Ramblings of a Nunavummiuq

My dear fans, I have returned! Have you completely given up on me? Are there any of you left? lol (that means ‘laugh out loud’ for any of you non-texty people).

I have been a very busy little Nunavummiuq (person from Nunavut, plural form Nunavummiut). Since I last wrote on October 24th (my goodness, that is a month) I had a busy few weeks at work, celebrated Halloween Iqaluit style, moved (!), started a new job (!!), went home to Halifax for eight days (!!!), AND just worked all weekend at a workshop... it has been hectic to say the least, but most of it the good kind of hectic :)

I moved into a house on the same street as my other place with a woman working for the Canadian Wildlife Service. It is a beautiful home and I’m settled in already. And the new job that I started is a part-time job at the local Racket Club. I work one shift a week on the bar and I get a free membership to the courts, gym, and private club. It’s a pretty good deal and I actually really enjoy it! Serving drinks is a great way to meet people in this town.

Most importantly, I had an absolutely fantastic visit home. It was originally supposed to be a quick five day visit, but just a day or two before heading out I extended it for an extra three days. Eight full days to immerse myself in friends and family and pets… that’s like heaven to me right now. It rained every day except for one… and not just drizzle or light rain… record breaking buckets of rain alllll day! The kind of rain where you don’t want to have to even run to your car, let alone go for a walk with the dog. It didn’t stop me from enjoying myself though. I think my trip home would be best described using pictures... I don’t want to go on and on about how cute my pets are, and how wonderful my husband and family are... but they are.

On the flight to Ottawa...

Lauren visited us with her little family one evening and it was sooo sweet watching Lila interact with the critters. She loves cats and dogs, but especially cats, and they were really good with her! My mom and dad were pretty good with her too ;) It’s pretty clear that once kids come into the picture, they steal the show... (her) mom and dad didn’t even make the cut!

We had a get together at our new house in Hemlock Ravine and it was so much fun! I’m not even going to explain what’s going on here... too funny.

On my last day home the rain finally stopped revealing a beautiful fall day, so we took Ella for a walk in Hemlock Ravine Park, right behind her house. She blends in nicely with the leaves in the fall...

Ella was a little nervous that I was going to throw her into the drink.

Sammy watching his Dave kiting out on Cole Harbour.

I just love the colors in these pictures, and my shadow down in the corner.

Goofy dogs enjoying a day out with their people.

My last night we had homemade sushi at mom and dad’s and apparently I was hungry because I took several pictures of the food and none of the people! lol

I was pretty reluctant to leave when the time came. Marky saw me off at the airport on a beautiful, clear, sunny morning. It was so clean and clear that I felt like I could see forever. By the time we were passing over Truro we were high enough that I could see clear from the Bay of Fundy across our great province to the Atlantic Ocean. I could see the Annapolis River meandering through the valley as clear as day, the North Mountains along the north shore, the Digby Peninsula jutting out into the Bay of Fundy. On the south shore I could make out St. Margaret’s Bay in the distance, imagining I could make out my little treeless Quaker Island, though I knew I couldn’t quite see that far… even with my new super glasses.

Though I was sad to leave, what a beautiful day for flying! In this picture I’m looking down on Nova Scotia. Those are the North Mountains in the forefront, the Annapolis River winding through the Annapolis Valley, with southwest Nova Scotia spreading out in the background. The big water body in the distance is Kejimkujik Lake, but if you look carefully enough you can also make out the south coast and the Atlantic Ocean. I could see it more clearly at the time, but I didn’t pull my camera out fast enough.

This was the scene shortly after leaving Ottawa...

Northern Quebec. Looks like the tundra from that height, but this area is actually forested.

This is even further north in Quebec. I can only assume that those are cut blocks that have been clearcut, so the snow is visible in the clearcuts, but not the forested areas.

Baffin Island... looks like snow, but it is actually a thick, low-lying layer of clouds. I like this picture because you can really see the curvature of the earth along the horizon.

This was the scene when we landed in Iqaluit, yuck!

