nature, Photography

Tree Hugger

23 Comments

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

20 Comments

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

31 Comments

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. 🙂

Sometimes, life is like that.