Working Memory

Snow Tongues on the Sea Ice

2009-03-31T16:35:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back.
Yep the leg got sown back on and physio has worked a treat. The weekend was brillant with crystal reflections and frozen fish tongues lapping the Bay Ice. I had to get out and take photos. Got lots too. Fragile like crystals these wind sculptures were gone by the next breeze. Blowing away blue sky memmories.

A Running Memory

2009-01-31T16:13:00.000-06:00

Breath taking race over Frobisere Bay. Three hours to hitch up. Three hours of screaming "Down!". Three hours of pulling the pack fights apart...... then its all worth it ... for three hours of a bone jarring, eye freezing run around Iqaluit Inlet. "Mushers" are a different breed.

Twenty eight legs of working memory. Thirty seconds and then gone!!!

The Gathering

2009-01-15T06:27:00.005-06:00

Every morning we have an informal gathering. Just a drop-in or wall flower presence. We get a coffee. Gather a few table scrapes. Bread, seal fat cut beak size or a treat of frozen char. Pop the window. Let the explosion of steam pass. Drop the scrapes on the well worn landing strip. Move to the living room and enjoy. Joanisee, Pauloosie, Uki and George crash in to the gathering. They are the party pleasers. Loud, songful and what stories, from all over the community! The very soul of fast food. These guys only slow down to pump up their chests and look proud.

Fluffy joins the gathering in her quiet way. Sometimes a high-five on her window. Mostly just a long hard stare.

Well with the last sip of kapik and push of wings the morning journey has begun. Sometimes Ukki stays. Poking in the snow for a crum. Looking that sideways look. "Maybe an extra special bit for Ukki?"..... there usually is. Then we are all off. Into a frosty January. Except for Fluffy. Fluffy is a window cat.

Happy New Year...... crumbs for breakfast and gatherings for the soul! Winged memories are too quick morning memories.

Winging Over Baffin's last Sun

2008-12-13T12:45:00.002-06:00

The view from the top is occassionally brillantly clear with horizon to horizon mountains, river valleys and all the rugged cold harsh reality you can take...... just a few weeks later a small plane went down a little south of here onto the ice near Cape Dorset. Both the pilot and passenger saved their lives but took some frost bite on their toes while standing for hours on thin moving ice waiting for rescue...... froozen bubbles left where their plane used to be. Stories everywhere if you get some memories of your own... Loves those cold memories!

An Ice Lens for December 2008

2008-12-02T16:43:00.001-06:00

As December starts the ice tides in the river push ice mountaines into the sky. Some like this ice ulu glitter like fine crystal christmas decorations all along the Sylvia Grinnell River, where the Falls used to be. Strangely, after I took this photo two caribou ran across the ice some 100 meters down stream leaving Iqaluit behind them. Glimpse of memories sometimes are better than the long look.

Only minus 35 this day with the breeze.... The ice under our feet is crystal clean and really looks like captured time or some witch's dream.

Sunset at 2PM...... early afternoon memories move all too quickly into future nights.

Walrus On The Beach

2008-12-02T16:34:00.001-06:00

So don't like the unbearable likeness of Bear Head Soup? Try Walrus. Yep this was a Walrus. There are miles of guts to enjoy and all the blubber you'd ever want to render. There is surprisingly little meat. There is not, surprisingly, an under powering smell.... it doesn't go away even when the meat's in your mouth either.

This walrus mom and calf took a wrong turn and stayed too long to enjoy the view in a nothern community this Fall. Only the two legged tourists aren't eaten around here!

A visual image for memory lane...... with a hint of olfactory nightmare. But take just a taste, so you can say you were there!

A memory that can't fade.

Bear Head Soup

2008-12-02T16:23:00.001-06:00

Hey!

Anyone for polar bear head soup? Nice with fur removed and teeth left in, for that extra bite!

So if you find yourself with only the head left after a really good polar bear hunting party, take the time to enjoy the extra value of the good nutrition stored in well boiled or roasted smiles and growls.

But traditionally fokes there is nothing wasted!

2008-09-02T17:18:00.001-05:00

Catching the last warm winds of Fall these feather seeds want to get air borne. Once purple Arctic Fire Flowers, now a gossamer beauty of a different kind. If the wind were to just blow the air would fill with soft feathers looking for a spring nesting place. Floating Memories.

2008-09-02T17:14:00.000-05:00

It may be Fall but Caribou Berries, Arctic Cranberries, Blue Berries and Black Berries are just ripening. The hills, rock falls and rock valleys harbour a sweet and sour bounty that is a feast for the camera and tongue. Walking and picking and eating can fill an afternoon's walk. Left overs? Rich jam can be made for winter bannock. Sweet colourful memories.

