Summer time near Pond Inlet. 

Arctic Char: I caught this one in my back yard. Served eight with left overs. 

A staggering variety of wild flowers blanket the tundra in the short summer. 

These arctic shrubs tend to grow around loose rocks. The branches extend like fingers around the rock seemingly holding it to the ground. 

Arctic Earwig.

We found an earwig.
Well that may not be so extraordinary to most but it is too me. This mean little insect was running happily atop a layer of arctic snow. The temperature outside was +1C. It displayed aggression and has a set of pinchers that it uses like a scorpion would use it's stinger. This little thing can really gives you the creeps!
I tried to look it up to see what species it was. I was amazed at the fact that there are so many species of earwig. Many looking harmless while some were little attack tanks. A chill ran down my spine as I learned that some could fly. I don't want to have to cope with flying little nightmares.
I had not found any examples in text, or cybertext, that would tell me the name of this creature. I tried to be more specific like searching for "arctic earwigs" in the search engines. No results.
This must be a new species. Possibly and plausibly. We wil never know. I had read that earwigs are considered pests so I killed it.

online telepathy experiment

online telepathy experiment
This is a bit stupid but it works a good 70% of the time. Give it a try.

Duct Tape on the Web - DuctTapeGuys.com

OK. Duct tape is usefull. We all have a duct tape repair job in the closet. I suggest looking at the Duct tape guys world tour slide show on the Duct Tape Guys' refrigerator. Some awsome uses of duct tape to behold.

Duct Tape Guys

These guys take me to work . I am glad they know what they are doing! 

It's only a rock but I think it rocks! 

This is another bear that greets people as they enter Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq. The bear stands 9 feet tall. It is a humbling experience just standing beside it.

Ok, so the bear is stuffed. I don't think that I would want to venture this close to the world's biggest land carnivour. This bear sits in the Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq. Sanikiluaq is on the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay.

Jigsaw Zone: Jigsaw Puzzle Gallery

This is a great place to go when you are stuck in a small house during a raging arctic blizzard. All kinds of jigsaw puzzles to keep you entertained. Some of the pictures used for the puzzles are quite stunning.
I recommend this site for everyone of any age.

JIGSAW PUZZLES

Late Summer Golfing

The days of endless sun are over. Tundra golfing is getting harder to do every day now. After a long day at work, I try to get out on the course but I have to cook for the kids and get my daily chores done first. This leaves little time to golf. We still go out for a nine hole round but it is not unusual to have to get some light on the greens near the end of the game. Usually I will pull up the van and put the high beams on. It helps. It is not unusual for someone to hit a drive and wait to see if we can hear where it lands. Really.
THe ground is getting harder as the nights get cooler. Today's high of +8C and clear skies may have been the last warm day of the year.
The tundra golfers will continue to play even when the temperature dips below freezing. Even when there is an inch of snow on the ground. Even when herds of caribou overtake the course. There is a limit though. The days will not offer any sunlight after 5pm shortly.
The weekends will be colder and colder. The snow will build up in September. It will become impossible to play. Then I will have to put away my clubs and get back to work for the winter. A very long and very cold and very dark winter. A very golfless winter.
I guess that I will have to spend time snowmobiling and ice fishing.
I will have to look forward to the ice golf season in the spring.
Perhaps I could fly south and play a few rounds. It would not be the same unless I land in the rough every drive.
Hey! What am I talking about? There is still lots of time to get many games in. I will get pictures and post them. I will share this insanity with the world. Why not? I am so privledged to live in a place where one can do what ever one wants. The land is wide open and the air is clean. No overpopulated urban centers. No green fees.
No Green Fees.
Cool.

A day in Pangnirtung

I had to go to Pangnirtung today. My job requires me to travel to remote parts of Nunavut on occasion. Today it was a trip to the gateway to the arctic circle. Pangnirtung has wonderful scenery and excellent fishing. I had to make sure that I brought my camera so that I could let the world see a glimpse of Nunavut.

Pangnirtung Fjord

Playground  

mountains and fjord 

A view of a few of many many
Baffin Island Mountains

Mountains and sea is all you can see.

Flying into Pangnirtung.

A little city in a vast expanse.

Pangnirtung viewed from take off.

global warming

It would seem that over the last 20 years that the arctic climate is indeed changing. The trend seems to be warmer summers, higher humidity and less intense cold in the winter. 20 years of warming has caused all the glaciers to receed. When flying over the mountainous regions of Baffin Island's east coast, one can see the dramatic glacial meltdown. All glaciers have moved back up into the higher altitudes where the summer heat remains below freezing.

Insects that have never been seen on Baffin Island are now becoming commonplace. Many believe that the insect's range has increased due to the warming trend. I on the other hand attribute the increase of non-native insects to an increase in the number of cargo ships comming to the territory. Every crate dropped onto the beach has insects inside from far away places. I had opened a crate and found several paper wasps. The wasps quickly dispursed out into the tundra. Now what is a paper wasp going to do 500 miles north of the tree line? Paper wasps need trees to make the paper that they build thier nests out of. Those insects are in for a surprise I thought. I was in for more of a surprise when 2 years later, I had found a wasp nest. A paper wasp nest. How did this small collony survive the brutal arctic winter? How did these insects build a paper nest in a treeless wasteland? I found the answer by looking around. The treeless tundra is not actually treeless. Several species of "tree" grow on the barrens. These trees grow slowly and creep along the ground growing upwards no higher than a few inches. Many "trees" grow such that they engulf rocks. They look as though they are grasping the rock like a wooden hand with twig fingers hanging onto a stone. These little dwarf trees take decades to grow but are easily unnoticed as thier size is never quite like thier southern cousins. It is the little trees that had provided the raw materials for the hardy wasps to build thier nest. I had observed a lone wasp chewing a trail along a twig of a rock grasping tree. I do not think that these insects will persist. I think that I had found a lone example of ferral wasps. The location was protected from the harsh wind and was somewhat artificially heated being near a building exhaust air duct.

Global warming has only been studied for a short time. We really do not know with any great accuracy, the natural fluctuations in average temperature of this planet Earth. We have not been around long enough to gather the data over the eons. The effects of "greenhouse gases" cannot be ignored but perhaps we overestimate the effect. This summer has been the coolest summer in decades here in this part of Nunavut. The hottest day this year so far has been a high of 18C. Last year we had several days of 25C to 28C highs. A sweltering temperature for people who spend most of thier year in freezing temperatures. Global warming is not as evident in the arctic this year. Maybe we are on the road back to cooler temperatures. Maybe a warming trend happens every thousand years or so. Maybe we are actually on the road to a new ice age. Ice age?
Well, I already live in an ice age. Sort of. With paper wasps.