fata morgana

As a young child i dreamed of living in Africa.
Now i have no desire to ever go there. Oh i would still love to see the lions, the dessert and... a fata morgana.
My reasons for not wanting to go there.... maybe this one at the core; what if i get hurt, will i justify because of my money, to be helped by a doctor, while thousands of others stand in line for days to get medical attention. How will i ever walk past them with a clear conscious?

Anyway i am not solving world problems of that magnitude, and will stay close to my own stories (rightly or wrongly? i don't even have resolutions in that area.)
To make this into a long post; i do feel that by loving, celebrating and sharing my own environment, the ripples of that energy somehow have a positive effect even on world affairs.And how does this fit in with a fata morgana? I don't know? All i was going to say, was that as a kid, the word fata morgana, was like a fairy tale. i don't think i ever imagined truly seeing one.

Now here i am. And once in while we see a mirage, which is a fata morgana. I wouldn't have seen it if i had not known these mountains in the distance, i wouldn't have seen it if i had not looked intently, i could have walked by it so easily. But today i did see.
The world is lifted, castles created, where they are not.
I do now live in a world where things like that truely happen.

And on that hill i stand watching the mirage, which is shivering ever so slightly.

there is this... tree scolding the little tree. Do you see it? Do you see the wolf raising her paw?

last day of the year

On the morning of this last day of the year
while the full moon is setting
while the temperature drops out of sight
while the sun has not quite appeared
while i was still half asleep
while my heart is still broken
ready to break open
words came back to me
so many many precious words
but all i will say
to you all
is happy new year!
a very very happy new year.

ice crystals

crystals

in the air

rubies

surrounding me

a pearl

here and there

i cherish

the diamond

in my heart

polished with tears

fog

Today,
Don had visitors,
they had to drive through
the mist,
thick fog,
to get here.

Later climbing
the hill we could see
the fog lifting
which only hangs low in the valley



Why so much fog? There's hardly any open water left now.

skating

on Kusawa Lake

a mirror

i see the moon and the moon sees me

i look at you and you look at me

yes.....

Christmas day looks very fine

yours and mine

winter solstice

Back to the light!
Happy Solstice to you all!

I found this on the web, because i cannot explain it all, but tomorrow we will have 7 seconds more light. I did not know there is such a slowing down, for the gears to shift. I have to say it feels like that. The darkest hour might be over, but it's a long haul. That's why there is Christmas! to sit around the tree and candle light, eat good food ,exchange gifts, music, etc and feel grateful and blessed with loved ones. Thanks.

Sun & Moon
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
Whitehorse is capital of the territory Yukon Territory

Rising and setting times for the Sun
Length of day Solar noon
Date Sunrise Sunset This day Difference Time Altitude Distance
(106 km)
Dec 21, 2009 10:10 AM 3:48 PM 5h 38m 25s − 04s 12:59 PM 6.0° 147.166
Dec 22, 2009 10:10 AM 3:49 PM 5h 38m 33s + 07s 12:59 PM 6.0° 147.156
Dec 23, 2009 10:10 AM 3:49 PM 5h 38m 52s + 19s 1:00 PM 6.0° 147.146
Dec 24, 2009 10:11 AM 3:50 PM 5h 39m 23s + 30s 1:00 PM 6.1° 147.137
Dec 25, 2009 10:11 AM 3:51 PM 5h 40m 05s + 42s 1:01 PM 6.1° 147.129
Dec 26, 2009 10:11 AM 3:52 PM 5h 41m 00s + 54s 1:01 PM 6.1° 147.122
Dec 27, 2009 10:11 AM 3:53 PM 5h 42m 05s + 1m 05s 1:02 PM 6.2° 147.116

All times are in local time for Whitehorse
December Solstice (Winter Solstice) is on Monday, December 21, 2009 at 9:47 AM in Whitehorse. In most locations north of Equator, the shortest day of the year is around this date

Andi like to add, i was just out, and it's -35 C down in the forest here. (-35 is similar in F)

wolf tracks

In my field guide, tracking animals in the snow it says that wolf tracks are 4.5" to 5.5" long. This one is 8 inches. That must be a large wolf.
As a spirit guide the wolf is guardian.
The wolf is roaming the Mendenhall meadows keeping me safe.

