From Winter to Summer.

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Hi to everyone!

We have adjusted back to the colder climate and the high food prices of northern Canada. Instead of paying only a few cents for a bag of bananas, we are now forking out $5.99 per kilo! Incidentally, the bananas here in Churchill curve slightly clockwise, suggesting perhaps, that they've been flown here from somewhere south of the equator?
Anyway, we needed furniture! Our house was an empty, echoing void of loneliness! Within a week of posting an ad on the local community board, we had filled the rooms with stuff (yes, that's correct - STUFF, which is of course unusual for us). We even managed to gain a cat (Stuart) for a bit, and a lodger (Claudia) too!
The transition between winter and summer is always our favourite time of year! The melting ice and the return of the birds and blooms, and of course the warmer temperatures!
The almost endless daylight is incredible at this time of the year as we can hike and bike into the wee hours, but we are on a downhill slope towards darkness now (not that we are being negative, or anything! haha!). We celebrated the solstice around a bonfire eating bannock and wieners.
Theresa has also been doing her usual galavanting around the Ontario coastal communities, whilst Dave has been getting terrorized by mobs of kids at the Churchill school, where he's worked for the last couple of months! School has now ended for the year and visions of Buggies lie before Dave for the next few months!
The weather on the last day of June was truly tropical! The humidity built up as the day progressed and dark storm clouds formed above us. Boom! It was a spectacular storm! Several power lines were torn down when a roof was lifted from a building (allegedly by a tornado or a waterspout) and thrown across the road! Dorothy was nowhere in sight?
The Canada Day festivities also started with a bang - high tide was at 0830 hrs so many of us participated in the Hudson Bay Dip! A nice refreshing start to the day - running into an ocean of liquid pain!

D and T.
P.S. The ice has gone, there are belugas in the Bay, the bears are back in town and our six-legged winged companions are biting!

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Photos

On the Bluffs.
Hiking along the western shore of the Churchill River with Raymond and Polar.

Climbing an ice peak.
On the Churchill River.

Mooring rings
These rings were put here in the 1700s by early fur-traders. Because of isostatic rebound, they are now 10 ft above the high tide mark.

Polar
Polar in a polar place.

May 28th 2011
It's still winter in Churchill!

Purple saxifrage buds.
One of the earliest bloomers on the tundra, not quite in bloom yet in late May.

Purple Saxifrage.
This is the same plant two weeks later!

Fata Morgana Mirage
The ghostly mirage haunts the horizon.

Summer has arrived.
Local kids playing by the river.

Kids on the beach.
June 11th Churchill was 24 degrees!

Fire on the Solstice
Celebrating the white nights of June.

Comments

[Eric D]

I love it!
Thanks for posting the pictures too - what a world apart this is from where I've been lately.

[D MJ Binkley]

We are intrigued by your life
Looks like one happy adventure after another.