Snow Tongues on the Sea Ice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

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?

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

Just a light switch Memory.