A walk along Frobisher Bay

Among my birthday gifts was a new digital camera, so I decided to take a short walk on Sunday along the beach before it got too cold. I couldn't believe I hadn't been down there since the winter began... the chunks of ice that rise up because of the tides are amazing. I will definitely be going on longer adventures out on the land soon. There's been a dearth of pictures on my blog recently, so here's a bunch:

The tides of the bay:

A mountain of tidal ice:
A crack in the ice marks the shoreline (I think):
Rock meets ice:

Land meets sea:

Snow Daze

Over the weekend, it snowed. It had kinda sorta snowed last week, but this past weekend it snowed properly, with big white blowing flakes. On Sunday, I was looking out over Frobisher Bay, and felt like something was different... it took me a little while to realize that the white across the bay wasn't entirely clouds - the hills were snow covered! If you look carefully, you can see them in the photo above. This morning, there was actual snow on the ground (or, as one of the kids at daycare put it, there were "snowmans" outside).

So far, I forget most days that I live in the arctic. That is beginning to change.

From sunshine to fog

Well, it reached a balmy 18 degrees here in Iqaluit this week. Unfortunately, it's now turned colder and grey - last night a fog rolled in off Frobisher Bay. The good news is that the ice has completely left the bay - it's been gone for about a week now. I took these pictures last week:
Notice the sealift boats and barges:Compare those images to the pictures I took 2 weeks ago, not long after I'd arrived in town.

On the town

My first week in Iqaluit has consisted of spending a few hours each day doing work for my ESL teaching course, drinking tea, and going out around town for walks and errands. On Thursday, I went for a walk around town that took me along the waterfront, which is a cool assortment of old boats and metal storage containers. Frobisher Bay, right now, is basically a giant field of broken ice; although in the distance you can see some big ships lingering, as if anticipating the clearing of the final chunks of ice so that they can get closer to shore.

Anyway, for those back home (aka "down south") who might be wondering what it's like up here, the green building on the left is where I live:This is the sign on the road into town from the airport; notice the Inuktitut writing on the speed-limit sign:
This husky, I believe, is thinking "yum, fresh Torontonian!"
This is the Iqaluit waterfront. Or should I say "ice-front"?There's Iqaluit, there behind the chunks of ice:...and from above: