Folk on the Rocks - Inuit marries Acadian!

One of the most delightful acts at the Folk on the Rocks (folk festival - this year July 21-22) was The Jerry Cans, the North's answer to Great Big Sea, a four-member group out of Iqaluit (lovely news article on them, and also a link to their website: http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674iqaluit-bred_jerry_cans_revel_in_homegrown_humour/ and http://www.myspace.com/thejerrycans). Lead singer/guitarist and rapid-fire humorist Andrew Morrison is in a class on his own, speaking as he does fluent Inuktitut as well as English, and possibly French; equally fluent is band member Nancy Mike, who is Inuit. Their music is just as multicultural: "If you ask band members Morrison and Mike about who influences their music, they point to growling balladeer Tom Waits, the veteran Iqaluit band Uvagut and the late Nunavik Inuk singer-songwriter, Charlie Adams." When Andrew revealed to the audience that he had just proposed to fellow band member Nancy, the audience roared approval - "You're ALL invited!" he responded. If this is the future of Canada's north, it looks very bright indeed.

The festival is a mellow version of some of the higher powered ones around the country, but a wonderful event. The logo over the main gate to the park on Long Lake:

The main stage provides audiences with a view of the lake:

There is the usual arts-and-crafts sale area, of which one booth was fibre artist Janet Procure (those are TJ's Nuts in the background to the right, TJ being her husband - smart businessman that he is, he was selling them in the beer garden, outfitted in a 1930s nut-vending outfit):

Speaking of beer gardens, Bill and Trudy and I spent a bit of time there - you can see that Bill and Trudy are experienced folkies. It must be said, in defense of the beer garden, that this was at 1:30 in the afternoon; a few hours later there wasn't a seat to be had.

The Yellowknife festival has a cultural area in which the Yellowknife Dene, who open and close the event with their drumming, illustrate some of their cultural heritage - here pictures of some impressive fish filleting, and of Dene hand games. The latter looked to be a lot of fun!

And finally - out of many experiences - there was Edmonton-based singer Anne Vriend. She has become an accomplished performer since I first heard her years ago. She sang a song about her grandmother - Dutch immigrant woman with a hard life - and - here's the wonderful part - I knew her! My first paying job, at 11, was putting together vegetable packing crates for her grandfather's business, at a half-penny (or a penny?) a crate, and both her grandparents attended the same church as I did at the time. It was an amazing experience to be brought back, in Yellowknife, to a woman from my past, through a song by her granddaughter from Edmonton. What are the chances?

Robots boulanger - a wonderful name for "Automatic Breadmaker"!

This morning I'm trying my hand for a second time at making bread with a breadmaker, conveniently borrowed from my sister Trudy. The first time it certainly worked superbly - delicious whole grain bread, a large loaf of which half went to Trudy and Bill - but then again I followed the manual recipe exactly. This time I'm experimenting with a higher fibre recipe from the internet, had to substitute an ingredient, and threw in a few things not called for... we'll see. Live and learn.

Here's a picture of the breadmaker in my kitchen - gives an impression of the setup. The kitchen certainly does already feel like home, although I still "mis-grab" the odd item.

Silver Fox!

Trotting along on the sidewalk outside my building just a few minutes ago - around 10:30 in the evening - was a fox I've since identified as a "silver fox." Rangy, blackish with silver ripplings, and a white-tipped tail. And just what is a "silver fox"? An NT government website says that they're part of the red fox family, or what the fur industry calls "coloured foxes." That's because red foxes can come in three distinct phases, sometimes all of them in the same litter: a red phase (45-75% of the population), a "cross fox" (20-44%), and finally a silver fox (2-17%). Check out the details at http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/_live/pages/wpPages/red_fox.aspx  I think I've seen at least one of the others (the red fox), as well - this was my fourth fox sighting so far, and I have been awakened by them barking in the middle of the night.

For a historic image (of silver fox furs) I'm directing you to the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre website, which has great pictures of all manner of things relating to the Northwest Territories: http://pwnhc.learnnet.nt.ca/research/photogallery/Galleries/Business%20and%20Economy/Traders%20Gallery/n-1979-067-0032.jpg

Next time I'll try to get a picture myself!

Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts - my "third space"?

Today I spent a full day - 9 until 4:30 - with Pat and Janet at the YK Guild of Arts and Crafts. The Guild has its own building, a cute little industrial number in Kam Lake Industrial Park. I learned from Melanie (Willem's partner) that in order to thrive people need a "third space" - one in addition to work and family where they feel truly at home. The Guild building might well turn out to be that space for me.

The ground floor is dedicated to potters - three kilns, terrific studio! - and here's one of them hard at work.

The upstairs is for "mixed media" - there were some bird carvings in progress on one of the counters, stained glass equipment and supplies on shelves, looms under wraps at the moment, spinning wheels. We were there to work on our respective fibre arts projects. Pat felted, Janet dyed, I advanced the turtle project and under Pat's guidance reminded myself about what I had once learned about felting. We argued about colours, consulted on ideas, brainstormed about projects. Pat took her two dogs - Ben and Lex if I recall correctly - two beautiful brown labs. Janet fetched a latte in the afternoon. A wonderful day.

