Walk Above 0 C

A sunny night, the snow rapidly disappating like dreams of howling blizzard winds and starlight, it was impossible to say no to a walk - espeically in light of of finding affordable and non-mouldy strawberries and grapes at the store. (Whoo-hoo)(okay they aren't really related save that they are both wonderful) I can't say I like my new boots (Women's Baffin Brand Insulated rubber boots) They are light, but I feel everything I walk on and I don't think my my feet are landing properly.... still I hate wet cold feet. I think I'll go back to heavier boots next time.

Its been a few days of random equipment failure (my watch band went 2 weeks ahead of schedule this year and this morning my speakers refused to work so I'm forced to listen to the tinny sound of laptop speakers. I don't know how I'm going to manage to get up replacements. Its not a big set of speakers, just computer speakers, but the airlines are getting tighter on how much weight-luggage you can have and they aren't easy to transport. Maybe it'll resolve itself... it must be a fuse or something... since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them. Sigh.

As for yesterdays walk, I almost didn't pull the camera out as I was just enjoying the brisk walk and the sunshine, until we thought we spotted an unusual owl... although upon closer inspection we discovered that it was a common Plasticus Fromcanadiantireus, likely placed on the fuel tanks to dicourage the perching and associating excretions of other birds. After that walking sunward, back into the town we were dazzled with the contrast of melting snow, blue skies and brightly coloured houses. I'm hoping to make this walking thing a regular practice - I'm feeling the effects of a winter of being largely housebound and stretching my legs, having a different view and getting fresh air are all good for my head. Yeah for spring!!!

Its the last day of classes and May.... I don't know where the year has gone

A Lone Herd of Houses in the Great Snowy North

Here is our little stretch of hamlet clinging to the shores of the lake hidden beneath the snow. Of course, if you want tropical weather, my appartment is still in the mid-twenties.... (not my fault or my desire) The system designed to keep our pipes from freezing is still on full blast and meanwhile the outside temperatures have improved significantly. (There is still a promise of cracking plus 1 today on the table.... and in fact its only -1 C now... so here's hoping.)

Aha... after many distractions.. the temperature has reached 0.1 C now and the sun is valiently trying to poke out of the clouds. Cross your fingers that I get a chance to get some more pictures today.

Obviously, I don't have much to report save that I am in a cheerful mood and I hope the sun comes out just a bit more.

Rock Face

This happy little lichen-face was discovered while picnicking near the beacon (aka Mexican Hat). You have to appreciate nature's sense of art. It is Friday and the coffee make just finished its important gurgling task of brewing hot and wonderful coffee. One of my biggest supply issues for next year (in the absense of food mail) is to figure out how to get a year's supply of Kicking Horse coffee up here... we are on the last of it.

In other exciting news... We made it as high as 0.3 C (plus) yesterday. There is hope of warmer weather, but now it has been really cloudy the last few days, and I'm hopin for a couple of sunny, not to windy, warmish afternoons so I can go out and take more pictures. Even with cooler than 0 C temps and a lot of cloud the snow has continued to take a beating, and is slowly shrinking back.

Its now Saturday morning... The Stanley Cup will take place between the Vancouver Cannucks and the Boston Bruins. I was really really cheering for Tampa Bay - aside from having once been there and charmed by there city. There is something inherently likable about them as a team. Boston, on the other hand, has been involved in a few too many out of hand games over the season. Obviously, I want the Vancouver Cannucks to win. GO CANNUCKS!! Bring the cup home!!!

Its an overcast day and so I'm trying to get as much work done as I can while my motivation holds out.... maybe I'll get enough done so I can find time to play in the sunshine tomorrow... here's hoping.

