Survivor Ellesmere

My first two days here were super-busy. I felt super-rushed at the lab to make up for lost time in Resolute, and my evenings were full of activity. The past two days have been a bit quieter, and I've fallen into my Eureka routine. Frisbee golf the other night was fun, despite my inability to throw a frisbee. I got better as my disc got covered in more and more mud. I attribute this to it being heavier, and less likely to get blown by the wind to some unpleasant location. At the beginning, if there was a puddle or a creek, I can guarantee you I ended up standing in it. I didn't lose that badly, but I did lose. Yesterday I got my spectrometer into its hatch to take solar measurements, and despite the new instrument taking up a bit of room in my hatch things are working well. It's too hot, but this is always the case in that lab. I find it so odd that I'm always trying to cool things down in the Arctic.

I was excited about three things before coming: flowers, midnight Sun, and more temperateness than über-humid Toronto. The weather here has been cloudy and a bit foggy, but a wonderful five degrees. Which is a great temperature, when the wind doesn't blow. I'd like it to be a bit warmer, but I'm appreciating the break from smog and humidity. Though I have noticed it hasn't been all that bad in Toronto while I've been here. The Sun is awesome. I'm still expecting it to set, so my timing is all off. I can no longer trust the Sun to let me know when it's getting late. My first two nights here we were out until after ten, and I would have guessed that it was 7:30. Luckily the windows in the station are fairly light tight, so if I close them before going to bed I can trick myself into thinking the Sun has set. Finally the flowers. It's really not summer here anymore, but fall. I've missed a lot of the flowers, but there are still a few of them kicking around. The thing there's a lot of is willow trees. The green stuff in this picture is willow leaves, and you may be able to make out a branch in the bottom centre right. I've always heard that trees in the Arctic are only a few inches high and now I understand. These ones grow right along the ground, more like a vine than a tree, so are only about an inch high. And they're changing colours! I'm surrounded by orangy-yellow valleys, and it seems odd to be discovering that Eureka is in the middle of a forest on my fifth trip here.