As crazy as it might sound ....
I had to stand outside and wait for the school bus even when it was-35c ( -50c with wind chill). Yes siree. No exaggeration there. Northern Kids are tough. Blizzards? Storms? White Out? Off to school we went. We would huddle together in that glass bus shelter glad for the wind block as we prayed the bus wasn't late (it often was on cold days). Often the only way you could identify your friends was by the colour of their coat. there's wasn't much chit chat or mischief when it was cold.
Even crazier ... I HATE being cold. I am constantly wearing my winter toque in the house and wrapped up in blankets while my husband is in a tank top sweltering. Even in tropical places I am layering on the sweaters as soon as the sun goes down.
I grew up in a place called Yellowknife. It's about 400 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle. Nestled in the Boreal forest and surrounded by lakes. It is a stunning place but also quite punishing.
This is the land of Ice Pilots and Ice Road Truckers. In fact, I love driving on ice roads an I've flown on Buffalo Air many times. I used to work across the road from their hangar. This is also land of the midnight sun (during the short summer months).
For someone that really does not like to be cold, I have spent a lot of time in brutally cold weather. The flip side of course is summer. Coined 'land of the midnight sun', you really get to enjoy summer to it's fullest because the days are long and usually quite hot and it never gets pitch black out. We've often stayed up into the early morning hours without realizing it.
I think a lot of people share the same story of why they ended up in Yellowknife. Pure and simple it's for the opportunities to ear good money. My dad was a bit of a pioneer really. He brought us to Canada from England for better opportunities. He started out as a coal miner in the Rocky Mountains and eventually decided to head to the wild North to become a gold miner. My Aunt and uncle came over from England to help us move, it was a shocking journey that they still talk about to this day. The beginning of the Mackenzie highway marks a 15 hours, a long, seemingly never ending dusty road and no really civilization to speak of the entire way.
This is my family rocking the mid 80's. My dad's not in this photo (he must have been taking it). I am sitting in the truck. Alberta to the Northwest Territories here we come!
The gold mines are all but gone now and instead Yellowknife is considered the Diamond Capital of North America. It's changed a lot from the wild west-esqe vibe that I grew up with. There's a lot of massive houses, restaurants and all of the luxury you look for in a Canadian city. It is far more civilized which is really a shame.
Yellowknife is a multicultural and transient place. A lot of people move there for big opportunities but its really hard to get through those winters. That said, people from all over the world make their home in Yellowknife and appreciate the opportunities that it provides. You'll meet people from the Philippines, Jamaica, Sudan ... you name it. You can always tell when someone is new to Yellowknife because when winter hits they have this look of shock or perhaps terror in their eyes ... it takes a while to acclimate. A few seasons later the newbies become seasoned Northerners and they are looking sympathetically (and knowingly) at the next wave of newcomers.
Ice roads, Mindnight sun, Northern lights, Bison, lakes & nature = The Northwest Territories
I had a bit of trouble getting at my photos so here's an incredibly random collection of Yellowknife through my eyes.
Winter Ice Road
Folk On The Rocks Music Festival
More Ice Roads
Old Town
Gotta watch for Bison on the Mackenzie Highway
View of the city from Pilots Monument
View of the city from Pilots Monument
The Northern Lights
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wow, what a place to grow up!! i had no idea you started your life off in england and your dad and his sister moved there for the opportunities. what an interesting story!!! i have always wanted to see the northern lights. did you take some of those photos of them? wow, just wow. i, too, am a person that dislikes being cold. it's really windy here today and ini is just find out in a tshirt while i have 4 layers on and prefer to stay indoors away from the wind. i can't imagine those kinds of temps and i would certainly have that shaken look in my eye lol! but it's great to see a tid bit more of where you came from. our places certainly shape us... <3
ahh, you would adapt quickly - you are tough!
yes, I took all of these photos. These were the last lights I saw before we moved. Pretty special. I'll be back again some day, my son is still living there. I think I would go back in winter so I can try to catch the Northern lights and remind myself what cold really is because I think I am getting really wimpy-er.
I really appreciate the North a lot more now that we have left. I think you sometimes spend so much time wishing for new, different, when you grow up in small isolated places ...but then you realize just how connected you are to the place. I hold a lot of love in my heart for that place and the familiar comfort of it.
Thanks for taking the time to read this disjointed peek into my old world.
