Trying to find my voice again, I decided to follow my heart and go to the place that I haven’t been able to stop gushing about since I visited two years ago: Yellowknife, NWT. After so many wonderful experiences hitchhiking across Canada and roadtripping through the USA, it is still the only place that left me dragging my feet, tears streaming down my face, telling myself I didn’t really have to get on the plane. It just kind of felt like home (recorded hastily after my first visit, a few years ago).
So, I’m back. That was summertime, when the sun would approach the horizon around 11pm and creep along the treetops before rising again a few hours later. This time around I get to watch the northern lights dance and explore a big castle made of snow. We’re close to the equinox, so the days are already quite long, and the sunshine feels amazing. Everyone is talking about how strange the weather is – many days it has been above freezing, and although it is quite lovely, it is also very unsettling for those who are used to it being about 20 degrees colder right now.
home for the next three months
Part of why I wanted to come here is to live off of the grid again, which is why I am renting the Icarus for three months, a houseboat on the Great Slave Lake. When most people hear houseboat, they think of a commercially made boat with a motor and a furnished inside. The houseboats here are a little different, I think the actual word for them is float home, though everyone calls them houseboats. It is basically a cabin on floats, with a deck, a wood stove, propane heat and kitchen, no motor. It’s a shame I have to leave just as the weather is getting nice, but I’m hoping to find something else on the lake while I’m here.
The view from my window in the morning.
The night I moved into the Icarus, we had gone to the Snow Castle to dance to French electronic music, and our bodies warmed up the place until the ceiling started melting on our heads. At one point someone started rallying up everyone to go outside and see the northern lights, but they had already died down by the time we made it out. We waited a few minutes, and before long the sky was lit up again, dancing all across the sky. Apparently you can also hear them if they are really roaring and you are somewhere quiet. I wish I were better with words so I could really capture it. The lake is just so massive, and you see so much sky because you don’t have any tall buildings blocking your view. You don’t even see a lot of trees, save for a few small islands. Just this big expansive sky, with this pale green light show streaming across the whole thing, a few houseboats lit up here and there.
So far houseboat living is wonderful, though I’m still very much settling in. My first morning I woke to a half red moon setting over the lake, grabbed a guitar … and sang. really sang. the first time in months. It was just jamming out melodies, so I used the internal mic on my laptop to record everything in case I ever want to turn some of it into a song. Here’s a small taste, the recording quality is crap, but it was just so satisfying to sing and have it feel good, I am sharing it anyway.
oh oh and also! I have set up a mailing list, as you will see on the right (you will probably have to scroll up). If you would like to be on it, please sign up! I will be sending out notices when there are new projects that are finished and I will also make some exclusive content available. My dream is for people from everywhere to sign up and then I will know that I have to tour… everywhere.
