No Fixed Address

The ancestral doily collection

2012-02-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

One of my great-grandmothers crocheted a lot of fine lace doilies, and I inherited these when my Mom passed away. I've had these stored in a bag, wondering what to do with them. They're so beautiful, but modern living isn't very doily-intensive.

I finally figured it out. I bought a jumbo frame at Ikea, cut up some old clothes for a background, and laid them out. I'll hang this in my bedroom.

Views of the Ottawa river freezing up

2012-01-07T16:49:00.001-05:00

Oh yeah, I have a blog! I'd almost forgotten since I got back from the States. I don't think I even posted any pictures from California this time, I was so swept away by Utah and had so many good pictures from there.

Here are some photos of the Ottawa river that I have taken from my condo since I've been back. When I got here Dec. 20, the river still hadn't frozen, but here are a few as it gradually closes in.

First that I took was Dec. 24, just starting to freeze up a bit:

Dec. 28, closing in a bit more:

Jan 5, it's probably as frozen as it gets, the rapids stay open. The area around the rapids opens up a bit on warmer days and closes in more on cold ones, it may become more constant as the cold weather hangs in as time goes on:

This is just a photo of the misty conditions out there today at sunset:

I'm still really happy with my condo. As you can tell I love the northwestern view of the river and sky, and I totally love the indoor pool- I swim around 3 times a week. I can also go out the back door and start XC skiing right beside the building, and go pretty much as far as I want in 3 directions along the bike paths and into the conservation area. Not bad for an otherwise urban location!

Park City, Utah

2011-12-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

Oops, I almost forgot I had a blog! Not sure why, I haven't been busy or anything.

I almost forgot to wrap up my photos of the Utah trip from back in October... here are a couple of photos of Park City. Some of the events for the 2002 winter Olympics were held there. It's a cute little ski town, just over the Wasatch mountains from Salt Lake City.

One of the chairlifts leaves from town...

So, that was my trip to Salt Lake City! It's a beautiful and interesting place, I really recommend going there.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

2011-11-29T07:44:00.000-05:00

Every Sunday at 9:30 am, the Tabernacle is opened to visitors to come listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as they perform for their weekly TV show, Music and the Spoken Word. They allow photos before and after the broadcast. I enjoyed the show- it's only 30 minutes long. Lots of visitors are there from around the world, I got the impression a lot of them were LDS church members from elsewhere.

Stained glass windows in old SLC train station

2011-11-27T01:39:00.000-05:00

The old train station in Salt Lake City is now part of an outdoor mall complex called The Gateway. It has beautiful stained glass windows themed around the settlement of the area. I thought they were really cool, as so much stained glass in buildings is either religious themed or abstracts.

Too bad this one came out a little blurry... I've never seen a steam engine in a stained glass window before:

Here are a couple of photos of the interior, there are paintings too:

Coming up next, a stop at the Tabernacle to hear the choir...

Bell Canyon Reservoir, Utah

2011-11-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

Despite getting rained and snowed out only 1/3 into this hike, Bell Canyon had to be the most breathtaking scenery of the Utah trip. The trailhead is at the fringe of the urban area, to the southeast of the city.

It was so beautiful, that my camera trigger finger would not let up, and I am going to inflict way too many photos on you. I'll shut up and let the mountains do the talking...

Please excuse the water spots on the lens from here on in- this was after we'd turned around due to rain and snow that wouldn't let up. It was cold enough out that hiking wet would be a problem, so we just couldn't keep going, which was a shame, this was a beautiful canyon.

The top of Big Cottonwood Canyon

2011-11-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

Oops, I almost forgot to show you the rest of the photos from Big Cottonwood Canyon, from the drive from Donut Falls, up to where the watershed ends. It sure is beautiful up there. Photos are from October 22.

Snow on the ground up here! Sometimes on the road, too.

This was at the divide between two watersheds, the Cottonwood Canyon one goes towards Salt Lake City, and from where this photo is taken it goes east towards Park City, on the other side of the Wasatch range.

Lotsa snow here! We got out and walked around in a ski area that's not operating yet. Soon though! This is from October 22,

Coming up next, a hike in beautiful Bell canyon, don't go away!

Ensign Peak, Salt Lake City

2011-11-16T19:57:00.001-05:00

When Brigham Young and the gang arrived at the current site of Salt Lake City, he and some others climbed up on a hill that is north of the current downtown, looked out over the basin and planned their city. Today there's a trail that leads up to the peak, and the short hike is recommended as a good one to do at dusk to see the lights come on in the city below. So, that's what I did.

These first few are taken on the way up:

Here you go: Salt Lake City. I'm not sure if this is what the original settlers envisioned, but this is how it looks now. The state capitol is slightly left of centre in the middle ground, with downtown behind it.

There were some cool clouds as the sun went down:

... and now the lights are coming on.

Donut Falls

2011-11-11T11:11:00.008-05:00

This is a popular hike trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon, southwest of Salt Lake City. The trail scenery wasn't breathtaking, but it was nice to be out in the woods, in the fall, in the mountains. Photos are from Oct. 22.

Below is the waterfall- you can see people climbing beside it. Near the top the water enters a round opening and comes out below, that is the "donut", but you couldn't see it that well and can't see it that well in the photo either. Nice waterfall all the same though.

After the waterfall we drove a little higher and further into the canyon, so I'll post the rest of those photos soon.

Oh, and just to note, it's 11/11/11 as I post this... just look at all those 1's! Try to ignore the "20" that is being omitted from one of them, and party like it's 1111...

Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

2011-11-08T08:01:00.001-05:00

Hop in! The drive from downtown Salt Lake City into Big Cottonwood Canyon, which is about 12 miles southwest, was amazing. I love mountains, and this trip had mountains-a-plenty. I was a passenger for this drive, so I could be trigger-happy on the camera shutter.

Heading west on I-80:

South on I-215, along the eastern edge of the city:

I think we're on Wasatch Blvd. here:

OK, we have turned east into the canyon... now up and up and up and up, and the mountains change around every turn...

Some nice fall colour:

Further up, lots of leaves are off the trees already:

... and we arrive at our hiking destination, Donut Falls. Don't go away, photos of that are coming up next...

Frary Peak trail and Dooly Knob

2011-11-05T14:33:00.000-04:00

We headed over to the east side of Antelope Island a little late in the day to do the planned hike of Frary Peak. There was a side trail to "Dooly Knob" that was shorter, so we took that instead. It still gave us great views. I'll restrain myself and show you just a few photos.

Here's a look over the water at some of the Wasatch Mountains which run to the east of Salt Lake City, stretching north and south of the city too:

Here's a view from near the top of the "knob", looking northwest at Great Salt Lake:

Just some rocks near the top of the hike:

Next up will be a trip into the mountains in Big Cottonwood Canyon, to the southeast of Salt Lake City, so don't go far...

Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island

2011-11-02T19:01:00.001-04:00

There's a state park on Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake. I've always wanted to see the lake, so I thought that would be a good place to head to get up close to it and do some hiking too.

To get there, you drive north of Salt Lake City for around 40 miles, and there is a causeway that takes you out to the island in the lake:

There are some places to stop on the west side of the island and hike short trails to get some views of the lake and the landscape:

This buffalo statue is at the visitor's centre. They introduced buffalo to the island in the late 1800's and they still graze on the island, although they round them up in winter and put them in pens.

A view back at the causeway and the mainland from the visitor centre:

Next stop, the beach, to have a taste of the lake. Verdict: really salty!

Beach sand:

These next photos are from another short trail where you can hike up on a bluff over the water:

Look... buffalo! Saw these on the drive to the other side of the island.

I'll have more photos from a hike on the east side of the island, coming up soon...

The Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City

2011-10-29T20:25:00.000-04:00

While I'm not a religious person myself, I do find extreme religion interesting, and really enjoyed my stay in Salt Lake City, Utah. I'll have lots of photos to show you of my trip, mostly of hikes, but to start off, here are some of the Temple downtown, taken on a couple of different days.

