9th Avenue

...is a trail that runs the length of town, above 8th Avenue. 

Yellow Ice.

Can you spot the bird in this picture?

This is the back of a building (that used to be its front?)

Good old Masons.

Graveyards

I have always been fond of graveyards. I walked up to the ones on the Dome Road today with my camera...but because they were all snowed in I had to content myself with snapping some shots from the side of the road. I would like to go up there sometime in the spring or summer, I am sure there are many stories waiting to be found.

Looking for colours other than blue, white and black...

Snow-tree arches over the trail.

Little fenced gravesites, which are possibly children's graves, according to the cemetery guide.

Masonic Graveyard

Here's where I learnt about all the different cemeteries on the hill. Maps below...

A propellor as a marker: a pilot's grave?

RCMP Cemetery.

All the headstones are uniform.

Jewish Cemetery (not sure what happens when there's a Jewish RCMP officer who's also a Mason...hmm)

You can see other graveyards behind this one. I need some snowshoes to explore properly.

I am not sure. Compost? Or is this a burial chamber of some sort?

Target practice on Dome Road

Looking down on Dawson

These pictures do not accurately display how much this church is tilting!

My favorite thing: the sled dog carrier with cut-out holes for the heads! I saw this a few weeks ago (full of dog faces with tongues out) when I went to the grocery store, and told Craig about it (more than once). Today on my way home through town I saw the truck again, and swiftly produced my camera, only to notice the owner coming toward me quickly from the liquor store in her custom blue-and-fur hat and blue-and-yellow coat that matched the truck! I quickly took a snap of the vehicle but was too chicken to take one of her too...which is too bad. On the back of the jacket was an applique of a husky. It was beautiful.

Readings in the Yukon, in March

As part of my Berton House residency in Dawson City, I will be giving readings in both Dawson City and Whitehorse in March. The readings will include passages from my first novel, Skin Room, as well as my work-in-progress, DUKE.


Wednesday March 9, 7 pm - Dawson Library, Dawson City. Free, refreshments will be served.
Wednesday March 30, time TBA - Whitehorse Public Library, Whitehorse. Free.

I will have copies of Skin Room for sale at each location, $20 a copy. Hope you can make it!

The Little Train That Couldn't & A Gift in the Mail

Today I had a great 40 minute conversation + online personal comedy/music show with two great friends (and their cat!) who I am lucky enough to Skype with every once and a while. I hurt from laughing. Last time they were cooking supper so I had my own personal Food Network special to watch, but way funnier. Later this afternoon, Craig and I went to the post office to check our lonely mail box, and there was a package for me from one of the two, with a silk flower inside (and other gifts!) that she made from a beautiful piece of fuschia and red fabric that we saw at the Sandy's in CBS this summer. The flower found its natural home on my "hey, it's only -10 out!" hat.

During the conversation today, I told these friends about Craig and I attempting to make the electric train set work (one of the stranger items here, but perhaps one well-suited to housebound writers). I recalled longing for an electric train set much like this when I was little; I never got it. Finally! Our dreams would come true! We spent at least a half an hour setting up the tracks, which were put together with tiny silver pins, many of which were missing, and halfway through discovering that the track was too big to really put anywhere so we had to leave some pieces out. We pressed onward, taking the train down from its decorative spot on the windowsill, and trying to install it on the rails. The back two cars were too long to make the (truncated) curves without derailing. We decided to do a trial run without last two cars, and Craig signaled me to flip the power switch. I put the train in forward and eased up the speed. The power light flickered and smoke began to come out of the wires. I flipped it off and put it in reverse and when we tried again it went backward for about three seconds before stopping, an increasing amount of smoke rising up from the side of the controls.

We finally decided to give up, lest we burn the residency down.

(I think the flower's colours were asking a teensy bit of my clown to come out)