I returned to an endless white landscape. They received several days of freezing rain while I was gone, so the roads and sidewalks were pretty slick. They don’t use salt up here (I guess because you would need so much of it), they use sand for traction (which there is an abundance of... much of the tundra is made up of sandy deposits left following the last glaciation event), so the roads built up with layer upon layer of ice and sand. I’ve actually heard them referred to as ice roads, and they seem to work surprisingly well.

With the time change the sun goes down by about three o`clock in the afternoon these days and it is low enough in the sky that if it is overcast at all, it is very dark all day. I’m getting pretty used to it already though. On the shortest day of the year, December 21st, the sun will only be up for around three hours. This last picture is looking down over Iqaluit from my back deck. It is about 8am and the full moon is still shining down on a sleepy little town.

Shining Happy Iqaluit People

Wow! What a week I had!

Last Saturday was my 30th Birthday. When I was offered this job there were a few things in particular that made me reluctant to move to Iqaluit… my nanny’s 90th birthday party this past summer, Curtis and Pam’s wedding in Calgary this September (which I thankfully still made it to!), and my 30th birthday. I had visions of sitting alone on this significant occasion in my life with no one to celebrate with. I even went so far as to throw myself a 30th birthday party in Halifax four months early, lol! Well, let’s just say my worries were totally unfounded. I had a great birthday with many lovely people to celebrate with.

The first thing I did on my birthday was go to a yogo class the instructor calls Sun, Moon and Hoop. Sun for the sun salutations that we do first, followed by moon salutations and completed with 45 minutes of hula-hooping! It was so much fun! I love a good sun salutation… challenges your body in a lot of ways without too much unnatural bending and stretching… and hooping is a fun way to work your middle. I don’t mean to brag, but I am a pretty good hooper! I went again yesterday, and let’s just say it leaves you surprisingly tender.

That evening Eva and I had people over for drinks and desert before heading down to the Legion for dancing. I invited a bunch of people in the hopes that half a dozen or so people would show up, but we ended up with a full house! It was wonderful, and everyone here is so thoughtful and generous. There were even unexpected gifts! Here’s a story about one of them…

You all know my Ford Explorer arrived last week. Well, on the afternoon of my birthday I noticed that it has a tape deck! I haven’t seen one of those in a while, and I was reflecting on where I might dig up some old tapes without coming up with any good ideas. Three or four hours later Mark and Robyn, who didn’t know anything about the truck or the tape deck, showed up with two stacks of tapes! It was so weird. They were giving them away at the library, so they picked out a couple of handfuls of tapes that I am younger than, and then proceeded to sing a song they wrote about all the things I am younger than. So much fun!

Once at the Legion I hardly left the dance floor for three hours! The whole evening was overwhelming in the best kind of way. I feel very fortunate to be aquainted with such wonderful people.






I was very busy at work this week. I had a workshop that I have been planning for the past three months on Tuesday and Wednesday. It went very well, but it took a lot out of me. I was operating at half capacity for the rest of the week. Not much else to say about that…

So you’ll never guess what league I am going to join this fall? It feels very Canadian of me… I’ll give you a hint: I’ll be a woman with a broom. No, it is not the league of housewives, but the curling league! I have never thrown a stone before in my life, but given that I am dancing at the Legion, it only seemed fit to join the curling league. I practiced for the first time yesterday and it wasn’t pretty. Let’s just say I am not a natural… in fact, there is something very unnatural about the angle of my leg in the picture below (and it goes on for days!). There were falls, bumps and bruises, none more severe than those to my pride… it is pretty difficult to fall gracefully on ice… and I am pretty tender today, especially following two hours of Sun, Moon and Hoop… but I shall not give in! I shall persevere and master this sport on ice! League play starts on Tuesday...

My rubber leg...