Night is Back at Night in Iqaluit...hmmm What?

2008-08-23T12:28:00.000-05:00

So as day shorterns night grows deeper. Iqaluit turns it's lights on..... Down Town glows again.

Just a light switch Memory.

2008-08-23T11:38:00.000-05:00

So summer is brief but as winter night returns twilight sunsets can last and last. You deffinately don't have to rush to catch these photos when sunset can last for 3 hours. The sun catches the houses as they hover above the perma frost on their foundation. Then the helter skelter hydro poles lean and add that crazy verticle horizon look to the sky line. A fine memory.

2008-08-12T21:37:00.000-05:00

This little fur coat was checking out the tourist hikers. Followed us for many footsteps and kept posing for pictures. The Pang Pass is filled with magic momments. If it's not cloud swewpt mountain peaks it's wind walls and glacier hydrants that fill working memory to its brim.

Moon Rise Iqaluit

2008-08-12T21:08:00.000-05:00

Remember that huge moon? The one that you were sure was larger than the whole world? It filled our imagination and it dwarfed the mountains. It was so big that we could see each other's smile and a white reflection in your eyes. However big we thought we knew it somehow kept our eyes wide till it rose into relativeless sky and grew small. Moon rise one night that I remember.

Arctic Flowers ..... not a Paradox.

2008-08-12T19:24:00.000-05:00

July brings flowers to the Arctic. You'd think that the flowers would come and go in an instant but with never ending days and slow flying bumble bees the flowers stick around for weeks. Brilliant whites keep you looking for snow clouds. It'll snow too...

Where's that fuzz faced Tirngia dropping in for a quick check out.... then was gone. Trying to see what I was taking pics of.

Times are good when lemmings are fat! A simple truth.

A growing memory.

Summer is Leaving Us! But the Lights are Coming...

2008-08-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

The long sunsets of the Arctic are beautiful, cool and stark. They illuminate the long hills into horizon. Sun slowly boils into the night. Your shadow runs away from you all the way across the fjord to the ice scalped hills. Then the northern lights begin their dance.

Hard Ice from where?

2008-08-10T20:54:00.000-05:00

Hard Ice came into the Bay and spent days scultping, melting, and twisting in the wind. Hard ice is multi year ice that is really big and incredibly green or blue....... this should have been green as it blew over from Green Land. The Bay and river tidal shore was like a modern art side walk sale. I have some incredible pics.

Some say this blue ice blew in from Green Land... and ya know sometimes...

it did look green.

I went fishing last evening and because it was very very calm you could hear the popping and crashing as the bergs melted and fell.

We had a great fire with scavenged wood and then burnt supper. We regretted the missed fish.... Saw some stars break through the long day BUT in that few dark hours the first Aurora B came and went in a tall opening in the night sky.... no real night yet as the sun stays just below the horizon. 230 AM is morning time!!

Blue Icy Memories

2008-08-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

Fish of the day. Char, Char and more Arctic Char. Luckily it fights, taste good and is very
plentiful. So how do you like your Char, Smoked, Fried, Poached or on 'On Ice'?

Me? Well shushi is nice with a crunchee veggie and sticky rice. But over all and quick...
I like quick fried in spice... over easy.

A wrap in tin foil by the river has been good too. Let the coals turn white and season to taste. Open, peel from the bones and enjoy steaming hot.

Tasty Memory today.

2008-08-03T12:34:00.000-05:00

The Ice returned to Fobisher Bay. Makes for a very screwed up harbour but great photos. Mix a little sun into the morning bergs and wow does the ice come alive! It was easy to get lost in the high tide sculptures. Easily a 100 pics of water and wind shaped winter ice. Just standing still the falling rain from the bergs gave a rythme to the rising tide waves.
So much to do. So little working memory!

Look Sculptures for free! Catchem Quick!

2008-08-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

Windo on a Morning After, when the wind and fog blew in the sea ice. But boy can the wind and sea make art glow. But like any memory what the sun illuminates, time melts away.

Great Momments Gone Already!

Memories Start with a Single Consciousness

2008-08-03T12:18:00.000-05:00

Ok So I screwed up the registration and I am gonna have to tell some one. But now to start again. I gotta put my last year memories into chapters, tales and adventures. Right or jus write? Go! Ati! Hal-as! Shnell! Before you forget!

Michael