Emerging Land

So I kind of lied, well, was wrong anyways. We have very briefly cracked 0 C (reaching an oh so balmy 0.1 C on May 15th). Still, I woke again to see that plus temperatures predicted for today and tomorrow yesterday afternoon had been replaced with minus ones, which makes me wonder how it is possible that the weather has teased us so consistantly with warm temperatures, only to have them replaced with negative ones. Meanwhile, temperatures in Yellowknife are plenty nice and its nearly as far north and only about 1000 km west of here. Still, slowly, with long days of sunlight and often a decent bit of wind, patches of the land are slowly emerging from their snow covered state (although, Iqaluit was visible on North Beat last night, and they seemed to have very little left in town at all.) Spring is coming, eventually.....

In the meantime, things are busy, but hopefully we'll get a few more walks in this week in spite of the weather and the nasturiums are loving the 24 hours of daylight/brighter than civil twillight we are getting... which does give new meaning to Paul Simon's words.... "Hello Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again"...

Anywho..... off to the races...

Note to the Weatherfolk

-10 C with 22 kph winds (gusts to 33 kph) resulting in wind chill values of - 18 C on May 24th, 2011 is warped, even in the arctic. Can't you see that the normals are highs of +2 C and lows of -5 C....?

Brrrrr.... no more promising nice weather and then changing it last minute....!

Note: Please note the pretty new shiny Co-op building that has been added to the Baker Lake skyline. Also visible are parts of Jonah Amitnaaq School, The 12-plex, The Power Corp. Building (the library building and Arctic College), a variety of houses, the Iglu Hotel, the old Co-op and a church.

Purple Poo

This brightly colour scat discovered on a rock in the tundra by my neighbour raises more questions than it answered - best guess - someone really likes there berries or alternatively, there is some kind of purple fungus that grows on droppings.

Otherwise, I have little to report save that I do have a nice stock of photos, hopefully aiding me to post more frequently, assuming that the rapidly approaching end of the year doesn't prevent me from finding time. Saturday, we hiked up to the beacon for a picnic of sushi, apples and granola bars. The calm, sunny weather, -1 to -4 temperatures and uphill walk made hiking in a t-shirt comfortable. Sadly, we still have not cracked 0 C weather - maybe this coming week. There are lots of predictions, but the weatherfolk have mislead us to disappointment before..... so no breath holding here.

We were able to get in a few games of Dominion and Carcasonne this weekend, along with visiting with friends - so all in all a good weekend.

Here comes spring...

Unlike in the south, it is not the coming of Robins that heralds the spring, but the beautiful snow bunting. Those showed up a few weeks ago. Now we are in the phase I like to call... "Waiting for Zero". We were scheduled to have temperatures above 0 C today as late as 3 pm yesterday, but now the weatherfolk have dropped their expectations down to 0 C. Its currently -3, cloudy and with a 18 km wind, it feels like -9. Not quite as good as yesterday's -5, sunny and calm. Still, hopefully, the sun will come out at some point and we'll manage to get out for another walk.

We also saw a sandhill crane and a pair of siksik yesterday. Night is not entirely dark and the sun sets late (22:30) and rises early (4:10 am) and twillight of some sort lingers pretty continuously after that. Its darkish for a few hours between Midnight and 2, but after that its really light enough that the lights don't need to turn on. We were caught out staying up too late on Friday as a result, we were smarter yesterday. Today is going to be a busy day methinks... But I thought I should at least get a short post up, lest people think I've given up entirely on the blog.

VOTE

Today is election day. If you haven't done so yet, then I strongly encourage you to get off your behind and do so. Canadians have a chance today to send a message to Ottawa that we care about democracy and are willing to take a bit of time out of our lives to choose our MPs. This is not an unnessessary election. This is an election about the core values of Canadians.

The price of one fighter jet could build an awful lot of houses in Nunavut.

The price of housing someone in a jail could be better spent helping several people to turn away from crime and go on to be productive happy citizens who pay income tax.

Most importantly, what is the price to our country if our own leaders are so comfortable in power that they think they can tell lies, act like bullies, control what questions the media asks and break the rules that they wrote themselves?

What ever it is that drives you, or you care about you need to stand up and cast your vote. Regardless of the outcome of the vote - I'd be relieved to see that lots of Canadians came out to vote today to exercise their civic duty and voice their opinion.

