stars and lights

My blessed hands nearly froze but, oh, what a night!

summer tree, summer me

skyway

Well, hello flying wonders.


It's especially sweet of you all to put on a show for me while I sit housetop.




No one's ever done that for me before.


And you.  You're my favourite. 


Ripping the sky in two, jet in one half, sound in the other.  Gives me goosebumps.


But wait.


Who are you?


Why, you're beautiful!


Summer slipstream, cumulus contrail. 
Pinion passion.
Beaky baby.
You make it look eeeeeasy.


Can't blame us for trying.

nice legs

even the pits mean well

   Today sure didn't feel like a bowl of these. 
   So I ate only one.
   It was nice.
   Then I had a second and,
   inadvertently ...


   ... made the best of things.

all day, so far

  An unusually wet day in sunny summer Yellowknife.  Pull out the rain-resistant-Everything and meet this Imposter face to face.  Deep down rain is a child.  Loves mudpies and frogs and good excuses for cocoa.  Me, too.

synapsis

   Oh where can I be found?  In the kitchen rearranging cupboards one more time.  On the driveway digging weeds away from gravel.  In the picnic that is my brain, learning to outsmart it.  Eating ice cream by a fence.  Pounding pavement with my new job in our old truck.  Pounding nails.  In the thick of it all, willing life into worn things, me included.  Living!

blogiday

   We interrupt this blogiday to say hello.  Only patches of snow remain in Yellowknife.  The lakes are slushy and shoes muddy.  Days are filled with checklists (yawn) and other necessary things that sound dull but are good like vitamins.  My favourite lens is broken but my piano is working just fine so I've been playing with that instead.  And waiting for leaves.

night stand

patient

super carrot!

e can fly!  I think.  He folds his arms a lot.  And stands around looking at things with intention, at the ever ready to assist me in quests through the night's dark.  He stands more than he flies actually.  Unless, of course, he's assisting me on quests through the night's dark.  Then I would say he takes rather large Steps of Confidence.  It's hard to keep up but I just follow the snow pocks from his boots and do alright.   I call him Super but he doesn't dig it.  That's Carrot for you.

over

   In between homes.  Again.   So I watched the ravens from our hotel window dance the slipstreams.  Sweep over my frosty Yellowknife, circle spin over our empty apartment, our barren house in the barrenland.  Speed cold beaks over the little lake, over the big lake, over my old paths.  Over the hotel top to new ones, not yet packed down with Colleen-shaped footprints.  Snow on the other side of town waiting for me.

I'm still here!

It's just that we're in the middle of moooooving and painting and I will be back and that's a fact. Happy spring!

from an upstairs window

Am I the only one or is there a snow panda koala looking up at you, too?

outside the ice castle

The all-time best snow fort ever.

I guess even snow forts have to be built to code!

inside the ice castle

On the bay,
upon a forgotten summer's bay,
carved into the snow and ice
is a door ...

... that leads you down a corridor and opens into a large hall, filled with light and children and chatty parents in line with squeaky styrofoam cups of hot chocolate (cold pocket change exchanging mittens), with diner sets carved from blue blocks of winter lake, and old tables heaped with woollen gloves and jewelery made of bone and antler, alongside a wide platform for singing and dancing beneath northern lights greening,  a joyful ode to the arctic life we choose.
But as for me ...


... I am in corners and nooks that want me more.
Muffled light and muted voices,
one thousand boot prints braiding beneath my feet,
a mix of alone and together
for me
is my own music.

Clara of Bloomize

   One of the great things about blogging is the people with whom interwebby paths cross - people you'd never have met if it weren't for the sweet side of technology.  My friend Clara is one of these lovely people - Clara of Bloomize.  She rustles up the nicest mix of helpful tips with unique and beautiful items to inspire you and make you dream of prettier days.  In her own words she says she "devoted Bloomize to ideas on design, zakka finds, house-keeping and well-being".  She asked if I would share my top five travel items with her readers for an ongoing feature she has called What Travels With You.  Although it took me time to get my beans all in a row I was happy to comply and you can find the article here.  Take a look around whilst you're there.  There's much to see!

icing sugar

if pots could twiddle their thumbs ...

goodnight, Today.

Behind me a cross country skier sliding wide circles on the hardened lake and before me the sun yawns and snuggles down under hill and snow.  My polka dot footsteps among last year's reeds and cattails.