Northern Lights hidden by clouds and lousy weather

Here are the current space weather conditions in Canada and unfortunately the weather is not cooperating.  There are, however, some lovely photographs of the northern lights on the The Canadian Nature Photographers website and also at Spaceweather.com.

You can check the current spaceweather at www.spaceweather.ca

Snow Bush

Well, it is currently raining, but hopefully the rain won't last and won't make an icy base under the snow, since that isn't so good for anything that lives in a Subnivian environment or the caribou who with will have to dig through a layer of ice to get food.

My other major disappointment is that currently there is a geomagnetic storm raging and sadly it is not only daylight, but looking like there is no end of clouds in the near future. So, I'll have to wait a little longer for good northern light pictures.

In other excitement, I have a container of salad and some of the best pesto pasta I've ever made in the fridge. Okay, its a slow day.

Baker Lake's Iglu

Easily one of the most iconic buildings in Baker Lake is the large double-qansit hut that houses the main building for one of our 3 hotels. The restaurant inside is done in warm shades of wood and is a pleasant place to get lunch and I've heard incredible things about their fancier dishes, although I've yet to get a chance to try them out. Here are a few pictures for those of you who haven't been to Baker Lake - freshly covered in snow.

A Shot for my Friend in Tuk

Here is our Northern Store, dusted in fresh snow with a nice few trucks parked outside and the sun trying to shine through the clouds.....

Wavy Waters

Here is a shot of the waves crashing against the shores... winds south southeastish.

Tug in the Snow

There is a tug and a barge in the "harbour" battling the waves and hiding in the snow.

Hovering around the melting point

I wish I had a better shot of blueberry hill with its dusting of snow. The temperature has been close enough to zero that the snow has melted at lower elevations, but stayed on the top of the hill. I should have run out yesterday when the sun was shining to get a better shot because now everythingn is covered in snow. I'll try and post some new pictures tomorrow.

Watercolour Clouds

It was one of those days when the clouds were just calling out to be painted using watercolours. As I walked by this beach only 3 days after this picture was taken the lake was an intense steal grey and the sand covered in about 2-4 cm of snow. The wind was blowing fiercely and the waves were crashing on the beach (i.e. its a mostly east wind) and the air was filled with snowflakes. Winter is here now!

Landing on your feet

I'm fascinated by watching birds. Their grace and strength is always impressive and their shapes facinating if you can catch them at just the right moment. Here are more pictures of snow geese in Rankin Inlet.

There may be a blizzard currently raging in Coral harbour, but the snowfall warning that we received mostly fell as rain and what did fall as snow melted into a big puddle of muddy red slush yesterday. There have been some stunning sunsets and sunrises, in spite of the still fairly consistent cloud cover. I, sadly, was not with camera when they happened. Yesterday, the snow dusted blueberry hill was sparkling below a string of silver lined clouds. Today, the east has a faint pink glow under the clouds.  It sounds like a real doosey of a storm has hit Cape Dorset - with sustained winds of 80 km/hr according to Environment Canada. 

I hope that I can steal some time this weekend to go out with my camera - and maybe pick a bag full of cranberries. In the mean time, I think I have enough photos from Rankin still to finish out the week.

And its going to be the opening night of the 2010-2011 NHL hockey season.... YEAH! I, of course, am cheering for the Leafs - and naturally believe that they are going to win the Stanley cup. Being a Leafs fan has a lot to do with faith, hope and tenaciousness - because one day, one year, we'll be right. The nice thing, after 5 years in New Brunswick (notably where I really started to watch hockey - especially watching the Canadian Men's and Women's Olympic hockey teams win big - (they were making too much noise in the TV lounge below my room for me to work those nights anyways)) is that there are actually other Leafs fans here - and if there were in New Brunswick, they were few, far between and generally laying low because the Montreal fans (and some other groups) really really didn't have much nice to say about my team. My attachment is largely geographic and familial - my grandpa cheers for the Leafs (given that he is old enough to remember the time when they won the Stanley cup in 1967) and I grew up in the sub-burbs of Toronto and while I don't think I'd want to live in Toronto, I don't mind visiting occasionally and I have no problem cheering for their sports teams. So... Go Leafs Go! Surprise all the unfaithful with a glorious run for the cup!

Here is hoping we all land on our feet, even when taking a big leap of faith!

