Northern Lights-seen them live?

[shootingstar]

Sigh...yesterday, a few hrs. after we got home from Edmonton area,there was northern lights in that area. Problem is that a lot of these predictions aren't foreseen 24 hrs. in advance. Yesterday during the whole day, it was bright and blue sky across the prairies for 250 km. going south. My eyes actually hurt looking at the sky.

[salsabike]

Figures, doesn't it? Although the daytime sounds gorgeous. I took the train from Montreal to Vancouver when I first visited Seattle many years ago, and thought the prairies were beautiful.

I visited a fiber artist's studio this week. She is doing huge pieces of work, both wall pieces and free-standing sculptures, inspired by multiple Northern Lights sightings, especially during spring and fall in Iceland--she says the best sighting times there are the equinoxes because it's still dark and night AND the weather is more likely to be clear (so we are now thinking about making our next Iceland trip be in some upcoming September).

Her work looks like this: http://www.gwenlowery.com/index.html and this http://www.gwenlowery.com/Gallery/gallery.html#11

[rebeccaC]

some beautiful fiber art!!....and totally agree on the beauty of Glacier NP....and some incredible expansive views

some of the northern villages in Nunavik, Quebec have some great views of the lights and interesting Inuit myths/stories about them.

I've seen lots of moose from the great hiking trails in Quebec’s Gaspesie National Park. I think the park has one of the largest populations of moose in Canada.

[shootingstar]

Coincidentally I went to see a small art exhibit while in Edmonton of some local fibre and textile artists. Their themes includes prairie landscape....and contemplation on women's historic contribution to prairie rural life and development.

(The right to vote for women in Canadian originated in Alberta...maybe the ranching, farming, cowboy environment just toughens women...to survive and speak up...)

[salsabike]

some of the northern villages in Nunavik, Quebec have some great views of the lights and interesting Inuit myths/stories about them.

THAT sounds fascinating. I've never been further north than Quebec City. Now I have a whole new travel itch--northern Quebec, Churchill--to figure out how to scratch. Shootingstar, have you spent much time in northernmost Canada?

[shootingstar]

I was in the far Arctic, in Iqaluit, capital city (town) for territory of Nunavut. I was yes, on Baffin Island. Last 2 photos in this blog post... I was there for 2 days. Remaining 8 hrs. was stuck at the tiny airport, with everyone else while a winter blizzard blew in at 180 km. /hr. It was so windy that the plane could not land properly ...and had to fly 200 km. west to land at another town area.

The Inuit have a big vocabulary to describe different snow...conditions, qualities, etc. Like the Mongolians, who have a horse culture, where there are a lot of horse related words and slang. (Some people realize that Asians have different words to describe "rice", the types, quality of the grain, the products derived, and slang/idiomatic expressions.)
I believe I bought a book on the language of Inuit as it relates to natural phenomena and natural world. Right now it's in Vancouver.

In 2003, when I was there (for a job interview), afterwards, I went to the general store to see if I could buy some books written by locals. Not surprisingly it was just academic/scholarly texts, not autobiographies in English by the Inuit. Their language became written only the last few hundred years (I think). It's probably living in survival mode and adjusting to a rapidly changing way of life, they have no time to reflect and write. It reminds of the Vietnamese boat refugees who came to North America. Stories of their experiences written by them in English (or French), didn't appear for the general public, until 20 years later....

I did buy a soapstone narwhale whale with whalebone horn, from local craftspeople who will schlep their stuff to you in the local restaurant. The owner allows it for the locals to make money.

I was driven to a tiny suburban hamlet with a one-way 30 km. road. All around was snowy tundra. It was awesome, yet scary. No wonder why people die, easily lost in snowstorms.

While hanging out at the airport, I met an Inuit mother carrying her 1 yr. child in her amauti (in the hood of her Inuit-style jacket/tunic). They were taking plane flight 1,000 km. south to Ottawa to have surgery for his clubfoot. Access to doctor /health care services is serious problem in the far Arctic. Stuff we don't hear in southern Canada. Imagine living a town of 1,000 and there are NO roads. Not anywhere near a river nor water body. Just tundra or snow.

[salsabike]

That is a REALLY interesting blog post!

[ny biker]

It's easy to forget how different things can be for people who live in the same country. A few years ago I visited a small town located in a ravine in Idaho. 50 miles on a dirt road to get there, only 11 year-round residents plus others who spend their summers their. No cell phone service, no locks on the doors in the small hotel, one restaurant/bar which got surprisingly crowded at dinner time.