Light in the North

It's June 16th at 10:43 and I'm still looking out at more than twilight. At this time of year we wake at 5:00am, drink very strong coffee (Black Raven, roasted in Whitehorse) and live 17 hour days.

The extremes stretch you, but there's a certain vibrancy to it. Today a number of my co-workers are riding the "Haines to Haines" relay bicycle race. It's not that we have a number of "Tour de France" aspirants... these people are housewives and husbands... but it's a chance to get out with friends, and try something, stretch a little, and remind themselves that within the body of a mother/ telecome manager/wife is the soul of an athlete, yearning for a shot at glory. How wonderful to live in a place where that hope is nurtured and valued, and given opportunity to to try to grow.

My day was comprised of building an outdooor shower for me and my children, who arrive from Provence, France this Thursday. Just like with the "Haines to Haines,"I think we need others to help us stretch our own lives, whether it means runnning a race, or building the outdoor shower you always wanted, but never had the excuse for.

Summer comes to the Yukon!

It's been almost six months since I posted to this blog, but the ice melted on my lake several weeks ago, and the temperature is now up to 20 C (69 F) during the day, and staying above freezing (by a few degrees,) at night. "Outside," they call it "good sleeping weather," though I feel like I have that all year around. How cozy it is to snuggle under down comforters and Hudson Bay blanket when it's -30 C outside!

I spent part of Victoria Day (May 19-21) weekend up on Lake Labarge, a half hour drive north of my cabin. The lake was still partly frozen, but the ice was going out, and it was beautiful (see photo, above!)

Now the woods around my cabin have the herby and spicy, moist smell of new spagnum moss, juniper bushes and spruce. The wind wafts over my mountain, cooled by the snow still resting in the shadows of the rocks, and ripples across my lake. Arctic terns, pipers, ravens, gulls, mallards and loons are nesting around the lake edge The loons call out late into the evening when the sun goes down (towards midnight.)