Here Fishy Fishy

I had a wonderful time playing out on the land with my kids - exhibiting childlike wonder at seeing icefishing holes dug for the first time (by non traditional means). I felt amazement at the efficiency that our guides as they put-up and took down camp swiftly and without hardly uttering a word and did all the needed tasks and had some of the best caribou stew ever. The kids were awesome teaching me that I should point the fish north if I wanted to catch any more and that you had to make a sound that I don't remember well enough to translate into typed English letters to coax the fish closer. I even got to teach an impromptu lesson on cell metabolism entitled "why you need to eat if you want to stay warm". We were all in good spirits, in spite of the somewhat bitter cold - late April in general has been well below normal - hoping that this turns into a warm May. The ride up in the qammatiq was bumpy and I couldn't find a sitting position that was comfortable for both my hips and knees at the same time. My kids kindly insisted I ride the back of one of the skidoos on the way back, which was nice for actually seeing the world around me and considerably less uncomfortable. They were pretty great that way.

Its been a good week in general. As usual I'm left wishing there were more hours in the day, but I've been making a genuine effort to get adequate sleep this year even if it cuts into hobbies like painting, knitting or reading. (Yes Mom, I know you've been telling me this was important for years.)

The election is looming, but I've already cast my vote and really nothing in the campaign was likely to change my choices, but the end result is still fairly up in the air, and all I can do is hope for the best or at least the least of possible evils or the slightly less bad scenario - ooooh... optimism there, eh? But since it is quite out of my hands at this point I may as well wait, knowing that just as some people scheduled watching the Royal wedding at some ridiculous hour, I will be watching the Election Coverage Monday - this will be a nail biter, requiring hanging in until the polls in BC are counted. At which point, I may or may not opt to listen to the elected prime ministers speech.

And so here were are on Saturday morning... the weekend ahead of me and much to do... so off I go... and hopefully the weather will improve and I'll get back to going on regular walks. Until then... you'll be getting more pictures of knitting.

Sock it to them - Go Cannucks!

This is an ongoing UFO (unfinished object) - obviously this one is done, but its partner is only half done... sigh. One day soon, new socks for me.

The inspiration for this post is surprisingly an excellent newspaper article by Margret Atwood.*** I feel like I finally have a label for my political orientation - swing voter. I'll quote Ms. Atwood's definition, as she says it much better than me:

"Like many swing voters, I want to vote for values, not for labels. I don’t much care what parties call themselves or what they say they will do. I care about what they really have done, and the values they’ve demonstrated by their actions."

What parties are peddling, changes from election to election - and often enough what they peddle is somewhere between fantasy and shameless lies, but that is a story for another post. My preference is when possible to choose the best local candidate. I figure an election is a giant job interview for a large and varied in experience hiring panel. I want my parliament to be full of competent, caring, compassionate and passionate people. I want someone to represent me and my riding who will make me feel proud, not ashamed.**

The caveat is that we know that the party platform and their leader is a big part of what you are being sold. Often parties are selling a lot of the same options in the package. Sometimes the Liberals seem more like Conservatives and sometimes they seem more like the NDP. With party values shifting left and right over time, I am likely to shift my vote to the candidate/platform combination that I feel is in the best interests of my country or at least will do the most towards thwarting the least desirable outcome for my country. I think that makes me guilty of being both a swing voter and even worse a strategic swing voter - no brand loyalty - I'm going to need to be convinced each time and even then I might vote for my second choice if my first choice looks hopeless.* Regardless, I take voting very seriously and have missed voting only once since I turned 18.

If you haven't read Margret's article yet (to save your brain after my convoluted rambling), what she did is pair up vales she wanted vs. values she didn't. I think she hits a lot of nails on the head. ***** The truth is that I am proud of my country and the notion that Canada's are caring and responsible people and frankly, if my taxes are going to pay the salaries of 308 federal politicians, I'd like to get my money's worth out of all their talents and skills with all of them working together to make my country better. I also strongly dislike being lied to or being mislead. I expect politicians to have their ear to the ground, and be willing to change their policies when the hear Canadians disagree with it - even if it makes them look indecisive. I'd much rather a flip-flopping politician that listens to their electorate than one that will stubbornly push something through so they don't have to explain why they changed their minds. I want my leader's to have a positive vision for Canada and focus their time in parliament on achieving goals, winning future elections based on their strong leadership, rather than on how much money they raised to air attack ads and how much time they wasted in parliament trying to make the others look bad.