First Snow

Here is the barge in our first snow storm of the year.

8 Snowflake Snowfall Warning

The current call by the Weather Office is for 10-15 cm of heavy snow tonight! I don't think I've seen that much snow fall all at once in Baker Lake yet, and it hasn't happened, but I"ll try and grab some shots. The downside is that I've probably missed my window of opportunity for Cranberry picking. Ah well... here is the link to the weather warning: http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?nu2#nu2-598cwwg-097510

In other news, October is here and happening fast - before I know it, it'll be Halloween and then gosh, after that it'll be November. I don't know where time is flying these days. At least the barge seems to have beat the ice. Its offloading.

So, I'd better get back to being busy - so I can snatch a few moments to get pictures of this years first snow. I hope it earns its 8 snowflakes!

A Day that Pigs would Die

81 Pigs die in MVA on the way to the Abbatoir

I'm not sure how to feel about this article. It seems a weird angle to focus on. Its not like every pig on that truck was on a joy ride; the truck was heading to the slaughter house. They were going to die shortly, albeit hopefully in a much more painless and humane way. Even if the article had focused on the trauma (psychological and physical) that it had on them or what would happen to the euthanized pigs. Would they still get to be bacon, or was it the glue factory for them? I was shocked that there was no mention of likely traffic nightmare this caused in Toronto with the link between the Gardener and HWY 427 closed for 11 hours - it must have been ugly. No cute stories about the mischief of loose pigs on the highway or speculation about how the pigs felt about the ordeal. I'm not saying it isn't news, it just seems that the journalist seemed mostly concerned about the number of pigs that had to be euthanized and oblivious to any other aspects of the story save that the driver was going to be charged. Will the pigs that survived be rescued from the slaughterhouse fate awaiting them?

As for local news, we had wind, clouds and rain and we are slated to get snow tonight. However, the long awaited (since the end of July/beginning of August) barge has finally arrived bringing food, vehicles, and sundry other items. I'm sure for those who've been waiting, it'll be a bit like Christmas. Hopefully, everything has arrived in one piece and largely unfrozen.

Crossings

I'm sipping my Kootney Crossing Coffee, contemplating my marking and reading about new forscenic information supporting the idea that Tom Thomson remained buried at Canoe Lake. Strangely, it has become October and the temperatures are set to become chilly and we are supposed to have wind 60 km/h gusting to 80 km/h this evening. Its the crossing of seasons, the crossing of thresholds between temperature and light patterns and the crossing of my eyes as I try to decide between eating left over roast and squash for breakfast or a bowl of cereal.

Its a new flavour of coffee for me, and it smells incredible. It tastes good, but it has a definite flavour that feels almost too much like dessert for regular breakfast coffee. I'll have to consider. I'm also at the point when I'm running out of my stash of photos - its been so cloudy lately and I've been pretty busy too - I'm hoping to get a tonne of marking done so I can at least play outside for a little bit.

Predictions for -6 C

It could get pretty cold tonight. Which isn't good for our incoming barge - after that though, the weather looks to be well above seasonal temperatures for the next few days. It sounds like there is snow in Arctic Bay, NU and Kashechewan, ON.

Saturday is supposed to be nice, so maybe I'll get a chance to do some berry picking before we get snow on the ground.

In completely unrelated news, I don't know what is up with my internet, but its making me crazy.  I seem to need to reset it every 5 minutes, and I can't for the life of me figure out what is up.  I'm not even close to my limit yet.  I don't think it is my computer, as it worked just find on other folks internet last week - which leaves Qiniq in general or that I have some kind of faulty modem.  So, if pictures are missing from my blog, its because the internet kicked the bucket in the middle of my computer trying to post them.

Fire's Burning

No big dump fires here, although there is a town meeting about protecting our drinking water supply from contamination tonight. I recall reading some articles before I moved up here fingering the dump and an old power plant site as potential problems. I know that we've had upgrades to our dump since in the intervening time and that there is research going on with respect to the sewage lagoon and its efficacy. I'm very curious about what they have to say.

Autumn falls upon us

The colour is fading from the land, it won't be long before things are blanketed in white. Yesterday brought slushy snowflakes and there was ice on the puddles. The barge has still not arrived - hopefully everyones cans are keeping warm. I'm sure people are feeling nervous about it. Its due in this weekend - so here is hoping. The temperatures are hovering above zero, I think, for the rest of the week. Sadly, the cloud cover has kept us from seeing some northern lights, but the sun seems consistantly more active than my first couple of years here.

