Ice melting

For the past couple of days, the water has opened up at the beach in Arctic Bay.  I wonder if it will start to break up soon?  It usually does so in mid-July around here.

New housing unit going up

I'm always amazed at how fast the outer shell of a building gets framed, it always makes the rest of the construction of it seem so slow.

Here is a new multi-plex (I think it will have six units) under construction.  The first photo is from June 13th, looking at the floor from the front of it from up on the mountain:

Next photo is from June 22, looking at the back as the side walls go up:

June 24 from the front:

June 27 from the back:

Tidal ice from yesterday's walk

It was such a beautiful day yesterday, warm and calm.  I went for a walk on the road that goes towards Uluksan point.

I stepped out onto the ice to get these pictures:

Took this one on the way back into town:

One person asked a while ago to see a picture of the Health Centre from the front, here you go.  My apartment is the one over the door, my living room windows are just above it to the right.

 

Yellow flowers

More flowers, nameless for now.  They're not arctic poppies though.

They were in the foreground around this location below, a couple of evenings ago.  Most of the snow is gone from south-facing hills now, and it's melting fast from other spots too.

Graves

On the hill above Uluksan point, there are two (at least) graves.  Going from memory from when I was here in 2006, I don't think it's known for certain who is buried here.  The marker has no text, or nothing remaining.

You can see the coffin right under the stones.  You can see the edge of the coffin in the top photo too.

A short distance south of the other grave is this one that is open or caved in:

Just a photo of the view from this site.  I thought the ice looked really cool with the melted water on top and the reflections in the irregular surface.

There are some other stone graves below this hill that have opened over the years, one even has some human bones in it (a lower jaw and a femur or two, plus some other bones I'm not certain of, but probably pelvic fragments).

More flowers

I got a better photo of the arctic poppies yesterday evening:

I forget what this one below is called- I wish I'd remembered to bring my guidebook!

More flowers

These are from my walk on Saturday evening.  The yellow ones are arctic poppies.  I forget what the other ones are called.  I'm pleased that my little cheap camera (the only one I brought) is taking pretty good macro pictures, particularly the second photo.

Fog

These are from June 17.  A fog spilled over the hills from Victor Bay in the evening, it does that sometimes.

My apartment

Here are some pictures of the interior of my little one-bedroom apartment.  The architecture is pretty cool, with very 1970's decor, right down to the beige fabric walls.  The rug is jurassic but doesn't seem to smell.  Not many windows, I wish the kitchen had one.

Living room, with two of my three windows (third is in the bedroom):

I like the high ceilings and skylights:

Looking towards the entrance.  That cube on the right is the bathroom, the door to it is on the other side:

Looking from the living room into the kitchen:

If you blink, you'll squish 'em

These are tiny!  Look at my finger next to another pair below... and I have scrawny little fingers!  Nature sure packs a lot of detail into a small package.

Health Centre

Isn't that a cute little matching garage it has?  I took this photo around a week ago, the landscape has already changed with the warmer weather.  This is the back of the health centre.

Pussy willows

They just crawl along the ground like that here, you can easily miss them.

I forget what these little yellow flowers are called (I have a guidebook to arctic flowers, but I forgot to bring it), but they are out now too:

Hike up a mountain

On Sunday, I hiked up the second highest mountain (I think) that's surrounding Arctic Bay.  I don't know if this one has a name, but it's one of the ones just north of the town, between Arctic Bay and Victor Bay.  What great weather it turned out to be, much better than what had been forecast.

This huge raven at the top of the mountain was luckily just a tiny bit more afraid of me than I was of it (they're big!):

There's a cairn at the top, with a wooden beam planted in the middle of it.  That's Victor Bay in the background.  Victor Bay is just behind the hills north of town.  Those mountains in the far distance are on the other side of Strathcona Sound:

You'll have to click this one below, it's a panorama of what you can see from the cairn.  Victor Bay is on the left (north), and Arctic Bay is on the right (south).  It's quite a view.  This panorama is around 300 or so degrees of it.

Here's a raven's-eye close-up of the new subdivision, which is to the west of town.  You can see a new housing unit under construction at the lower left:

Walk to Uluksan Point

Saturday evening the weather was clearing and I went for a walk out to Uluksan Point.  It's around a 40 minute walk from the centre of town.

There are two roads out of the south end of town, that merge a little to the south, here I'm heading up the hill to get on the higher one.  You can see reflections in the melt water lying on the surface of the sea ice:

Another view as I climb the road:

The road goes past the cemetery:

This is the road to Uluksan Point.  It's fairly new, it wasn't there when I was last here in 2006.

Some tidal ice along the shoreline:

Here's Uluksan Point.  Those mountains are on the southern side of Adams Sound:

Some rocks on the hill behind the point:

This is an archeological site.  There are the remains of seven (I think) ancient houses here.  The foundations are made of stone, and then in the summers they would have been covered with skin tents.  Here are three of them:

Two more:

I took this photo heading back into town.  I liked the boats lined up waiting for the thaw, plus you can see a modern re-creation of one of the traditional houses, covered with a canvas tent, in the lower right hand corner:

Panorama of Arctic Bay

Yesterday I went on a hike up the hill behind down.  Here's a pasted-together panorama of the view from up there.  You'll have to click it to see it better.  The weather wasn't the greatest, I'll try to get better pictures on a nicer day.

Here's a closeup of the east end of town.  I love these birds-eye views:

Shoreline

I took this on my way home from my walk last night: