September 07, 2009

Northern volcanoes and the like...

I took this picture (to the right) sometime last week, and I wish it had come out better; it really did look like a belching volcano (or what I imagine a belching volcano would look like). Somewhere you'd have to go to dispose of some sort of magical ring...my preciousssss...

The picture below I took at the same time. The light in the mountains has a quality that doesn't exist on the east coast. In Nova Scotia, the sunrise is always over the water and you can watch it creep across the sky. Here in Pang a ray will peek out from behind a mountain creating surrounding peaks of black, green, yellow, and even shades of an orange / red. Those colours change as the day passes. Both of these pictures face south and were taken around 6 pm.

Someone asked me tonight what I was going to do during the summer...whether I would continue to rent my place to hold it for next year. Wow. What a question. When do you know if the north is right for you? Can you realistically answer that after less than a month? I'm having a great time here...I'm settling into a nice set-up. I hope this feeling of contentment sticks around.

Tallinn had its streets of castles and cobblestones, Ottawa had its beautiful buildings and familiarity, Seoul had its indescribable markets and smells, Hong Kong had its comforting chaos, Manhatten had its metropolitan atmosphere with the world at your fingertips...and Pangnirtung has something that I can't yet put words to. Other northerners have spoken about that Thing. There. Niggling. Under your skin.

I'll keep you posted...

2 comments:

Jordan~Stephanie said...

Tara,

Your pictures are astounding. Jordan loves the LOTR references too . . .

Pang looks more like B.C. and the Rockies!

I'm glad you're doing well and we (as always) wish you the best.

towniebastard said...

You will know. It's probably still too early for you to know if you want to stay or not. But you should definitely know by Christmas.