Little furry leaves

I haven't had a chance to learn the name of this one yet, but my books came - so hopefully I can soon. I'm glad I went, it really has been raing ever since and it looks like it'll keep up the wet weather for a while. We got 31 mm of rain yestersday and another 12 + mm the day before and more that fell last night after midnight.... I think that puts us at around 80 mm for August. (If we got 10 mm last night)

Subtle Beauty

Well, I guess I'm making up for that gap in my blogging as I slowly sift through my pictures. I haven't had much luck posting them elsewhere - so I guess whipping them up on my blog is as good as anywhere. The only weird thing about today is that I saw almost no animals, save a few birds and on fast moving small mammal from a distance. Maybe next weekend I'll find something big.

Feather in the Field

Stray feather whispers
Warnings of frost on grass blades
Fluttering, tangled

Suddenly swept loose
On summer's last breath of wind
Like a lost snowflake


I noted that the next 5 days are forecast as cold and rainy - so I made myself take an hour or so to play outside. We actually have snow forecast for Thursday.

I saw the northern lights a second time this week and I did try to photograph them, but to no avail. The next days currently scheduled (you can read that as forecast by University of Alaska aurora site) are Sept. 6th and Sept. 14th. In other sky news - there was a small, short lived sunspot (after a month of spotlessness) and there is also a possibility that it is a cycle 24 spot.

The Snow Fence

This is a shot of the snow fence - it is actually tall enough that I can nearly walk under it without ducking and I believe it is about 30 ft high. In the winter, the snow is said to pile up over the top of it (previous to its construction it could have done the same to our building leaving us to literally have to tunnel out the front door after a blizzard - truth or northern legend I suppose I'll never know - unless I see pictures.) Right now it marks the northwestern boundry of town - beyond which is 1000's of km2 of tundra, lakes, rivers and wilderness. I can close my eyes and picture Benton Fraser carrying a crook fireman style - marching across the snow....

I haven't really followed the news since I left the busy part of the world where the newspaper was always on the kitchen table. I've missed all but snippets of the Olympics (having been at camp almost every other summer during the Olympics this is hardly a new experience - but I'm a bit sorry to have missed seeing the opening and closing ceremonies - the Chinese really have a knack for pomp and celebration.) I have also apparently missed the Russia-Georgia conflict, the usual depressing list of murders and MVA's in the GTA and more jockeying towards a federal election. How do I feel? Shockingly calm and a bit relieved not to start each day reading depressing news about the economy and gang violence. I liked to be informed, but maybe scaling it back to the odd peak once a week will do my mind a bit of good. However, I did find my horoscope frighteningly in line with my life again...

A real chance to prosper lies before you. Much effort over time will be required, but it offers the potential for creative fulfilment and satisfaction, as well as some financial enrichment.

The part that touches home though is that it is indeed a beginning for me - with lots of opportunity to be sucessful and most certainly I am in a field that should be creatively fulfilling and satisfying. At the Grad dinner last night, they did toasts and I was actually surprised that they included so many directed at the teachers. Even though I had never taught any of the students graduating it gave me hope. I'm a hard worker and I'm here because I care about kids, not because I'm looking for a pat on the back. But, it is nice to know that community supports its educators and it is a nice way to start the the year - seeing the student's who have worked so hard cross the finish line and celebrate - it makes the purpose of the teachers a bit more concrete - take them from where they are and give them a hand to get to that very same finish line. Definately a goal worth putting in "much effort over time".

Siksik

I've been remiss in introducing my southern readers to this charming critter - the siksik. Unlike red and grey squirrels, they have a charming and friendly disposition and generally ignore me and carry on with frantic eating at the summer draws to a close up here.

Weasel - pre-launch phase

Okay... it was another picture of my charming ermine friend or more fireweed. I figure I should keep myself to one of each per day. I so need to go for a hike tomorrow morning if it isn't raining.

Mouth to Mouth Regurgitation

Well... yeah for zoom lenses - here is a touching mother-daughter moment for the local bird population.

I miss my garden but...

