Wildlife!

I had to share - I just saw a white bunny run in front of the house. This is the first wild animal I have seen since I have been here, and I suspect that it might actually be the only wild animal a lot of these kids have seen recently if the show of young boys with hockey sticks running after it was any indication. It was pretty funny. The rabbit was no bigger than the hares back home and pure white too. I believe the little guy was able to avoid his avid fans/hunters and make a quick and successful getaway.

School starts up for the little peeps around here tomorrow with brand spankin' new floors - lucky devils. Let's hope that their curiosity with the new floors will bring in more students than ever. Education is so important and yet there seems to be a barrier preventing the children from understanding the benefits of a solid education. One can only hope that over the next few years with the added help of television, internet and other influences they see what they can achieve if they apply themselves - the prosperity of this town is counting on it.

The new High School is slated to be built for winter 2010, and it's going to be a very nice one indeed. A lot of hard work is going into it, although now all the workers have gone home for a well deserved 2 month break, hopefully some have gone very far south to enjoy a bit of sunshine and sandy beach (not the lava rock kind of beach around here).

The first few days of 2010 have been surprisingly mild for us on the rock. Today was simply beautiful, sunny and warm so Hope and I took advantage and trekked around the village and all our favorite trails that we hadn't been on in a while due to the incumbent weather.

I have also been able to focus some of my downtime here on painting and have finished one print. (see photo), next to tackle is a polar bear picture that I unfortunately had to pull off of the World Wide Web...argh, was hoping to get some live shots, but even with my hanging out like an Elvis fan at the dump hoping for a glimpse, alas, nothing has appeared but ugly ol' ravens. Big beaks on those suckers!

Keeping fingers crossed that some substitute teaching will take place over the next few weeks, if not it will be hard to stay in Sanikiluaq. No work is not so good and to top it off, Hope can't walk in the really cold weather - it's not like at home here, the cold is dry and well, cold. So she can't go far and that could mean trouble for us...sigh, the life of an old spoiled dog eh?

I have heard that there are very kind people who are taking care of the driveway of our house in Russell - shout out to the Racin's and all their hard work. Thanks a million - great neighbours are hard to come by, we are definitely spoiled! I will be sure to bring you back a picture of a rabbit! ;)

Yesterday Joe and Lindsay arrived back in Sani for the new school season, unfortunately their house didn't fare well while they were gone and the pipes froze, so Terry and I treated them to a spaghetti meal and I attempted to make a garlic loaf in my bread cooker...while the loaf was very tasty, it didn't rise...need to practice more with the bread machine, although our bodies might not take too kindly to all the samples we will have to eat! ha!!

Hope everyone had a safe return to work this week.

Yours in writing,

DJ
xo

New Beginings

Happy New Year!!!! 2010 is here! What Y2K hooplah?

It's amazing how much life changes in the span of 10 years and how fast time goes by. Who thought, in the year 2000 that I would be in the Great White North in 2010? Huh!

I am lucky that the end of 2009 presented a great opportunity for me and Terry to head up North. While he is obviously in his element, I continue to be bombarded by new things daily and am having a great time learning all about a very important part of our nationality: Inuit life and culture. Before I start to wax poetic about Canadiana and the importance of appreciating every aspect of this beautiful country and all it's people I will just share this one thought that has become truer in every sense of the word since I have been up here; Canadians are a very hardy people" and nowhere is it truer than of those who live in the world's Arctic circle.

Celebrations here are coming to a close tomorrow. While the weather has definitely been frightful it hasn't kept these folks indoors. Games and dances continued late into the night every night at the community hall. New Years Eve church services were held at 10PM (the services were scheduled on the same day, last minute decision - the community radio here is by far the best form of communication I have seen in any town, big or small) and then this was followed by everyone heading down to the docks and shooting their guns towards the sea at midnight. Once the Wild Wild North had all holstered their guns they all hopped on their horses/skidoos and toured the community (giddy-up!). It was an impressive sight and sound, a long line of lights and noise for miles and miles. Finally, although I missed this part of the evening as my eyelids insisted on succumbing to gravity, they square-danced the night away until early morning hours! There is a video of this great event that I am trying to get my little greedy hands on, but it's a very big file, so it may only appear in a later blog.

We are relaxing here this weekend (I know, so out of the norm for me), as the weather remains dreadfully cold. It was the first day in about 6 that Hope could actually stay out for more than 5 minutes without all 4 of her paws freezing at the exact same time...big baby. She doesn't like her boots, not sure if they hurt her but I suspect it might be more about her being embarrassed about what the local dogs think about her!! Hoping the fact that she could stay outside a little longer means that there may be some warmer weather on the way.

While we have yet to see any wildlife around here we found the following video on YouTube...I wonder if this is how the bears would be with Hope? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-Nyt4Bmi8

Wishing everyone the very best this year! Lots of love, laughter and a whole lotta fun!

Yours in writing...

DJ
xo