Sounds of Winter

Since coming back from Christmas holidays my mind has been thinking of an article I read some time ago describing the sounds of winter in the north. I wish I could remember the name of the author, but since I can't I will to make my own description.

Walking around town, to and from school, heading out on the land, they are all linked by sounds. In town we don't really have many traffic sounds, no horns blaring or the sounds of busses and transports laying on the brakes. Instead there is the buzz of skidoos skidding on the ice or cutting through the snow. Hondas have their own roar are they rip through town laden with kids joyriding or people out doing their shopping. The only big trucks we have are for sewage, water, and sand; linked by the rumble of their engines and the clinking of the chains on the tires. Mornings and evenings are marked by the sound of howling dogs; saying hello, goodbye, and anything else you can think of. It seems are if 7am is one of their best times to converse, if I ever sleep through my alarm I can always hear the dogs. Comforting thought in a way.

Then there are the noises we make. The kids calling and shrieking to one another as they play in the snow, sliding down the hills and snow banks, chasing the odd puppy or too around their house. When walking anywhere you become aware of the sounds that comes from your own movements. The material of snow-pants and parkas has a distinct swishing sound. The crunching and squeaking of boots on the dry snow as you tramp through the tundra. There is also an absence of sound from within the tunnel of a parka hood. WIth the hood up on my parka I find that my sense of hearing is almost completely deprived.

The final sound is the wind that often blows through and around the town. It lightly teases flags and fur, blowing softly, barely a whisper. It picks up, slapping cables against houses, snapping flags, pulling the breath from ones body. It builds to a howl that warns of and accompanies a blizzard as it roars through town, closing over and blocking out almost every other sound as people and animal take refuge from the storm. Until finally the quiet returns to signal the end of the storm and the town begins to stir again, digging itself out from the snow.

Many people have asked me how you live with the quiet of the North, and I have to laugh a little as I try to explain the difference in the sounds between north and south. For myself, right now I'd take the quiet sounds of the north over the constant noise of the south any day.

Blizzard!!

After weeks of strange and at times teasing weather, we have had our first blizzard of the season. All fall we have been hearing about how strange the weather has been this year, so warm and sunny, fall seemed to go on forever. Then we started to get a little snow, light dustings to frost the land but it didn't seem to stay. There was always a day or two of nice, warm weather that seemed to chase the snow away. I found myself getting excited for snow whenever there was a hint of dark clouds on the horizon thinking "finally, we are going to get our blizzard" only to be disappointed with a small flurry. It may seem strange to some, to be avidly hoping for a blizzard, but it is a part of living in the north that I have been looking forward to. Being raised in Canada, in an area that typically gets its fair share of snow in the winter, snow is a major part of my winter memories. Having spent winters in different countries that didn't get much snow (little if any), and finding myself becoming giddy and silly when we received the lightest dusting, I realized how much of a Canadian girl I am.

Back to Inukjuak. After a passing a lazy Sunday afternoon nursing a stubborn cold I was delighted to see the wind and snow picking up outside my window. I quickly checked the weather report and grinned when I saw that we were under blizzard and wind watch for the next few days. Now I do not always believe the weather man as he can be cruel teasing teachers with the possibility of a snow day and then not delivering, however I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt again. I settled in for the night listening to the wind howl around my house and peeking outside to see how much snow was moving around outside. The secret to a real blizzard is the right combination of snow and wind to get the whiteout that one is hoping for. By bedtime it was looking very good indeed, but there is always the possibility that a storm can blow itself out during the night. The next morning I woke to the sound of wind still howling around my house. When I peeked outside my window a huge grin appeared on my face, I could barely see a thing. Still I got ready fro school, just in case. I usually check my email while eating breakfast keeping an eye on the school, that most mornings I can see clearly from my window. Today was not one of those mornings, I knew it was there, fuzzy outline of it most of the time, but I was not looking forward to walking to class against the wind. Happily I did not have to. Administration called a blizzard day! YAY!!

