A Quiet Winter Month Ahead

Well, the holidays are over and winter has set in - though with not much snow. Celebrating with relatives and friends was great, but I always look forward to when the Xmas decorations come down and all is back to normal.Well, maybe not quite normal - for when we babysat our grandkids last week, and took them tobogganing, I took a fall on the slippery slope and ended up with a chipped ankle bone and a bad sprain. Came back from the hospital emergency room with one of those Air Walkers that one straps around one's foot and leg. So here is my chance to catch up on some reading.

I have almost finished reading Dangerous Passage by Gerard Kenny - a book I purchased before our Northwest Passage cruise in 2010, but never had time to read it. I very much am enjoying it as it's about Roald Amundsen's early trips and through the Northwest Passage between 1903-1906. It really brings me back to our 2010 trip as we traveled through some of the territory he had so many years earlier. We did it with ease; he had great difficulty! I also much more appreciate the little town of Gjoa Haven at arose where Roald and his small crew stayed for two years.

I'm halfway through Part 2 of the book that is about the RCMP icebreaker, St. Roch and its captain, Henry Larsen, as they traverse the Northwest Passage between 1940-44. We had anchored at Pasley Bay at Boothia Penninsula where the St. Roch had over-wintered in 1941-42. The book describes the tragic death of one of Larsen's men, Albert Chartrand, and it brought to mind the memorial cairn we saw dedicated to Albert when we were there. Throughout the book there are so many reminders of our trip through the NW Passage. I am reliving it all over again.

Still on the subject of the North, I just want to mention the article in the Ottawa Citizen (Jan. 9) about the large hole that had penetrated the ozone layer in 2011 over Northern Canada, Northern Europe, and into Central Russia. The Canadian researchers were working at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory on Ellesmere Island last February and March, and had front-row seats as the hole formed. They will be back there next month doing experiments and will watch for unexpected atmospheric changes.

I will report again in a couple of weeks to let you know how my quiet time is going. I expect to be a little more mobile then.