Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!!

Let it snow! Because in 23 days I am going to be enjoying a beautiful Nova Scotia June day. I don't care if the sun is shining or its raining or foggy. As long as it's not SNOWING. For the past couple of weeks the weather here has been more like winter in Nova Scotia than in the arctic. Grey, lots of new snow...Yesterday was quite stormy with high winds and somewhere between 5-10 cm of snow. Because it is warmer (wind chill of minus 10 today), the snow is softer so it is messy and difficult to take our usual shortcuts because of snow drifts. During the winter the drifts freeze immediately, so you can walk over anything. There is more snow in the forecast through Tuesday. We now have 24 hour daylight. As of Wednesday, there were no more sunrise and sunset times displayed on the Environment Canada web page for Clyde River. I have learned to cope with this. Finally got my bedroom dark enough and bought a humidifier which provides white noise so that I am completely shut off from the world and sleep like a baby. I just have to make sure I pay attention to the time and remind myself when it is time to go to bed. It can become very late without my noticing it. There are kids out playing street hockey, riding their bikes, and other normal spring activities until all hours (in the snow). It's a very topsy-turvy world here on top of the world.
We had one amazing weather day last week and the whole school went out on the land for a community picnic. We went to a lake where there was a big hole dug in the ice for jigging char. One of the men dipped a cup in the water and asked me to taste it. It was the best, icy cold water I ever drank. We had hot chocolate and hot dogs - tasted like the best food I ever ate. The kids went sliding and played games. It was a great day. I'm really looking forward to our next picnic in June.
People arrived at the picnic on snowmobiles......
and komatiks (sleds)

It was a glorious spring day with lots of fresh snow for sliding.

What else is new...I started a distance course in Creative Travel Writing from Ryerson. So far, I'm really enjoying it. Teachers in Nunavut are generously supported financially to take courses (credit or non-credit). I think I will take the short fiction writing course at Ryerson next. I finished a Master's degree in 2006 and swore that when I finished that I would take courses just for interest's sake. Not that the Master's degree wasn't interesting, just really intense and stressful. I am really excited about my photography course in London this summer. Three weekends left .....time to think about packing and doing some organizing in my house in anticipation of next year's sea lift order.