Dear Canimites,
Since I last wrote we’ve had a wrestle with winter for sure, with heavy snows and high winds. Power was lost at Canim for 24 hours, at Mahood for 48 hours and at Hawkins almost 60 hours.
At Hawkins, people were stranded by the depth of snow. Dawson couldn’t get in to plow because of downed powerlines, and BC Hydro had their difficulties because the roads were near impassable.
Fire Chief Bob Campbell opened up the firehall so that people could warm themselves and borrow generators and snow throwers.
Maori Star Stories
Early on clear evenings, Orion is making a grand show low in the southeast. If you follow the line of Orion’s belt up and to the right one outstretched hand span you see the red star which is the eye of Taurus the bull.
Another hand span in the same line and you find a bright star cluster the Greeks called Pleiades, or The Seven Sisters. The Maori of the South Pacific, who never met the Greeks, called the cluster Matariki, and celebrate its appearance in the night sky as the start of their New Year. Here’s a bit of their legend.
The star at the center, the mother, is Matariki, with her six daughters gathered around her. Each year they journey together across the sky to visit their grandmother, the Earth.
Each of the daughters has unique gifts and interests which they develop with their grandmother’s help for the good of all people.
For example, the eldest daughter Tupu-a-nuku is a specialist in tending plants. She works to keep them healthy so that all people will have abundant food. Find out more at tepapa.govt.nz. There’s a clear message there about how to build a more life-giving community.
Crib Ahoy!
A small but boisterous group gather weekly at Bev McGregor’s for crib, Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. You would be welcome there. Call Sheila at 250-397-2645.
Book Club
The group just finished The Secret Life of Bees. Next up on Feb. 19 is Michael Crichton’s thriller Timeline, followed in March by The Rainbow Chasers. The latter is a B.C. classic, the tale of Archie MacDonald’s journey in the 1800s from the lumber camps of the Ottawa Valley to the end of his rainbow in the grasslands and timber at Lac des Roches. Fascinating reading. For details about this group, call Bev McGregor at 250-397-2604.
That’s all for now. Until next time, here’s wishing you many blessings.