Yoga - my goodness!

Today I took my first ever yoga class - 90 minutes of "Hatha", if that means something to you experienced yoga folk out there. No pictures - absolutely not! but you can check out where I took it at http://www.taigayoga.com/Taiga_Yoga/index.html . Taiga Yoga is the brainchild and baby of Judith McNichol - when I went to check it out around 1:00 this afternoon, she's the one who showed me the facilities, gave me a brief orientation, advised on clothing and equipment. Judith has the loveliest Scottish accent and has built a most attractive and popular yoga centre - apparently a second studio room, allowing for parallel classes, is opening in a few days.

Of course I had to acquire some proper pants, which I didn't own - and unfortunately the clothing store I know best, FWO (For Women Only) was closed for renovations. After my iced latte at Javaroma, I decided to try Chez Patricia, where I hadn't yet been - it's on my way home (all this walking, of course). A helpful East Indian woman was running the place, and soon I was equipped with a most comfortable, and most reasonably priced, set of leggings. Who knew they could be so comfortable. All set for the 5:40 to 6:50 class!

Well, I won't describe the yoga itself - it's one of those things that must be experienced first hand. Suffice it to say that the 90 minutes flew by. And in the class were two people whom I had met in other situations. I like that about Yellowknife.

By the way, my Calgary friend John Humphrey sent me a link to an essay by Fia Jampolsky in today's Globe and Mail, entitled "Yes, I do feel at home in the far (far) north." While Jampolsky is talking about Whitehorse, it does very much capture my experience so far, here. Very much worth a read.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/yes-i-do-feel-at-home-in-the-far-far-north/article4385140/

Recycling On My Bicycle - how coolly green is that!

Today - another beautiful semi-sunny, slightly breezy day - I loaded some of my recycling onto my cheery bike and did a tour about town. First off, I zoomed out of the parking lot, down the hill and around the rock, and stopped at the recycling depot. It's right by the Old Town community garden, mere minutes away. Almost Dutch, what the bike can transport!

I must say that recycling in Yellowknife is a bit confusing - newspaper, tin, glass, sure; boxboard, white paper - what counts as boxboard (versus corrugated cardboard), what is not white paper? Plastics - yes, but only #s 2, 3, 5, and 7, and not if they're ketchup or syrup bottles. And I understand that envelopes - "mixed paper"? - can't be recycled. There's a more detailed guide on the web, but that's not entirely helpful if you're standing with your stuff in front of minimally signed blue bins. However - and this is a plus - there is a "Compost Only" bin at the landfill (more on the famous "Yellowknife Dump" in another posting). So things are on the right track, even if there's some room for improvement in the system.

Next I dropped in on Down to Earth Gallery - right next to the larger and more touristy Gallery of the Midnight Sun - to see if I could locate some copies of Triumph of the Chill, a wonderful short DVD on the making of the famous Snow Castle on Yellowknife Bay every March. Unfortunately they were out, but "Tony" (the Snowking himself) will be contacted to see if there are still copies available. You can watch a trailer of the video on the Snowking site - http://snowking.ca/ - and better yet, come up for this marvellous winter celebration!

Then I thought I'd go to TJ's Nut House for a latte - using the preferred Yellowknife way of giving directions by places rather than streets, I'll just say he's located "on the government dock in Old Town" -

but alas, for good reasons the place was closed:

Of course, now having connections in Yellowknife, I knew that Janet, owner of Tangletree Gallery and my new fibre arts heroine, was away this weekend, so that was no surprise.
 

Speaking of being away - it's one of the many things I like about Yellowknife, namely that if someone is away, or sick, it's not business as usual. People are not replaceable - if they're available to do what they normally do, that's fine; if not, you just have to wait until they are. So the other day Frankie's illness had an impact on the offerings at the Gourmet Cup Beverage Station in the basement of the YK Centre:

The Light - and Bugs.

Some of you have asked about these two aspects of life in Yellowknife: what's the light like??? and: how are the bugs???

Second question first: the bugs aren't bad, at least not yet, at least not in the city, at least not on the boat, and even - at least - not during the hikes we did in fairly breezy conditions. I've had two no-see-um bites, I think - actually, I'm pretty sure, because I react badly to them and I remember them very well, all too well, from a camping vacation in Vermont in June of 1989. Which brings me to this: even if there are bugs, as I am sure there are, there are worse places in the world for bugs, and I've been in them: mosquito masses in the Hardanger Vida in Norway, flea hordes in my otherwise picturesque Amsterdam rooming house, uncountable because unseeable no-see-ums in the northeastern US states. So far, Yellowknife has been relatively paradisical by comparison.

The light - well, here are a few pictures. My camera is getting old and doesn't do the light justice, but the images do give an impression of the night sky in summer.

First the sun going down between 11:30 and midnight (that's the school across the street below the setting sun):

Then sunset, perhaps up to an hour later :

Finally, night around 3:00 a.m. at which time the streetlights are on, in my view unnecessarily (it's actually somewhat lighter than the picture shows). People water the garden across the street after midnight some evenings, some evenings kids sit and talk - summer just seems to be a different time.