(Post 2 of 2) Sunday morning at St. Simon’s Mission in Apex, Nunavut. Paul Idlout looks very different than he did yesterday where I met him at the park (see the last post). Paul was a pastor who worked in several communities. What he didn’t mention, but others did, is that in 1996 he became…
Author: Jennifer Kingsley
-
-
Look down, Apex, Nunavut, Canada
(Post 1 of 5) Grounded in #iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut on Baffin Island, with lots of time to check out the neighbourhood. The long view from this part of town: the river, the fog and two locals checking their fish net. Arctic char come in under the same ice that is locking down boat…
-
(Post 2 of 5) This one’s is lovely: Pedicularis hirsuta (hairy lousewort, but common names are not encouraged by my guides, Jeff and Roger). I’m walking with @museumofnature botanists here in Iqaluit. The tundra is lush compared to #svalbard where I spent much of the spring. Here it’s heather, sweetgrass, willow, poppy, saxifrage, and bearberry…
-
(Post 3 of 5) Here’s a man who knows how to handle a bistort. Senior research assistant Roger Bull uses his impressive plant collecting knife to prepare some Bistorta vivipara root for me to try. Yummy.
-
(Post 4 of 5) A man and his plants. Jeff Saarela shows off the Oxitropus maydelliana he collected in Cape Dorset. It’s also called locoweed: “Don’t eat it,” Jeff says. Jeff and Roger came north from the Canadian Museum of Nature on a mission to collect, sample, map, press and dry plants. They have 2000…
-
(Post 5 of 5) Someday, somewhere, these plants I have arranged will be in a herbarium. Look at my Leymus mollis. I’m so proud! I’m a botanist in training now. As you can see, my supervisor (those are Jeff’s feet), is not too far away.
-
Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada
Time for a journey to the Canadian Arctic. This is my new and unexpected back yard in Apex. I am held over in Iqaluit due to weather, and the bay is still packed with #ice. No boats in or out. Lots of flight changes. When in doubt, look at plants. I’ve been taken in by…
-
Dreaming north, Lakefield, Ontario, Canada
Eating chocolate cake and studying my circumpolar map with author and adventurer James Raffan (Circling the Midnight Sun). We’re in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada for a literary festival but can’t stop scheming about #thenorth. “I’ve had a version of this map on the ceiling of my work space since 1975,” James said. “But the real map…
-
Riding in Húsavík, Iceland
Farewell for now, beautiful Iceland. I’ll be back with friend and photographer Eric Guth in September. In the meantime, thank you to those I met and to this creature, Blassa, who showed me the tölt and carried me across the beach into hip-high lupines.
-
My newest friend in Iceland.