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day in Iqaluit… I think it must have gone up to 5 degrees! It’s been a pretty mild week altogether, though I suspect we are in for some snow this week. We have been pretty spoiled so far this month, so I am okay with that. Besides, I am going home for a visit in less than two weeks so I don’t much care what it does here. I do find it quite funny though how bundled I tend to be compared to the locals. I walk everywhere and I often have to strip off layers, but I always leave the house prepared for any turn in the weather. I frequently find myself quite comfortably wrapped in a scarf, hat, mitts, two layers of jacket and rain pants… passing people in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Us newbie’s stand out like a sore, or should I say cold, thumb! I have even passed toddlers dressed more scantily than I am. I occasionally catch the locals giving me a look up and down and then stifling a chuckle. I am sure they are wondering to themselves how I figure to make it through an Iqaluit winter at the rate of clothing layers I am acquiring!

Here are some pictures of my walk on Saturday evening…

The sky reminded me of a water color painter's brush storkes on a very large canvas...

So peaceful...

This is my favorite walking path along the coast; reminds me of Newfoundland...

The sun setting behind the Iqaluit dump fire... which is still burning...

I would like to finish with a quote from the first page of a book I just started reading, The Year of the Flood...

"The air smells faintly of burning, a small of caramel and tar and rancid barbecues, and the ashy but greasy smell of a garbage dump fire after it's been raining."

I can relate...

Northern De-lights

So winter landed and reared its ugly head last week and scared the @#%* out of me. I couldn’t help but wonder what I had gotten myself in to. We had several days of bad weather, including snow, sleet and hail, gusts up to 90 km/h and cold! I walked home one day in a blizzard and the wind was blowing so hard the next morning that I could feel the house trembling as I was lying in bed. At home (Nova Scotia!) the first snow of the season usually suggests that Christmas is fast approaching, so all this snow has been giving me those warm, fuzzy Christmassy feelings. I have to keep reminding myself that it is only October!

I’m delighted to report however that winter went back to sleep for a while and it turns out that fall is to last longer than a couple of weeks after all. It went up to 8 degrees over the long weekend, and it has been clear and beautiful all week.
I had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with friends on Sunday night. There was so much food! And then I went for a long stroll on Thanksgiving Monday down by the bay and discovered that the sea lift is in! The water was calm and the sun was sparkling off the surface, it was beautiful… and there she was, the ship that was carrying my big blue beast! The great Explorer...

She’s a bit old and rusty around the edges, but I have confidence that she will carry me around this winter on those snowy, blustery days, and keep me dry from the rain.

The best thing about clear skies is... northern lights! A friend called me the other night and asked if I wanted to go out and check out the northern lights with him outside of town. He keeps his eye on this website that tracks solar activity and gives an indication of the best nights for viewing northern lights, and it was supposed to be a good one. We went out and I just couldn’t believe it... they were amazing. There were probably half a dozen bands streaking across the sky directly overhead from one horizon to the other. They were weaving, joining together and breaking apart... and when they were right overhead to could actually see them flowing and streaming like a river. I don’t know how else to describe it. It kind of gives me an eerie feeling... like in ghost busters when the clouds start to open up and swirl around... you just know something serious is about to go down.

Last night I was walking dogs at the shelter and when I went in the building the sky was clear, no northern lights to be seen. Then when I took black Molly out (Molly is a dog , not a fish... a little fish tank humour for all you aquarium lovers out there), the sky lit up! I was stumbling along behind Molly with my eyes on the sky. These ones were quite different from the ones the night before. The night before they were smooth and they flowed like water... these ones were like icicles stabbing down from the sky and they moved much faster... like a set of chimes in a gale. And there were hints of pinks and blues and purples, which aren’t as common on Baffin Island as in other areas. There no capturing those ones on film... that is something you just have to see.

Now for the downside of the nicer weather... stinky garbage fire! You may or may not have heard (and you probably haven’t) but the Iqaluit dump is on fire! It has been on fire since September 24th, spewing toxic smoke into the air, and there’s no stopping it... they have to wait for it to burn out because it is deep in the pile and they say it could be burning for months!

Thankfully the prevailing winds blow the smoke away from town. Early in the week though there was no wind so the yellowish smoke was drifting into town creating a haze and closing schools and offices. It smells pretty bad and people have been complaining about headaches and other ailments. It’s not so bad today though, so I am working away, and I better get back at it...