Don and i roam the meadows too today. In a total different spot as where we got our Christmas tree last week. The mendenhall river comes from the north of us. Our subdivision, where we live, in the bend, where it turns east. So there are a lot of meadows close to us. Today we drive into a farmer's road and keep going. Before the meadow dropping down a steep hill. Other years i have been exploring here quite a bit. And i know of another road at the end of this meadow, going to the next.
Nobody has traveled here this winter, but Don hears me out and lets me find it. As this road hasn't had a lot of traffic on it the last few years. The going is a little scratchy, good thing we are driving our 35 year old Chevy. We come to what seems to be the end, but i know it is continuing, it's just a tree across the trail. It's an old dead poplar, which is easy to move.
And indeed we come out by the next meadow. all the meadows we roam today are lined by a nice ridge on the North. The old beach line. The ridges, having southern exposure, are almost devoid of snow. And that is a good thing, because the way in is the only way out we know of. The truck spinning up the hill, i am ready to jump out and give it a push :) but we make it!I have to admit, due to Don's off-road driving skills.


It's Jupiter and the moon tonight. Jupiter is not visible when i took this picture, but right now it's an awesome pair!

the tree is up

To see the tree,
where it was last week,
firmly rooted in it's spot.
It makes me cry.

Now i hope seeing the tree in the house it will bring a smile on my face. Christmas always makes me very content. And it does. "Mom, i wish i was with you." Now i shouldn't talk this way, because tears roll down my cheeks again.
When i lived in Holland, a total of 28 years orso, i would always spend the 2 days of Christmas at Home, at home, as the home i grew up in. No boyfriend, would have me those two days. Don lured me away right after Christmas, and married me just before Christmas a few years later, hence the white flowers in the picture, yesterday was our anniversary.
No and Don didn't lure me, it was all my doing. I met him the summer of '89 here in the Yukon. I felt we fell deeply in love, i barely heard from him after, till... just before christmas i got this incredible flower arrangement delivered to my door step. Needless to say, i figured whoever sends me such flowers, i have got to check him out. I booked a flight, and the week after Christmas, i spend in the snow in a cabin in the North with my truelove. "There you go Jozien, no sense crying now, you're still living your own dream." "I know."

across them hills

when i woke up this morning,
i knew something was off. turning this way and that,
i noticed my feet not lining up. overnight my left leg had shortened, or my right had grown. now i believe in miracles, but certain things are certain, like snow reflecting sun or the length of ones limbs.i guess until i shrink a bit, due to old age, they just might, even out again eventually. for now i will have to walk around with this slight limp.
flying over hills this afternoon, i never even noticed, my legs upon the sled seemed fine again,

for a little while at least.

Christmas came early

Christmas has come

when i step outside
in the pink
morning light
all is so still
the sky so clear
the sound
of chickadees
silently
my two ravens
gracefully
gliding
through my forest
magpies
gray jays
dark shiny
wings
in a world
so soft
i melt
into it



yesterday's
photos
this morning's
story

christmas tree

First,my Internet is not working properly, i can't get into my email account.
For the Christmas tree; We found a beauty!
I would like to post a picture, but somehow i can't. Things are not working right.
This morning Don offered to go get a tree. I don't know what's with that man, these days, but he seem to want to spent time with me. I know we are married, we do sleep together, but that is kind of the extent of our relationship :).
Anyway we have a beautiful day in the woods, all the daylight hours. First we drive(no walking long distances with Don) to the meadow which i now call christmas valley. We locate several possible trees and keep on driving, there is still little snow on the ground(a few inches) and the ground frozen, so really you can drive anywhere, not with the black car i have to add, but with the orange van, which is a little higher of the ground. It being higher, we do have to cut two trees which do hang over the bushroad to low. This is an atv or skidoo trail. At the end of Christmas valley, we turn in a bushroad which leads to the Mendenhall meadows on the South end of the 911-pond. We are looking for sign of bison. Earlier we see two sparring young male elk! As it has been snowing the last few days(very fine snow, nothing that makes much of a difference in amount on the ground)all animal tracks we see could be either elk, horses or bison. We roam the meadows that are a maze, For you Technobabe :) i will compare it to -several strings of pearls- along the mendenhall river. We even do end up by the river, having to walk the last part. We actually do walk several times to explore where the van won't go.
The clouds are breaking up into, again, 'pearls', and the sun is trying to break through, in the distance sunlit mountains appear in a haze. Don stories are like strings of pearls too :) flowing from one to another, some of them totally contradicting the ones before. And i just listen, which used to be hard for me, but in a marriage you sometimes gotta give a bit. (being a blogger helps, being able to rattle on, no one interrupting)
A trip like this really doesn't really have a goal and eventually we end up in Christmas valley again.
Ahhh to cut the tree. We take a closer look to the ones we picked before as possible candidates. The first one has to many rusty needles, several are a bunch of trees rather than having one stem. Some proof to be having holes. Ahhh there it is, only 5 metres off the trail. Don with his axe and i doing the rest with my handsaw. We can even work as a team! And the trees fits in the van, no laborious hauling or tying down of the tree. Most years i have gotten a tree closer to home and mostly without moterized vehicle. This is easy! And on the highway we pick up a meal; A grouse still warm, having been hit by a car. We will eat it, just not today.
Thanks Mother of the Great Forest, to give us your beautiful tree.