I can't believe that October is almost here - it seems yesterday I was scrambling to pack in August. Time is an ever-marching soldier and it doesn't stop for anything - not to admire a fleeting sunset or to give us an extra hour of sleep. So before I know it - November will be here. Crazy world isn't it!

Its a Dog's Life

This is a short note that the current weather in Baker Lake involves +2C temperatures, flurries and winds at a sustained speed of 61 km/h gusting to 71 km/h. If there was snow on the ground we'd have a full out blizzard and if I was this sled dog, I'd be curled up in my box with my tail keeping my nose warm. (This was taken on a lovely, warm, relatively calm day in Rankin Inlet - thus the dog looking unruffled by howling winds.) My first year here we lived in a 3 bedroom/2 story place and the upstairs swayed with the wind. Now, living near the ground, I don't feel the wind or even hear it much unless its really going. Its really going.

I also learned a valuable lesson as the wind was blowing me to the airport to collect my foodmail. Or relearned the lesson, as I explained to the pilot of the frieghter (or co-pilot or whichever he was).... never take a short cut accross the tundra. It'll take longer and you'll get wet feet, even if you are wearing waterproof hiking boots. (Hmmm... I should change my socks too) Sadly, my feet managed to stay dry until just before I made it back to the road, when I got what I deserved for picking that route.... splash, splash, splash.... ah well. Lesson learned until I forget again.

Another valuable lesson, always call the cab before assuming that its running becuase it normally is... For the first time in a really long time, more than a year, I was let down by the cab. Fortunately, I was rescued from a very long trek with six boxes by a kindly soul. I don't know whether it wasn't running or they were just so busy that they weren't answering. Again... lesson learned.

Anywho, time to stop rambling and make good use of my food mail.... and do something with the frozen stuff that I can't get into the freezer currently.... Stew or spaghetti sauce... tough call....

The Eye of Sauron or the Super Harvest Moon

I wonder if its a coincidence that Neil Young's new album came out right after the super harvest moon.....

It took a bit of fiddling to get the the clouds lit about the right amount, although it meant the detail of the moon was lost in the process.

A Proper Red Canoe

My mother and I have an ongoing disagreement about canoe colour (and as usual my mother is right). My stance, having learned the bulk of my canoe and camping skills at a Girl Guide Camp that only has red canoes, is that I feel that a canoe that isn't red doesn't feel quite right. I like red canoes - its entirely irrational, but I like their brightness against the blue of water and sky and the green of trees (I mostly don't canoe in the fall or spring - so usually things are green).  This is also an easy colour to pick out from a search plane or helicopter in an emergency situation  I also really hate canoes that don't have wooden trim, but that has to do with the number of times I've crunched my thumb or other part of my hand between a paddle and the think metal or plastic rim of a boat (ouch). On this, I think my mother and I agree.  However on the topic of colour, we do not.  My mother's stance is that if a canoe comes in a lovely shade of teal, then of course you should pick the prettiest colour. I guess I'm allowed to be set in my ways once and a while - I'm a trained camper, which means that I have good skills, but I really have to check my urge to correct people when they do things in a different way than I was taught (and I'm not generally like that, just about camp skills).

Anyways, it was a lovely evening in Rankin Inlet and I was loving the quaint image of the little red canoe moored out from the shore - although if you saw the other boats around, this one is pretty small compared to the fishing boats.

Sadly, I'm guilty of not going canoeing even once this summer. I really hope next summer I can just spend the entire time outside and definitely cram in a canoe trip - maybe to to the Brent Crater area or maybe even Nahani (not that I'm really a moving water canoeist) or even Kelso or Guelph lake if that is all I can manage. Here's hoping - I have more vacation plans that I have vacation, but you need dreams to lift you beyond the day to day, even if they might take a few years to get together.

Worm Lichen

Worm Lichen (Thamnolia subuliformis) is a new find for me. I'm sure I've seen it before, but I didn't get around to looking it up. According to Barrenland Beauties, the worms can break off, blow away and then start growing somewhere new. We were wondering if they were caribou moss - but I actually haven't seen it up here, at least not what my grandfather calls Caribou moss. There is lots in Ontario though.