Au Nord Du Quebec

The winds of winter have been unkind to us these past days, we have accumulated almost 2 more feet of snow! Snow up here is very light and fluffy which means that when the wind blows, the snow blows. When we got back from Chibougamau last night, the snow was past my knees going up to my front door, and this morning I could barely fit through the front door! We had to shovel our way out into the yard. Although I may not enjoy walking through knee-deep snow to get to my car, Lily loves climbing the snow drifts and digging in the snow. Here is a snapshot of her sitting on top of her snow-throne in my yard. Otherwise, the snow is making the community and forest trails that much more beautiful. The walks we take are on trails surrounded by snow past our heads, like we are walking through a tunnel. It is so beautiful to be surrounded by natural sights and smells. This week's weather is also starting to look up, the temperature is slowly rising showing more sun and numbers ...

I had a warm welcome to the North when I was taught all about Goose Break!  To all you American's, I hope you are enjoying a nice President's Day and week because up here not only do we not have a week off, we also don't even have a President! Unfortunately we do not have a Prime Minister's week, and unlike the rest of Canada, we don't have Family Day either. Today (Monday) was a holiday in the entire country of Canada, except for Quebec because we like to be different here.  You might think that we must get some sort of Spring Break here since we aren't getting one in February. You thought (sort of) RIGHT! Our equivalent to Spring Break is called "Goose Break" and it is the first two weeks of May. This is very late in the school year AND is  2 weeks long. I guess that equals a February break plus an April break that most of you get in MA and in the US.  Goose Break is exactly what you would expect...it is used to hunt geese in the bush. The...

Before coming to Mistissini I didn't really know what cold was. In Boston, it never gets below 0F (-18C), but I don't think it has gotten above 0F in the past month here! This week has been one of the coldest weeks so far and it's only Monday! This morning it was -35C (-31F) it was so cold that it hurt to breathe. If you're outside for more than 10 minutes your face gets numb and your fingertips start to freeze. It is really crazy to think that I chose to live in a place this cold!! Here is the forecast for the next week (Note: All of the temperatures are in Celsius but you can covert them here ) BRRRRR! Other than the cold which will continue through the end of March...the sun has been rising earlier and setting later which means that I am not going home from school at 4pm in the dark! Sometimes it is the little things that brighten my day. Today it was light outside until almost 5pm, that is so exciting considering it was getting dark at 3:45pm only 2 months ...