This is more or less what my backyard looks like - green, brushy and trundraful! Apparently, come the winter, there will be tonnes of wildlife wandering through here - caribou in particular. I've also heard rumours that there are muskox about nearby. I don't think I've ever seen one, save maybe at the zoo.

Waiting by the docks

Here is one of the most important parts of town - at least at sporadic points of time. I'm quickly learning my first lesson about living in the north... be patient - it will arrive when it gets here and no worrying will hurry it along. This is the barge docks. Earlier this summer I was worried that our barge order would get to town before we did....now I'm worrying that it may not make it to town before the shipping season is over.... It is supposed to get in sometime in early September. The best I could pick out from local gossip is that that there was some mechanical problems with the boat my stuff should be on - what I don't know is if they fixed the boat or just loaded it up onto a later one. Who knows? The rest of my stuff seems to have entered some kind of black hole in Manitoba along with most everyone else's belongings. We were of coursed warned that this was likely, but its hard not anticipating the arrival my large pot and some plastic containers as I'd really like to make some stew and I'm not sure how I'll freeze it give that we have 3 rubbermaid containers for the 3 of us... I'm sure I'll figure something out. I do have some ziplock bags. Still, I think this is a good lesson in patience - its going to be really fun by the time any of it arrives here - because I won't remember at all what I'm getting.

The Colour Purple

Well, it seems that this year is going to be a year of purple.... My coat is actually a pretty close match to the fireweed above - and my classroom is purple and my water bottle (well, one of them anyways) is purple... I've always liked the colour purple... maybe it goes back to the days of Yamma Aight (can I nominate Fireweed as our second favourite flower?) It matches the colour scheme and the triangle theme. Anywho.... Tomorrow I'm going to work like a whirling dervish so that I might take a few evenings next week to get out and photograph the fireweed before the first frost.

I see a bad moon arising...

Actually, its yet anouther really cool moon just above the horizon. The evenings here are beautiful, but its definitely starting to be chilly in the evenings - enough to warrent hats and mitts.

I really should get outside more - but there is, as always, too much to do inside. I think though - that in a week or two I'll have my head around everything and hopefully that'll make time for me to do more outside stuff. Assuming I don't get roped in to girl guides....

Anywho... one step at a time and tonight is graduation for last years kids. The whole event has totally left me amazed.

Are these bearberries?

I'm still working on my identification skills for northern plants, but I think this is what these are. I got some more books from chapters though. My first taste of the randomness of northern mail as they've beaten a number of items I've been expecting for a while in spite of being ordered only a few days ago.... craziness.

Blueberries

I test tasted them too.... they are small but delicious!

Tonight is graduation here for the students who completed school last year. We are lucky to have a pretty big class for the north and there is a tonne of events going on in town as a result. From the sounds of it, they are a pretty neat group of kids and well deserving of the attention. My hats off to them.

Lying Low

The tundra is amazing. I'm sure as fall approaches and it gains more reds and yellows it'll be even more beautiful. Most plants are tiny versions of ones I know or just plants that are tiny to begin with. I think this is a heather, but I'm not sure.

The Far Side of Town

I guess you can't beat whatever light I was working with that morning. Its really this beautiful when the sun is shining and even sometimes when it is overcast. I really need to get more hiking in before it gets much colder.

Overshoot

I guess someone didn't stop in time, or more likely the plough took out this sign. I was a little disappointed that almost all the stopsigns look like this although there is a bilingual one down by the school.

Helicopter in Bubble Wrap

This is really a helicopter wrapped in bubble wrap - talk about brand new!

Crowberry

There are lots of berries out behind our place. I believe these are crowberries, but we have also seen blueberries and bearberries.

Along the lakeshore, looking towards the oean

Well, we are some ways for the ocean here, but the lake is pretty impressively large. There is a landford accross from town that looks a lot like the sleeping giant.

Fireweed View of the Lake

The past week it has been everything thing from dead calm to windy enough to make the house shake. The other day I could all but lean into the wind without falling over. We've had a mix of sun and rain and cloudiness too. I'm learning quickly that in the north - things are what they are and happen when they do, but people have been fantastic about making me feel welcome. And as you can see - the view is not too shabby. Its actually quite a bit hillier than I expected. The western sky seems to stay a little light all night long, but I'm sure that won't stay that way for long.

