New Blog For A New Adventure

I have created a new blog for the new adventure and you can find me here:
http://dartmouthcove.blogspot.com/

The End of The Northern Adventure

Well, on December 20th, I drove out of the north for the last time, heading south to Victoria, BC. The car was packed with camping gear, moving stuff, and Stormy the cat. There wasn't much room left in the car, but we made it. We drove to Fort Nelson the first night, via the Fort Liard Highway, crossing the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. The river was frozen all around the crossing, and slob ice in the open area. We spent the first night in a hotel in Fort Nelson, and then headed for Mission, BC to drop Stormy off at his foster home for the holidays and I continued on to Victoria to visit with some good friends there and chill out after what was the busiest fall ever, between work, packing, moving, planning for a Christmas holiday and then a subsequent move across the country.

I am unemployed and homeless, ha ha...but will stay with my parents in Dartmouth for a few weeks, hoping to get my own apartment in February. I also had a job interview that went very well, so hope to be starting work in late January.

So ends the Great Northern Adventure. It's been just over 3 years, dozens of beautiful friends, 3 jobs, 3 homes, lots of souvenirs, tons of photos, and endless memories of my time in the north. This will be the last post on this blog, and you're welcome to continue to follow my journey on my Under The Sky blog at http://dreamazone2.blogspot.com, my old blog that has been around for years. Good night all from the land of the midnight sun.

Brrrr

Temperatures are dipping...ice fog, squeaky snow, creaking and banging wood, and frozen noses...ah, winter is here.

Signs in Winter

So they FINALLY plowed my street this week. These are the signs they use to show they are plowing your street that night. They plow one street at a time. My street was low on the list I gather, since it was the first plowing this winter...even though it snows damn near every day. They just let it build up and everyone drives over it, then they come and chip it away after it's packed down like fucking concrete. Now there is a big drop off where the parking lot meets the street, just like a curb, as the parking lot also needs plowing...

This sticker was on a garbage can at Tim Hortons. There are huge ravens EVERYWHERE. They are such scavengers and people throw garbage all over the place up here...so disrespectful. So much for taking care of "their land". The sticker says "polishing the gem" - a reference to diamond mining here.

Jack Frost Strikes YK

Frosty day in the city today...Jack Frost struck again. Everything was covered in a thick layer of hoar frost. There was also a fair bit of ice fog. Made for some interesting shots. I didn't have my zoom lens on when I saw the raven...even he had some frost on his feathers.

Winter Wonderland

Winter is well underway here in Yellowknife. We've had snow for about a month. It's piled up all over, and people are wearing their down. I'm not...it's winter, but it isn't that cold yet, though tonight the temperature is dropping. It's -18C at the moment. I'm still just wearing my Folk on the Rock sweatshirt with a pashmina and mittens. I tried my down the other day and nearly melted. Not quite cold enough for it for me. I need a new winter jacket I reckon. Once I move to NS, I won't need a down, but my other jacket is too big, and very worn. Yayyy...shopping...

So I was out driving around today before heading into work, taking some photos of the city, the Great Slave Lake, and Back Bay. I especially like the canoes up on the ice that people drag off to their houseboats as late as they can until they can walk on the ice. They shuffle over the thin ice, and paddle their way through the slush. Some just move in with friends for a few weeks until things firm up enough to walk out, and do the same in spring thaw.

Enough With Winter Already

Ok. I live in the north, and it's colder here. I accept that. But generally in this part of the north, it doesn't snow much. They say we have received 1/3 of the annual snowfall in just a few days. It's not even that much, just a few feet. I wouldn't mind this amount of snow if they knew what to do with it. The city doesn't. I feel like I am surrounded by idiots, in the frozen north without a snowplow. They just started clearing some streets this weekend. It snowed 10 days ago. They plow just one street at a time. And only at 1:00am-6:00am. Weirdos. And like I said, I've yet to see a snowplow. I see road graders, front end loaders, and sand/gravel trucks...and little else. And many of them not accomplishing much. The snow was pretty when it first came, and we saw the sun. We haven't seen the sun since. It's been snowing/raining ever since. And it is still snowing, has been all day. Dammit. When Henry was here he seemed to enjoy it well enough, for about 10 minutes. Then his paws got cold and he wimped out and came in. I wonder how he's doing at his new apartment? Maybe if I had a skidoo I wouldn't mind it so much, lol! I just hate driving in it when they don't plow the streets. It's like driving in sand dunes half the time. Crazy. Enough with winter already! I can't wait to be down south again...or so I think. I am not looking forward to the traffic, noise, and rush of the bigger cities though...sigh...

Moving Sucks

I enjoy the idea of a new situation, always, but the actual event of moving, packing, shuffling shit, etc, is not something I enjoy. The mess, the clutter, the bare patches in some spots and stacks of stuff in others. I just want to be outta here, and settled somewhere else again, for another while. Henry has found new quarters...lucky cat. I won't be settled again until February, when I get my own place in Dartmouth. That is, if I'm lucky enough to find a job before then, heh heh. That is the question. The time has come to begin applying, since they take so long to process things sometimes.

I go to bed at night wishing for moving faeries to slip under night's cover and just TAKE CARE OF IT. So far, nothing...

Northern Departures

Well, a lot has happened in just a short while. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last week, and that event has prompted what has been on the back of my mind for some time. I need to move back east to spend time with and help to support my parents.

