Pond on the top of the hill

On top of one of the hills behind town, there is a little pond at the top.  Here it is.  The perspective is a little weird with the lack of trees or buildings to show distance- the water in the background is the ocean, the foreground pond is on top of a hill.  I took these photos on Thursday evening, July 8.

Here's some views of that construction site from the top of the hill:

Arctic Cotton

The arctic cotton is out.  Seems to be early this year, although things bloom at different times in different places and I'm rarely in the same place at the same time.  These are from yesterday.

Cumulus clouds

Just thought I'd share my million dollar view with you on this picturesque evening.

July Panorama

You'll have to click on that to get a proper look.  I took this yesterday evening, July 7.  It's sure a changed landscape from the one I took on June 12, just 25 days ago.

July flowers

The tundra is in full bloom with flowers now.  Here are some of the latest ones to come out, mostly from the past weekend:

These are so pretty they get two photos:

So are these:

Hey, I don't need the guidebook to identify this one!  A little touch of home...

Then these two are from July 7, Wednesday evening.  The first is a bladder campion, I guess they come in more than one variety as we have a different kind back in Ontario:

Then this is a flower that usually comes out later in July- I saw just this one alone, on top of a mountain:

Breakup begins

The ice has been gradually receding from the shoreline of Arctic Bay.  Two nights ago I noticed the bay was breaking up.  Yesterday evening I went for a walk and there was a lot more open water than floating ice.

The reflections were just beautiful:

Sunday (two days before) this was iced over, and I was stepping onto the ice to scrape snow to eat from the crusts on top of the ice when I was out on my hike.  I guess I can't do that any more:

Hike to the St. George Society cliffs

I'd heard differing accounts from other hikers on whether or not I could hike to the base of the St. George Society cliffs, so I decided Sunday to give it a try.

The route there takes me past Uluksan point.  These dogs were lounging in one of the ancient house foundations:

Some of the sights on the way along the beach:

I thought this piece of fallen shale (correct rock?) was pretty cool, the way it separated into paper-like sheets when it fell.  The beach along here is black sand.

I liked this gap in these cliffs as I walked along:

Getting there- had to squeeze past these black cliffs that went right to the water.  Luckily, it was low-ish tide, on a day with low tides anyway, and I could also step onto the ice in places to get around:

I thought the view the other way was pretty cool too:

In the end, I couldn't get all the way to the St. George Society cliffs (or didn't want to try, as I was hiking alone), but I got close enough to get a great view of them:

What a gorgeous day it was, the weather has just been so perfect for weeks now.

The neapolitan ice-cream hills of Victor Bay

Now that the snow is mostly gone, the colours on the hills of Victor Bay are really visible.  These pics are from Saturday evening.

Aren't those reflections in the ice cool?

Hike to the top of the cliffs

I had a cold on Friday (July 2)  so I didn't make it all the way to the tops of the St. George Society cliffs (strange name, but that's what they're called), but I made it to the tops of the cliffs right next to them.  The weather was so darned perfect and the light was so totally mid-day, that the photos aren't actually that interesting!  But have a look anyway, the hike was great.

This photo is on the hills above Uluksan point- there is this man-made row of rocks, I don't know what it's marking:

Here is a look at the jagged cliffs from above:

Looking the other way:

Looking down- cool patterns the ice is making as it breaks up at the beach, eh?

Here's some blog foreshadowing- those cliffs in the upper-right hand corner are the St. George Society Cliffs, and in the next installment I hike to the base of those (well, almost, I hike to the base of these cliffs featured today, but have a fantastic view of the better St. G. S. cliffs)

Then and Now

When I was here in 2006, I took some photos that are from a similar vantage point as some that I took today.  I took a photo of the new subdivision, and when I got home compared it to the one I took in 2006.

A lot has changed.  A new community centre beside the arena, a new road halfway down the hill, and many new multi-unit housing units in the foreground.  The 2006 photo was taken in August of that year.