Tales of the beautiful everyday from the North
Holding my nerve
I was back in the kitchen over the stove again making candied almonds. It was midday, so there would be no late evening crises this time. After about 15 minutes, I watched the sugar finally begin to solidify and I knew I had to hold my nerve and continue on until the sugar began to melt again. Don’t burn the almonds, don’t burn the almonds, don’t burn the almonds. It’s such a fine line, but they’re just not the same without these last 5 minutes in the pan.
As the evening got later, I started to get more and more nervous about the weather. We were finally breaking from our stretch of clear sky into a couple nights of high-level cloud and light snow. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t perfect. There were moments we needed to wait through quieter auroral conditions, chase some clear sky but still wait out other heavier cloud. It was exactly when I needed to hold my nerve, take my intuition to heart and head east, which is exactly what we did for a couple of still magical, magical nights with the aurora.
The endlessly cold and beautiful
More clear nights and more drives seeing the temperature on the car dash bottom out at -40°. It doesn’t take long at these temperatures for the tires to cool enough that the tire pressure warning light comes on.
And through these nights, our timing with the aurora has varied from arriving out with not enough time to even open hand warmers before running out of the car, all the way to my hand warmers barely feeling warm at all anymore through a long night with a lot of patience.
In all cases, the aurora was worth the rush, and worth the wait.
Painfully perfect
Too beautiful to go inside, too cold to stay outside
After a miserable first half of the month, the last 10 days have been magical. Temperatures have plummeted and the days and nights have been clear. At my dining table next to my south facing window, the warmth of the sun on my skin is undeniable, but on just the other side of these 35 year old windows, it’s -34°.
These days are full of everything I’ve always loved so much about February in the past.
The ice roads, while washboardy through some stretches, and narrowed by snow drifts through others, have led us out to the most beautiful secluded corners of frozen lakes; and on this particular night, out to one of my favourite, favourite locations ever where the aurora met us within minutes of arriving.
Unexpected relief
Everything was a mess. Or, everything was still a mess. Satellite images were a mess of chaotic lines and shapes in all shades of very-much-not-clear-sky. But on the way out of town, we drove straight into unexpected clear sky. Like clear sky, clear sky. It felt too good to be true, but it was an easy decision to abandon a further chase out for what was maybe clear sky. So we turned off to a nearby lake and while driving slowly down to the ice road, I watched nervously out the front windshield scared this wasn’t going to last.
And while our clear sky didn’t last all night, we were luckier than I could have hoped for. The aurora met us earlier than usual and danced beautifully until it was eaten up by heavier cloud that did remain for the rest of the night.
A soul sucking beginning of February
We right now sit on the cusp of returning to a more familiar Yellowknife February. Nights of -40 appear to be right around the corner, again, but for the last couple of weeks, it has felt more like November.
Nighttime lows have only barely reached the -20s, and then there’s the cloud. So much cloud. Tens of centimetres of new snow. It feels like it never stops.
My night drives have often been long, and not always fruitful. We have sometimes dramatically adjusted our schedule, exploited ice roads for a few extra kilometres of hope, and been painfully patient. The nights of everything coming together have been exhilarating, but the others have been, cumulatively, more than a little exhaustingly heartbreaking.
When you ask what do I do in the summer, and I tell you with a smile and a laugh, “just not think about the weather” — it is entirely serious, and the reprieve from stretches like this are very much needed.
