Category Archives: nature

nature, Photography

Bison and Muskox

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There are many woodland bison everywhere here in the north. In the spring and summer, they love to loiter on the roads, and drivers have to be very cautious of them, especially at night. Sometimes, a congregation of them will make the traffic wait. There’s no way you want to try to herd or nudge a bison, as they will charge if annoyed.

Try explaining that to your insurance. “I was just stopped on the road, minding my own business, when a bison came out of nowhere and ran full-tilt at my car …” Yup, okay.

So it makes sense to include one of these iconically northern animals …

… along with a snow sculpture of a muskox. Also notoriously bad-tempered, you do not want to upset them.

Photo by Florian Schulz

The snow sculpture looks much more docile, though, especially as it’s missing its horns. Very tempting for children, I think!

Despite that, the artist did quite a good job, don’t you think?

Happy Monday, happy week. 🦬

nature, Photography

Tree Hugger

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I love this snow sculpture! Very endearing.

Bear love. Bare love? 😉

In this area, we have brown and black bears, but you have to go much farther north to the Arctic to see the white polar bears.

Climate change has lead to some of the polar bears mating with grizzly bears and producing a sort of blond hybrid called a grolar.

Grolar Bear

If you’re interested, here’s more information: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-environment/grolar-bears

Happy Friday; happy weekend. 🙂

nature, Photography

Prosperous Lake Park

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Under sunny skies on the weekend, M and I went to Prosperous Lake Park just outside of Yellowknife.

Prosperous Lake Territorial Park

We crossed the lake itself via a very busy ice road, a total of 14 km.

Tire tracks on the frozen lake surface.

There was an ice fishing derby going on, which is why it was so busy. People were fishing, yes, but there were lots of snowmobilers, cross-country skiers and snowshoers. Dogs and kids were running around and chasing each other, very much enjoying the bright sun and warmer temperatures.

Want to see an ice road?

Here’s a short clip of our trip across the lake.

It was a great day; sunny, warmer, windless. We returned home very happy after all the fresh air and bright light.

Happy mid-week. 🙂

nature, Reblogs

Snow Sculptures

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We may be getting warmer, but we still have lots of snow. What to do with some of it? Make sculptures, of course!

One of our corvid friends with a snowball in his beak.

This one is of a raven; they are one of the most intelligent and resourceful birds on the planet. They have to be – they survive through -50C (and in more northern areas, even colder) subarctic and Arctic temperatures by huddling together in wind protected areas. Loyal, extremely communicative and collaborative, I don’t see them as the mean, nasty nasties they are often portrayed as in literature and film.

It has been quite overcast for a few days, so these photos are very monochromatic, (I had a lot of visual difficulty because of the lack of contrast) but the subarctic can be like that.

I really admire the talents of the people who come out to make these. They were out on a frozen lake, in the howling wind, in -40C (-40F).

I won’t be sorry to say good-bye to these sculptures when they melt, though!

Have a good week. 🙂

nature, Photography

Snow Awning

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This should give you an idea of how much snow is on my roof. I took this on Tuesday (March 16).

It’s beginning to melt and I’m starting to think we had better knock some of it down. I wouldn’t want any of that falling on my head!

Today, the icicles were starting to develop …

Do you see the bird?

… and we had +7°C! It was such a nice break after literally, months of -30 and -40 … and sometimes, I really just didn’t want want to know. It was better that way.

The snow was soft and beginning to be slushy; snowballs were waiting to be made, snow sculptures were waiting to be found.

Yay! Bring on the melt!

Happy weekend. 🙂