moovie

Some nights dinner just doesn't happen. Well, I suppose it happens, but just takes a strange form. Like tonight. Wash dishes and cook food? Nah. How about hit the "c-store" for some soft drinks, kettle-fry some popcorn and settle down for a movie. Don't tell our mothers.

bone hunt

These days the snow is being chased quickly away by a sun that barely sets. As it goes, it leaves behind lots of puddles and mud and mushy ground, but it also coughs up all the treasures it has been storing throughout the cold months. Discarded pieces of wood and lost mittens are showing up along the thawed-out streets in great numbers.

On a walk last night, we were lucky enough to spot our first truly-green plant nosing its way up from between these rocks. We were not, however, on the search for plant life. We were on a hunt for broken off bits of bone that have been scattered through the fields and over the rock faces by scavenging ravens all winter long. When you live in a tiny hamlet without much pre-packaged entertainment, you have to make your own fun.

The bone hunt was a great success, and I suspect it is but the first of many.

on to off

The school year ends a bit earlier up North and end-of-year projects are in full swing. Friday was the famed Science Fair at the elementary school. Judges were recruited from around town to give feedback and award points before the kids came down to present their findings.

The students worked hard on their projects, and many were able to strike the perfect blend of scientific rigor and down-to-earth practicality.

cancelled

Half-way to church on Sunday we found out that the fuel tank had run dry, so the morning service was cancelled. Good time for a hike.

fall more than fly

Snow birds are the first to arrive after the long winter. They come in small groupings, and right now they're not yet adjusted to the new environment. They bobble around pecking at the wrong things, and fall, more than fly, from the ledges and patio fences they find themselves on. Still, I'm glad to see something giving the ravens a run for their money.

super-pro-ish

I have to leave the house around the time most people are going to bed if I want to catch the sunset these days. When I can stay up and I have the energy for a hike it's certainly rewarding to get out in all the stillness and all the colour. And how much more rewarding when I can actually capture the scenery unblurred and undiluted!?

Enter: Panasonic delight. Or, more technically, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3X with the Vario PZ 14-42mm/f3.5-5.6 power OIS zoom lens. So in three short weeks of non-stop camera research I went from a point-and-shoot noob to knowing what all those letters and junk mean. Essentially what it breaks down to is quite-decent image quality in a quite-tiny camera. It turns out that the big tension in upgrading hardware is the trade off between great pictures and a sore neck from carrying around a gigantic camera. The trick with our new shooter is a super tiny body (achieved by leaving out some of the super-pro-ish stuff I don't care about) paired with a super tiny lens (due to fancy new collapsible-lens technology) and about 10x (literally) better image quality than our recently deceased point-and-shoot.

Of course all of this assumes you know how to use the camera. That part I'm still working on. For now, we've got some getting-to-10x better pics of the lookout behind our house.

(Secret hint: click to enlarge this last pic - it looks far cooler at full size).

two

Two years of wedded bliss gets you a giant space box.

Late last week I was surprised by an early anniversary cake - black forest - shipped all the way up from Yellowknife. Little did I know, things were just getting started. The space-box-roses were YK imports as well, and in remarkably good shape upon arrival considering they had journeyed so far from the florist. The real kicker, though, was the dinner. In a hamlet that doesn't actually have any restaurants, a romantic dinner is hard to pull off, especially without creating a gigantic pile of dishes that will inevitably be washed by one's beloved. This caribou and whitefish was catered and delivered by a kind lady in exchange for donations for the church. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

gettin' and showin'

I've discovered three convenience stores tucked away in the pockets of this community, and along with them I'm discovering the heart and soul of Kugluktuk. Really it's the heart and soul of any good community - the daily life of coming and going, getting the things you need and showing it off a little. People are out gettin' and showin' and it's visible on the streets, outside the converted shops, in the quasi public-private spaces between houses. And I think it's just getting started.

day 68

It is amazing how these plants survive on fake sunshine and the occasional tube of liquid nutrients. Well, the nutrients have run out and about a dozen harvests have reduced our lettuce garden from its former glory. For all the salads, for surviving where no vegetables have grown before and  for greening up of the place - we salute you!

hazards of the season

An email circulated at work today informing me that I should "walk quickly when entering or exiting the building." That goes for just about everywhere in the community. The ice and snow, built up over 6 months of freezing winter is finally giving way to the seventeen hours of warming sun. Dripping ice-melt and sliding ice-chunks are the new hazards of the season. 

point and shoot

It all started with the Olympus T-100. We didn't used to be camera people. We'd go on vacation and use notebooks and sketch pads to record the memories. Those days are long gone, and since then we've snapped over 10,000 pics from the jungles of Indonesia to the frozen tundra of the Canadian Arctic. All with this trusty point and shoot. Well, she's shot her last and along with her, our point and shoot days are over.

From now on expect visual karate. As in images kicking butt up and down the street. I'll have lots more to say about the new camera as I learn all the bells and whistles, but for now I'll show off my first shots from a quick jaunt into this sort-of-warmer evening of the kind-of-almost-Spring season.

kugluktuk awake!

The frolics are giving us a run for our money! We stepped out onto the field beside our home and discovered a swarm of food stand cooks, snow pile climbers, hockey stars and - of course - snow machine champions.

Although the air was chilly down by the racing grounds, everyone was still eager to slice off pieces of quaq char for a quick snack.

 After today's races wrapped up, we took a new route home and enjoyed the views from "behind the hamlet."

decked-out

The 2012 Nattiq Frolics are upon us, and the hamlet is astir with fishing derbies, seal hunts, snow mobile races, and 'frolicking' of every sort. For all our friends and family who are eager to plan their Arctic getaways, the Frolics are the time to come. The days stretch out long and bright, the sunsets linger for hours, and nothing beats the excitement in the air as the whole town squeezes out of work or school to bomb around on Ski-dos from event to event.

One of the highlights so far has been the Traditional Dress Competition, a final opportunity to show off the most elaborate winter outfits before they get packed away for the warm weather months. People came fully decked-out from head to toe in their handcrafted parkas, snow pants, kamiks and gloves.

This weekend will be jam-packed with more frolicking. We'll be back to let you know what you're missing.