This building below is called an annex and entrance to the temple- the temple is not open for tours and non-Mormons are not allowed to enter, so I am guessing they keep the doors locked and church members enter underground through this annex building.

While people can't tour the temple, they do have a nice model of it in one of the visitor's centre. I find it interesting how the temple is divided up into several rooms and levels, rather than having one main room as most churches do. The temple is used mostly for baptisms and weddings, while services are held at the Tabernacle next door (which I'll show you later).

The east and west sides of the temple have many smaller rooms... you can see my reflection in this one:

This is a close-up of the room in the basement where they do full-immersion baptisms.

Lots more Salt Lake City to come... stay tuned...

Aerial photo of my neighborhood

2011-10-25T08:34:00.001-04:00

As my flight was taking off for Chicago last week, where I was connecting to Salt Lake City, the plane circled north over Ottawa as it gained altitude. I got this photo of my new neighborhood:

I'm in Salt Lake city right now, doing some hiking. Stay tuned, photos of my stay here to follow...

Felzen South, Nova Scotia

2011-10-22T23:12:00.001-04:00

I was there a couple of weeks ago, and took a few photos. Felzen South is the village my Mom was born in, and her Mom grew up there. My grandmother was a Spindler, and the Spindlers were in Felzen South since the foreign protestants from Germany settled there in the 1750's.

Here's the beach at Spindler's cove, which is right in Felzen South. The sand there is black. They get lots of sea glass washing up there, pieces of broken glass that have been smoothed by the movement of the ocean. You can see Lunenburg and Blue Rocks on the distant shore.

Here's the cemetery, it's right on the water.

Lunenburg Harbour panorama

2011-10-19T08:04:00.001-04:00

Here is a panorama I pasted together of Lunenburg harbour. This is from October 7.

Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival

2011-10-17T07:48:00.001-04:00

A couple of weekends ago I was in Nova Scotia with my brother. Driving through Mahone Bay, we felt like we were being watched from the side of the road... we pulled over to investigate.

It was the scarecrow festival... we went for a little walk and had a look at some of them, here's a small sampling:

Mud Lake / Britannia conservation area

2011-10-13T20:53:00.001-04:00

Yet another good thing about the location of my condo is that it's a 10 minute walk to one of the trailheads for the Mud Lake / Britannia conservation area. This is a pond right beside the Ottawa River, surrounded by forest and a trail that goes around it.

One of the best kept secrets of the trail... a forest monster!

Here are some pics from my hike around the lake. It was an overcast day, and the fall colours aren't quite as glorious this year as they could be, but it's still a very nice hike.

At the north end of the conservation area you come out to a little channel of the Ottawa river:

I love how Ottawa has these little bits of semi-wilderness tucked into the city. This trail was around a 1-hour hike. There are lots of small side trails to explore, I didn't do all of them, saved a few for another day.

Goodbye, old house

2011-10-11T10:03:00.001-04:00

I sold my house at the end of September. I'd owned it since 1999, although it had mostly been rented out since 2004. I sure bought at a good time- best investment I ever made, house prices more than doubled in those 12 years. It was 103 years old, built in 1908.

Mine is the right hand side of the brick semi below:

I'll miss the house- it was very small, but it sure had character. For those who knew it, come take a last look through...

Here's the living room- I loved the stained glass windows.

The kitchen...

This was the bike room, I didn't have a garage or shed so I kept them in this back room off the kitchen:

Let's go upstairs...

A contender for the skinniest bathroom in the world... loved the claw-foot tub though. It was a small one, very cosy.

That's a stained-glass mirror over the sink, too. The house had some charming touches like that.

The back bedroom. It had french doors to open up the bathroom into it.

The middle bedroom- it faces south so it's very bright.

The front bedroom, it's the only normal-ishly (but still small) sized bedroom in the place:

The upstairs hall:

The back yard. My most recent tenant was a gardener wannabe, which meant she got as far as removing my raspberry and other fruit bushes and all my perennials, and then lost steam and let it go to weeds. Sigh. For a house in my price range though, this is a very nice, deep back yard, with parking (that lower part of the patio is the parking space.)

I'll miss the atmosphere and the charm, and the wonderful natural light. I won't miss the maintenance, the lawn mowing or shovelling, the thermostat that didn't do the "stat" part very well, the current foot-stomping and guitar-strumming neighbors on the other half of the semi, sharing a driveway with a madman on the other side, or the relentless insurgence of the local herd of very determined mice. I also won't miss being a landlord... the tenant who razed the fruit bushes was also not too reliable with paying her rent.

My house... cloud and silver lining, all wrapped up together. The neighbor who owns the other half of the semi bought it, so she can find someone now to rent it to who can put up with Strummy and Stompy. I was on the brink of insanity from the noise, which I guess is a good thing, made it much easier to leave an otherwise really nice little house.

Sunset

2011-10-06T22:37:00.000-04:00

These are from Sept. 29, taken from the balcony at the condo. Loving these fall sunsets!

Condo reno: Done!

2011-09-29T11:11:00.000-04:00

I moved into the condo about a week ago. Here are the official before and after pics from the reno I did. I think I improved it at least a bit.

Here is the living room wall before and after the carpenter enlarged the window between it and the kitchen. That and getting rid off the off-brown walls really increased the light:

Living room before and after the floors and paint were done. The floors are a red-oak engineered hardwood. (In a condo, you can't use solid hardwood as it expands too much on the concrete):

Dining room / entry:

Kitchen:

Bedroom with the disturbing yellow paint and beige rugs. Between that and the off-brown in the living room, I called it the pee-and-poo colour scheme. Gone!

And the view of course is still amazing, no improvements needed there:

So that's where I'm living! Closing day on my house sale is today. I'll put some photos up of the old place once I am connected on internet (Bell has still not figured out how to move my internet connection, after a whole week! I'm at the library right now.)

Condo reno: Floors finished

2011-09-20T07:56:00.001-04:00

For the past couple of weeks the flooring installers have been working on my floors at my condo. Here are some photos from during the process:

The hardwood boxes, tile boxes, and hardwood underpadding.

The first day they made lots of progress, the carpet and old baseboards were ripped out and they got the floors laid in the bedroom and the living room:

This is a couple of days later, the tile guy came and ripped out the tile, and then disappeared for a while, I think they said he was having a baby or something:

The front entry- I don't think I documented what it looked like before but it had a nondescript brownish tile before:

This is the kitchen without the tiles, the appliances have been taken out. That roll of pink stuff is the underpadding, it's required in a condo for sound insulation.

Here are some before and after pics to show how drab the floors were before and now nice they are now. Here's the bathroom, the white tiles are the old ones that came out. The new tiles are a porcelain tile made to look like slate. They're still very dusty, haven't swept yet:

Living room:

They did a nice job on the stairs down into the sunken living room (it's still dirty, I need to sweep and then damp mop to get all the dust up):

Bedroom- the carpet in here was particularly boring and nondescript:

Detail of the inside of the closet:

Kitchen- I really like how the new tiles add some contrast, the kitchen and bathroom were just pathologically neutral before:

So, all that's left is the painting, which is happening this week. I'll take some photos once it's done. I move in on Friday so I might not be free to put them up right away.

Expiry minute

2011-09-16T18:46:00.001-04:00

As a nurse, I work a lot with expiry dates. Drugs and other assorted medical doodads have a certain shelf life, and the month and year in which they need replacing is printed on the package.

In recent years expiry dates have been added to packaged foods that didn't always have them before. As I was munching on some peanuts recently, my eyes passed over the expiry date. I was pretty impressed, that wow, they don't just know that these nuts will go bad in June of next year, they think they know the exact date! Then I looked closer...

They don't just know the day. They have it timed right down to the hour, and indeed... the minute. If I don't finish them on June 3, I'm gonna have to get up pretty darned early on the 4th to polish them off safely.

