Drifting Into the Future

The wind is a powerful force in shaping the winter landscape of the arctic. It can be savage and howling one day to be gentle the next. It carves drifts with intricate patterns and ridges and gravity defying overhangs. I've been learning a lot about weather the last few weeks. The impact of topography on weather is baffling and here is the exciting fact of the day.... Baker Lake owing to its location and topography holds the record for Blizzard days in the North. An amazing 20.1 days per year where blizzard conditions are occurring. Now I have long lost track of the number of blizzard days this year.. but I'm tempted to suggest that Arviat and Rankin may be out blizzarding us this year and we have a lot less snow than Repulse Bay.

The last 3 weeks of my life have been both busy and rewarding. I'm one of those people who actually sometimes does better when I'm busy, but only for a period of time. I'm glad to finally have had a done day. I finally unpacked from my trip last weekend this morning and I've had a very low key relaxing day where the most exciting thing I've done is make 13 meals of soup (cabbage/broccoli/tomato is the flavour of the week). I'm heading to the Northern and then work for probably the rest of the evening in hopes of freeing up some time tomorrow to enjoy the beautiful weather... although I plan on taking a fairly long route to work... get in some exercise and enjoy the sunshine. But I thought I'd better post here quickly, before my readers started to wonder if I had abandoned this blog entirely. I haven't even been on other people's blogs, not even my brothers. I'm embarrassed to say that the last time I was there was Jan 20 or so..... and that there are a tonne of adorable pictures that have cropped up since there of my adorable and growing nephews. I'm looking forward to spending some time with them this summer....

We are 3/4 through our year and I'm surprised how quickly time has gone. My plans are a little bit up in the air for the summer, but they were never the type of plans that require a lot of preplanning. I want to do some camping. I'd really like to make it out west to see my brother's family in Alberta and the rockies and visit the many folk I know in AB and BC and then it would be nice to make it to New Brunswick and Thunder Bay and Ottawa. I don't know how much time I'm going to have and my garden will need a few weeks of work and there are a few spots in my backyard I am overdue for visiting. I haven't camped in Algqonquin in a couple of summers and I'd really like to do a backpacking trip... but I also want to spend some time here when I'm not working to enjoy this part of the world..... ah well... one day at a time and I guess I'll just keep dreaming about all the things I could do if there were more hours in the day and days in the year.