It’s been a while since my last post and life in the knife has been ticking along nicely. For the first time since we arrived in Yellowknife on that freezing cold day five months ago the temperature has become bearable. I may have acclimatized and waxed lyrical a month ago about the arrival of spring. But as others so rightly predicted, more coldness headed our way.
No one told me that it would be easy here. I seriously under estimated what the challenges of life under a frozen white blanket in the middle of no where. I miss the colour green. I miss bright and beautiful flowers. And I miss the energy that warmth provides. That said, I’ve taken comfort in books, cooking, the world wide web and all the delights one can find in an indoor existence.
And one of those delights would have to be a great book set in Yellowknife, Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay. A fantastic read, the book and the observations resonated closely with many of our own musings.
She wanted more experience, she told Eleanor. She wanted to learn from people who really knew what they were doing and that meant going “outside,” the Northern term for anywhere south of the 6oth parallel. By implication, the North, itself, “inside.” A distinction that first struck Gwen as an existential riddle, since how could this vast out-of-doors ever be construed as an interior? But she experienced her first winter.
So I’ve never heard anyone here refer to the “inside” or “outside” but there is something unique about the difference between life here and life in the rest of Canada (not that I am a Canadian with in-depth knowledge about life in the rest of Canada)
Luckily we had a brief urban escape in Vancouver two weeks ago. You can read more about that on James’s blog but suffice to say, feeling rejuvenated from a urban spring outing, we returned to the knife with a definite spring in our step knowing that the end must be near and the frozen white carpet is now revealing a bold new world – brown and barren as it may be in this frontier town.
The weather gods must have been looking down on us because last weekend it was short skirts and t-shirt weather (14 degrees celcius: and yes, that’s positive). We strolled around the town (rather than trudged) seeing things for the first time. Smiling people were out in their gardens and on their patios. The break up of the ice in Hay River has been dominating the local news and it’s a sure sign that the end is most definitely near…..
2 Comments
May 7, 2009 at 3:05 am
I’m right with you! (just moved back after 20 yrs in Vancouver). It’s not all that lovely right now, is it? – but you gotta admit the late light is delightful. And I know that spring, when it truly arrives, is just lovely.
May 7, 2009 at 3:36 am
You are totally right. I’m just a little impatient… the long evening light is simply fantastic and I can’t wait to see what the many lakes look like…..