It's official: Twitter is stupid

2011-09-07T08:16:00.014-04:00

After years of anecdotal research, I've developed my theory into solid fact and am ready to share it with @you: #twitter is stupid.

I get the concept of microblogging. I believe in it. I participate in several times daily myself, through Facebook. (Which isn't to say I believe in everything Facebook does...)

I think it's wonderful to keep in touch with acquaintances who would have faded out of my life, and often turn these very loose connections into genuine electronic friends, who I then get together with whenever geographical challenges allow. Some acquaintances from years past have resurfaced via my friend's friends lists on Facebook, and we know each other better now via electronic means than we ever did in "real" life. I've never bought into the idea that face-to-face communication = real, electronic communication = fake . You often see sides to people on Facebook that you didn't see when they were wearing a different mask when you hung out with them in real life.

It's great to be part of a bigger community of people, and stay in touch with what is going on in their lives. This is true even when they're not someone I know in 3-D life... in several cases I've added someone to my friends list on Facebook whom I've never met, in fact have sometimes never even met electronically, and as long as they can construct a sentence, and aren't trying to "network" for moronic mogul-wannabe or religious reasons, I enjoy following their updates. They become part of my community, even if they don't live next door or even in the same town.

I've concluded however that Twitter really doesn't offer that, despite the claim that it does.

I follow a lot of blogs, and lately many bloggers have been offering up their Twitter feed. If it's a bright and interesting blogger, I go have a look.

What I inevitably find is a string of incomprehensible, uninteresting @replies they make to their 4756 followers or followed, who you can tell from the meaninglessness and randomness, aren't people they know either electronically or in real life.

There's no point in this. This is not a community, this is not a useful addition to the real and well-crafted thoughts they share on their blogs. There's rarely anything bright or compelling on their feed, there is rarely anything original at all. Twitter's own character limit doesn't allow for bright and compelling... it often doesn't allow for a single complete thought before you've gone over your alloted Tweet-space.

So, if you were feeling Flintstonian for not "getting" Twitter (hey, plug the words "I don't get" into Google, and it's #1 suggestion for what you are looking for is, you guessed it...), rest assured, it's not you. It's Twitter. There's just nothing there to get. I've been checking back for years, there is nothing there but noise. If there is the odd nugget, it's lost in the noise.

There's nothing Twitter does that other electronic forms of communication don't do better.

Condo reno: Let there be more light

2011-09-03T21:54:00.000-04:00

To get my condo ready to move into, I'm getting three things done:

1) pass-through window between kitchen and living room enlarged
2) carpets and old tile replaced with hardwood and porcelain tile
3) paint

My condo has a really great view, but the interior was kind of dingy looking, which is maybe why it hadn't sold, despite being on the market intermittently for much of the past year. It had been rented out, and the tenant had chosen a drab colour that made the interior look dark. I was willing to bet though, that due to the river view and the western exposure, that it was a diamond (well, at least a cubic zirconia) in the rough, and I bought it for 90% of the current asking price.

Part of why it looked dark though was that it really was dark. When they built these in 1974, the kitchens were completely walled off. Since then, most units have had them opened up to some extent, but in this unit, they had just added a small, conservative window to bring some light into the kitchen. The net result was... not that much light really got in.

Here are the before pictures:

Because so many units were for sale when I bought this one, I got to see how others had renovated their kitchens. I considered totally taking out the upper wall and replacing it with cupboards and countertop, but decided that I liked the clean lines of a larger window I had seen in another really nicely renovated unit. This had the added benefit of being much cheaper to do than putting in cupboards, and would preserve floor space, which is not that abundant in this kitchen.

I hired a carpenter through Handyman Connection. Here are the after pics. Bear in mind that it looks kind of rough as the painting hasn't been done yet:

You probably can't tell from the photos, but this really makes the light travel better around the apartment, it goes into the dining room now and the kitchen is way brighter, you don't need to turn the lights on in there any more during the day.

So, that was step 1. It cost around $900, and took the guy 2 days (some of that was waiting for plaster layers to dry). In 2 days the flooring guys come to rip out the carpet and tile, so stay tuned...

The Health Canada china

2011-08-30T12:54:00.000-04:00

Back in the day, the health centres in northern Canada were all run by the federal government and were called nursing stations, and each one had a residence where the nurses lived communally. Food was provided by the health department, and was ordered weekly or so by the nurses.

These residences were furnished by the department as well. One of the head honchos back then, maybe in the 1970's or so, wanted the nurses to have nice things to use, and each nursing station was equipped with a set of fine china and silver.

In most of the communities this has long since worn out or broken, but sometimes in the smaller communities some of the china can still be found in one of the existing apartments.

Here is some of the place setting china:

Here's a close-up of the pattern, I forget the name of it already:

Pretty rare to still have the silver kicking around, and in it's original case too:

It's an interesting little quirk of history, to find it here and there in a few of the smaller communities across Canada.

My deeeluxe apartment in the sky

2011-08-26T18:34:00.000-04:00

My desire to have a home base, combined with my migratory lifestyle, led me to buy a little one-bedroom condo in Ottawa last month. It's in the near-west end of Ottawa, and is right on the Ottawa river and the bike path network. I can walk to almost everything- malls, stores, library. I like that I can lock it and leave it and not worry too much about it, which is impossible with a house.

It's on the 20th floor of a 25 storey building. It has a great view of Britannia bay and the Deschennes rapids in the Ottawa river, as well as Mud lake. Here's the view at sunset one day last week, looking at the rapids:

Not bad, eh? I love having a sky view. It faces west so I can watch the weather roll in too.

I haven't moved in yet, I have some renovations to do first. Stay tuned and I'll post some photos of that as I try to re-make a somewhat drab (literally, wait until you see the wall colour) little apartment into something a little less drab.

Flying south out of Arctic Bay

2011-08-22T07:46:00.001-04:00

Just a few more photos to show you from my flight south on July 10. I didn't mean to drag them out for this long!

Here is Holy Cross point from the east as we climb out of Arctic Bay:

I took a physical geography course in university but of course have forgotten all the words I learned for the various landforms. So here are those fan-shaped thingies that form at the mouths of rivers:

Just some interesting landscapes, not the greatest photos though. I do the best I can though a dirty airplane window and the variable moisture in the air:

Landscape on the cusp of becoming repetitive and boring:

... and that's it. That was my trip to Grise Fiord this spring and early summer. Not sure where I'll be going next, or when.

The new Arctic Bay airport

2011-08-18T07:21:00.001-04:00

They started building the new airport in 2006, and it took 5 years. The new and improved runway is on the site of a previous smaller runway that was used occasionally for medivac flights and maybe other small charter planes.

The former regular airport was around 30 km away, close to the old mine and townsite of Nanisivik. Weather at the old airport was frequently a problem so flights would often be cancelled- I have heard it's much better now that the new airport is open. As well, if the taxi forgot you on it's way to the old airport (happened to me once!), it was a very big deal to try to get a ride out there before the plane left without you (if it landed at all... weather!)

Flight from Resolute to Arctic Bay

2011-08-15T07:09:00.001-04:00

Here we are taking off from Resolute on July 10. If I ever spend any time there, I want to try to walk around these old buildings at the airport that you can see in the photo below. Lots of them are very old and no longer in use. Some or most are government buildings, some might be military too:

A peninsula pointing south:

North coast of Baffin Island:

We fly over some cool canyons as we cross the Brodeur peninsula:

I'm such a sucker for a pretty ice pattern. This is in Admiralty inlet:

Entrance to Adams sound, which takes you to Arctic Bay:

Adams sound:

Flying over the southwest lobe of Arctic Bay the town, and Arctic Bay the body of water:

Next up, I'll show you the new airport at Arctic Bay that opened just this year.

Flying into Resolute

2011-08-11T07:23:00.001-04:00

Our flight to Resolute from Grise was late on July 9, so these photos are all I got from my stay there, no time to go for a walk in the evening as we leave for the airport the next morning at 5:15 am.

Aziz, who runs the South Camp Inn, says that lake in this photo is usually frozen until August, and this year it was only a couple of days before it would be thawed.

