my friends!

Mornings are so mesmerizing!! I like to get up early at camp and watch a new day and the birds arrive. It's a peaceful and contemplative hour or two. Each morning, as each day to follow, is unique.
This morning I remembered Christmases and the Green in Vermont on cold, snowy mornings when I was a boy. I tried to remember Christmas times as wonderful as those, but I couldn't. Every Christmas I have celebrated has been wonderful, but none as wonderful as those. Nice thoughts on a magical morning.
These are pictures of the last two mornings. Yesterday's was just about sunrise (8:06) on a clear day. Today's was about 7:30 on a cloudy, snowy morning. I had to shovel a little path and clear off the feeding platforms for the arrival of my chickadees.

Merry, Merry Christmas from Sioux Lookout to all of my beautiful friends. I hope your holiday season is wonderful.
Christmas day finds me at camp flipping my famous snowburgers. Wish you were here to share.
I send very best wishes!

I'm up watching dawn arrive, drinking coffee, and waiting for my chickadees to flitter to the feeders outside my window. Sunrise today is 8:05, sunset 4:09. Temperature -32C (-25F). So far our Christmas stay at camp has been pretty wonderful and relaxing.
Haven't shoveled a path to the barbeque yet. No rush. Have been doing all the cooking on top of the woodstove that heats the cabin. This picture is last night's supper - small sirloins with a side of cauliflower, onions, and mushrooms, with thyme and Old Bay seasonings. Great diet fare...
I'll be going into town for a few hours this afternoon to help fellow Rotary members light candles for tonight's candlelight service, honoring and remembering friends and family who have passed away.
I'll light an ice candle on my deck before I return to camp to share with you who would like to remember a special person or two in your life. You'll be able to see it on the live webcam at my site - go ahead, look at it and dream warm memories of your special someone for a few moments.
7:45. The first chickadee has arrived...

This afternoon, first trip to camp since Nov. 11. Shoveled a narrow path across the deck to the door and cleared a little spot (over by the yellow shovel handle) to put out some food for my chickadees. Lots left to clean up when we head out this weekend for our week-long Christmas stay.
The scenery is gorgeous!

Last week Mary, with a sly smile, asked, "When did you start your diet?"
"July 1," I told her. "Why?"
"Because today I had to put half a pound of butter in the butter dish for the first time since you started."
For perspective, "we" used to go through one or two pounds of butter a week (yeah, I know, but some of that was used for cooking...) Since July 1 (Canada Day) the only butter I've eaten has been the treat left over on the butter knife after Mary has fixed herself a slice of toast. When I see that my eyes grow large and I immediately dip the buttered knife into the peanut butter jar in preparation for my once-a-day smear of peanut butter on my homemade rye bread. Seems to me that if I can't see it I'm not really eating it.
Results from my doctor appointment yesterday were so exciting that I've decided to have a glass of wine - maybe two - Christmas eve (my first alcohol since July 1). Mary had two comments: "It'll knock you on your ass" and "You'll be a cheap drunk." I love her Christmas spirit!
Here's a picture of me in my big birdwatching chair, holding up the ends of my belts that I trimmed off on the weekend (I've gone from 202 pounds to 153, and from a 40 inch waist to 34).
On one arm of the chair is Mary's half pound of butter, which oughta be good until next June, and on the other arm is my Christmas wine - a Cabernet/Shiraz that I bottled in October 2009. The label is mine with a picture of a butterfly on a white lilac in our yard. Butterflies hold a special, warm place in my heart, and this particular lilac was sown by a bird flying by (I guess) and which my mother discovered on one of her visits with us a few years ago (another special treat in my heart - that lilac is among the first plants I look for each spring and I hover over it like a newborn puppy - use your imagination to determine if I'm the newborn puppy or if the lilac is - your choice).
Today I was able to ditch the last of my blood pressure medication. For the first time in many years I am medication-free and skinny.
I wish, sincerely, Season's Greetings, Merry Christmas, and send warm thoughts, to all my beautiful, wonderful friends who have been so generous, encouraging and inspiring!
xxoo

As I looked at this sight out my kitchen door this morning I wondered if I were dedicated enough to barbeque later today. It's a real conundrum, as if I'm that dedicated I will have to answer a question about my sanity.
I've decided to have a nice cup of ice coffee and think it over.
By the way, is the correct term "ice coffee" or "iced coffee?"

I don't remember seeing a sundog this low to the horizon. I took these pictures from my deck about 9 a.m. today. The temperature at the time was -27C ( -18F ), having risen a few degrees from the overnight low of -31C ( -24F ).
An Ojibway friend, when he saw my picture, said, " gibete'o kiisis. Means the sun is covering his ears and it's gonna be cold."

The following is taken from "Weather Notebook" which I found (along with many additional explanations) by googling sundog.

Sundogs are something you may have never even heard of, let alone actually seen. They look like tiny section of rainbows which, on the other hand, are seen often, if not in real life then at least in pictures and paintings. The irony of this is that sundogs are more common than rainbows because they can occur any time of year, whereas rainbows are limited pretty much to the warmer seasons. The scientific difference is that rainbows are formed by sunlight striking liquid raindrops and sundogs come from sunlight striking clouds made of ice crystals which form in winter and in summer way up in the atmosphere.

When visible, sundogs are always seen horizontally just to the right or left of the sun. They look like a shiny, iridescent patch of cloud, about the size of the sun. In fact they're sometimes called mock suns because the real sun may be hidden behind a cloud. When sunlight, which is made up of all the colors of the spectrum, hits the ice crystals in the cloud, it bends a little. The ice crystal acts as a prism, separating the sunlight into different colors and forming a sundog. Rainbows are basically the same type of thing, except that in rainbows it is raindrops that serve as prisms instead of ice crystals.

Another difference between the two, rainbows are seen as you face away from the sun as opposed to sundogs that are seen only when facing toward the sun. And probably the biggest difference between the two is that a rainbow usually signals an end to the rain, while a sundog often means that rain, or snow is on the way.