As children we blithely repeat the song of parents or classmates and dance moving in our own world. As adults we may reflect and see different meanings. This collection of uniquely carved pumpkins reminded me of the above.
These rows were located in Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island in early November 2010, deep in old cedar growth. 
Love the orange and green contrasts. 
An Ode to March, written last year
Bonnie Patterson Payne 2013
March, you enter like a gentle tease, a preschooler at the parent’s bedroom door on Saturday morning to see if they are rousing yet, a gentle tease of lengthening days and melting snow and morning chatters of chickadees and sparrows at my backyard feeder.
Yet vestiges of " old man winter " still hold me in his grip,
knee deep piles of snow off the front deck and forecasts of spring blizzards, the snow shovel and ice chipper too soon to retire to the garage or
parka, snow boots, gaiters & cross country skis to be hung up one last time.
This past winter did not wrap itself overly gently in its usual time to cocoon, read, meditate and reflect. The upheavals of loss, three of my girls, on to next life stages of marriage, independent living and yes, even death. No longer, the note on the kitchen table, “Grandma I am here and sleeping” punctuated with the smiley face or the calico kitten,
meowing at top of the stairs, ready to take flying leaps on the kitchen table or pounce to wake my sleeping huskies on the office futon. As the lingering of winter, I keep the voicemail messages from last summer and refurbish my photo frames as reminders: girls in red dresses,
leaping in the rain of the September Vancouver wedding and a smiling, fat baby next to her pensive older self, blond-haired autumn modeling shot dappled in afternoon sun.
My younger dog, Nanuq curls contentedly with nose in tail on the chair next to me and older, reddish blond Siberian, Dysis, sighs deeply, fully stretched out on her side in the rug that she has meticulously arranged, first pawing and circling.
In this quiet Saturday morning, March comes as a gift, an in-between time of seasons.
I am reminded our Lenten a period of waiting, preparation and expectation for the joy of Easter. “ Lo, I am with you always! “ and in that, I am content.
This past weekend I was visiting my daughter in Vancouver B.C. and spent an afternoon wandering around the campus at UBC. 
One of the first beautiful spring days and being exam week students were sprawled on the grass or at benches outside the library with books, lunches and laptops.
The library was titled the Irving K. Barber Learning Center, 
housed in a much older stone building,
dated 1925 from the inscription on the top tower. 
The newer library is shaped like an upside down book.
This got me pondering how we value learning, whether academic, experiential, or life long. If you are like me you have had to face exams at some point either in high school, university or in some professional and/or personal course. Some times we move with ease at our knowledge base and other times stress and anxiety may overwhelm I have these often recurring dreams that on the way to the exam room I lose my way, thus miss the final exam & lose my credits for the course, often true in subjects like economics and chemistry!
At this stage in life I have come to value learning as the journey or life long process & not necessarily the achievement or end result ( although computer exams such as electronic medical record training still somewhat freak me out! )
Erik Erikson talks about different life stages, and the value of mentoring as we grow older....the sharing of our own life experiences to assist others in the same field. Coaching is a similar sharing process but the encouragement by the coach for the learner to develop and master their own often new skill sets.
We often in the western world forget the privilege we have to have to have access to schools, when we hear of such stories as Malala who almost died in her fight for the right to educate girls in her country.
Share some of your own thoughts and/or journey on learning, joys and difficulties!
Place names often reflect the geographical features, and/or history of the area or the inhabitants and their culture. Often you may have noticed there will be changes In the name of a town, a city or a street.
In Nunavut, such has been the situation and even a program whose prime purpose was “to preserve and promote Inuit language and culture by providing official recognition to traditional Inuktitut place names.” Called Toponymy, here is the link…
http://www.ch.gov.nu.ca/en/Toponymy.aspx
Kugaaruk or Kuugaarruk; English: "little stream") …also called Arviligjuaq, meaning "the great bowhead whale” ..formerly Pelly Bay.
