Sunset over Spring Lake
Teeny, tiny shells in Tofino
Sap! (in Jasper)
This is Udlu as she is patiently waiting to eat while four of the puppies are exploring her food bowl. They are still too small to eat the kibble, but they sure find it interesting to push around with their noses! A few minutes later she finally nudged them out of the way.
This little guy is my favorite of the puppies so far. He's very adventurous and was the first one to approach me on his own and climb into my lap.
You can see quite a few of them in this photo, with Woody at the front.
Goofy
Big Wheel
July 9th was the 11th anniversary of Nunavut becoming an official Canadian territory. It is a territorial holiday - Nunavut Day - and a large number of the community of Iqaluit was out to celebrate the occasion. Much like Canada Day in other places, this holiday is a day for outdoor music, children's games, contests, barbecues, and general frivolity. Unlike Canada Day the contests were to see who could skin a seal the fastest, and there were muskox burgers on the barbecue!! For the record - it is truly incredible how fast a seal can be skinned, and muskox cheeseburgers are delicious.
If you remember my blog entries from last July you will remember how enamoured I was with all of the tiny tundra flowers. I'm just as taken with them this year, but I will restrain myself and only post one photo.
We're a month past the solstice already, and so we are starting to get proper sunsets again. This was a particularly beautiful one, just the other night.
I recently had the opportunity to take a short holiday to Greenland. I had never really thought about traveling there before, but when given the choice I thought it would be an interesting place to visit. More than just interesting, it was also beautiful and delicious(I ate a stunning amount of pastries and cheese!!). There was many similarities to Iqaluit with the tundra and the culture, but there was also a very strong European influence which made it seem worlds apart. It is geographically very close to Iqaluit - just a two hour flight in a small 10-seater airplane.
This was the sign for a playschool, or at least, that's what I think it was - it wasn't immediately obvious, as you can see!!
We saw some trees!! Three, to be exact!! I had heard rumors that there might be some, but was excited to see them with my own eyes! Arctic trees...who would have thought?
I was able to take a few boat trips into the fjord system. There are countless icebergs that are continually calving off of the glaciers that extend from the icecap that covers most of Greenland. The shapes, textures and shades of blue of the different icebergs was stunning.
The ice is thousands of years old, and will eventually melt away in the sunshine as it floats its way down the fjord. I took an icecube off of this one, but I didn't bring a drink to put it in, so I just ate it!!
I find it incredible how quickly the tundra changes from the deep blankets of snow to a carpet of moss, plants and flowers. Sometimes literally overnight flowers will appear where there was none before, as is the case on my short walk to and from work. There is also a large number of seabirds and other small birds that we don't see here in the winter - even geese were flying overhead a few weeks ago, although I can't imagine how it's worth it for them to spend all of that energy to fly to the top of Baffin Island!
hing has melted so fast this year. "Sealift" is more exciting than Christmas here, because this is the time when most of the city's supplies are brought in - everything from vehicles to toilet paper. Businesses do it, but individuals and families can also arrange for a shipment - furniture, canned goods, and beer are popular sealift items!!
You need to be creative, flexible, outgoing, and a little bit silly sometimes, but there are lots of things to do if you're willing to put yourself out there. After starting out this past weekend with no set plans, I ended up with an amusing and exhausting couple of days. Planting veggies at the greenhouse, volunteering for the food bank, hanging out in the sunshine, a firefighter carwash, impromptu meals, a bonfire, ATVing on the tundra, a picnic, dinner with the girls, and a little bit of work thrown in the middle!
Life up here is what you make of it, and the people you meet and the friends you make are ultimately what it's all about. I have met and become friends with some fantastic, interesting, and fun people - and feel very lucky for the experiences I have been able to share with them. Good times, indeed.
So, I went for a hike on a recent gorgeous sunny day. The tundra is really wet from all of the melting snow, and there are still large pockets of snow in the hills so it's always an adventure - I often found myself knee-deep in snow unexpectedly! My friend Kelly and I decided to stop on a nice warm rock, and ended up staying there for over an hour because it was so awesome. This is a great photo of typical Iqaluit springtime 'sunbathing' - jeans & rubber boots! (and pagers too, unfortunately). We did manage to dust off the lichen eventually and continue on our way, but nothing could beat a catnap in the arctic sun!
Take one snow-covered beach...
Add a few days of cloudless sky with sunshine....
And you get a lovely Victoria Day afternoon hanging out with your feet in the sand!
Another Toonik Tyme, and another igloo building contest has come and gone in Iqaluit. This year I was able to see some of the igloo construction, and then play around in them later. They are really incredible - beautiful, cozy, genius shelters from the elements. The men who built them used varying techniques as they cut blocks from the snow they were standing on, then stacked and shaped them together. Strong enough for a grown man to stand on, windproof, and insulating, the igloo was traditionally used as a seasonal home, an emergency shelter, and a hunting blind. On a sunny day the light filters through the snow so that there's a magical blue glow when you're sitting inside. I've been told that the body heat from a single person can quickly raise the temperature inside a small igloo to a fairly comfortable level.
I have been cruising the 12 kilometers of roadways in Iqaluit since I purchased a vehicle recently. I am the proud owner of a '94 Suzuki Sidekick - and let me tell you, it's pretty sweet!! It has a lot of quirks - neither of the doors close properly, the passenger door lock only works a portion of the time, it has a tape player (which I've yet to test out), it makes some really interesting noises at times...the list goes on and on! But, I have had absolutely no trouble starting it, even when the temperature drops below -40. So as long as the motor is good, I consider the rest 'personality'. Anyone who used to ride in the Ranger with me knows I have a soft spot for vehicles with personality!!
I have returned to Iqaluit after a nearly 4 week holiday. It was much needed, and turned out fantastic - I spent some time snowboarding in Jasper, then flew to Honduras to soak up some sun (with proper SPF protection, of course!). I was joined by my friend Esther, and we managed to spend 23 straight days together without any major problems - that's a true test of friendship!! It was a trip full of laughs, relaxation, and just the right amount of excitement....
I learned how to dive, and loved it!! I was not sure how it would go, but I had a fantastic instructor to teach me, a gorgeous setting to learn in, and I didn't freak out underwater. That turned out to be my perfect recipe for diving, because I really enjoyed it and am already thinking about when and where I will dive next. (Looking out my window at all of the snow, it seems like a far-off fantasy!!!)
Before the sun and the sand of Roatan, we spent 5 days snowboarding. As you can tell from the bruise, I spent a fair amount of time falling on my butt. It took me a long time to get back into the rhythm (I hadn't been on a hill in 3 years) and by the time I did I was pretty beat up and discouraged. Luckily I had Esther to cheer me on (she was a superstar on her board) and I ended up having a great time. When I got back to Iqaluit there was a thick layer of powder, and all I could think was "I wish I had my board gear here". I'm taking that as a good sign!
All in all, I can't believe I've been here for a year already. It has really flown by - lots of work and lots of play. Going through some of my first posts on this blog, it really doesn't seem that long ago that I was marveling at all of the unfamiliar, unique and frustrating ways of life up here. While I do lament how far away from family and friends I am, I do not regret coming here. It has been an incredible adventure so far...