Signs of spring

Just so quickly overnight, winter lost it’s grip. Daytime temperatures recently have been well above 0°C. There was even a light rain a couple of nights ago.

I’ve taken the cover off my patio furniture and enjoyed my first morning coffee there, and the temptation to begin seeds inside is overwhelming. The streets are dry and the gravel sweeper has already been by, and I put an abrupt end to my car’s transformation from ‘Star White’ to ‘Earth Brown’ with her first wash of the year.

“It [the aurora] just makes you feel so small.”

Over a couple of nights, we had some drives north up the beautiful Klondike Highway, chasing clear sky and separation from approaching cloud banks. Stars would momentarily disappear, and in those moments the outline of a mountain rising from the side of the highway towered above us.

The aurora started gently but grew quickly, wiping away any doubt that it could actually fill half the sky as the tourism magazines love to show. On nights of such perfection, it was refreshing to turn the car off, walk out to the lake and not look back for a few hours. The winds were persistent in their harsh gusts, but the warm temperatures let them be more beautiful than painful. In the end, the hours passed far too quickly. 4am arrives fast.