There's Resolute the town in the upper left:

Coming in for a landing:

View from my room at the South Camp Inn. I wish I would have had time to go for a walk, but I was just too tired, had been working right up until the time I left Grise.

Stay tuned, I have a few more aerial landscape photos from the flight down from Resolute.

The surreal landscape of Devon Island

2011-08-08T08:07:00.001-04:00

Here are some more photos of Devon Island. I love the patterns, and the meanderings of the rivers.

Mars on Earth

2011-08-05T07:37:00.002-04:00

One of my fellow passengers on the flight from Grise Fiord to Resolute had worked at the Mars on Earth project, so he pointed it out to me as we passed over it on Devon Island. There is an international research project that uses that site as a "terrestrial analog" for Mars.

The site is that white crater ("Haughton impact structure") and the surrounding terrain:

Ice in Jones Sound

2011-08-02T07:24:00.001-04:00

Here are some pics of the ice in Jones Sound as we flew over it on July 9. I love the patterns the ice makes as it melts and breaks up. It's different every time I fly.

Leaving Ellesmere Island

2011-07-30T21:38:00.001-04:00

OK, I have to admit, I actually left Ellesmere Island 3 weeks ago. I've been a bit of a slacker in the past couple of weeks with updating the blog, but I still have some pics to show you from my flight home.

The weather was fantastic on June 9, when I flew out of Grise Fiord. Here is the town on take off:

That's the Greenlander mountain in the middleground, the entrance to the fiord is to the left:

Grise Fiord (the fiord):

Isn't it beautiful? They even pay me money to be on these flights. And since it was a Saturday, they paid me overtime! You can see a couple of glaciers in the photo below:

More fiords and ice as we follow the southern coast of Ellesmere Island:

Lots of glaciers now in the background mountains:

The ones below are of the south cape of Ellesmere Island:

Still more glaciers:

And the last look at the south coast of Ellesmere as we head across Jones Sound to cross Devon Island. Lots of glaciers:

I'll show you some Devon Island photos, and the Mars on Earth site on Devon Island as seen from the air, so stay tuned!

Early summer landscape

2011-07-25T07:30:00.002-04:00

Just another photo of the beautiful melting landscape on Jones Sound, again from July 6. You can see the corner of town at the far right:

Tent rings and old food caches

2011-07-21T19:30:00.000-04:00

These photos are also from July 6. There are some old tent rings out near the old air strip that people don't remember seeing before, I think they are just in a corner of the field that people didn't go strolling on very often. We had a look at them. I think they said they were probably from the Dorset people:

These are probably old food caches from around the same time:

Wolf tracks

2011-07-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

I'm told these are wolf tracks. I wouldn't have known if someone didn't tell me; they're big, but some of the dogs are pretty big too, so I can't tell the finer points of dog toes vs. wolf toes.

Glacier

2011-07-15T07:18:00.001-04:00

Grise Fiord used to have a lot of glaciers visible from or near town. These have been receding in the past 20 years or so, and I notice the difference even in the 3 years that I have been visiting.

This is one of the few remaining ones you can see near town- it's visible from the old airfield to the east. It's that filled-in area in the upper-left quadrant of the photo where the two mountains meet. I took the photo on July 6.

Ice chunks

2011-07-13T09:25:00.000-04:00

Just a few more photos of ice that gets stuck with the tide. These were taken July 4. There's nothing to show scale, but these are big - the ones at the bottom would be around 5 feet thick.

Gulls on ice

2011-07-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

Interesting rock

2011-07-08T07:59:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago we went for a little drive out to where the old airstrip was for our coffee break. As I was wandering around, I saw this very cool rock:

It was a little boulder of boring grey, but was covered with what looked like kleenex that had been through a washing machine. No, it wasn't bird poop! I think they're called extrusions, they were white and a little bit sparkly. Very cool, the sort of thing you usually ooh and aah at in the geology section of the natural history museum. It's not that big, smaller than a volleyball.

River

2011-07-06T07:49:00.002-04:00

Here's one of the little rivers that comes out of the mountains, babbles over the tundra and empties into the bay. These small rivers are surprisingly loud, you can hear them from far away and the rush they make, especially from a distance, sounds a lot like a large highway.

Ice starting to break up

2011-07-04T07:45:00.000-04:00

The ice close to shore is breaking up. This photo is from July 2:

Canada Day boat race

2011-07-01T21:23:00.000-04:00

The weather was perfect in Grise Fiord this Canada Day. One of the community events is a sailboat race for kids, held on the pond in the middle of town. Kids build their own boat and they race them across. I missed the start of the race- my balcony looks out on the pond but I guess the crowd was keeping an awed hush during the race. Here are some photos from the end:

The boats are pretty impressive! The winds were light but they were all moving well. Love the little flags on some of them.

Most northerly bridge in North America

2011-06-29T08:31:00.001-04:00

I'm told this is the most northerly bridge in North America. I had never stopped to think about it, but if Alert and Eureka don't have any, then I guess that would have to be true. I took this photo June 12.

Summer solstice at the top of the world

2011-06-27T08:23:00.000-04:00

I took these photos on the summer solstice, June 21, at around 11:40 pm. I couldn't bring myself to stay up until midnight... the longest day of the year is almost 4 months long in Grise Fiord, so it's hard to get too excited about it when you are two months into it, the sun last set on April 23. But still... considering we are surrounded by mountains to the west and north, it's pretty darn sunny here in town at almost midnight.

The one below is looking northeast... not to much shadow, that sun is pretty high for an arctic sun.

Flooding

2011-06-24T08:28:00.001-04:00

We had a lot of snow the week before the thaw, and then a very sudden spike in temperatures on June 9 and 10. This caused more dramatic runoff than usual, and led to some flooding and some roads being washed out.

At least this dog has a boat!

Here's the river carving a channel in the snow:

I didn't notice it when I took this photo, but there is a bunch of erosion at the base of the steps from a little temporary creek that ran under the health centre. It got worse by the next day and washed out the bottom step:

The road to the dump washed out, here it is on the evening of June 10:

It was around 4 feet deep in places, and at least 6 feet across:

Here's a creek that formed from the co-op parking lot. It had several channels, and was around 2 feet deep in places:

Another weird looking fish

2011-06-22T08:24:00.000-04:00

Some people were out turbot fishing June 8 and pulled up this strange fish they had never seen before. They put it on the steps of the school for everyone to go have a look at. I think it was around a foot and a half in length, maybe a bit longer. They figure it's a bottom-feeder of some sort. If anyone recognizes it, leave a comment...

Skimming

2011-06-20T08:17:00.000-04:00

These photos of skiddoos skimming on the melted pond behind the health centre are from June 8.

On a cloudy evening, you can see the pearly gates from here

2011-06-17T07:21:00.000-04:00

This photo was taken the same day as the health centre outing, June 3. This is more typical of the weather that week. The sky that evening and the light in the fiord was particularly dramatic:

Jigging for Sculpin

2011-06-15T08:08:00.000-04:00

After looking at the Seagull colony, we started heading back to town, with plans to find a spot to go jigging for "Ugly fish" along the way.

Here are a couple of views of the cliffs above us on the way back:

We found some cracks and started jigging. Before too long one (and only one) was caught, but not by me. They are a pretty interesting looking fish:

Here's me, jigging in futility:

Here's me faking a seal hunt:

... and that was it, back to work! It was a great outing, we packed as much fun into 2 1/2 hours as we could.

Seagull breeding colony

2011-06-13T08:02:00.001-04:00

Next stop on our June 3 outing was to see the cliffs where seagulls nest.

First, a couple of mountain pics as we cross the fiord to get to the cliffs:

Here it is. The cliffs are orange from a lichen that grows in abundance here, fertilized I guess by the seagull poop. Those are our skidoos parked at the base.

Here's a close-up, but not that close- there are 4 gulls in this photo but you can hardly see them!

