Well, after the glorious weather we had for our boat trip to Melville Peninsula, the winds blew the sea ice back into the bay and we had fog and rain for about 10 days. The kids made the most of it by playing in the little ice bergs (or “bergies” as New Foundlanders would call them). The weather cleared a couple of days ago, and Steve, Chase and I were back out on the land enjoying the cooling days of summer as our summer winds down and watching fledging geese, loons, and phalaropes in the ponds on the island. Chase continues to enjoy our outings and is on his best behavior whenever we’re out, yay! We even saw a "tree" - well, not really, a shrubby willow about 1.5' high, but hey that's "big" up here! I got a new pair of rubber boots from our friend Lily, so I was able to tromp around the wetlands without worrying about getting wet feet :) Steve went for a swim in the Arctic water out near our friends Jay and Maren’s cabin, Sam, Jay’s dog swam too. We visited sod houses, the look like humps on the horizon in one of these photos, used by Inuit hundreds to perhaps a thousand years ago too. Lucky fisherman were out camping on the land and drying char they caught in nets in the sea out in the sun on racks. Chase likes to sleep in what we call the "touchdown" position, with both hands over his head; he likes it when we tickle his cheek with Arctic cotton grass; and he's quickly outgrowing his clothes!
