Flowers in an Alpine Meadow, Pretty Close to Heave if you Ask Me

Taken in Late July or Early August - this display of wildflowers blew us away. Hiking from Healy Creek to Sunshine

Things I Miss About Summer

This is my bike. This bike has been on trips greater than 30 km in a dy and to the pool and just in general when I wanted to get around. Its shiny and its blue and the breaks and gears work and I bought a kick stand for it anyways, even though apparently the bike shop thought that was a dumb idea for a mountain bike. Right now, its about -54 C with the wind chill, and it woud be too cold to even think about going for a bike ride. Additionally, several months worth of snow don't leave the best riding conditions. But one day, it will be summer, and I will be able to play outside without a belaclava and my hood up. I'll be able to wear sandals instead of insulated rubber boots and plant impatients in my mothers garden. I'll be able to take pictures of flowers in alpine meadows and splash in the puddles made of by rain. I'll play disc golf and hike in the woods (sometimes in my sandals) and watch thunder storms. I'll eat food that was cooked on a barbaque and go to a farmers market. I will hopefully go camping and maybe even backpacking. I'll have to wear shorts and t-shirts and sunscreen and I'll complain about how hot and humid it is. I'll somehow track down a copy of the Command Sisters CD.

I love winter and I love the different sounds snow makes depending on how cold it is. I love the peacefulness of a winter night on the tundra and the friendliness of people in a smal town. I love my parka, but looking at the weather today, I don't want to get bundled up and go outside... I would rather dream of summer in our cozy little apartment and look wistfully at the picture of my bike and look forward to riding it again.

Balmy Days in Iqaluit at the Teacher's Conference

After a few tense hours when the weather looked to interfere, we did make it to Iqaluit for the conference. It was exciting and great to change locations for a few days, although as always, I'm glad to return to my home community and not tempted to move to the capital. Its just that one of the things I love about Baker Lake is just how friendly people are. I've been here long enough that I recognize most folk and know many quite well, and most people say hi regardless. Its the kind of place where if you wave to someone, even someone you don't know well, they'll wave back. Not so much in the capital - perhaps it was in part because an entire herd of strange teachers had inudated the town and that there are almost always numerous people there only on business. I did run into a guy who went to Lakehead at the same time S. and I did. He even knew a number of mutual friends... so go figure, small world. I did not however, get a chance to meet my relatives (by marridge at any rate) while I was there. The blizzard on Monday caused us to miss out Tuesday sessions - which was a shame because some of my coolest sessions were on Tuesday, although I got a chance to have sessions with one of the groups later in the week due to another session being cancelled.

The sessions were great. I learned lots of new science ideas and how to sew an Ookpik out of seal skin. Being in Iqaluit was great, especially with an unusually warm swatch of weather that lasted the entire week. I know some of my southern readers will laugh when I say that -14 C with light breeze is warm - but it is... I'll be lucky to see more than the odd day of weather that warm between now and the beginning of May. Gee, its been known to be -30 C the first week of May even. So, I took advantage of it and did a lot of walking. The picture above was taken with my hood down (see really warm) out in Apex where I was staying facing accross the bay. The main part of town is tucked in behind the hills, and just out of the picture on the right side. Unfortunately, I am having problems with my pedometer, the battery seems to be running out of juice quicker than it used to and even though I made my 10000 steps a day up until Friday, I failed to make it Saturday, Sunday and Monday. So, hopefully today, I'll be back to going the distance.

Hopefully, I'll be back to blogging regularly. I've just been lazy about taking pictures this year. I don't tend to go anywhere knew or interesting when its really cold and even I have my limits on the number of sunset and sunrise pictures taken from in front of my building. No promises, but hopefully, a little better than once every 5 months.