Another cliff photo. You can see a lichen-covered cliff in the foreground, but it's in shadow now, the clouds are coming back.

Next stop... on our return to town, we stop to go jigging for Ugly fish!

The polar bear trap

2011-06-10T07:46:00.001-04:00

Here is some of the landscape on our way to see the bear trap. This is June 3, heading towards the mountain where the trap is:

The trap was still quite buried in snow, but we could see the entrance. They think it's between 400-800 years old. They would bait it with meat, and the bear would squeeze in and couldn't get out again, and the hunters would spear it. That's the entrance below the little snow drift on top of it.

More beautiful views from the site:

... next stop, a seagull nesting area on some cliffs... stay tuned!

A hard day at the office

2011-06-08T07:09:00.000-04:00

Well, we might have actually snuck out of the office for a few hours. Once or twice a year the staff of the Health Centre heads out on the land for a little outing with our buddies the RCMP.

Last week the weather was actually abysmal, but we planned an outing for last Friday anyway. I think the two hours we went out for turned out to be the only two good hours of the week- it cleared just as we headed out and closed back in as we returned to town.

Here are some of the photos... don't go away. as I'll have more in upcoming blog posts.

We didn't get very far before we came to a lead (a crack in the ice with open water, for any southern friends not familiar with the term). Had to go out and look for a good place to cross it:

Another photo showing the lead in the ice.

I was a passenger in the komatik, and it was bouncing so much I took a trillion photos hoping just a few would turn out. Thanks to the weather though, almost all of them turned out. I'll try not to inflict too many though. But here are some of the Greenlander mountain, from a different angle than I usually see it at from town:

Here are two pasted together as a panorama- I was lazy with the colour correction, the left hand photo wanted to stay blue and I didn't want to fight it:

Here's looking into Grise Fiord:

Close up of the end of the Fiord:

Some of the lower hills that form part of the southwestern side of the Fiord:

These are low islands in front of one of the mountains.

Clouds were just so dramatic and beautiful too during the short window when the weather cleared:

Looking back at where town is. The low islands are at the right, we've passed them now.

So stay tuned... next stop is an ancient (or thereabouts) polar bear trap that dates back probably to the time of the Thule.

Flare cans at the old airstrip

2011-06-05T07:32:00.000-04:00

Until the early 1970's, planes coming to Grise Fiord used to land about a mile and a half east of town, at least during the seasons when they couldn't land on the ice, which is also something they used to do (and did as recently as last Thursday when high winds at the current airport prevented a landing there).

They used to mark the airstrip with flares in cans. The cans are mostly still sitting there at the site. I took these photos on May 23.

This is just a photo of the gravel around there.

Dogs on ice

2011-06-03T08:24:00.000-04:00

Bear skin

2011-06-01T08:24:00.000-04:00

This would be from one of the sports hunter trips, I think.

Ice heaves

2011-05-30T08:21:00.000-04:00

I hope I'm not boring you with my ice heave photos. I just think it's so cool the effect the tides have on the ice close to shore. These formations are constantly changing. I took these pictures on May 19.

Skidoo tracks on the mountain

2011-05-27T08:27:00.000-04:00

The young guys like to test their skidoos, their skills, and their bravery by heading up the mountainside on their machines:

For a while, every few days there was a new loop higher than the next. It gets pretty steep, the photo doesn't quite do it justice.

Devon Island

2011-05-25T08:22:00.000-04:00

Devon Island is around 75 km south of Grise Fiord at it's closest point. You can't always see it, you need clear weather. May 20 the weather was really clear, and I had a good view of it as I climbed up a little ways up a mountain behind town.

In the photo below you can see open water (the dark blue stripe between the ice and the mountains), the floe edge is moving closer to town:

Iceberg

2011-05-23T08:23:00.003-04:00

In the many years I've been working in Nunavut, I've never had the chance to walk out to an iceberg frozen in the ice. I've seen icebergs many times, usually during open-water season. This year in Grise Fiord, there is a small iceberg within walking distance of town, around a mile and a half out. It was May 21 that I walked out there.

That's the berg in the distance, upper left:

Once I got closer to it, I could see that it was melted out in the middle to form two lobes:

I took quite a few photos- it's beautiful. There's dirt on this iceberg- it was either attached to land at some point or has been resting on the sea floor during low tides at some point in it's existence.

Panorama of Jones Sound

2011-05-19T07:23:00.001-04:00

After I looked at the monument, I walked over to the base of the mountains behind it. I took this panorama looking out over the town and Jones Sound. It's probably around a 150 degree view.

It's finally starting to feel a bit like spring here- the sun is so intense, which it has been for a while, but the temperatures are pretty consistently warmer than -10 now, so it's really nice for walking.

Monument

2011-05-16T07:19:00.001-04:00

I had heard of this monument but hadn't been out to see it yet. It's kind of tucked away in an out of the way location, behind the co-op. You can't really see it from anywhere in town. From the monument though you have a nice view of the community and Jones Sound.

Ice sprouts

2011-05-13T08:03:00.001-04:00

I don't know if there is a specific name for these ice formations near the shore, but they remind me of how the earth bulges when germinating seeds poke up in the spring, in gigantic form:

The colour of silence

2011-05-11T07:59:00.000-04:00

Glacial meltwater on tap

2011-05-09T07:52:00.000-04:00

Unlike most Nunavut communities, our water isn't sucked out of a lake. Grise Fiord collects meltwater in the spring and stores it in two large tanks to supply the community for the whole year. The source is glaciers north of the town, and I'm sure there is snow melt and rain coming off the glacier too.

Here are the two tanks:

The water trucks don't have to drive very far; the tanks are right in the middle of town.

The old tank was turned into a storage garage when it was decommissioned:

A dog's dogsled

2011-05-06T07:52:00.004-04:00

The dogs probably don't kick back and relax in one of these, but they don't have to do the hard work either.

When sports hunters come to Ellesmere Island, they hunt by dogsled, at least for polar bear hunts. Their hunting area might be far from the community, so the dogs are transported to the hunting area by skidoo. Here's the transport komatik:

I wish I'd gotten a photo of it the day before when it was still loaded up (the dogs were out, but the rest was still loaded). The smaller komatik at the back was loaded on top of the dog cabins with camping gear. It must take a powerful skidoo to pull the load.

Entrance to the Fiord

2011-05-03T07:46:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend before last of the entrance to the fiord:

Panorama from the ice

2011-04-30T13:44:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I was out for a walk on the ice. Here's a panorama looking back on the town. You'll have to click it to see anything.

The metal dump

2011-04-27T07:05:00.001-04:00

I like looking at the metal dumps in the communities I work in. They're a little like museums, where all the old vehicles and appliances go to slowly rust away.

Not a bad view from this one either, eh?

Let there be light. Lotsa light.

2011-04-25T11:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, April 24, was the first day when the sun doesn't set here in Grise Fiord. It stays above the horizon for almost 4 months here. We're at 76 degrees north. Only 14 degrees from Santa!

Here's what it looked like just before midnight last night. The landscape does go into shadow at night, as we're surrounded to the west and north by mountains, and the sun is low in the sky then.

This is looking north at the Co-op store:

This is looking southwest. It's taken through a window so it messed with the colours a bit.

I love the 24 hour light (and indeed, we've had 24 hour light since I got here in early April). It doesn't disrupt my sleep, I don't need foil on the windows or anything like many do.

It might be cold up here (highs still around -20), but at least I can inspect my fingers for frostbite in natural light, right around the clock!

Bright, white, and blue

2011-04-23T07:52:00.002-04:00

I went for a walk yesterday morning in the brilliant April sunshine. Here's a panorama of what Grise Fiord looks like now. You'll have to click it if you want to see any detail. There's an iceberg at the far left. The south cape of Ellesmere Island is visible in the far distance. The mountain called "The Greenlander" is right about at the middle of the photo, with the entrance to the fiord to the left of it. The town is to the right of The Greenlander.

