First real snowflakes

There was some solid looking wet snow falling earlier this morning. I would have taken a picture, but my memory card and camera were not in the same location and it took me a bit to actually find the memory card.

Its been a good weekend. Nice to have some downtime, especially for my voice, although I'm still sicker than I'd like to be. I'm glad to be totally unpacked and enjoying having a desk and my own space. The loft bed worked out great despite what the naysayers though and I even managed to cram a bookshelf in here... It does look a bit like a dorm room though.

I have been trying to be good and stay in and give my body a chance to get better. Its hard, because I know that there isn't much fall left before its cold and my roomates are heading out and about. But if I'm not careful, then I'm going to go from being inconvienced by a cough to really feeling awful... and now I'm just trying to convince myself that I've made the right decision.

I guess I'd better get better soon, because I'm running low on photographs. In the meantime... lots to do... so off I go.

Rocks My World

Tundra on the rocks... and rocks on the tundra too. The spot we camped at had some of the coolest rocks ever. I also found some neat geological features on the flood plain. Some nice terrace beaches and eskers.

Mission Ikea has been completed and aside from some cuts and bruises, we are all set up. Much nicer room - although it looks more like a dorm room than an adult's bedroom or maybe more like an office with a sleep space. Anywho. It feels much homier and now back to finishing year plans.

Staring out the window

The following was written in a random moment of staring out the window.... on the back of a scrap of paper no less.

"I'm staring out the window of my classroom - The weather outside is yuck (read this as cold and drizzly). I sound like a rusty hinge and watever I have hasn't done much for my asthma either. Usually if I get sick it is the end of November... but I'm think that the weather is about the same right now.. so this could be my november cold. At any rate, everyone one else seems to have had this one, so perhaps its simply my turn. At any rate, I'm on the mend and trying to get enough liquids into me.

My stuff finally arrived although there were a few moments of drama when I called the one location to see if it was still waiting to go and they said it wasn't anywhere in their warehouse - so after a bit of panic we discovered that it was already here and so I'm still in the throes of unpacking. A piece was missing for my bed, so everything is in choas and room looks like Hurricane Ike has been through... but all my shirts are on hangers.

Back to the view from the window - aside from rain - there is a soaring seagull, a fluttering (Nunavut) flag, and a water truck ambling from house to house in the distance. Anyways.. back to writing tests and quizzes for me.

The rest of this is being written as I type... The stew is on the boil and nearly ready to eat.. or rather its ready to eat, but the stew in my bowl is still too hot to eat unless you are keen on having a burnt toung. I don't feel like I've made enough progress on the unpacking side of things. But I'm going to have to do something.. because right now there is a pile of junk on my bet. The current outdoor temperature is 0.5 C., the dogs are howling (or is it wolves) and a young picture of Mr. Jack Henry... whom I believe I owe a phone call this weekend (and to his lovely tupperware giving mother).... Sigh.. where do the hours go... there is so much to do and so little time.

But tonight I really need to get there soon.. in hopes of getting better because I'm sick of being sick and I'm sick, sick.. (not siksik)... so good night...

A Coat of Many Colours

I spent the entire time outside wishing I had my paints (not that my hands would have been able to withstand the cold - I really can't wait until some warmer mittens arrive). Every day the colours just screamed to be painted... so I've settled for taking pictures.

In good news, I hopefully can end my sky watch soon. I'm not getting too excited, becuase they only said they'd try to get it shipped in the next 3 days... which probably translates into another week, but at least it isn't in Winnepeg.

I also apparently missed some stunning northern lights... but then again we had near constant cloud cover over the last few days.

Rustic Accomondations

Here was my home away from home. Unfortunately... I seem to have come home with a rusty-hinge voice, but I'm hoping to overcome this soon.

Boneyard

I've expanded my wildlife viewings to include willow ptarmigan (living) and snow geese (in large flocks). We also were visited by numerous ermine and I intervened on behalf of a number of siksik. I stumbled across facinating bones and glacial features (and a few headwater streams). I tried a type of mushroom and several types of berries.

Inukshuk

The theme of our camp was rocks and minerals... and here is one of the traditional uses of rocks set against the confused sky.

Tundra Skycapes

I've had my first chance to get out and camp on the land - and really.. the picture says it all.... I couldn't stop taking pictures of the views. The weather couldn't decide between sun, rain, snow squalls or overcast which meant that the light and colours were constantly changing. As for the 4 cargo planes that landed this weekend, none of them contained any of my stuff. But, I"m past the impatient and hopeful stage - so I'm much less anxious. I guess it'll get there when it does and now that my camping trip is done, I won't need my parka for a while.

Sky Watching

Here airplane, airplane, airplane..... I know I'm suposed to be patient, but just about everyone else has gotten their personal belongings, but mine are still somewhere, out there.. beneath the pale moonlight.... Its an immature sentiment - but really... my stuff was in Winnepeg before some of the others even had their stuff packed up... why is it the last to come....

