Northern Life

• Bring on the Night

  Today marks the start of the dark season in Arctic Bay, the Sun set for the last time until rises again on the sixth of February. In actual fact, for our latitude, the Sun will continue to rise for about a week, but because of the terrain here we will not see it again for

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• Brush strokes

  As I looked to the sky a little while ago it appeared that someone had taken a giant calligraphy brush to it. This is truly a wonder filled world we live in.

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• My pirate is such a joker

  I hope to have a longer post about Hallow'een up soon, but in the mean time I give you photos of my children.  Both Travis and Hilary had costumes that they wore at their school parties, but it was a cold, wintery night here last night and we opted for just made up faces and

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• Frozen

  This morning I awoke to find that the bay had frozen over.  It still could go out, its just a thin crust upon the surface and a strong wind would undo it all, but a couple of more days of weather like this (cold and calm) and it will be a done deal for the

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• Grey ice

  Normally we can expect Arctic Bay to freeze up in mid October, with Thanksgiving weekend a likely time frame for it to happen.  Normally. The last five or so years freeze-up has been late, up to five weeks late. And although the Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone it looks like freeze-up has begun, only

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• Power to the people

  Our electricity is something we rarely give pause to think about. If you're like me you flip on a light switch without ever giving a thought about running out. Today, however, it is very much on my mind. All of our electricity is diesel generated.  There is no "grid" of any sort bringing in electricity

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• Thanks be

  It is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and although some don't think we make a big deal of it up here it is a big deal for me. For me it is a day to reflect on just how lucky a person I am, a day for family, and a one of four days in the

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• The jelly hunters.

  Last Monday was one of those gorgeous Fall days that we have up here, undoubtedly one of the last of this year. Snow has fallen since then, and though it is only a small amount it is showing no signs of disappearing. The rapidly shortening daylight hours (about 20 minutes a day as we race

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• More CCGS Henry Larson

  Here's a couple of photos of the CCGS Henry Larson that I like,  from before they left last week.

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• A little piece of Groenland

  The vast majority of our icebergs, certainly all of the large ones, come from Groenland. Born in a place like Jacobshaven Fjord, they eventually drift north up the coast of Groenland, and then turn south down the coast of Ellesmere Island. Some find their way here, some keep winding their way south into the Atlantic

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