A couple more views, this one is of the town in the distance:

The entrance to the fiord between the two mountains:

Resolute from the air

2011-04-21T07:42:00.007-04:00

I forgot to post this photo I took when we were landing in Resolute back on April 6. The town is in the background. The shoreline of the bay curves up from where the fuel tanks are to the town.

Flight from Resolute to Grise Fiord

2011-04-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

There was fantastic weather the day I flew over from Resolute to Grise Fiord. I got lots of photos the whole way over, so I thought I'd share them with you.

Some friends have mentioned to me in the past that it's a shame I don't post maps so they can get an idea of where these places are. Well, here you go, here are a couple to show you where Grise Fiord and Resolute are. These are Canada's most northerly communities, apart from the scientific station at Eureka, and the military base at Alert, which are both further north on Ellesmere Island.

Here's a closer-up view. You cross Devon Island to get from Cornwallis Island to Ellesmere. Baffin Island is to the southeast, off the map.

That's the twin otter that is making the flight. We're waiting for the fuel truck to show up.

Some buildings on the apron at the Resolute airport.

View of the Resolute airport terminal on takeoff.

My facebook friends among you will recognize this photo of the interior of the plane.

The photo below is my seat. You can see my carry-on stowed safely under the seat in front of me. They are pretty casual with carry-on on these flights. On my first flight to Grise Fiord, I sat beside a man who had a bunch of projectile-worthy vegetables in an open plastic crate sitting on his lap. On this most recent flight I was the only one on the plane, so I could switch sides to take photos.

Photo quality is variable- dirt on the windows and the glare of the sun messes with the colours. On most photos I increased the contrast so you could see the shape of the landscape more easily.

A river on Cornwallis Island, heading to the sea. Looking southeast.

The same river draining out on the coast of Cornwallis Island. Heading out over the frozen water now.

Here's the edge of Devon Island, looking out the northern side of the plane this time.

Some frozen rivers draining to the west.

The Devon Island river below is interesting- it has cliffs on most of it's oxbow bends:

Much of the surface of Devon Island looks like this:

Looking south, coming to the eastern edge of the northern portion of Devon Island (check the map up top, it's a big island), although first there is a fiord that we're passing over:

A river draining out into the mouth of the fiord:

Looking north at the coast of Devon Island (again, eastern edge of the northern lobe of the island):

We've crossed the fiord now, this is looking south again at the last lobe of land before we head out over Jones Sound. I like that massive snow drift at the bottom of the land. There must be a spit of land underneath it.

Frozen surface of Jones Sound:

Iceberg! This one is huge. It's frozen in the ice. It's so far north that bergs don't have time to melt in one season, they get re-frozen into the ice every year.

First view of the southern edge of Ellesmere Island:

It's worth clicking on some of these to see them bigger, the landscape is really beautiful:

Coming up to the south cape of Ellesmere Island:

I don't know what the fiord at the south cape is called, but that's it to the right, around the corner of the cape:

Another massive iceberg:

A view into the last fiord before we come to Grise Fiord:

Coming up to Grise Fiord (the actual fiord, the community is to the east of it):

View up into Grise Fiord:

Same thing but a wider view:

This is the western edge of the fiord. The first settlement of Grise Fiord was at the base of this mountain. They were here for several years before they moved to the present town site.

Mountains to the east as we turn into our final approach:

I like these patterns in the ice at the shore:

Here's the eastern side of the hamlet of Grise Fiord:

Beautiful bustling downtown Grise Fiord, if I am quoting the Oprah show correctly. I'll tell what all these buildings are in a future post:

Western part of town:

... and the airport terminal as we land.

Hope you enjoyed your flight! I sure did.

Hall Beach from the air

2011-04-14T07:21:00.001-04:00

I'm pretty sure we used to be able to fly all the way to Resolute without a scheduled stop for fuel in Hall Beach. It was back in the days (not that long ago) when we'd miss the stop in Arctic Bay as the weather was often bad at the Nanisivik airport. However, I did get a photo this time of the community as we took off again.

I worked a few weeks in Hall Beach about 15 years ago. It was the flattest place I had ever been.

Mural at Qikiqtani General Hospital

2011-04-12T07:11:00.002-04:00

I hadn't seen this mural before, I think it's fairly new. It's in front of the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit, I saw it when I went for a walk between flights:

Flying into Iqaluit

2011-04-09T21:24:00.000-04:00

I don't often have a window seat flying into Iqaluit, probably because I always I request an aisle seat. The plane last Wednesday, for once, was not stuffed to the gills, and the flight attendant offered me a row to myself after takeoff. It was overcast for much of the trip but cleared over Frobisher Bay. I took these photos as we came into Iqaluit for landing.

This cluster of buildings is Apex, a small community southeast of the rest of Iqaluit:

The road snaking from Apex to Iqaluit. There are some white buildings there by the shore if you look closely, I don't know if they're historical buildings, but they look like it:

Then Iqaluit appears in lobes:

Coming into downtown:

Then the airport:

Canada's most vibrant air terminal:

Taking flight

2011-04-06T07:04:00.002-04:00

Well, the migratory birds might not be heading for the arctic quite yet, but this migratory nurse is on her way. I leave this morning for Grise Fiord.

I'll be in Resolute overnight, as the twice-weekly flight to Grise doesn't connect with the flights from the south. Hopefully it's only for one night- Grise Fiord has had some bad luck lately with their flights being delayed for weather reasons... sometimes for many days in a row. So, we'll see.

The L.A. Zoo

2011-04-04T07:46:00.000-04:00

I still have some photos from L.A. to show you. These are from January, when I visited the Los Angeles Zoo. I'll just show you a few of them.

This is Reggie the alligator. His claim to fame (and he really is famous!) is that he was a fugitive in the south bay area of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2007. He had been released by people illegally raising exotic animals. He's enjoying retirement now at the zoo:

The elephants at the L.A. zoo are somewhat controversial, they were brought from the San Diego zoo and many thought they should have gone to an animal sanctuary instead. I'm not sure if this is one of the two new elephants below, or their existing elephant. They do have a large and beautiful enclosure, it's at the centre of the zoo.

Bedtime for flamingos came before the zoo closed. Did you know they sleep standing on one leg? I didn't! One theory is that they do it to conserve heat and energy... yeah, when I want a good night's sleep I stand around on one leg too! But then, I am not a flamingo.

Does anyone else think that maybe they should have domesticated zebras instead of horses? They are just so cool!

I couldn't look at the sign below without thinking of decommissioned zoo animals. Maybe they just serve veggie burgers!

It's definitely not for gorillas though, they have their own!

It's safe to pee on the 401 again

2011-04-01T17:42:00.001-04:00

As anyone living in or visiting southern Ontario knows, for the past couple of years they shut down all the rest stops along the 401 at once to rebuild them.

They painted the signs advising travellers of the closure a brilliant yellow, to remind them that their bladders were exploding:

This is what the old ones looked like. I think they kept this one just west of Kingston open just to tease people:

I liked the round space, the dome ceilings and stone interior walls of the old ones. The new ones aren't too bad, here is the new one at that same site under construction:

Here's a completed new one, this one is the Mallorytown westbound station:

I think most of them are open now. I like Ontario's rest stops, I find them faster than leaving the highway and looking for a gas station or restaurant off the road. They're a little pricier for food and gas, but so easy to pull off and on the highway. In the States I would exit at a sign for services, and sometimes they were quite a convoluted drive off the highway, and sometimes pretty far too, so I appreciate the convenience of the Ontario version.

I guess we're safe now for another few decades before they close all these at once to serve us better yet again.

My neighbor, the diplomat

2011-03-30T18:24:00.002-04:00

My house in Ottawa shares a driveway with the house next door. This is pretty standard in the older neighborhoods in Ottawa.

The driveway is a deeded right-of-way. Three feet of the right-of-way is on my property, and five feet is on my neighbor's. It leads to our respective parking spaces at the backs of our houses. It's to remain clear to allow passage of people, vehicles, and animals (it's over 100 years old, so animals actually get a mention in the deed.)