So, enough sermonizing, find the things that you want for Canada and vote for your vision or vote for an amazing local candidate that will bring skills and wisdom to our government. Mark May 2nd on your calendar and go and vote. There were ridings won and lost over as few as 17 votes last year - so your vote could count a lot.

***[I qualify this as surprising because I once went to the length of searching the university book store to figure out which Canadian Literature prof would not make me read Margret Atwood - which amusingly meant that I ended up with a white-haired, bushy eyebrowed professor using yellowed hand-written lecture notes from his Dalhousie days - which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the course because surprisingly I did (in spite of it being an English credit that I was forced to take because of my program). I might have to read something by Margret Atwood now - just to see what I missed. (suggestions welcome)]

** (I was in Wajid Khan's riding a few years ago - you can look his storied history on Wikipedia probably)

* {I tried out CBC's Voter Compass tool - which was kind of neat to see where my stance was relative to other parties. Some of the parties had stances on issues that surprised me too.}

***** and she probably hasn't been suffering through all the partisan fantasy ads being shown with hockey. I'm at the point that I have to mute the TV to repress the urge to throw something at it and I think one of the main reasons that I'm glad that this election is over soon is that I can go back to cheering for the Canadian teams without having the distraction of hockey complicated with reality. Go Cannucks!! Go Habs!!****

****[As I'm more optimistic about hockey than politics, next year I plan to be cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs all the way to the Stanley Cup finals]

Sunny Days....?

I'm writing my blog while looking at a very long to do list.... I'm also eating ice cream after working out. I'm contemplating going to the advance polls to vote - that that requires me to complete a few more steps like brush my hair (okay, likely I'll be wearing a toque and a hood, so its not worth the bother, but you don't want to get into bad grooming habits, right) and putting on socks - that is definitely a necessity. I have a lot to write about, and nothing at the same time. The looming election has mostly left me feeling depressed. You can read whatever you want about my politics into that.... I hope that people go out and vote, that they take their time to read up about the parties, that they take their responsibilities of living in a democratic country as seriously as they do their rights.

We are following the playoffs, another possibly depressing topic as Vancouver is pressed to Game 7 by Chicago, so that leaves me not wanting to talk about that either. Montreal is also in a do-or-die sitch too.

My to-do list is both depressing and uninteresting, but I feel great having had a few days to catch up on sleep and stuff.

And thus... enjoy the pretty picture, its still really cold here, too cold for me to enjoy being outside - although I should be outside with my class this week - weather permitting. The normals are up to a balmy -8 C to -17 C, but thus far we are still in the -22 C range and windy to boot. Brr..... soon hopefully - spring will get here.

Changing Light

Already, the days have gone from short to long, and while its been a very slight shade cooler than temperature normals, and a week of stiff wind last week left it feeling even colder, the point has been reached where the coldest, harshest part of winter is behind us. Already, I'm impatient for weather that is warm enough to leave my hood down and spend a few hours outside (We've had some - including yesterday), but I'm looking for that -5 C to -10 C, relatively calm stuff that I don't need long underwear for. Sadly, by the time we get there, I'll be hungering for the temperature to crack 0 C. I agree with Townie Bastard, its not the cold, but the duration of it, but it doesn't usually get to me until I know spring is around the corner especially when people back home are starting to get their gardens ready for planting. I'll be fine I'm sure, and I won't be headed for vacation any time soon, but I'm looking forward to a few days off at Easter. I've been flipping randomly through some water colour painting books, and I'm dying for a spell of time off long enough that I can actually crack out the paints.

