Fall in the Klondike Valley

While it is fall in name only in many parts of Canada, here in the North, we are most definitely in the thick of it.

Fall is birch and aspen shimmering gold; it is the leaves of the fireweed and wild rose turning yellow, orange, deep purple, scarlet. It is a breathtaking display of colours on the tundra. It makes me think of a richly woven carpet, spread out over the mountains. We take drives out to Tombstone Territorial Park, just up the highway from our house, to drink it all in.

It is a time of dark nights filled with stars and undulating aurora borealis. It is sometimes damp. It is morning frosts laying the tall wild grasses low, and sweetening the cranberries that hang ripe on the bush. 

Fall here is guys in checkered flannel jackets asking "Got your moose?" over cups of coffee in the Eldo. We head to the hills on warm afternoons, plunk our babies down in the soft moss and lichen, and fill our buckets with wild blueberries, keeping the conversation up so the bears know we're there. We hurry to get the garden in, chopping, blanching, freezing and canning, listening for the soft "plink" of the jars sealing. We work on the woodpile, bucking up logs into stove-lengths, splitting, stacking. 

Fall is the final push to get it all done before cold weather and dark nights settle in. The miners pull the last bit of gold from the ground, and the bartenders and blackjack dealers pull the last bit of gold from the miners. The seasonal businesses run down their stock, close up hotel rooms one by one for the winter; the boards are nailed up over the windows and doors. The town is quieter, now.

More than anything, fall up here feels to me like leaving. Maybe I haven't been here long enough yet to feel settled. Maybe I've just got leaving in my heart.  It is a tightness in the throat as we watch the cranes fly overhead and the seasonal workers hitch their way out of town, back to Toronto or Vancouver or Montreal.

For those of us left behind, it is a time of drawing in, and of reconnecting with friends after a busy summer. There is a scramble to find someone to shack up with, making high rent and long cold nights more tolerable. We hunker down as winter approaches, we speculate on what kind of a winter it might be, sizing it up with more than a little apprehension.

Fall here is brief and beautiful; it is hurrying up and slowing down all at once.

These days, I'm lovin'....

The way the setting sun lights the birch and aspen a flickering gold against the darkening sky

Warm sweaters and thick socks

Hoping and dreaming of the future

The scent of snow on the wind

Friends stopping by to visit

Sloppy baby kisses

Boards going up on all the seasonal businesses in town; quieter streets and bittersweet goodbyes

The closeness of community, and knowing I've found home 

Beautiful music

Cooking comfort food

Devouring book after book after book...

What are you lovin' these days?

Out for a Stroll

I just love that Aedan is on his own two feet these days. That means he can explore the world at his own level and his own pace! This afternoon we took a little stroll in the woods around our house.

Here we go!


I just love this action shot of Cilla running up to Aedan!


Stopping to pick a berry!






We found an old boot! There is lots of decaying bits in the woods from when they were building the Dempster highway back in the 70's.


Hi, Mama!


Hi, doggies!




Beautiful fall grasses.


Fireweed all gone to seed.

Gathering rose hips

After a morning of grey skies and rain, the sun broke free of the clouds and cast its warm rays into our yard, illuminating the birch and poplar leaves, and making the damp grass glisten. The wild rose hips, a vibrant red and a little shriveled from the first hard frost, hung like precious jewels from the prickly rose bushes.

I left Aedan playing contentedly on the porch while I filled my little bucket with these juicy, vitamin C rich wild fruits. I could hear the Sandhill cranes winging far over head, their grr-oo call softened by the distance. The golden leaves were falling silently around me: such a peaceful autumn moment.

I was surprised to learn that 3 rose hips contain more vitamin C than an orange! It's so strange how we immediately think of oranges when we think of vitamin C...but there are many rich sources of this important vitamin! In her book "The Boreal Herbal", Beverley Grey writes that rose hips are antispasmodic, and can be used in a decoction to treat menstrual cramps.

The seeds inside the hips can be irritating to the digestive tract...traditionally, they were used to help expel parasites. People sometimes call rose hips "itchy bum" for this reason!

I'm drying my rose hips to use in tea over the winter, but they can also be used in jams and jellies, or made into a syrup. I might try that next year!

Goldensides

Today dawned cold and clear, with a frost laying many of the plants in the yard low. As the sun crept higher and higher over the horizon, the air warmed and it was a perfect fall day for a hike, so Justine, Aedan, the dogs and I piled into my car and headed out to Tombstone Territorial Park.

As the mountain ranges came into view, we were shocked to see snow on the peaks! It seems so early! But I suppose if it was cold enough for a frost here, it's cold enough for snow on the mountains.

We were also really surprised to learn that we'd just missed the peak of the autumn colours. The changes along the Dempster highway and in the park happen so fast. The tundra changes seemingly overnight, and within a few days the reds, deep purples, golden yellows and oranges are just not quite as intense. It was still a stunning day, though.

We decided to hike the Goldensides Trail, about 2 km past the Interpretive Center. It was a busy day, with a group of four and another of two on the trail ahead of us, and a single lady with her (gorgeous, huge) dog behind us. We let her pass.

The views along this entire hike are spectacular: there are no trees to get in the way! We stopped often just to take it all in, and to snack on the juicy, sweet moss berries, too!

It always feels so energizing to get out and hike in the mountains. They have such a serene power. I can't help but reflect on the thousands of years that they have stood, largely unchanged, while the much smaller, shorter lives of animals, plants and people have ebbed and flowed around them. Mountains seem so changeless, so immortal to me. It is hard to imagine the landscape without them.

