Tales of the beautiful everyday from the North
Weeks of strong contrasts
The warmth of the spring sun cannot be mistaken now, but still the cold wind cannot be either. A time of contrasts continue on - long, long days with the most magnificent sunshine and car washing temperatures while brief dark and cool nights fill with the aurora still.
Swan Haven, my favourite Yukon discovery last spring, is home once again to some 1,000+ tundra and trumpeter swans. Their numbers are on the decline now as they move on for the further north. The shore ice is decreasing every day out there, and everywhere else.
Some kilometres further south, moose nibble buds off branches and play in open fields buried under 40cm of snow. On mountain sides everywhere, the south facing slopes are void of any snow or signs of winter while the north facing sides still look like they are stuck in February.
Down in Carcross, it was the final few days of quiet before the cruise ships begin their returns to Skagway at the end of April.
And back at home, I have my first light sunburn of the year and increasing numbers of freckles on my face from morning coffee in the sun on my balcony. The gravel trucks seem to make endless passes on the streets nearby to sweep up the last of winter, and that makes 10pm sunset roller blades through the paths around the neighbourhood just so perfect.
Maybe the most beautiful night
Conditions were so good, the sky so clear, and my intuition so strong that I couldn’t stay on the sofa another moment.
It started gently, barely visible to the eye, but it would be just a matter of time, and not that much time. This beautiful display went on and on, ebbing and flowing, but many times circling back around to more and more of the most beautiful minutes and hours of my life.
There have been so many nights like this, leaving me with this exact feeling as it all happens, but still I cannot help feeling like I’ve never been under a more beautiful show across the sky.
Coming back home after 4am to twilight brightening in the northeastern part of the sky feels like the most Spring thing ever. It fills me with the hope of warmer days, summer storms, and magical light and ever lasting sunsets overnight. And I cannot wait for all of those things, but for now, April brings one of the most amazing stretches of clear nights and breathtaking spells of aurora chases.
“It’s a great night to go to work!”
I was supposed to be getting my final things together to get out the door, but I was just running and back forth between the east and west windows of my apartment. The aurora was arcing overhead and curtains were dancing.
Walking around the front of my car, I was trying not to kill myself on the skating rink the parking lot had become while also watching the aurora dance overhead. I took a quick video and shot it off to my family chat...
“It’s a great night to go to work!”
Our night that followed was spectacular of course. After a short drive to add a little further separation from incoming cloud, the aurora danced, and danced and danced and danced.
Warm temperatures, little wind, and beautiful moonlight - it was the most exhilarating of nights with the aurora in all of her heavenly splendour.
Auroral activity did come back down the following couple nights, but still we enjoyed beautiful skies and vibrant colours even under the spring full moon. They were the nights that make my heart swell with love for this magical phenomenon that give so much beauty and meaning to life.
The usual suspects
“All we need are clear skies and patience.”
It is my most sung song. It is everything in aurora chasing and so much of my world.
This time of year, the weather moves so fast. It snows sideways in the streetlights one minute, and ten later, clear skies are overhead. Panic and worry is completely unnecessary, and instead I’m getting used to living in the Icelandic mantra of ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes.”
Nights this week were filled with breathtaking auroras, of course all the way through to the far too early morning. The ice sings loud, the temperatures swing widely, and this morning I stood against the frame of my balcony door with it swung half open, feeling the warmth of the sun with my coffee in hand.
The annual March heatwave has arrived and spring melt is on.
A very messy time and an empty blog
The last month has been me surviving a relatively controlled level of daily chaos, with still far too little sleep and not nearly enough time in the days to keep up blogging.
CaptureOne is littered with nights and nights of aurora chases, all with beautiful stories to tell.
Each night, the hours into the early morning have been the calmest and slowest of my days and weeks. Gentle clear sky chases and magical timing with the aurora has been the soothing I’ve been craving. It’s a time where there’s no rush, nothing else to do but carefully read weather maps and travel slowly out between locations.
This underlying calm is something I’ve always loved more than anything in aurora chasing. There’s always still such excitement for each night, but the underlying calm from a chase of something we have no control over is, in an otherwise completely chaotic time, so soothing.
So here’s a short collection of some of my nights lately, from new moon to full moon.