It was such a quiet day. All the normal sounds of the town were missing. There were no snow machines or ATVs buzzing down the streets. No water or sewage trucks rumbling past. Even the dogs were quiet as they buried down to sleep out the storm. The wind howled and the house shook but it still felt quiet, like you were tucked in a safe place. Perfect for napping, and I am not ashamed to say that I indulged in this afternoon. I even had a pot of my dad's tomato beef stew on the stove simmering throughout the day, or at least my version of dad's stew. That is one thing I do miss about my parent's home in the winter, the soups and stews we enjoyed. Students are always hoping for blizzard days so that they can have a day off from class, never dreaming that their teachers may just want the same thing once in awhile as well. I had a very good day enjoying my first blizzard day in the arctic. Almost bedtime and the wind is still blowing, not much snow flying anymore but I checked the weather network again and we are still under a blizzard watch so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Moving day up north

Wind picking up, light snow, a borrowed truck, a skidoo and sled, a couple teachers, and a few hired students. Ready to move, planned or otherwise, here we go. A couple of teachers here were moving into their new houses this weekend but it is not as if you can call the local moving guys to pack you up and haul your stuff to the new house. Pack it up best you can, slide it into the back of the pickup truck, and hang on. Roads were icy and snow covered, wind was picking up throughout the afternoon but we managed to get most of the stuff that was ready moved. A few funny moments of the day: seeing a couch moved tucked into the sled towed behind a skidoo, hearing the thump of a butt hitting the window of the truck when we stopped a bit too quickly for the boys in the back, the sheer silliness of moving in ever worsening weather. Ah well, what else can you do with your saturday up north?

Waiting for Winter

It sometimes seems as if we have been waiting for winter to truly arrive. Students want snow so that they can take their snow machines out and do some more hunting. Teachers want snow for almost the same reasons and there is also the added benefit of blizzard days :) But there is also something about wide expanses of snow that make you want to hold your breath, take a running leap, and make a snow angel. Things appear so much cleaner, new after a fresh snowfall. You just step outside and take in a lungful of clean and freezing air. The land and sky are made up of ribbons of blues, greys, and white that seem to go on forever. At night the snow falls softly, swirling through pools of light as you walk home under a dark sky. From the looks of this week winter may have finally arrived and decided to stay.

Halloween Mayhem

I love Halloween! It is my favourite holiday, even better than christmas. The class decided that they wanted to do the school haunted house this year. Every secondary class has to figure out and provided a halloween game for the younger classes the last friday before Halloween. I agreed, mainly because I love it, but I warned the class that it was going to be a huge amount of work. The promised that they would all contribute to the building of the haunted house and participate on the day. So I signed up the class and so it began.

1st week of october: we begin the paper mache for pumpkins and possible skulls. A very messy couple of art and english classes but a fun trip back to grade school. I spend the weekend building tombstones out of cardboard for the students to paint next week and layering on a little more paper mache. Also traced out a skeleton for possible scaring :)

2nd week: students decided who was going to be dead in the graveyard. A few of my favourites were "Justin Bieber: Killed by screaming fans" "Principal: Death by the Pen" "Vice principal: Died running with scissors" "Teacher A: Fell of a cliff" "Teacher B: Wasted Away" and another teacher "Murdered by and angry student mob". They gleefully decided on the fate of those around them and spatted the tombs with gore and dirt accordingly. It seems I have a very vengeful class. My weekend was again spent at the school figuring out how to create a life size paper mache skeleton. Turns out all you need is a ton of rolled up paper tubes, tape, and the patience of a sage for the paper mache part. It turned out a little bigger than I had planned so I decided to call him Frank (short for Frankenstein). I also constructed Dracula's coffin out of a big cardboard box that I managed to lay my hands on. I think a few people on the staff here think I am a little nuts as I have been scouring the school for materials we can use in the haunted house. A big box that held the new photocopier, a tall tube of cardboard, various other boxes and bags, and some abandoned panels I found in the garage.

3rd week: Students finish up with the tombstones and pumpkins. There is also some independent mask making going on, venetian in style. I have some very creative students. The spiders and bats are beginning to receive their teeth and eyes; very creepy, hairy spiders. Also some dead leaf painting for the path in our haunted house going on. Plans are also decided for what design to have as our class wall for the school contest. I again spent my weekend at the school converting a large cardboard tube and smaller pieces of cardboard into a creepy tree, not a bad job if I do say so, the leaves will go on when the paint dries.

4th and final week: Crunch time. Class is split into teams, half working on the classroom door (a homage to friday the 13th murders), the other half putting together a classic halloween scene (graveyard, creepy tree, castle in the distance, death creeping along the hill etc). Finishing touch of skulls bordering the painting. As many students who saw it in the hall said it looked "pro". Thursday before Halloween was spent turning an ordinary library into a creepy haunted house. We spent the better part of the afternoon blacking out the windows and walls with black garbage bags, moving the panels in to create walls and a bit of a maze. Creepy hanging tread-like curtains with spiderwebs and glow in the dark were to greet the students as they come in. Follow through to the stone door to enter Dracula's chamber, suitably dark with cobwebs, follow the path to the Mad Lab. Large skeleton on the examining table, jars and beakers filled with odd, slimy things. Through the tunnel to the graveyard, tombstone and leaning crosses, spiders and cobwebs everywhere.

Friday before Halloween: The students and I did the final lighting and cobweb stringing to make our haunted house as creepy as possible. I made pizza for the kids to bribe them to stay at the school during lunch so I could fix their makeup for the afternoon. I also wanted to make sure the students were all there for the start of the afternoon. By the time lunch was over I had a class of creepy, ghost-like guides and monsters to entertain the younger grades. You know you have a good haunted house when you have children that don't want to go in because they are too scared, or other children who come out crying because they met a monster they didn't like. My students did a fantastic job! They guided the kids through, were less scary towards the really little one, and let out all the stops for the big ones. After all the kids had been through and the afternoon was over, tired as they were my students still worked hard to take the haunted house down. What a great class!

A Wind Lullaby?

It seems as if the wind is a sign of the coming winter. It has been a constant sound; night and day. It comes mainly off the Bay headed inland and then onto the far coast. We have been under wind warnings for the last two days; gusts of 90+ kms from Hudson's Bay. It is interesting to note how the wind seems to affect the students we teach, for the past two days they have been decidedly off in both behaviour and work. Tonight the wind is strong enough to cause my house to shake, not much but enough that I feel a slight tremor. Even though I know the source of the sounds and movement I am finding it difficult to sleep tonight. Is it the wind? or merely my own thoughts that keep me from sleep? Probably a mix of both.

Taking time to play out on the Land

For weeks we have been trying to organize an outing out on the tundra, hopefully taking a boat up the coast but it bad weather, bookings, and a broken boat thwarted us at every turn. Finally it was decided that boat or no boat, rain or shine we were going to take a day off from school and head out onto the land. Told the students to listen to the FM radio in the morning just to be sure if school was cancelled, and despite the grey sky and high wind we set out. It was a funny kind of caravan that took the road out of town yesterday; a column of atv's followed by a truck filled with teachers and their dogs. The farther we drove the more beautiful it became. The sky was still a dark steel colour but the tundra itself was a mosaic of fall. The red, orange and green mixed with the natural black rocks, with hints of blue lakes and sky as we went farther and farther out. Riding on the lead atv I couldn't keep from smiling. Everyone at the school had been a little out of sorts of late, both students and teachers so this was going to be a much needed outing. The wind was high as we raced along making conversation a little difficult but the local teacher I was with tried her best to explain so of what we were seeing as we passed; the names of the lakes, who had fall camps where. We finally stopped close to one of the big lakes to set up. I headed out a bit farther along the coast with some of the local ladies to do a little berry picking. As we picked a learned a a bit about the local medicines; the red berries are good for colds and sore throats, and if you mix them with the black they are even better. Some of the teachers were trying their had at fishing in the lake but it was really too windy a day for it. When the ladies and I headed back we found quite a feast set out; fresh sea urchins and mussels, and someone had caught a seal that morning to bring on the outing. I have never seen anything like it. One of the ladies was busily skinning and butchering it; and when you looked at it you realized just how suited it is to living in a northern climate. Over half of the seal's size was the layer of fat that would have protected it during the winter and in the frigid Arctic waters. It was fascinating in a way to see the ladies slice up the seal, they really do use every part of it, and after they enjoyed the organs raw the rest was thrown in a pot on the fire. Soon enough there was a pan of mussels steaming and a pot of seal bubbling. While they cooked the ladies were showing us how to slice open the sea urchins, calling them the caviar of the north. Not everyone tried the urchins but I found them to be very tasty, they actually reminded me of something I had eaten before but I couldn't place it. In a way it seemed as if they ladies were testing us to see how many would actually try the urchins and raw mussels. I had no problem with the urchins but I draw the line at raw mussels, I like them fine cooked but... the cooked seal however was excellent, warm with a slight gamey flavour. It was such a wonderful thing to sit by a roaring fire under an ever increasingly blue sky. The wind was cold but the sun and fire were warm, and I was so comfortable that I actually started to doze off while a group of the teacher started to kick around a haky sac. Take a minute and picture that haky sac in the tundra? Why not :) Next thing I knew I was once again racing across the tundra on the back of an atv; this time under a sunny blue sky, still windy and with a huge grin on my face. I was such a wonderful day, everyone seemed to have been re-energized with a smile on their face. Picture and stories really can do justice to the beauty up here, the sheer openness of the land and sky, and yet you can never forget that you are a visitor here.