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Ah yes, plenty of Filipinos in Canada. I wouldn't want to go to where winter is though. Maybe just as a tourist but not live there. I also don't like the cold. The coldest place we have here is Baguio, up in the mountains and it doesn't get to the negatives that much but it's coooold. 😅 Couldn't even take a bath without heating the water. And even then if the water is heated, it's still cold outside. 😂 House heaters aren't a thing then, I don't think it's a thing now.😅
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I was meant for a warm climate like yours! It's winter right now where we are and I would love to be somewhere (anywhere) that was warm! Thanks for reading my post!
Hehe I somehow know the feeling. Maybe you'll get to live in the tropics soon and not worry abt the cold. 😁 Even if I'm here, my thoughts consist of going to the ocean because I'm far from one. Soon soon we'll get to where we want to be.
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Fantastic photos and great memories! We used to spend our summers in Ontario and thought we were way up North when we were at Lake of the Woods and up near Kenora. It seemed like we were in the wilderness. I can't even imagine what it must have been like at Yellowknife.
Kenora is a nice area! I am sure you've got great memories of those times.
I remember walking to school in snow storms. We lived 9/10 of a mile from school, and you had to be 1 mile to ride the bus. We didn't get temps like that, and I don't remember temps like we have here, -25F, even though it was north of here.
Such a very different way of life, up there, long bitter winters and longer summer days. And those northern lights, wow!
I don't do well in cold, or heat, due to the Lyme. If I get too tired you can find me wrapped in 2 quilts in 85F temps. Not enough energy to keep myself warm, I guess.
We keep the house between 75F and 85F year round, if we can. We have 2 wood stoves and the sun in winter. My husband was born and raised in Florida and he says if he's gonna be out in the cold, he's gonna be WARM inside.
I understand you, I also lived most of my life in the north, in Siberia, but 7 years ago I decided to move to warmer lands - I was tired of these cold weather.
In elementary school, we sat at home for weeks because classes were canceled due to frost but in adulthood I had to go to work in
any weather.
I remember very well how I had to go through the frozen lake at -40 C because the client on the other side of the router stopped working :)
Do not freeze there :)
Yep! You've got to be tough to live up north!
It's funny but you don't realize how the cold makes you close up.
I had gone down to Florida for a visit one cold winter and when I got off the plane it was so balmy there and I realized I had been bracing myself for cold when I stepped out the door and when it wasn't there I could relax. I see how folks from the warmer southern areas seem more relaxed and open.
But when spring comes in the northern parts of the country there is such excitement and every body is out and about again.
I agree that summers can be very wonderful there but way too short!
Love your photo tour of Yellowknife! Thanks for sharing!
I really never thought of it that way but it's true, you do close up. That is such a perfect way to describe it. Then in spring we reach for the sun just like the flowers. I think maybe you appreciate everything that much more for having been denied the warmth for so long.
What I find hardest here in the maritimes is that there are a lot of overcast days and I miss blue skies - even in winter.
I would miss my sunshine too! I like even the coldest days if I can get my sun! Here in Saskatchewan it is suppose to be one of the sunniest places.
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STOPwow that must have been a shock to the system moving over from the U.K, I can not imagine being that cold, but we are adaptable that's for sure. I have dealt with the opposite over here in Spain over 40.c. It really is beautiful though, me and my girls were just watching David Attenborough's Canada series and my eldest both want to visit now, it is somewhere I have always wished to go and I will make it one day. Thank you for sharing a little bit more about yourself with us all, such a lovely read, I can only imagine the adventures you must have had xxxx
We sure are adaptable. I am struggling to acclimate to this 'new to me' climate. It is very humid here and I feel the chill more than I did in the dry air. I hope you do come to Canada some day, it is a beautiful place. I l love travelling this country and I still have a lot to see.
Gosh what a move!!! Where in England were your family originally from? I cant imagine being so cold. When I moved to England I was so unprepared... Jamie used to laugh at me wearing 3 coats and a skirt over jeans with long socks and boots.
The photos are beautiful. What a stunning place to grow up. Thanks for sharing.
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I'm a Yorkshire lass originally. Born in a little village called Hemingfield (Barnsley area). When I was a teenager I hated the North and went back to England for a while to live. I loved being around family and really missed that with us being so far from all of them. No one from my side even came for our wedding. Yellowknife is a hard sell!!
Aw, my mum's side are all Yorkshire/Derbyshire. My Grandfolk had the thickest accents you could imagine, despite living in Australia for over 40 years. We keep having all these things in common @walkerland... that's fun!!!
Gosh... surely Yellowknife would be a great sell... it's so different and interesting! But people can be so parochial and scared about travel too. I was married in Dorset and my parents, sister and best mate came. Felt very blessed.. it was a long way to come!
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