The sad part about the lengthening days is that they shorten up the Northern Light viewing period. I'm hoping for one last chance to get photos this Wednesday.

Otherwise, its been a very comforting and pleasant weekend. We took some time to visit friends and play kickball (Soccer-baseball as I knew it growing up) and even got 2 games of Euchere in - I'm a bit rusty since my highschool era of near daily play and deadly sharp euchere playing, but I enjoyed it none the less. I got in a reasonable amount of exercise and cooked some healthy food, although the fridge is looking bare for a lack of foodmail. I ate half of the last grapefruit (which I can get at the Northern) and other than that the vegetable contents of my fridge include a red pepper, broccoli, a few strawberries and a bit of spinach (all from the northern), 1 yam and assorted canned and bottled things - and a tonne of carrots that need to be used up. On the up side, the new Co-op opens this Wednesday, meaning hopefully that we finally have two grocery stores that carry fullish grocery fare. I miss foodmail and I don't feel like the reduction in price has made up for what I was saving shopping south, let alone the loss of choices. Still, I'm going to go talk to the managers there and see if I can convince them to add a few fairly unexotic items to their list (namely Source Peach Yogurt and low fat cheddar - well, fat reduced)

Its hard to believe that we are now nearly 2/3rds through April and rapidly approaching May - the time of waiting for 0 C weather - and then June - the scramble for end of year stuff and then onto the summer.... This year has gone so fast its hard to believe.

On the other hand, I'm sending thoughts out in all directions to many folk who have had sad or worrisome news - its been a week of thing after thing - so I'm sending out my vibes and hoping that its of use.

And how did it get to be 1/3 through April

I don't know where time is going lately - the longer days are lending me a bit more energy (I got up at 7:10 on Sunday). We've been doing this "Happy Hips" yoga lately, and while the last work-out we did was a bit more challanging than our ability level, I can definitely say that I'm improving. But I swear it was March just a day or two ago....

Yesterday was supposed to include a nice long hike (maybe to Blueberry hill), but with the wind a blowing and about 4 cm of fresh snow in the last 2 days - you couldn't see your hand in front of your eyes. Its still 46 km/hr today and tomorrow sounds bitter with 30 km/hr winds and a high of -23 C and a low of -30 C. (Just my luck, I'm going to be outside all day).

I've managed a small amount of knitting, I've stalled at 3/4 of the way through a pair of socks, but I've finished 2 dishclothes. I've been hungrily eyeing a bunch of new patterns, but I don't really see much hope of them getting done in the future.

Funny, I haven't blogged in weeks, and still I don't have a lot to say. Its been a quiet while. We played European Ticket to Ride on Friday night with some neighbours. The names of the cities are in language of the city themselves leaving me wondering where some of them are, but it plays well still. I guess its off to getting a pile of new units off (aka work) the ground and yoga and eating as healthy as possible.

Have a good day!

Fine Again

 

 

The weather-folk are gracing us with a wonderful week of warm, calm weather for us to get outside and enjoy the sunshine without the burden of heavy parkas, scarfs and fogged glasses and most especially without the fear of frost bite. It won't last, not yet, already the 7 day forcast is promising seasonally bitter weather early next week, but its been nice to get out and get some wonderful pictures of the stunning sunset last night. After months of wind chills consistantly in the range of - 30 C or colder, - 7 C is a treat that I appreciate more than I would +10 C in other times and places of my life.

The other obvious difference is sunrise. Granted I slept in by my standards, but it was actually light out when I got up at 6 am. The sun might not have been above the horizon, but I could see where I was going. Again, after of months of coming and going from work in darkness, the longer days are cheering.

Coming out of a long trudge of a winter of semi-brain hibernation, I am concerned to note that we are heading into an election and worried a bit at my own relative apathy (generally I follow elections with some degree of ferocity), but this time I feel as though investing myself in this process will only set me up for disappointment. I'm sure I'll come around, I care too much about my country not to find hope enough to care - maybe a few more days of long sunlight.

