Tales of the beautiful everyday from the North
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.
A familiar story
It was a little bit of a familiar story returning to my daily life. Chaos in the kitchen and returning home hours later to what looked a bomb having gone off.
A very late booking request on a night with clear sky closing up too quickly sent my evening into the kind of chaos that I usually reserve for some alone time with the aurora when a spur of the moment decision leads me out the door in a panic.
Candying almonds isn’t a very hands off kind of dessert to prepare. Every single time I think it will be quicker than it is. I’ve always been a slow learner, so maybe next time I’ll finally remember how painstakingly hands on it is for at least 20 minutes. But it was too late to turn back now; the sugar, cinnamon, water, and vanilla were already bubbling and I was very short on time. I repeatedly tested my luck running away from the stove to get one other thing in order so I could eventually get out the door on time.
With 7 minutes before I had to be backing out of my driveway, I could finally pull the candied almonds off the stove - dump them onto parchment to cool for all of about 90 seconds before transferring a bunch into a glass container and running out my door to get this night underway.
Waiting on cloud
Tied hands
Night after night, the situation was very much the same, but different. I spent my days checking in on satellite images, anticipating the timing of clear skies pushing out clouds from the north, of clear skies beaten eaten up by clouds moving in from the west. It was all a mess, but somewhat orderly.
These nights weren’t about just chasing clear breaks. These nights were about waiting on much bigger weather systems to move through, for better when clear sky was pushing out overcast cloud, and for worse when incoming cloud chased us to the end of the highway. But on all three nights, we couldn’t have asked for better timing. When we had positioned ourselves as close to the end of a cloud bank as the roads would allow us, the aurora was later than usual and allowed us to enjoy it from totally clear sky. And when we had hoped for an earlier night to beat to the cloud, the aurora was there then too.
These nights are very much the meditative kinds of nights, that feel a little bit magical reflecting on everything coming together in perfect time.
The best hours
As I sit here today to write this post, the temperature outside is just -13°. It’s a welcome break for my car and for my home, my fingers and face too. Usually these warm swings in the middle of winter are accompanied by a lot of cloud, and in this case about 10cm of fresh snow, but that’s all a problem for later.
So many of our nights recently have been into the -30s with mostly clear skies. They’ve taken us out into some of my favourite areas of the countryside through familiar ice roads. The hours on these lakes have felt calming and meditative. They are my favourite times of my days - a little bit removed from the business part of all this having to be a business.
Abandoned tea
The abandoned cup of tea
I always have felt that the winter days in Yellowknife are too long (really). At 62.4°N, the sun still rises for 5 hours during winter solstice and it makes me miss the polar nights of Scandinavia so much. I love the 24 hours of darkness, and it’s okay if I’m the only one.
And then on January 19th, I would have loved it even more.
In the middle of our day, an intense solar storm had begun to buffet the earth and as soon as it was dark, the sky filled with the most gorgeous pinks and reds.
After an early dinner, I had just come to my sofa with a cup of tea from the kitchen to finish the episode of Clarkson’s Farm I had started. I picked up my phone, refreshed the aurora conditions, and panicked. I immediately talked with my guests and moved our already early beginning of tour to a what’s the soonest we can be ready tour start time. We wasted not a moment - they walked out of the elevator as I walked into the hotel lobby, and we were off travelling across a few lakes to what is probably my favourite, favourite winter place in Yellowknife, and we stayed until the clouds ate us up a couple hours later.
I returned home before midnight, with such a full heart, to my untouched cup of tea sitting right where I left it on my coffee table.
The abandoned pot of tea
A night later and I had it off. I had no guests booked, so it was a quiet, cosy night for me, with plenty of time to finish that episode of Clarkson’s Farm.
I was still keeping an eye on the aurora conditions through dinner, and unchanged since years, I was fully vulnerable to a sort of aurora anxiety. I live under it, but it still breaks my heart to miss it. It’s the middle of winter - I am frozen and exhausted, but I am still in love with the aurora.
I checked my phone several times over the next 10 minutes, watching what was happening in the sky above Yellowknife, wondering if I should get changed out of my pyjamas, blow out all my candles, and abandon a 1.5L pot of tea that wasn’t even done steeping on the kitchen counter for a very deliberate drive into the countryside, knowing we were right on the cusp of a spectacular break up that was probably just some moments to minutes away.
After twice trying to put my phone away and just settle into my sofa, I grabbed my car keys, remote started the Sienna, and ran upstairs to get changed. I ran back downstairs and out the door, wondering what I was forgetting, aside from the tea strainer still sitting in the teapot on the counter.
I had made it out in perfect time, doing exactly the speed limit the entire way. The next couple hours were breathtaking, including some reds to my eyes. And just as perfect was being back home by 9pm to finally finish that episode of Clarkson’s Farm, the entire pot of tea, and even carve out a little time for yoga before bed at an almost normal hour.