Kugluktuk or in the local language Inuinnaqtun: Qurluktuk, "the place of moving water"; was formerly Coppermine until 1 January 1996 and is situated at the mouth of the Coppermine River.
Kimmirut known as previously as Lake Harbour is a community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada.
Taloyoak or Talurjuaq formerly known as Spence Bay until 1 July 1992 has a 2006 population of 809.
Arctic Bay, one of my favorites, has of 2011 Population: 823, or in Inuktitut Ikpiarjuk means "the pocket". It is an Inuit hamlet located in the northern part of the Borden Peninsula on Baffin Island 
in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada.
Arctic Bay Health Centre
The Arctic Bay area has been occupied for nearly 5000 years by Inuit nomads migrating from the west. In 1872, a European whaling ship, the Arctic, captained by Willie Adams, passed through and gave the area its English name. It has the lowest tidal range in Canada.
The Inuktitut name for Arctic Bay is Ikpiarjuk which means "the pocket" in English. This name describes the high hills that surround the almost landlocked bay. To the southeast, the flat-topped King George V Mountain dominates the landscape of the hamlet.
The community is served by annual supply sealift, and by Arctic Bay Airport. There is also a road connecting it to Nanisivik, a mining community just inland that is being closed up.
Residents had hoped to boost their housing and public facilities with buildings relocated from Nanisivik, but those hopes were dashed due to lead-zinc contamination. However, 
a church was relocated from Nanisivik to Arctic Bay in August 2007.
On a bit of a different theme, share in your comments what type of humour you use or appreciate!
Always with a more serious approach to life, some humour I just don’t get! Think the term is “being gullible”. Tell me a story with some aspect that is out of the ordinary and my response will be “ Oh really! “
Laughter is such a good response for the body and stress reliever…. But there is a risk: laughter can be infectious.
The ability to laugh at ourselves and our situations gives perspective.
I remember at one point when I had done much hand sewing 
and let me tell you Inuit ladies are always laughing but in making mittens for my grand daughter,
left them on the kitchen counter 
and then much to my dismay, discovered my husky, Mike, had nabbed them and chewed all the rabbit fur trim. I was devastated due to all the work I had done ( and at the moment making comments like BAAA…AD dog! )
However a good friend wrote to me..There will always be mothers and mitts and granddaughters and dogs and remember it is the relationship that counts!
Continuing on my arctic theme would like to share my photos of some of the traditional structures of the Inuit culture.
An igloo (Inuit language: iglu, or plural: igluit ) Inuit word “iglu” means means “house” and is built in a spiral shape using the snow from the inside of the circle out. 
Cutting tools required to build an igloo are a snow spade and a saw, but in traditional times these implements would have been fashioned from bone. Note how the entrance is dug deep enough to allow almost standing height. 
By trapping body heat, or the heat produced by even a small burning lamp, the inside of the igloo can stay much warmer than the outside...
This heat starts to melt the inside of the igloo and as the inside walls of the igloo start to melt, they become more solid.
My own experience has never been to overnight in an igloo but only to visit 
( and crawl inside where they are surprisingly warm )….watching igloo building contests, 
a x-c ski with a friend who had built one outside of Kugluktuk and visiting one built by an elder lady in Gjoa Haven.
An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) inukshuk in English or inukhuk in Inuinnaqtun, is a stone landmark. 
These mysterious stone figures known can be found throughout the circumpolar world. 
Inukshuk, the singular of inuksuit, means "in the likeness of a human" in the Inuit language. They are monuments made of unworked stones that are used by the Inuit for communication and survival, markers for travel routes, fishing places, camps, hunting grounds, places of veneration, drift fences used in hunting or to mark a food cache.
An inukshuk in the form of a human being is called an inunnguaq 
or Innunguak, the ones that are shaped like men. 
This type of structure forms the basis of the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics, designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor. 
The flag of Nunavut 
was proclaimed on 1 April 1999, along with the territory of Nunavut in Canada.
It features a red inuksuk—an Inuit land marker—and a blue star, which represents the Niqirtsuituq, the North Star, and the leadership of elders in the community.
