The challenge we’ll take on in January- and read in early February 2026 – is “My Inner Self”

Le défi qu’on relèvera en janvier – et qu’on lira début février 2026 – s’intitule «Mon moi intérieur».

By Barb Lehtiniemi Northern Lights Above Snowy Hills was a quick sketch and its main purpose was to test all eight colours of a newly-purchased set of inexpensive acrylic paint markers.  

The Christmas-tree painting was inspired by this month’s challenge as well as the season.  I like trying different materials to apply paint, and for this painting I used a champagne cork, a shotgun (4.10) shell, beaded chain, and a make-up sponge, along with a paintbrush and paint markers.

by Yvonne Callaway Call me a traditionalist, all the Christmas cards I’ve created involve snow! (Though the most recent creates a snow field in technicolour.)

By Susan Latreille My contribution to “Snow & Ice” is a collection of small (3.5 x 5.5”) watercolour paintings.

I was having lots of fun painting Christmas gift cards for the family, inspired by my favourite online tutorialist, EmJLefebvre. When she was done with her Christmas card tutorials, Emma moved on to miniature winter landscapes, which I loved doing,  but not as small as in her examples. (They were really tiny and too tough to accomplish with poor eyesight and arthritic fingers!)

I framed my five favourites and have them hanging as part of my Christmas decorations.

By Susan Irving Some of my  icy snowy photos. 

Snow scene Charlottenburg Park beach

Bench after an ice storm

Traces of large wings in the snow

My greenhouse one winter

Snowshoeing trail

By Victoria Stevenson Foxy Kin is wearing a sleek pink fleece dress with white faux-fur accents. It was for a Stuffed Life episode (Victoria’s YouTube show) where Foxy did a photo shoot for the fake brand “Viritzia” (a play on Aritzia since my name starts with a V). It was meant for a cozy holiday fit when the weather is cold.

By Laura Nussbaumer Pack Thank you for this month’s challenge, Snow & Ice: I believe it brought us both. One after the other. I can’t help wondering, what if the challenge had been sunshine and heat. Or snowstorm and snowshoeing. I would gladly have taken both.
 
Being French-born and raised, I truly believed Gilles Vigneault’s words, “Mon pays c’est l’hiver.” I was expecting a white country most of the year. I felt deeply shocked when landing in Ottawa in August 2010, we were welcomed by an extremely warm wind.  Fast forward, Christmas 2025, in Alexandria. At Riverview Farm,  wintery flower boxes decorated with sumac and spruce branches welcome happy guests, every day.  Blue jays, finches and even a woodpecker. There are a few other species I have yet to identify. The bird watcher’s book is waiting on the coffee table. 

The snowblower is blowing full force. The snow shoveler is shoveling slowly, and steadily. The lane way, the pathway, the decks are next. 

The freezing rain was announced, and we had time to prepare. Or had we? When I was first exposed to freezing – in 2011 – from the cozy lounge of our row house in Ottawa, the street and trees covered with ice seemed surreal. The three stairs that led to the iced car were extremely real as I painfully landed on my butt. 

J’avais opté pour le Canada, en espérant vivre le pays blanc de Gilles Vigneault dès notre arrivée, en août 2010. Ma première expérience de tempête de neige fut mémorable surtout quand il s’est agi de conduire avant que la déneigeuse ai fait son travail. La première pluie verglaçante fut magnifique et douloureuse. Mes fesses se souviennent de ma première gamelle. La vue des arbres et des buissons enveloppés de glace, magique et féérique. 

By Milo Smith I love  to  make  images of icy vegetation. Everything is  recognizable  but at the same time a bit  unreal.