Land almost ho

Here is a shot of the watery coast from the plane

Faster than a speeding weasel

I haven't had a chance to officially identify this little guy, but I did manage to take a picture of him in one of the rare moments that he was not in motion. I've also had the pleasure of meeting quite a few siksik, although they've been hiding since the temperatures dropped the last week. However, I can't complain because I could be having an early preview of a blizzard had I been in Arctic Bay... How many cm did you actually end up with, Kennie?

Given that the sun is still spotless, the solar wind is pretty slow and the kp is nothing to write home about - its pretty cool that I managed to see what I'd call okay northern lights. Not good enough to wake people up for, but worth taking the time to enjoy. I can't even imagine what they'd look like with a kp of 5..... bring on the sunspots!

This is me on the Tundra!

Proof that I've made it. I wasn't going to post tonight - the first I've had access to the internet - but I saw the northern lights on the way home and they kindled my blogging spirit.

Due North

I read over the entry that I’d been working on sporadically since I’ve left and decided that it needed to much work to post as a blog – so here is a paraphrased version of the highlights.

To start off with Geoff wins mega-amazing best brother points for being a superhero - including getting up early, being patient and sending me of on my journey with a very delicious piece of cake – the likes of which I won’t see for a while. Everything went smoothly en-route and the numerous ups and downs didn’t bother my ears nearly as much as I expected. I had a couple of those gasping moments when I suddenly I realized I’d forgotten something – but for the most part I didn’t let it get to me. I did fail to unplug and pack my alarm clock, but in the end that worked out for the best as it gave me a reason to tackle the bus system in Winnipeg and find a replacement – which I like better than the one I left behind. The overhead baggage compartments on the smaller planes really are small though. After a night of packing and unpacking and hopping on and off the bathroom scale, I ended up about about 8 lbs over and Calm Air does seem to include your carry-on in their total – so, actually it was 28 lbs meaning that I just managed to squeeze under the limit.

The weather once we got north of Winnipeg was amazing and I could see the ground the entire way prompting me to take tonnes of relatively awful pictures from the plane window. The coast is really wet – even the land part seems more than half water. We actually were ahead of schedule and kept our stops en route fairly short. It was 29 C in Churchill – hotter than I’ve really seen it at home even lately and fairly warm when we got here. The first night we mostly got settled and chatted and tried to figure out if we had enough kitchen stuff to limp along until our stuff gets here – I think we’ll manage give or take a can opener –depending if I packed one in the bags I haven’t gotten yet. I tried writing a bit the first night, but mostly I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

The next day we all woke up early. I spent a good chunk of the morning walking around town and taking a bunch of photos (probably most of the ones included in this blog). I’m absolutely in love with the fireweed here. In general – everything is amazingly beautiful. I spent the rest of the day in my classroom hunting down curriculum documents and textbooks for my class and doing all that thinking stuff, list making and planning. Apparently, my roommates and I have brought the rainy season here from Ontario – as the sky opened up shortly after lunch and it poured for nearly 3 hours (only 8.4 in the end). Today I finally braved the store to get food (i.e. I ran out of the meagre bits I’d packed in my bag and was craving something healthy enough to make shopping a priority. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the prices were not that different from Kashechewan and that the store actually had a surprising amount of selection. I enjoyed my omelette for brunch too. Much better than what I’d been eating. I gather that the barge will arrive when it gets here – no sooner and no later and hopefully before the lake freezes. Hopefully, we’ll get organized to figure out the food mail thing soon – but in the meantime eating is good. Speaking of which – I think I should go organize myself some dinner.

So I haven't quite got the knack of transferring my photos over to this computer - so you only get one for now. Soon though - and I really will have to take my camera with me more - although the next few days are going to be super busy. Thanks for everyones best wishes - its good to know that I have such good friends believing in me... I promise - lots of stories and picutures at Christmas.

Due North