My neighbor has never been happy about this right-of-way, and he's convinced that since he owns the wider 5 foot share, that he calls the shots on use of the driveway. I should note that the neighbor doesn't actually live in his house, it's always rented out.

Well, my house was also rented out for a few years. My neighbor moved back into his for a couple of months in 2007 (he does this periodically, followed by a rent increase for his new tenants), and took a disliking to my tenants.

Now, for all I know, my tenants could have been annoying (I never met them, an agency rented the house for me.). However, he was very upset at the fact that my tenant's kids would play in the driveway. The kids once left a toy wagon in the driveway (I know, because he sent me a photo of it), and I guess that was the final straw. Previous offenses had included toys left in the kid's own back yard (he didn't like the sight of them), and one of the kids asking his adult daughter once if he could borrow their hose to wash his bike.

To try to keep my tenants off "his" turf, he painted this:

It's faded somewhat in the intervening years, but yep, it is what it looks like. It's a "do not cross" line. Right down the property line. Even though the driveway is a right-of-way, and residents of both houses (as well as the utility companies) have the right to use it to access parking and the back yards of their houses.

Want to know what my absentee neighbor does for a living? He's a diplomat with Foreign Affairs.

Running the urban trapline

2011-03-27T18:08:00.002-04:00

My house in Ottawa had been rented out for the past 7 years, and when I took it back this past month, I found it some of the previous residents were still living there, and had no intention of leaving.

These occupants were very cute, but very tenacious... this house has always attracted the occasional mouse, but I had more than one this time.

I actually like rodents. If it wasn't for their incontinence, I'm sure we could work something out to their benefit. Heck, if they'd agree to poop outside, I'd probably even agree to feed them out there.

Rodents, however, are very stubborn, and unreceptive to logic. They had to go. Luckily, someone has invented, or at least improved the availability of, some better mousetraps since I was last in the market for them.

I had some luck with these:

I caught five mice with the plastic snap trap shown above. (I also caught myself several times... the neighbors to my semi-detached house probably wonder why the otherwise quiet lady next door lets out intermittent blood-curdling screams.) If the mouse chucks himself in head first, it looks like it's an instant kill as well, which is important- I want to exterminate them, but not hurt them.

Unfortunately for both him and me, mouse #5 did not position himself correctly and was not yet deceased when I found him the next morning. I decided I couldn't do this any more, but was still unwilling to share the house with a still undetermined number of rodent poop factories. I needed a more certain and just as instant kill. I found this at the hardware store:

It's electronic. There is a little maze that they follow to get at the bait (peanut butter... organic even!), and then when they get there they get instantly electrocuted. I haven't caught any yet. I haven't seen any trace of new mice, so it's possible that mouse #5 was the last of the current infestation, or that the mice are too smart for this expensive and humane trap I have laid for them. We'll see.

A friend might lend me a live trap too- I am a bit skeptical about these, as the research I've done indicates that a released mouse will probably just die in the wild, as house mice are treated harshly by wood mice when they try to live outdoors. So my mice would either be moving into someone else's house, or dying a more natural death at the hands of rodent relatives. Not a great solution, although I haven't ruled it out.

I also bought four of these:

These are ultrasonic mouse repellant devices- they supposedly emit a loud high-decibel noise that rodents (but not other animals) can hear but can't stand, so once you have them under control, these can be used to repel new occupants, as well as herd existing mice towards traps.

So, we'll see how it goes with these new devices. I hope it keeps the local mice away, and that they all live long and prosperous lives, with gentle, natural deaths, surrounded by their closest friends and family.

Ice abstract

2011-03-22T11:19:00.000-04:00

A week ago (March 13) I stopped by Rideau Falls here in Ottawa as I was passing by.

Very cool ice formations at the side of the falls! Reminds me of the caves in Virginia. I guess these would form the same way, only in the course of a season instead of over thousands of years.

Here is a pile of the river ice sitting in the Ottawa river at the bottom of the falls- looks like cut stone:

Here's the Ottawa river:

Wildlife encounter

2011-03-18T07:35:00.000-04:00

As I was hiking in Baldwin Park in L.A. at the end of February, I ran into this little guy taking his own hike on the trail:

What a cutie!

This one's a bit blurry, but show's a snail's eye view of his natural habitat:

I'm glad I didn't accidentally squish him.

Clogging your arteries, with a cosmopolitan twist

2011-03-16T07:02:00.002-04:00

This fast food sign on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles caught my eye:

Unfortunately, it was the day before I left so I will have to wait until my next visit to pay a research visit. Jollibee seems to be a burger joint from the Philippines. That's something that's interesting in L.A., you get chain restaurants from other countries too, not just the American stuff. The Yumburger and / or Chickenjoy is on my list of things to try.

Elysian Park

2011-03-14T06:27:00.000-04:00

Just a few photos taken at Elysian park in February. It's a beautiful park in a hilly area not far northeast of downtown L.A. There are lots of big trees in this park, I loved it.

View of downtown:

This beautiful trail looks so peaceful, but scroll down to see the highway (Interstate 5) right below it:

Infrared me

2011-03-11T05:23:00.001-05:00

I went to the science museum in L.A. a couple of weeks ago. They had an infrared light camera. My fingers look gangrenous. I've always said the blood doesn't go into them very often.

One of the temporary exhibits was on human reactions to fear. In one station, they strap you to a padded table and then drop you backwards. They then play your reaction on a video screen for visitors to watch.

Yep, I reacted. I must say, most of the others who went before me were super cool, and just smiled and laughed as they dropped. Reminds me a bit of those photos they take of you on Disney rides. I'd be in a group of 8 or so in a roller coaster photo: the others would all be laughing and I'd be screaming.

Banksy

2011-03-09T05:19:00.000-05:00

I still have some photos and stuff to show you from my trip to L.A.

This tank had been sitting beside the Pacific Coast Highway for some time. Recently, the British "underground" artist Banksy has been doing some street art in L.A. You may remember Banksy from the dark intro he did to the Simpsons last year. The tank was one of his recent targets:

Back to the Great White / Greater Whiter North

2011-03-07T05:09:00.003-05:00

I head home to Canada today, on a plane this time, my car having made it's own way back (I hope!) without me.

Then, in a few weeks, I am off to one of my favourite places to work... Grise Fiord! For April, May and June. I'm really looking forward to it, but I have so much to do to get ready, having been out of the country for almost six months.

I took the photo below of Grise when I flew out the last time I was there. See the authentic window smears. It was a spectacular day for flying, I hope my next trip in is a smooth one too.

Choppers, choppers! MAS*H hike part 2

2011-03-04T04:51:00.001-05:00

So here is the site of the outdoor set where they did the exterior scenes for both the M*A*S*H movie and TV show.

This mountain was in the backdrop of many scenes in the show:

See? (Internet screen capture from M*A*S*H movie opening credits):

This is a replica of the signpost:

This is one of the ambulances from the show.

It would have looked like this back in the day (Internet screen capture from M*A*S*H movie opening credits):

Here's one of the jeeps:

This is looking down on the tent site from the helicopter pad. If you enlarge the photo, they have the site of some of the tents marked out with rope behind the ambulance. The dip in the foreground would be around where the steps were that Hawkeye and company used to run up to meet the incoming wounded:

This is the helicopter landing pad, taken from above it. The road the ambulances took is out of the photo to the left. It's still there, but couldn't get a photo of it due to it being in the shadow.

Here's an aerial shot of the area from the opening movie credits 40 years ago:

This is the path up to the helicopter pad from the camp. It was backlit so it's a crummy photo.

A reasonable facsimile of Korea: MAS*H hike part 1

2011-03-02T05:27:00.002-05:00

The outdoor scenes for M*A*S*H were filmed at the 20th Century Fox ranch, which has since been combined with other land previously owned by Ronald Reagan (his ranch) and Bob Hope to create Malibu Creek State Park.

