fine fins de semaines II: Carcross desert

Ceci n'est pas un desert,

fine fins de semaines I

Here are pictures of what I've been doing on my weekends.

This is from last weekend's trip to Skagway.

There is this section of the landscape which just looks like what the blasted geography of somewhere like Mordor was supposed to:


...and after the Ring was destroyed:
The one-armed bridge to Skagway:

The train going over the waterfall:

coup de luxe!

In order to accommodate the dodgy internet connection I am currently dealing with generally I am doing things in a faster shoddier fashion which you may appreciate when viewing the blog, so I've reduced the richness of my photos in terms of data. Hooray! Cheap fast & out of control!!

Here is Whitehorse in various states of daylight, from beginning to end:


In the hands of amateurs, cameras do not capture or convey the feeling that comes with the direct experience of light. So make this a call to get out into the light and get it into you!

coup de soleil!

Erratum

The lovely and talented Karyn Armour has informed me that my beautiful pottery home-away-from-home bowl was made by Patrick Royale. So if you see his name listed in any upcoming art or craft events, go!

Now, one more neighbourhood moment, a trip to hyperreality:

Absurbia

See what I mean?


This is the street where I live:

This is my front "lawn":
and this is the back yard:
See, here in the Yukon, parents don't coddle their kids like they do down south. Scraped knees embedded with gravel build the kind of character needed to survive a real canadian winter. Hence the swingset of pain:

Now to further afield.

The neighbourhood:

Another exciting vista:

Two more recent additions:

The park:

But this is truly beautiful. A view of Grey Mountain from the edge of the suburb:
and this house is right there, with nothing between it and the view, for now at least. This is by far the handsomest house in the area:

So, that's the tour. Would you be my neighbour? I hope you will come and visit again soon.

claire's bey

This is what I look like today:



So, living in suburbia has affected me. I've started to document all my meagre possessions. Maybe they will convince you to come up north and invest heavily in the thriving garage sale market. Some of these things are made my local artists:

This is a garage sale find that will increase my cookie herd. I'm hoping to breed the two togther and get a hybrid that will be viable in the northern climate.

Oops.

Here's a sewing machine I bought for $10:

This is a real antique roadshow type find:



"Yes, I paid five dollars for this at a garage sale in, I think it was 2007. I found it here in the Yukon during my first year, so it has sentimental value."
"Really. Well this piece probably came up to the Yukon with a wealthy fortune hunter and was abandoned at the same time any hope of finding gold were. Even with the small rust stains on the pink leather purse (could they be blood stains gained in a gun fight?) is worth somewhere in the order of $220, 000 today."
"oh my..."

On to the artisans:

This was created by Karyn Armour, an up-and-coming jeweler.

This bowl is my home. I take it from house to house, and eat most of my meals out of it. It really is part of what keeps me feeling like I have something where I am staying. Of course, if it breaks I'm screwed, but isn't it lovely?
You can see the unglazed impression of a bird in the back. This artist, whose name eludes me at the moment (Karyn, help!?), has made a series of goblets in partnership with a local brewing company that are shipped out in gift crates. They are stunning, and are the same black slip & glaze combination with a colourful lip.

And this is by a new Whitehorsian, Claire Paradis.
It will become part of the permanent collection at 3B Drift Drive under the curatorship of Shani MacGregor.

Et voila c'est toute!

Heeheehee!

sailing, sailing

well, rowing, at least
das boot!

Last weekend, Karyn, Robin and I went rowing on Fox Lake.
here I am, doing the crossword puzzle


Here I am, realizing that there's a lake with a boat on it right behind me.

So, Karyn and I went out for a bit of a paddle.
It was great! as you can see from the photos, I enjoyed myself immensely:





and here is Robin, with a more proficient version of rowing:


and in unrelated events, I quit my job yesterday. More on that as it develops!

Slow news day

found in its natural habitat


yes, but what is it?


ah, I see!

saling, saling

Hey gang;
Sorry for the absence, but seeing as I recently discovered that most of you hadn't read any posts on the blog, I figure I'd give y'all time to catch up. Here's a post that is about a month old that didn't get published due to lack of photos at the time.

One of Whitehorse’s best-kept secrets, or maybe not but I’m just finding out about it, is its garage sale culture. Every Friday there is a listing of all garage sales in the local paper which is organized by neighbourhood. From there, you can load your phone book with all its neighbourhood maps into your Subaru (everyone here drives a Subaru), and try to beat the other avid garage salers to the listed addresses. Robin, one of my welcome-to-Whitehorse hosts is a veteran saler, and has an efficient and professional approach to it all. He is in the car and off to the first garage sale a half an hour before the morning officially starts, allowing time for navigation and early bird luckiness. In my short time here I have acquired some of the most amazing material possessions I have ever had, outside of the 3D egg puzzle I had in grade six which I willed to my nearest and dearest friend at the time, now forgotten in the annals of my history (egg, friend, etc). I am now the proud owner of a very well-loved ingenious plastic scale that is hard to describe but accurately summed up as a marvel of German engineering ingenuity, a pair of sunflower-festooned gumboots the envy of anyone who has ever had any pretensions to gardening,

a Bordeaux-coloured vinyl Bolshevik travelbag from Soviet Airlines,

a $10 5-speed bike that I swear has miracle powers because it can carry me up 2-Mile Hill and then some, a toque lovingly hand-knit with tasteful hearts, etc etc. For everything I have, there are at least 4 things I had to leave behind, as I am, well, homeless at the moment. Yet another money-making scheme I considered was exporting garage sale junk down south to some of the local markets. Airfare would definitely be covered by the venture if not more. Fortunately, I do not have to worry about employment any more as I seem to be employed at least full-time at the Mainstreet Bakerei’s latest incarnation, The Poplar Café.

The namechange was hastened by the previous owners’ reticence to pay up their bills before they left town for what is turning out to be an epic-length hike. How far could they be trekking? Some of us (me) speculate that they may be heading for country equal to or greater than the Yukon in its lawlessness. Somewhere like the Ozarks. But, I’m still getting paid to come up with things that people will pay money to eat, and hopefully enjoy. I keep the sugar in ready supply. I’ve learned a lot and am going to be learning a lot more in short order. I’m supposed to make danishes, something that I’ve never done before, so I am doing some research in combination with my own technique of making it up as I go along. It’s really fun, and I can see that once I get the hang of it, there are a million interesting things that can be created. My gracious hosts Karyn and Robin have a huge library of cookbooks and magazines, and I’ve run across a whole bunch of inspiration there. If you are interested, there is a great article in the latest issue of Food & Wine about a restaurant in Rotterdam that is something like the kind of place I would eventually like to be involved in.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/can-you-throw-a-60-second-party

I don’t know if Tony the owner would be interested in it, and I’m not sure that Whitehorse has the market for it, but considering the number of artists around here, I’m sure there would be enough people that would be game.

More pictures of the beloved boots:

with genuine garden clippings on them


notice the lovely back seam. Very sexy!


in their natural habitat.