On the Verge

The last time I wrote here was to talk about the arrival of spring in the Yukon. 

And now, here we are at the tail end of summer, with autumn creeping in.

It comes first on the air: a chill in the early morning that lingers until close to noon:

the day warms, 

and the damp earth gives up the scent of 

dry grasses, over-ripe berries, mushroom forest floor.

Before long, the leaves begin to turn. 

Always the willows first, 

their pale green leaves turning brown--harbingers of the season's change. 

Then, patches of birch and aspen flash golden:

a single bright flame in a hillside of trembling green.

On the forest floor,

unexpected colour:

the fireweed's leaves turn red,

its purple hips release their seed on the wind. 

Wild rosehips and bearberries ripen red, 

and the tart, highbush cranberries await the first sweetening frost, 

their leaves a deep scarlet red.

The days are noticeably shorter, the sun a little lower in its rounds.

The nights are dark, now,

and the moon is faintly visible in the sky.

I welcome it back,

welcome the darkness and the cool.

Gettin' the hang of it

Aedan is three weeks old today. He's getting to be very strong, holding his head up by himself. Yesterday we were all out for a walk in the woods, Aedan in the Moby wrap, but instead of sleeping he was peering out into the warm autumn sunshine, checking out the spruce trees. Such a curious little guy! It's so cool to watch him take it all in for the first time. I wonder what he must be thinking, how he must be processing all of this newness. What does he see right now? Is it just colours and light and fuzzy shapes? Does he experience the world more through smell, sound and touch? He sticks his tongue out a lot, too, as though he's tasting the air, like a snake.

I suppose I'm processing all of the newness, too! Adjusting to home- and mom- life has been interesting. Three weeks post-partum and I'm feeling like I need to get into some regular routines...we're usually up around 8. P makes me a cup of tea while I nurse Aedan. At first he'd fall back asleep after this nursing, but now he stays awake, so we hang out with him for an hour or two until he wants to nurse again. He'll fall asleep after that. Once he's sleeping, I've started to do some yoga...gentle stretching to ease my aching muscles...I ache mostly from all of this "laid-back mothering" I've been doing the past three weeks! And this morning I decided I'd brush my teeth, and wash my face, and put some proper clothes on, too! It feels good to do these little things, makes me feel a little more human.

We're having a lovely, late autumn. Although there is a definite chill in the air, we've been blessed with some bright, sunny days and clear nights. It's wonderful to see stars again after the perpetual light of our northern summer. I usually make a trip to the outhouse around 3 am, and I'll stop on my way back to the house, turn my headlamp off, and just check out the sky...I like to pick out my favourite constellations and planets, the ones I know well, and try to guess at new ones I might learn this winter. I know the more obvious ones...Orion and his nebula, Cassiopeia, Ursus Major, the Pleiades, Gemini, and Venus, so bright as it traces across the night sky. Often there is a faint glow of the aurora borealis...I've heard there have been some spectacular displays in the last couple of weeks, but I've missed them.

 We make sure to get out at least once a day for a walk, but if it's really nice, we go for two! Cilla, Lily and Pete love to run through the woods, chasing squirrels and grouse up into the trees. Oke is my constant companion, always plodding along at my heels, happy to follow my slower pace as I pick my way along the path. I like to think he's keeping a watchful eye over me and Aedan.

On the day I took these pictures, we were on our way to the spring, where I like to stop and have a drink of water. The water there is so cold and so delicious! I wonder if it will stay open over the winter...anyway, on this particular visit, all the doggies disappeared and were very quiet about it. I walked around a little in the clearing around the spring, and discovered what they had already...a moose hide. I had a heck of a time convincing four dogs that it would be more fun to follow me than to roll around in a bit of dead animal, but eventually, I managed to round them all up. I was annoyed that hunters would leave the hide behind like that, and P talked about picking it up for ourselves and having someone tan it for us....though I think you need the moose brains for a proper home-tan?

The spring.

Having a drink!

Autumn approaches....

Not even the middle of August and already I see the signs of fall all around....

• Changing foliage...on the drive to and from Whitehorse earlier this week, we saw a few birches that had gone completely yellow already. The ones around the house look like they're on the verge. The willows have been turning a burnt orange and brown for awhile now, but the colour seems deeper, somehow, these days.
• Berries! Raspberries are definitely over, but with the temperature hovering around freezing in the early mornings, I'd guess it's almost time for cranberries and rosehips, too.
• A definite chill in the air. I love this about autumn...especially on a bright sunny day, when the temperature is around 15 degrees C and there's a bit of a breeze.
• Dark nights, stars in the sky, a big, beautiful full moon lighting my way to the outhouse...soon the aurora should make an appearance!
• People working their final shifts, making plans to leave town, getting ready to go back to school...
• Fires in the woodstove! We lit one two nights ago and are still getting some heat from it. That's the Blaze King for ya...

 

• ....and, of course, the number one sign that autumn is approaching: my growing belly! I'm 35 + weeks in this photo, taken at Miles Canyon in Whitehorse. I'm getting anxious to hold my baby in my arms, to get him or her home and settled. To get bundled up and go for walks in the woods with the doggies. 

I'll be heading down to Whitehorse for my "confinement", as I like to call it, on August 29th. Holy smokes, baby'll be here before you know it!!