It’s December in the north.
When I stand in the cold to see this, I begin to get an inkling of how special it all is, and how privileged I am to be a part of it.
Greetings from the north’s best season.
Tag Archives: Winter
Winter Greetings
Hello winter!
It’s cold, and pewter grey, with blue sky in glimpses and bits.
Lustrous lacy frost hangs on trees and grasses and in the very air itself.
Winter is here, and with it, its beauties and muffled quiet.
🙂
North of 60
To a Canadian, 
you need to be north of 60° N latitude to be “in the north.” Canadians understand when you say, “I’m going north of 60.”
To a far north northerner, though, that’s south. You can wear shorts until it’s -20. Not an exaggeration. I’ve actually seen this.
But, to anyone in the southern US, for instance, that’s where Pere Noel lives. Going outside is for polar bears and reindeer.
I am “north of 60,” but I’m too far south for polar bears and reindeer. They aren’t a part of my landscape. And to a far north northerner, I’m a weak little southerner.
It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?
Summer Dreaming
It has been snowing for almost three weeks. There have been gaps, but mostly, snow. In Chipewyan, yath. Falling. Almost like rain. Straight down. Heavy and fat and weighty. Definitely not just a few flakes. Not to be ignored.
It looks like this.
It’s really grey and it’s getting dark very early (and earlier all the time!).
I’m missing this.
Ah, summer. It’s only November and I have a while to go, so is it okay if I start dreaming about you now? Never too early?
I’m looking forward to seeing you again, old friend. 🙂
Remembering Summer
Happy New Year! 🙂
Right now we are surviving temperatures that are about -35 C. That’s pretty cold although I have experienced colder. When it’s this cold, it’s hard to remember that summer existed. It’s just a dim memory.
I pass this bush every day on my way to work.
And yup, I walk to work. Driving is not worth the trouble it would cause to start a vehicle.
It’s so cold that they have to be plugged in. And then there’s the scraping of windshields, the running of engines and the effort to get them out of the latest layer of new snow, even if I do have a 4×4. Needless to say, I don’t have a garage, which ironically, is something I’ve always had in the south. Up here, there aren’t many of them. For them to be of any real use you would have to heat them, and that makes them very expensive.
So, I walk to work. It takes seven minutes to get my gear on, seven minutes to walk there, it’s dark, and every bit of me is covered except my eyes. I peer under my big hat and over my balaclava. I’m under the time limit for frostbite to exposed skin in -35C, although a little wind can rapidly change that formula. A few days ago, I thought I had frostbite on my cheek, but no, it was just rather cold.
Everything is slower and takes longer. It’s life in the north. 🙂
How’s your winter?
Winter Skies
Here on the edge of Great Skave Lake, where I am north of 60 degrees N latitude, I feel like I am living inside a winter post card.
We are only getting about six – seven hours of daylight now but the landscape that comes into view is spectacular.
At night, there is also a light show.
At two in the afternoon, the sun is getting ready to go down.
The light and colours are here are almost monochromatic, and very restful.
What does your winter look like?
I Awoke to This
North of 60 degrees N latitude, winter starts early and spring starts late.
Yesterday, I awoke to this:
It had rained during the night, and then the temperature had dropped enough for it to change to snow, at about -1 celsius.
Much different from this recent experience:
In Northwest Territories, when the weather changes, it changes fast. There’s no shuffling.
Soon, the parka will have to come out.
