At 11 p.m, the northern sun started to sink below the horizon.
The very long daylight hours …
… make up for the long hours of darkness in December.
These are not the best quality photos as they were taken from the side window of a moving vehicle, but in this series, it’s the sky that counts.
Have a good week. 🙂
Here is a northern take on Winter Wonderland (my apologies and salutations to Felix Bernard).
Doorbells ring, are you listening?
In the lane, snowplows glistening
A breathtaking sight
We’re trying tonight
To stand up on a slippery icy road
Gone away is the sand truck
Here to stay is a cold front
It screams a north gale
As we plod along
Sliding on a slippery icy road
In the meadow we will build a shelter
And crawl inside to get out of the wind
You’ll say are you freezing
I’ll say not now
But that’s a possibility later on
In a bit, we’ll perspire
As we sit in the fire
We’ll thaw and we’ll stretch
Sam McGee at his best
Sliding on a slippery icy road
In the meadow we can build a shelter
And pretend that winter is all done
That’s quite a feat of self-deluded nonsense
But that’s what happens when you’re freezing cold
When it snows, watch for frostbite
When it blows, get a tissue
We’ll frolic and play, the northern way
Sliding on a slippery icy road.
A little northern humour. 🙂
A recent sunset in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, produced this photo.
Because of our geographical position in the north, our sunsets are intense, brilliant, and relatively short. And, of course, as we head into winter, that effect becomes more pronounced.
At 62.5° N latitude, Yellowknife sits in the middle of some of the most spectacular light shows in the world, not the least of which are these dazzling sunsets.
Greetings from the extraordinary light shows of NWT. 🙂
This was a recent morning scene.
I hadn’t had coffee yet but the bright morning sun helped me to get going.
Alas, as of a few days ago, this sunny weather turned. It has been a mixture of watery snow that has turned to snow that has turned to rain.
Inevitably though, whatever comes out of the sky over the next couple of weeks will be snow.
That’s the way of the north.
And it will stay for a bit, at least until March. And it will look like this.
Cold, crisp, clear.
🙂
Here in Northwest Territories, autumn moves quickly. Three weeks ago, the leaves were just starting to turn.
Now the yellow is darkening to brown and black and almost all the leaves are on the ground.
We are about to head into the Northwest Territories’ best season – winter. Gleaming with atmospheric pinks and blues and a low sunlight that bounces off ice particles in the air, the sky is suffused with gentle colour and undulating sparkles.
Here is a favourite winter photo from a couple of years ago.
The Aurora Borealis is amazing, but like the variety of us, it’s not the only light show in town.
Greetings from the remarkable northern lights – of all kinds. 🙂
I recently watched a very sullen, overcast sky widen into a pretty, pink-tinged blue.
The phenomenon grew for a bit but then collapsed in on itself.
For a few moments, we had a lovely skylight opening giving us respite from the drizzly grey day.
Sometimes, a break from whatever has settled on us is all we need. 🙂
The bison have been massing and eating as much as they can. Not that this is unusual; that’s more or less what bison do, but there seems to be an urgency about them that I didn’t note last year.
An elder told me that they are getting ready for a particularly long winter, and that’s why they seem so much more desperate this year.
I took these images from a moving vehicle and so the quality isn’t great, but we didn’t want to stop in the middle of a herd like that. Bison have been known to charge a car or truck, and despite their size, they can move quickly. Many of them (these are wood bison) are 1000 kg (about 2200 pounds), so I really wouldn’t want one headed my way.
Right now, some of them will just stand in the road to take a break from eating, so vehicles will have to stop and wait for them to amble away. On a recent trip, we waited a number of times at a safe distance, one that would allow us a chance to evade a charge. One of the bulls we saw, a massive animal, kept putting his head down and staring at us. We reversed slowly. Sometimes, backing up is the better part of valour, including in our dealings with other humans. 🙂
We eventually got to our destination, but it took longer than usual!
Greetings from the wood bison of Northwest Territories.
Yellow leaves, so pretty and so short-lived
So bright in their autumn-clothed glory
Last gasp before a deep, restful slumber …
Have the best best of me now; I am here only for a little …
On a recent warm day I went for a walk on the shores of Great Slave Lake. This is a huge lake (tenth largest in the world) and is not usually this calm (unless it’s frozen 😉 ).
I think this was a last hurrah before northern winter closes in, and in fact, the weather turned windy and rainy the next day.
This was a wonderful last summer sigh and I’m glad I was able to enjoy it.
Greetings from an autumnal Northwest Territories.
🙂
Here in the north, we have had a lot of rain over the last couple of days. We are finally drying out with a misty sun.
Happy Friday, happy weekend from the Northwest Territories. 🙂