You can hike to the site of the M*A*S*H camp. I've been meaning to do this since last year and finally got around to it. I finally did on Feb. 21.

This park is beautiful. Here are some photos from the trail.

Can't you imagine Klinger coming around the corner here driving a jeep?

These are the mountains the helicopter flies by in the opening credits:

The clouds were beautiful the day I hiked:

This is pretty close to the site:

... and, if you want to see the photos from the site itself, you'll just have to wait until the next post. I take so many photos on these hikes, it takes me a while to go through them all!

Malibu Canyon road

2011-02-28T06:20:00.000-05:00

These are from Malibu Canyon road, east of Malibu. Very pretty mountains. That big cross in the first one is at the entrance to Pepperdine University.

Destination is Malibu Creek State Park, to hike to the old set of the M*A*S*H show. So stay tuned, don't touch that mouse!

The Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu

2011-02-25T06:11:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week I was on the pacific coast highway through Malibu, heading to a hike in the Santa Monica mountains north of Malibu.

This highway goes through some great scenery, but as you can see it's hardly untouched wilderness, at least not down by the road. This is just north of L.A. (just north of Santa Monica, to be specific):

You've probably heard about beach houses in Malibu that sell for outrageous prices. What I don't get is, why would anyone pay such big bucks, when this is your back door? It's right on the highway, which is 4-6 lanes moving at up to 60 mph, just a few feet from the back of the house:

Here are a few photos taken as we passed through the commercial district of Malibu:

Someone's house high on a hill... but again, right above the highway.

My car starts the drive back without me

2011-02-23T08:36:00.002-05:00

When I started planning my trip to return to Canada, it occurred to me that I really didn't want to drive the whole way across the continent again. Three times was already around one more time than I needed to do it. No need for a fourth.

The first two times were definitely worth it- I took two different routes, and saw lots of the continent that I had never seen before; the landscape changing gradually through the windshield and side windows of the car. The third time was a good drive, but definitely more of a grind as I'd been that way before.

I got some quotes to have the car shipped and checked to see what airfare would be on top of that, and I decided to ship it. It's more expensive to do it this way, but buys me another 10 days or so in beautiful, warm, sunny southern California. It also saves me 9 days on the road (I don't drive long hours when travelling alone, as I want to be off the road at night, avoid rush hours in cities as much as possible, and don't want to get over tired for safety reasons.).

The car was picked up tonight. Here it is getting loaded on the truck:

If all goes according to plan, the car should arrive in Ottawa around the time I do, which is March 7. It heads to Phoenix from here, then makes it's way up to Detroit, where it gets transferred to a Canadian hauler for the last leg through Ontario, if I understand correctly.

An old and scary highway

2011-02-21T22:58:00.001-05:00

The day I stopped by Chinatown I was a passenger (not a driver, thankfully) on one of California's oldest highways, which is now part of State Route 110. It dates back to the 1940's at least, when cars were fewer in number, and way slower.

I found this highway terrifying. This is what one of the on-ramps looks like:

Take note. The vehicle in front of us on the on-ramp is stopped. At a stop sign. There is no merge lane at the end of this very tight ramp, and traffic, all 5 lanes of it (one direction, 10 lanes all together) is going around 65 mph. Traffic is usually heavy on L.A. highways, but even when it's "light" that's not always a good thing, as it can speed things up to 75 mph.

Below is a view of an exit ramp on the same road from above (I was visiting Elysian park with a friend, and the highway bisects one portion of the park). You can't see it in the photo, but there is almost no deceleration lane. Note that there are no shoulders on the road either.

That ramp is incredibly tight, and as soon as you are around that corner you're on a residential street.

Here is exhibit #3:

See those ramps on the left of the photo, just as the road exits the tunnel? That's an off-ramp and an on-ramp. Immediately you are on a residential street on exiting the highway (right behind that tree!) No deceleration lane on the exit or acceleration lane on the on-ramp. Just stop and wait at the on-ramp for a pause in traffic (but not too long... you won't get one!), then you go from 0 to 65 mph as fast as you can.

The only good thing about this road is that no trucks are allowed on this ancient portion of highway. One of the reasons for that is that they can't exit on these ramps. I read something on the internet about a truck getting stuck when it got on the road by accident and tried to exit-- it couldn't make the turn on the tight ramp. I don't know how they eventually got it out of there, I guess they'd have to stop traffic and back it up onto the highway again.

Supposedly there is talk of preserving this road as a historic landmark. I don't know what I think of that. It is an interesting road, to see what they looked like back in the 1940's, although I bet they had shoulders then that have since been taken over as additional lanes. Some folks even find it fun to drive, but not me. No margin for error, with impossible manoeuvres required, at speeds it was never designed for.

Chinatown

2011-02-18T05:41:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I stopped briefly in Chinatown (Los Angeles) last weekend. Here are a few photos.

Decorations were still up from Chinese New Year:

I liked the name of this business- above the awning the sign says "sincere gifts".

This is L.A.'s city hall in the distance:

Dragons on the gate into Chinatown- not a great photo, taken into the sun:

I found the groceries and artery-clogging deep-fried dim sums I was looking for, so a productive visit.

Dot-matrix sky writing

2011-02-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

When I was in Chinatown last weekend, I spotted this in the sky on the way back to the parking lot:

The left-hand side of the message was already illegible. My best guess is that it's advertising a single by Renegade Foxxx called Waydown. (Thanks, Google).

This is the second time I've seen sky writing in Los Angeles. They do love their sky ads - weekends at the beach often have banners being pulled by planes, and blimps get in on the action too.

This sky writing is cool, it's some sort of dot-matrix technology.

M&M's Chocolate Trio

2011-02-14T05:53:00.001-05:00

In honour of today being one of the four great chocolate holidays of the year, I bring to you yet another new (to me, anyway) M&M:

These are really good! They're a triple-layer "premium" (as the bag says!) M&M. The centre is milk chocolate, middle layer is white chocolate, and a thin layer of dark chocolate is on the outside. A "soft shell" of multicoloured purple goes on the outside:

I really like these, very decadent. The soft shell was a little weird at first, but I quickly got used to it. Creamy, rich... mmmmmm! Plus, I don't think they're a seasonal M&M, they were with the regular candy at the store, not the Valentine's Day stuff. I hope they don't disappear on Tuesday. Definitely a two-thumbs up concoction. These are my favourite of all the new ones I have tried in the past few months.

Minus something, only worse!

2011-02-11T06:05:00.006-05:00

Ah, the good old days.

When I used to work in (what's now) Nunavut in the early 90's, temperatures were delivered straight up. In fact, scratch that. Back then, because everybody knew it was cold out, nobody said it was minus 37. It was just 37. You knew that the minus was implied, and you knew it was cold out. You also knew that if it was windy, it was that much worse.

Problem was, people down south were getting their temperatures served up with enhancement. Now, -20 is a decently cold day in southern Ontario, but that wasn't enough suffering. It was "minus thirty-seven with the windchill". Somewhere along the way, the real temperature got dropped, and only the inflated, more horrific one was available.

Friends started telling me that it was as cold in Ottawa as it was in the central arctic. "It was minus forty in Ottawa today!" No, it wasn't, and in fact it never is, but it was impossible to convince them that -20 with a wind is still way warmer than real -40, especially when we had wind in the arctic too, and in the central arctic, you can get a stiff wind with your low temperatures.

So now, in the arctic, they add "windchill" to their temps as well. "It's -67 with the windchill".

I find the numbers expressing how cold it really is out there are becoming somewhat meaningless. Real -37 is so much colder than -20 with wind.

I also find it amusing how we always magnify a temperature to it's more extreme version. In summertime, 30 degrees will be "feels like 38 with the humidity", but never "only feels like 20 with the breeze". Similarly, on those brilliant April days in the arctic, you don't hear -20 described as "only feels like -5 in the sun", even though sometimes it really does!

We're Canadians, dammit. We're tough. We've got the numbers to prove it, and we'll adjust them in any way we need to to.