So there you have it. My great northern adventures are coming to a close, for now. I've been here nearly three years (it will be more than three by the time I leave) and have enjoyed most of it. I've paid off a huge chunk of my student loans (2/3) so I am much better financial shape, not to mention a more well-rounded and skilled social worker. I've been busy sorting through JUNK and throwing out crap. I have so many piles, I'm soon gonna need a shovel. I have a pile for the Salvation Army, a pile for St. Pat's flea market (gotta spread it around, you know), a pile for mailing back east, a pile for a friend, a pile for taking with me in the car, and a room full of shit to sell. And endless trips to the dumpster. Oh, and lets not forget a pile for the laundry room. Our apartment building laundry room has shelves in it for a bit of a "free store" so I put things there that can't really be donated or sold, such as a half of a package of paper, loose envelopes, and used mats/rugs.

I'll be leaving here in mid-December. My last day of work is December 12th. Then I head south for Grande Prairie, ship Stormy out east with my parents while I continue southwest to Vancouver to meet up with my girl, A. We had planned to travel farther south for Christmas, and don't want to cancel that trip, so we will drive down the west coast to Tijuana as planned. I had thought about cancelling, however A. has her heart set on it, and I really want to spend some time with her before heading east, as I don't know when I'll get that chance to spend time with her again anytime soon. Our beach bum tour will take a couple of weeks, and then I bring her back to Vancouver to fly north again, and I head due east...all 7800kms of it. This is after about 6800kms with my girl, and over 3000kms from Yellowknife to Vancouver. Phew. That is a LOT of kilometres on my little car in a very short time. In one month I will have travelled nearly 18,000 kms. Too bad I don't get frequent driver miles. I'm so happy gas prices have started to fall, and hope they continue to fall. I also hope the Canadian dollar recovers from it's low this week. We'll need it in the states.

There you have it. My adventures in the north have been amazing. I've met some brilliant people, been in the presence of some stunning scenery, had some truly interesting experiences, and my memories of the north shall not fade for years to come. The cold was quite bearable, as were the long dark winters. I coped much better than I ever expected to, and found a way to have fun while I'm at it. I don't regret coming to the north at all, and will miss its charm and the "northern ways".

I won't miss the crackheads in the alleys and the drunks in the streets. I won't miss getting into a frozen car with frozen brakes. I won't miss the empty shelves in the grocery stores, and I certainly won't miss the random grossly inflated prices. I won't miss the "bulldog flies" (gigantic horseflies" but I will miss the buffalo they infest.

I am truly looking forward to living on the east coast again. I missed it dearly! The vast expanse of ocean, the smell of the salt air, the familiar dialect, and the close proximity of so many family members. I think I missed that the most, and visiting the east coast this summer just rejuvenated that homesickness in me. It can get rather lonesome here in the cold, dark north. While I've made some terrific friends, it's family that I miss the most, particularly my parents.

The photo was taken by a professional photographer for a recruitment website...whose name I cannot remember and I can't find his card...oops...sorry.

October

Well, it was about 14C yesterday. Hardly typical October weather. If I wasn't cooking for a crowd, I may have just gone out kayaking! The water would likely still be warmer than it was in June, when the ice was just going out of the lake. I'm not sure what to make of the warm fall weather we've had so far. While I am certainly enjoying it, I fear it is the calm before the storm, so to speak. We don't really get many storms, but it could me a damn cold winter. I must consult the farmer's almanac, even though there are no farmers here...

If nothing else, it has meant warm weather for viewing the aurora; no down jacket yet, actually no real jacket, just sweaters so far; no shovelling snow (not that I really had to do that much up here); and I've only scraped my car twice so far this fall. I like it. I'm scared.

In Search of Summer Savoury

Thankgiving weekend is turkey time, and like many easterners, I put summer savoury in my dressing. The dried kind from Mt Scio Farms in Newfoundland. So I went grocery shopping for the last of the ingredients for Sunday's dinner, and savoury was on the list. I searched up and down at Extra Foods, and couldn't find it. So I asked the meat dept guy. What is savoury? he asked...go ask the guy in produce. I find him, and he is an Asian guy. What do you use it for? he asked...go ask the other guy produce. Another Asian guy. What is savoury? he asked..ok, what the hell. So I was a little irritated and gave up. I was off to Wal-Mart, to get some cat litter, since they didn't seem to have any. (I use non-clumping) Wal-mart did not have cat litter either, or summer savoury. Sigh. Co-op was next. One small bag of non-clumping litter, unless I wanted to spend $16.99 for the huge bag...um, no. However, BINGO on the savoury. They had all sizes shown above. One would think it was an exotic herb...at least now I'm set for Sunday dinner with the gals.

Fall on Tin Can Hill

These were taken on the 27th of September. Fall had fallen weeks ago. Now the leaves are down, and we've had snow a few times already. Nothing serious, just flakes, and I've scraped my window once. It's actually been milder than I was expecting. We're forecasted to get 16C tomorrow - whoo hoo! In one of these photos you can see the building that had a fire last winter. They lost 8 units, and have since built the entire piece back on...it's nearly finished here.

October Skies

I had heard someone mention the northern lights weeks ago, but it's been raining so much lately, I haven't had the opportunity to see them yet this fall...I also forgot to look on the rare clear evening...the rainy days all ran into one...but tonight I remembered to go out for a look and they were pretty awesome tonight. So I grabbed my camera and went wild. The boys were also enjoying the lights, though they can't sit still long enough for the photo (shutter is open several seconds). The nothern lights look like they're going through Stormy in one shot, ha ha. It would have been a great night out on the ice road with the bright skies we have...but the lake isn't frozen all the way over yet...far from it.