Lesley of the North: Rain.... again

Iqaluit is a buzz with snow machines and testosterone. Everyone in town has anxiously been awaiting the arrival of winter to get their skidoos out, and now that there is some snow down they are taking advantage. I am encountering fewer and fewer people on the sidewalks, and more snow machines (that’s what they call them here and I kind of like it). It has been a long time in coming though. The weather in Iqaluit over the course of the past couple of weeks has been… what’s the right word… confusing, surprising, astounding really. It should be -20 degrees this time of year, but instead it has been hovering around zero, in some cases several degrees above, and raining! I don’t have anything to compare it to, this being my first year in Iqaluit, but I know enough to know that this is not normal. In fact, it’s unheard of for this time of year. What’s going on with the world? The past couple of days it has cooled off a bit and we have had some snow, quite a bit of snow in fact, but it is supposed to be above freezing and raining again on Friday. The rain has made for a lot of slush and ice, making walking around town very challenging. I would prefer the cold… let’s see if I eat my words.

When the weather is clear, the scenery is actually quite stunning! I think as it gets colder the weather clears up most days... too cold and dry for clouds and precipitation. In fact, I was told that when the weather is bad and there is a blizzard, those tend to be the warmest days of the winter. Right now with things hovering around freezing, the formation of ice around Baffin Island is about four weeks late and counting.

Its pretty much dark by 2:30 in the afternoon these days and there’s still a month before the shortest day of the year! I don’t notice it too much during the week because my office isn’t right on a window, so I don’t generally notice when it is dark, I usually look up sometime around 4 in the afternoon and it surprises me. This weekend however I went to the dog yard with Siu-Ling and helped her walk and feed the dogs and repair one of their houses. We were there for a couple of hours and I had gone for a walk before hand, so when we were heading back up the hill in the pitch dark I felt like I had put in a good days work, only to discover when I walked in the door that it was only 3:30!

Because of this phenomenon I don’t have too many interesting pictures to share… I’m rarely out during daylight hours, but I’m going to remember my camera this weekend when I go down to the dog yard with Siu-Ling again. I expect she will be getting the dogs out this weekend and I would like to go down and walk. It’s the first trip out, so I don’t expect there to be room for me (she has a friend who helps her with the team regularly), but I hope to get out with her at some point. Those will be some great pictures to share!

I also went to the annual Christmas craft sale this weekend at the high school. It was great! It reminded me so much of the Halifax market on Saturdays, but with very different crafts and food. And it was packed! I got some of my Christmas shopping done ;)

Dad was telling me that the reason they don’t use salt up here is because it actually gets too cold for salt to be effective. Salt only lowers the freezing temperature of water by a few degrees, not enough to make it worth while here, so instead they use sand and dirt. It is really quite amazing. In some places the roads have built up several inches of ice and dirt, layer upon layer. It looks just like pavement, but it is indeed ice and snow. The snow that fell over the past two days was beautiful… big, soft, slow-falling flakes. What is it about that kind of snow that just makes you feel all warm inside? But once compacted it essentially turned into ice and was SO slippery. It is nothing short of a miracle that I have not taken a tumble yet.

While I was home I picked up these ridiculous rubber ice grippers from Costco. The first day I wore them I was thinking to myself the whole way to work how useless they were, how it felt like they weren’t even there... then when I went to leave work that evening I discovered that they weren’t in fact there! Gonzo. And I had no idea at what point during my walk to work that I lost them. I kept my eye out for them on the walk home and ended up finding them about twenty steps from my front door. Useless…

So, it is December 1st. Does that mean I can wish you all “Happy Holidays”? I think so  I am very much looking forward to Christmas this year. Only three weeks until I will be home! And within those three weeks I will be very busy at work with meetings, lots of distractions. Can’t wait to see everybody at home in Nova Scotia!!!

Did I tell you that the garbage fire stopped burning? It finally stopped smouldering while I was away earlier in the month…

Pictures from the craft fair... I wish I had taken more!

I took Siu-Ling’s two pups out for a walk on a beautiful morning. The only time I can get a clear picture of these is when they are sniffing at something. They are busy!