In other news, today is the last day of foodmail - so its a good thing there is a bout of good weather to temper bitter sweet thoughts of never seeing foods like parsley, basil, peach yogurt, low fat chedder cheese, or crimini mushrooms again in my kitchen and paying dearly for grapefruit, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and squash.

But its life - it changes - sometimes in good ways, sometimes in poor ways and oftenest in ways that don't exclusively qualify as good or bad and on that note I should do something useful with my morning.

Working from a Different Perspective

Well, it would be wrong when it is so nice, not to take advantage of the day and go for a walk. (You know you've been living in the north too long when you think -18 C with no wind is warm, but hey, what can you do?) We did the sewage lagoon-graveyard loop. While this may not sound like a scenic tour, the graveyard has a spartan, solemn and thought provoking kind of aesthetic, although it is hard to visit without a touch of sadness. The sewage lagoon used to be the best place for seeing hare, caribou and siksik - although the latter is wisely still napping, and the first one can still be found there, it has been a while since I've seen a caribou.

Sunday, we didn't even see a Raven, although we did see some Arctic Fox tracks. But that's okay, the sunshine was enough to make the walk worthwhile and it was nice not to have to wear snow pants.

They moved the dish for Qiniq this weekend, and while I had received an email, I'd figured they were just warning about solar outages, so I'd ignored it - and then wished I hadn't once I'd heard the service was supposed to be out until Tuesday. Its amazing what not having internet will do - for me it meant actually doing a fair bit of work - and getting out for a walk and doing a bit of knitting and cooking.

I've finally got back into knitting after hardly doing anything this year - I still have a half finished pair of baby mitts and a lace scarf I started in the summer on the needles, but I went back to basics and knitted a very boring practical pair of socks. We'll 1.5 pairs of socks thus far. However, I'm about halfway through the heel flap and I anticipate having them finished by the end of next weekend.

Assuming that I don't spend too much time outside in this beautiful weather.... and if I do... we'll all the better. In the meantime, I've been eying some quick simple projects that require a bit more skill then my socks.

Mad Science

Well, perhaps more like mad about science! Its been a great 2 weeks of celebrating science and young, budding scientists with both our local and regional science fairs. (Its also my excuse for dropping off the face of the blogging world recently.) I even took a took of pictures, but all of them have people in them, so not much use blogwise.

Now that it is all over, I am excited that I'm caught up with things at work and I'm looking forward to the warmer weather, so I can hopefully get outside more - already the next week has a series of days with highs in the minus-teens, combine that with light winds or calm days and lots and lots of sunshine and its hard not to feel enthusiasm and optimism.

Hoepfully there will be more frequent blogs to follow... at the very least I'm knitting my first pair of socks in a long while and although they are pretty boring... they are prettty.

Science Faired - but still here

Its been a busy few weeks with Science Fair on top of the usual stuff. It was a good year with some amazingly well done projects and some great moments. A huge thank you to everyone involved, especially the students who did great projects, the teachers that helped them to get there and the staff and judges and local talent who made the evening wonderful.

I can stay long - just enough to admit that I'm watching the situation in Japan with a kind of horror and sadness - it scale of the disaster is mind boggling, but the Japanese have shown themselves to be survivors and I have faith in them to pull themselves out of this, but in the meantime its hard to think of all the individuals suffering even as the disaster continues with nuclear reactors threatening to melt down and continuing aftershocks threatening more distruction. My heart goes out to everyone there.

It seems to be a week for tough news. My thoughts also go out to all those who've had sad or worrisome news this week.

On a cheerier note, upon checking the weather normals - there is indeed hope for April being warmer - with only 4.5 days on average with minimum temperatures below -30 C and only 7.6 days on average with windchills less than -40 C. The daily average in Baker Lake for April is -17.4 C, with an average minimum of -22.1 C and maximum of -12.6 C. Those of you reading this in the south may whince on my behalf, but this time of year, one simply longs for it to be warm enough to walk outside without a hood up or a scarf on (so that your glasses don't fog up and your have a normal field of view. I should be able to switch over to my normal winter coat any time now.

