By Judy Stephan

Winter on Vancouver Island is a season of quiet and crisp beauty, where the landscape seems to breathe in sync with the rhythms of the moody ocean. That is unless you have a bomb cyclone that sends the entire landscape and community into disarray.

As the days shorten, and the air cools, the island becomes a sanctuary of soft, misty mornings and golden hued afternoons. The evergreen forests, wrapped in a veil of delicate fog, stand tall against the grey sky, their deep green needles a striking contrast to the muted palette of the season. That is unless hurricane force winds send them crashing onto power lines plunging everyone into a Stone Age-like darkness.

Along the coast, the waves crash with a rhythmic urgency, the salty air filled with the sound of gulls calling and the scent of the Salish Sea. There’s a stillness to the beaches now, the usual crowds replaced by the occasional solitary wanderer wrapped in layers, footprints left behind in the wet sand. Unless, of course, the aforesaid bomb cyclone sends gigantic waves, howling and icy winds and lashing rain that cancels all transport off the island, and mutes any other sound.

In the more sheltered coves and valleys, frost clings to tree branches like crystal jewellery, catching the light in a way that makes the world feel suspended in time. The air smells of woodsmoke and earth, the scent of cedar mingling with the occasional hint of salt, as smoke curls up from the suburban houses. That is if the hurricane force winds allow you to smell anything at all and strip the beautifully decorated branches of aforesaid frost, and litter roads and gardens with storm fed debris.

Besides the punctuation of a few snow days, the winters here aren’t incredibly frigid – they are persistently gentle, a time for reflection and subtle transformation. That is if your heat hasn’t been thwarted by day long power cuts from bomb cyclones and the like.

From the mountains dusted in snow to the calm, mist-blanketed harbours, Vancouver Island’s winter feels like a place where the soul can pause, breathe deeply, and find a kind of peace that only the slow, steady rhythm of nature can offer. Yeah, right!
Wishing you and yours peace over the holiday season and a wonderful 2025.