End of the Year rituals

It's December, the time has flown by. I have been meaning to share with you two end of the year reviews I've been enjoying (and mulling over...)

+ Andrea has started Mondo Beyondo again: step 1) review 2009 and declare it complete!
+ Gwen Bell started the "Best of 2009" review blog challenge (found via Andrea and Kelly Rae)

I'm late to the party, but here is my Best of 2009 (so far) # 1-10

best trip - moving back to Windsor (and in with Chef!), for two months, while studying for bar exams. He is my rock, and I am so glad he was there. It was an incredibly stressful time, but having his support makes everything easier to deal with. My first trip to Edmonton wasn't half bad either...

best restaurant experience - There wasn't really one stand-out meal...but having to bid farewell to my fave sushi restaurant, Iguana sushi in Windsor, was tough (oh the mystery that is the iguana sauce!). Though I do live with a chef...so it seems like asking about his day is my best restaurant experience. Especially when he had the job at the sushi place here in town, when Chef asked the owner about the type of sauce, the owner called it "Lizard sauce". I laughed so hard about that. That's my best restaurant moment of 2009, and I wasn't even there!

best article - There wasn't one specifically, but this year I purchased a subscription to HOW magazine, and it rocks my world, with continual inspiration.

best book - Shear Spirit by Joan Tapper. A fantastic photo journey of fibre farms across the U.S., with a large helping of people finding their bliss.

best night out - Canada Day (on June 24). Standing on the balconey with my friends and my honey wrapped around me.

best workshop/conference - the afternoon I spent with the learning about working with those dealing with domestic abuse. It was for a paper I wrote, and it was one of the most eye-opening moments I can remember. ever.

best blog find of the year - Hmmm...I can't remember which ones I just found this year...but I was definately missing out on the beauty that is snippet and ink until I found it sometime around March. And I just cottoned on to the fabulous art and creative collage that is Kelly Rae's blog this fall.

best moment of peace - I'm not sure I've had one yet.

best challenge - this one is still a work in progress. Even though articling is really stressful, I can feel it coming together. Please let it be coming together.

best album of the year - Cricket's Quartet by Meaghan Smith rocked my summer.

Happy Friday!

It's late, and I'm tired, (and rung-out from a week of stress overload), so I'm off to bed...but I'll be back later this weekend with some year in review.

Have a restful weekend.

* this is part of a weekly series the weekly raven; photo: author's personal collection, November 2009; Old town, Yellowknife, NT

late November

This is the scenery I choose to remember, rather than the couple of inches of brown slush filling the cross-walks and roads, or the icy sidewalks.

The middle image, fresh snow lushly piled on evergreen trees, has me in the festive mood. Welcome December.

late afternoon

I didn't appreciate the winter until I moved to Yellowknife. The gradual onsetting of darkness has begun, and I find myself with a new favourite time of the day. Currently, Yellowknife receives about 6 hours of daylight, from about 9 am to 3:30 p.m, as we wind down to a little less than 5 hours at the solstice. While I'm a morning person, I find myself staring out my office windows at around 3:30, enjoying the glow of lights against the background of the fading daylight, before the light fades completely to black as I walk home. {the above photo from the Cookie magazine site is good example of the light I'm talking about}

In order to survive winter with this kind of darkness I find the small things to appreciate. And get outside now and then. I can't image what it would be like to live in Inuvik, where they have six weeks (!) of no light from early December to mid-January.

This weekend I'll be heading out to enjoy the daylight as much as I can. I hope you do as well.

*photo: Cookie magazine website

snow

Well, now...it's been a while hasn't it? I almost don't know where to begin.


I arrived back from Edmonton earlier this month, with a new suit and lampshade in tow, obtained during my first trip to West Edmonton Mall, to a couple of inches of snow and freezing temperatures. Not out of character, really, for the sub-arctic, but in comparison to the balmy mid-teen temperatures I was experiencing in Edmonton, it was a shock. (I've re-acclimatized since then, and still have yet to bust out the parka - I've been toasty in my "winter jacket").


Since then we have had several more inches of snow, including several last Saturday, when Chef and I ventured to Weaver & Devore in "Old Town", to purchase snow pants.


In a crazy twist, I fit the same size men's snow pants that Chef does. (The largest-size women's ones did not do up over my pair of jeans, so they were out). Now I am all set for whatever this winter wants to throw at me.

* photo from author's personal collection, May 2007

Happy Friday!

I'm still in Edmonton... and will be for the weekend. My goal is to take my first trip out to the West Edmonton Mall (and hopefully get a new suit for work). Photos when I get back.

Safe travels, wherever you are headed. If you aren't headed anywhere, I hope your weekend is cozy.

Taken outside the grocery store, just before it flew away with the box.

No word on whether it still had timbits in it. :)