So, as things are going, there is sadness and hope and I'm looking forward to the regional Science Fair.

Breaking News: George R.R. Martin has Release Date for "A Dance with Dragons"

Yes! It is true Geoff (I'm totally writing this post just for you).... the next book is nearly written enough that the publishers have declared a date.  George R.R. Martin even updated his Fire and Ice Update section!  (Those who have been here before will remember that he had a note saying he was sick of writing about how he didn't know when he'd be done and that he'd post only when he had something to update about) But it is not the last book in the series... so no promises that the series will ever get finished.

Having just read the Stieg Larsson books, you can't help but worry that a premature death my prevent Martin from finishing... lets hope not... as I really wish that the next book of that other series was published and not lost in the midst of legal battles.  Not to mention the 6 that apparently will never be written.

In other news, I am still around, but insanely busy for the next few weeks... likely to lay low generally with respect to posting. Its not really interesting busy, just plain old busy.

Its a whirlwind of a week ahead, going to keep kicking and hope my head stays above water.

Midnight Sonata

I apparently missed a surprise batch of Northern Light activity right after I went to bed last night. It seems to be a theme. Today, the issue is clouds, but there doesn't seem to be much coming up in terms of Northern Lights, although tonight it would be nice, since the temperatures have risen significantly.

Its a rare Sunday that I don't feel compelled to do a million things that I wish I'd finished on Saturday, but I was amazingly productive yesterday, and so I'm thinking I might get to take advantage of the calm winds and warm (-23 C) temperatures to go for a walk - eventually. In the mean time, I'm gathering some information and thinking about taking out my paints for a bit. I'm really looking forward to the weather becoming more tolerable. I don't mind cold, but there is a certain point where the cold seems unbearable and the threat of serious frost bite just too extreme to spend a long time outside. This week is the first time in a while that I've gone outside for the sake of going outside. On Wednesday, we did a stargazing night - thanks to one of our most energetic teachers - we got to see Jupiter and the moon. It was much more popular than we expected and hopefully we'll get a chance to do another one when it was a bit warmer. Then of course, was the 30 minutes or so when I walked out onto the lake to get some pictures of the Northern Lights - the moon is pretty fully, so I'm not sure the Lake was the darkest place, but it was nice to get out of town, even if it was only a few hundred feet out of town.

March continues to have generally bitter temperatures, but in April batches of pleasant winter temps start to become more frequent and May brings temps in the -10 to 0 C range - by June we start cracking the 0 C barrier - so hopefully, I'll be able to get out walking more and more in preparation for a summer of hiking. My goal this summer is to put a couple hundred km of distance on my legs - I know for sure that the Rockies are on my list. Not sure where else this summer, but beautiful hiking trails are not in short supply in this country. I'm also toying with the idea of maybe crossing the borders and maybe even an ocean to seek hikable parts of the great beyond. This is still in the works - so no idea exactly if, what or when. Look forward to excellent photos this summer though - since a definite criteria for any where I plan to go is an ample supply of beautiful landscape and opportunities for spending it outdoors. I must be sounding a touch house-bound. But after so many years running of spending my summers behind a desk, I'm looking forward to getting outdoors this summer and actually going camping... I spent only 3 nights in a tent - and those were more like stops on a long drive than actual camping - I'm not sure there was a campfire involved or much cooking. We reheated some left overs from a restaurant at one location. Not to say there weren't some decent day trips, but I really miss all those years when I lived outdoors for 2 months at Summer camp.

Finally a glimpse of the Northern Lights

So, finally the wind has died down in Baker and I was able to spend a bit of time outside when the Northern Lights were out. I think I missed the show the night before when I went to bed to early. If only they would turn up before bedtime, eh.

I think I set my ISO too low (200) - and so my exposures are too long and I've lost some of the details as I've used the computer to make up for it. I'll remember next time.

Anywho, today has been cleaning and organizing day... so I'd best get back to work at that... but I am alive and kicking and will hopefully have more posts as we move into longer days and warmer weather as slowly arctic spring takes hold.