A happiness unmatched

A year or two ago, a guest on tour had told me they had rented a car and drove to the end of the Ingraham Trail. They had photos of river otters, in the middle of winter, laying up on the ice eating some fish. I couldn’t believe it. I was ecstatic for them and thought I’d just die to see otters myself here someday. Earlier this ‘summer’, minutes after I was looking eye to eye with a lynx on the shore, just a few metres from my kayak, a river otter swam up and curiously stayed around me for some minutes before disappearing back under water and swimming away. I was just amazed, and of course too much like a deer in headlights to have changed lenses.

If you follow closely in on the ‘v’ of the ripples of the water, you can see the little otter poking up.

6 years coming

Almost a thousand nights driving the highways outside of Yellowknife. Lynx sightings has been few and far between, but there have been a few.

I just cannot tell you how I have dreamt of being able to photograph one in the daytime though, instead of always just catching their eyes in headlights at 2am. This night I was slowly just spacily paddling along the shore when something a little further down the shore at the water’s edge caught my eye. It was a lynx, and my heart shot to my throat. I froze. It walked casually through a more heavily forested area as I crept behind until I came to an open rock face. I had lost sight of it, but I just sat at the shore amazed I had the view I did and listening for any noises in the forest. Then after about a minute, I looked up, and the lynx was just staring down at me. Exactly like your cuddly house cat on the arm of your sofa. This might have been the most perfect moment of my entire life. I could have stayed there forever.

The next few nights were filled with more magic still. One of the most surreal sunsets and beautiful light I have ever seen.

Another night, I had paddled closer to the shore to give a lot of space for an approaching boat still far down the river and that lead me right to two black bears at the shore.

Homebody homebody homebody

Most recently since these nights, when it was still cold enough to need to cover my frostbitten ears, I have been hunkered down in front of my computer for more time than is healthy, working away on the back end of my site and making visible changes too. The overnight twilight skies have been even more spectacular than I remember, and a few thunderstorms have passed through as well.

Sacrificing of my blood to the mosquitos that await me in the evenings out in my garden has resumed. After six years of searching, I have found lingonberry bushes in Canada that are now in the ground and already thriving at the side of my place. You can never understand the happiness in my heart of having my very own lingonberry bushes. They are my favourite, favourite berries by far, and so much of my nostalgia from Scandinavia.
Green is peeking from the dirt in my garden boxes, and I have made room for a few more mature berry bushes and trees still.

This already has been entirely my dream northern summer, and I just can’t say how happy it makes me.