last day of january -28C wind: calm

we go out for a walk


she is determined

inside the amautik, he is curious

we look at the snow barrier


kids are going back to school after lunch break
we think we will follow the snowmobile tracks



we are ambitious, we want to go up that hill

then we remember a little note we read in the local newspaper: wolves have been seen in Iqaluit and Apex. schoolchildren are being warned. the wolves are hungry and desperate. ouch. we return home. hot chocolate for everybody.

* * *

just before we came in, i took quite a number of photos, holding my camera in my bare hands. then i took my key out, ready to open the door. all of a sudden i could not move my fingers. my hands got so stiff i could not insert the key into the lock. i put my mitts on again, and tried to warm my hands up. in a couple of minutes i was able to open the door. and lock it behind us. wow. and it wasn't even that cold.

* * *


some photos of our first blizzard, a week or so ago:

we wake up to this

our front door

a raven hides from the wind on our deck

windows covered with snow, and crayon art on the glass

* * *
and on a completely separate and unrelated note: i made this, with no pattern, in 2 h. the last time i crocheted was in kindergarden. i'm pretty impressed with myself. i need to buy more yarn.

winter days...

i haven't had any time to write in the last weeks, and i blame it on my novel. when i mostly wrote flash, i always wrote flash, and i had the time. now i feel i need uninterrupted chunks of time. and i never have them. i thought i had one now, but i am too sleepy, and all i managed to do was to read my previous chapter, write a couple of sentences, and a short summary of the chapter that i was planning to finish today. it is better than nothing, but it is not enough, and i get antsy that i am not writing.

the binnacle micro fiction contest deadline is approaching, so maybe i should focus on something that is 150 words long. this feels more manageable, and i love the challenge. i was short listed last year, and the rumour goes that you get your copy of the deck of cards with the flashes on them only after you submit again. this is a joke, don't quote me on this.

my mentor from the humber school of writing correspondence course had mailed me my comments. they are not here yet. he thought i'd have them wednesday. nunavut is apparently not canada. oh, in so many ways too.

okay, i am going go force myself to write 500 words for my chapter. i can do it. i don't care if it will be crap. it will be crap that i can edit later.

now.

i am going to do it now.

the novel is moving along. slowly and steadily. not too slowly, actually. i am happy with the pace. a new structure has evolved, so the fist several chapters had to be restructured.

i feel i need to be printing everything out in order to have a better view, especially of the spatial stuff, but i'm also stingy with paper. gotta get over this block.

i also want to dig in the storage room and find my voice recorder, so i can record some passages and then listen to them.

interesting thoughts come late at night, when i am falling asleep, and i repeat them several times in order not to forget, but i still forget. maybe i should force myself to get up every time this happens, and type them up. though i hope the same thoughts will return when i am working on the relevant chapters.