You might wonder which items in my belongings I'm wishing for the most.... well... amusingly name brand Q tips top the list - my roomate has been lending me some of hers, but it is one of the few items in the world that I figure it is worth the extra money for the real thing. So, while I'm incredibly thankful for her generousity, I'm looking forward to their arrival. Stickers... I'm back owing in stickers for my math students... I wish they'd get here before it becomes too big a job to catch up. Hangers... it would save on wrinkled shirts for sure. Moisturizer.... I guess it is the little things. As for the rest, I barely remember what is in there.

So, I'm watching the skies and praying they send up a frieghter in addition to the 3 regular incoming flights - and hoping that my stuff is in line.

Fungi on the Tundra

Well, I may be 2500 km from home, but I'm still taking pictures of fungi. At least it isn't at twilight with a flash. I have no idea what it is - but I think its one of the funkiest fungi I've ever photographed - :D The bearberry are all turning a fabulous shade of red. I know Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi - but up here they are either Arctostaphylos alpina or rubra. Their inuit names include kablarjuit and kablat.

Fog and Foliage

So.. my plan had been to hike out towards the airport and take some pictures of the inukshuk - but about halfway there I got rained out and decided to try again on a day where it wasn't raining. Still.. the colours were intense as the plants are starting to turn red, yellow and burgandy. Its chilly too. The sun actually has come out a bit now, but not enough to tempt me to try again yet.

Due South

Sign of winter, methinks.

I'm really trying to pick and choose

Okay. I'm off to get some more pictures - but here is one last shot of the sky last Sunday evening and excellent news a wash of solar wind is due to hit us from a large coronal hole sometime between the 3rd-6th of September... so look up and hopefully I can swing some decent northern lights pictures.

Dramatic Skies

The sky was pretty crazy with a diagonal slash of pink againsts a gold background.

Crazy Skies

For some reason the colour of the sky this night reminded me of my little pony's. I think I had one that was steel grey and pink.

Gothic Skies

Very cool time of day to be here. I'm not exactly sure where the sun sets here... it almost seems te rise and set in the same spot right now. I guess I'll learn as we go along.

Pea Family Leaves

Without more information, I can't identify this to the species... But I'm guessing that its milk vetch or licorish root - definately a pea family plant - but there were no flowers and I didn't have a field guide when I was there.

On the shores of Baker Lake

I'm just outside of town, in a boggy, hummocky bit looking towards the lake - I'm sure that right now, after all that rain - this area is probably significantly wetter. There it is.. a thin layer of human habitation clinging to the shore surrounded by miles of wilds.

Fade to Purple

I'm still excited that my jacket matches the local flora :D

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Well, I'm having my first water crisis. I guess we are lucky to know that we are low, so we are at the drinking only stage of no water. Rumour is that one of the local trucks is on the fritz - but all I know is that our light is out and our pressure is low. Actually, I should pop out and see if its back on...

This lovely image is just outside of town, if I turned my body about 45 degrees - you'd be seeing houses.

Sunset beyond the ridge

We don't have the topography that those of you living in the Baffin have - but we do have a number of the coastal communities beat around here - we at least have hills and some very decent sunsets.

Cotton in the Wind

Some of my homework this weekend is cramming as much knowledge into my head about the ecology and geology of the region for next week. Hopefully, the weather will give me a bit of a hand so that I might actually be able to get some time outside.

Sunset Beyond the hills

This was the best i could do at getting the sun to backlight the arctic cotton, although it was much more amazing in real life.

Clinging to the lea of the stone

I was amazed by the terrain. As I hiked up the hill from town it shifted from quite boggy to rocky to bare rock and back again as I approached the lake on the other side (the lake possibly being where we treat our sewage - this is yet to be ascertained though. We've had a cold wet week - totalling 46.4 mm of rain in the last 3 days. This has rendered the streets muddy and the sky a steely grey and whipped the lake into decen looking white caps. Its a long weekend, but sadly there isn't a whit of sun forecast (and we haven't seen any in some time). So no garuntee of more pictures. Maybe Tuesday - maybe the forecast will change. I still haven't seen the pictures of my garden back home. I'm hoping that the echinacaea are florishing and that the purple asters are making a decent counter point and that someone carefully waters my african violet very occasionally without getting water on the leaves. (:D)

Two weeks of school have whipped by so fast and I don't even know where they've gone. I feel like I've been here at least months even though there are still parts of town I've never seen. I think I've found one of the good places in the world.

Now I just have to wait for the falling temperature to turn everything red and go to town with the pictures. Its amazing how much more intense the colours are after the rain has washed all the dust from the plants and how much cooler the tempertures have gotten. Between the clouds and the the 2 weeks, I feel that I can see a noticable difference in the number of hours of sunlight we are getting as we head towards the winter solstice - but I haven't seen the northern lights in a bit and again the sun is playing possum - hopefully it'll start producing sunspots like it was saving them for a dramatic enterance.

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)