white lace

This photo taken thursday.

Today was a day which i like to call;

-white lace offset on white-

The whole day a fine snow was falling, the poplar trees with hoarfrost and the spruce with a light coating of the fresh snow, the ground white, the sky white. Everything so soft. Even feeling kind of low, i love this day.

Yesterday another kind of day. First in the middle of the night i wake up with the moon shining on my face, i am in bed the opposite way. I am facing Don's feet and he faces mine, but with the moon i like it that way, and fall back asleep. When we wake up the moon is right above the christmas tree, we have the lights on while getting ready for town.

It is me that always likes to car pool, but today Don insists on it, i try to talk him out of it, as my schedule is not clear even to me. He promises to all fit it in his schedule and make sure i'll get where i need to be. We don't own a cell phone, so that is going to be interesting. And indeed several times, i find my self wondering what to do now, how to get to my next stop.

First i work, humming while cleaning someones house, i am done early and luckily Don's early to pick me up. Then i hope to meet Grace who was supposed to be early but is not there yet, i will help her setting up for another craft fair, hmmm....i hear comments around me that are..... concerning. Elsewhere in town a dear friend takes me for a fancy lunch, she is part of a group to get an award. Me hardly ever drinking at all, enjoys it all with too much red wine. By now my husband is trying to pick me up, but looks into the restaurant instead of the big hall beside it, where i ended up and forgot all about the time.

My friend is so kind to drop me off at the craft fair. I try to recognize my husbands car, it's black, many black cars you know. As i say, "for all i know it could be this one", there is some sort of commotion, my husband and Grace being part of it. With the help of others Grace is carrying out her stuff. She's kicked out, or actually decided to leave. Maybe partly my fault, but that's a long story, and i am all giddy because of the wine. Nobody really is too upset. Maybe just the board of directors organizing this event. At the end they are so kind though to give Grace her money back.

Anyway i found Don again, he brings me to the library, which is always very unlike a library, a meeting place, where you always run into someone to have a good laugh with,which we do try to do quietly. And after i do the things i do in the library, i walk to the daycare where i work for 2 more hours. And it is not the amount of kids that wear me out, but the activities i get into with them, all of us having a great time. At five with a car full of groceries Don picks me up and i am so happy to be driven home, in the dark, music of the eighties tuned up loud.

Coming home we turn on the lights of the tree and on the left above it is Jupiter(i hope i am right on that one)

And now this moment i turn the switch again, ahhhh again so beautiful, tiny lights in the dark snowy night. :) Christmas is coming.

no christmas tree yet

i did plug in
the outside christmas lights
very late this year
then i went looking for a tree
to bring inside
i looked in all the wrong places
not one was right
although they were all lit
with christmas sparkles
and at 4 PM we had
the usual color show.
tonight we 'll have the stars again
and a sliver of the moon
i wonder when to
turn the switch for
an electric light display
do we really need it?
oh yes
it will look very nice

a cord of wood

I like cutting wood. I like doing outside chores. Especially when they don't take too long.
Today we had a pickup load of wood in just over an hour. Which is maybe half a cord of wood. A cord of firewood measures 4feet x 4feet x 8feet. And maybe this week i will keep track of how much we actually burn in an average winter's week. Two woodstoves (RSF) one in the shop and one here in the house.
The cutting went so fast, because of the work the people in the fire-smart program did, They clear out a strip of forest around a community. They clear the underbrush and dead wood, and thin out the forest. The firewood is for the people in the community.
I like the way the sun hits the top of the trees on the hoarfrost.