An excellent video with Peter Irniq explains more details.
This collection of ball caps is located in southern Alberta, rolling ranch land… 
The Fence of a Thousand Hats, 
on the Cowboy Trail just outside Longview, 
Local rancher Lorne Fuller has decorated his fence posts his unique roadside attraction stretches for several kilometers....
In my work stints as a social worker, I had two opportunities to spend time here in spring 2009 and would like to share some of my photos. The overlap between traditional Inuit culture and the encroaching southern one is indeed interesting. e.g. a young mom with a smile packing shirt and toque 
For more details, just click on Gjoa Haven tags and then blog entries.
Location: Gjoa Haven, located about 250 kilometers above the Arctic Circle in the central part of the Nunavut Territory,
and the most western region, the Kitikmeot Region. The name meaning is "lots of fat", referring to the abundance of blubbery sea mammals in the nearby waters, or as Uqsuqtuuq, or ‘place of plenty blubber’, because of the once plentiful seal. 
One of the fastest growing communities in the Kitikmeot Region, in 1961, its population was estimated at 100 and now well over 1000. This arctic hamlet is on the southeast coast of King William Island on the Northwest Passage
History: Of interest it is the nearest community to where the Franklin Expedition perished and often attracts many history buffs from around the world.
In 1903, Amundsen was attempting the first traverse of the Northwest Passage; by October the straits through which he was travelling began to ice up, and Amundsen put his ship the Gjøa into a natural harbour on the southeast coast of King William Island. He was to stay there, in what Amundsen called "the finest little harbour in the world", for nearly two years.
Weather: When I worked in Nunavut we would have “ snow days”: a blizzard, a white out, snow blowing sideways, basically if one can not see the school or hamlet office across the street or uptown across the gully in Gjoa Haven, a snow day is declared and government offices and school are closed everyone locally “knows” that the snow is drifting but it has to be officially declared by four govt departments before closure.
My Inuit friends could tell me how a blizzard is coming, the temperatures rising from minus 30oC to a balmy 10- 15 oC below and in the warmth there is a lull, a calm in which large flakes scatter through the night and almost Christmas like in March.
Cultural and Other Activities
These circle games often done by the Elders involved a dice and when certain number rolled passing a rope with knots and untying or picking up stones in the center.
Dogs: I really have a heart for dogs. 
In many of the northern communities the only shots available are rabies usually given by a by-law officer….no vets. One of the men working at the clinic had 4 husky pups that he would eventually like to begin a dog team
but I would like to share a few of my favorites.
downtown with fireworksand music…
inside of our city hall!
skating, sliding 
on July 1 with evening fireworks in river valley 
and smaller local church/community events 
an annual four-day outdoor music event held the second weekend of August. 
Over 25,000 attending and 
an exhibition of alternative theatre, the largest Fringe Theatre Festival in North America,
From my blog title, not difficult to see I am a northern gal and Edmonton is my home base. Born and raised here as well as parents and grandparents, the roots go back a few generations.
Thought I would share some of my loves and a few dislikes on our city.
A few of the basics: The capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River 
and is in Alberta's central region, most of this area is prairie, but on the edge of northern forest. The 2011 census population was 812,201, making it Canada's fifth-largest municipality and Alberta's second-largest city behind Calgary. There is a traditional rivalry between the two cities.
What I love about my city
clear, crisp, snowy winters with blue skies,slowly approaching springs, 
hot dry sometimes wet summers but no humidity except after thunderstorms 
and often 
lingering colorful cool falls
.
Green and gold the official colours of our university for good reason.
dog walking or just getting away from the city in its midst.
as here downtown on New Year's eve,
local music venues 
Good Friday march in inner city
believe it or not there is a dash of orange in the sea of blue!
that runs over the High Level Bridge in the summer.
the waterfall off the High Level Bridge 
and postings in neighbourhoods of little library boxes 
in city pools with children's play parks,,,
What I love less about my city…
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