These photos when taken around 3 pm. The sun always close to the horizon, when you don't have southern exposure, you can be in the shade most of the daylight hours. Today's sunrise 9.57 AM, sunset 3.50 PM.

a name

Babe I would love to know your name :)
I could just give you a name, but for some reason, i never have the urge to give names. I do have great desire to know names, flowers, animals and people alike. I know people who even name objects in their environment. I never even named my own kid (Don, my husband did), nor my cats(loesje and bubbles). And very seldom will i give my loved ones a different name, not even an abbreviation.

And who knows one day, when i grow up, i might start naming things. Because it is all about distinction. Expressing my recognition that you are special, yes?
I was always very particular about my own name, not so much caring what you call me, but i will always call myself Jozien, pronounced; yo zeen. Lately :) i have a number of different names for myself.
Maybe it all started with my grandpa dying when i was 5. I was his most beloved! and he called me Sientje, and i loved it. Writing it here is scary, call me anything, but don't ever call me that.

Anyway i would love to name the deer that come to my yard. They are a fairly recent occurrence. Somewhere i read that deer appeared in the Yukon 100 years ago. Only the last few years i see them on a regular basis.

As a footnote; for years we had a coyote coming to eat our compost, i named him/her; the one-eyed coyote. Needless to say, he had only eye.

sunday visitor

sunrise

Winter Sunrise
scene

As i didn't take any photos yesterday, click on the above, and there you find some Yukon beauties.

I drove right into that sunrise for an hour, going to the craft sale. it was forever changing, deep oranges, purples etc, all the colors i used in yesterdays post, more actually and more intense.
At the end looking out and up; i felt like i was looking down, floating above this peach blanket.

We might have a late sunrise and early sunset (Christopher thanks for mentioning us:)but they last for hours.

The craft sale i went to, was for Sonja and me the least successful, but if it would have been the first i would have been quite pleased.
And as always; socially it was great. Lots of wonderful people.
And Larry Bagnell liked my paintings! That tickles me pink. And that it tickles me pink, that makes me....hmmm
let's say i wonder about my intricacy. That's all i am saying, it's a long story, nothing to do with Larry, he apparently is a very good politician and a very good person. Thanks Larry!

streaks

first the mountains
streaked with color
then i go outside
and the sky is striped
my hands have smears of paint
it is my cheeks
that make me wonder
why are they
streaked with tears
is it all these new things
i am learning
like the colors here
it's just i never knew
to cry so much
some people say it's good
but i don't know
it doesn't feel like progress
and i call the mountains
please
please take me in
so i can be with you

one more craftsale

tomorrow at

Porter Creek high school

starting at 10AM

1405 Hickory St.

See you there!

i know what i

was dreaming up last night

today i sigh and smile

my heartbeat is a millisecond faster

this fluttering both uncomfortable and sheer delight

activities containing me

my heart urging me to go outside

-

the wind blows

the air it smells of rain

metallic, fresh but thick and heavy

good thing it's thick and not so thin

my fluttering wings would lift me

and take me way to far away

the sky 3 colors blue and 100 shades of gray

-

I climb the hill

to fetch my comb that i forgot

after playing mermaid of this sea of snow

i sit upon my rock again

where snow has visibly diminished

it is roaring in the tree tops down below

the wind taking one sweep at me

-

i dream, i dream

it makes me smile all day

while

my heart

it hurts

just a tiny little bit

The light

As i am writing the sun has just set. It did set 3.08. It will be light for a while, well and than really it will never get totally dark, here in the winter, with snow on the ground. Now with the full moon, the yard will be in dark blue light.
According to a Canada weather website, the sun officially sets at 3.57 in Whitehorse today. I will watch if that is the moment when dusk turns to dark.

I did a beautiful walk today. Still walking, as the snow is not very deep. I walked my blue ribbon trail, first climbing the rocks, entering the thick forest, through an old creekbed. coming out in a meadow, where there is still water coming out of the ground. Hoping to see moose activity, i saw only one old track through the creekbed. Lots of other tracks, as we haven't had fresh snow for a while, so all the stories stay.


Yesterday i was in town, went skiing, swimming and running. Our town the city of Whitehorse. For the amount of people living there, some 25.000. We do have an incredible amount of things going on and beautiful facilities. The skiing at Mount Mac, the trails fantastic. And swimming at the multiplex, or it's name Canada Games Centre. After school i train a group of young cross country skiers on the running track.
All the best of the best. And while swimming and running, you get to watch the surrounding mountains.