Whitehorse again, but always more to explore

I am going to condensing time here, since most days have been spent  working on various projects. Yaaay! for publc libraries that have excellent wifi.

Fireweed along the Yukon River bluffs; it's getting downright seedy.

Besides working and writing, I've gone on walks, and explored the city of Whitehorse a bit more.  I got through a few days sleeping in the car (including one night in the Walmart parking lot, but then returned to the Takhini Hot Springs Hostel for the weekend.

Whitehorse: old and new

Whitehorse continues to surprise and delight. There is always something to see, or notice. Where else but the far north do you find a spanking new apartment building right next to a traditional log cabin? (For the record, you can find this in Fairbanks, too.)

Whitehorse: new and old, side-by-side

Last year I spent several hours in the McBride Museum. It's a fascinating place that is just chock-full of artifacts from all aspects of Yukon history: First Nations spearpoints and fishhooks, parkas and mukluks, baskets and jewelry; Klondike panning equipment and gold from all the creeks in the Yukon; typical turn-of-the century full-size exhibits of a general store, a miner's cabin, newspaper office, a saloon. I did visit again, and was surprise to see "Sam McGee's Cabin" (the original, not a mock-up) in the back lot. 

Giant koi in the Court building!

And I wish, in retrospect, that I'd taken picture of the brand new facility that the museum is building literally around the old one. It is supposed to open next summer, so they are really pushing it this summer to get it done. It was causing some traffic jams because the cranes were lifting big Ibeams in place, and they had to close the surrounding streets for safety. There is quite a contrast between the rickety wooden sprawling older building that had been added onto multiple times, and the spanking new one that is all high-rise steel.

Right across the street from the very modern Court Building is a cabin (now a restaurant) that looks like it has been there since the beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush and sports life-size statues of a moose battling a caribou on the roof. It was another surprise to find giant koi in the lobby of this court building, plus lots of tropical foliage. I guess GOLDfish are entirely appropriate for the Yukon, and who wouldn't want to luxuriate in diffenbacchias in the dead of the Yukon winter?

Restaurants like Tim Horton's, Starbucks, and the very popular Klondike Rib and Salmon, are side-by-side government buildings. Klondike Rib and Salmon is so popular that there is often a line running out onto the street. They are so popular, they've opened a delivery and "take out" satellite in a slightly less desireable part of town. I'm curious if there are any zoning requirements.

Late-blooming flax by the Yukon river

Summer moves so swiftly here. I'd been away a week, and already the fireweek "calendar" is moving up the stalk. They say when the fireweed starts to bloom that it's six weeks to winter. The sun is setting earlier and earlier. What seemed like limitless daylight is turning to real dark night, not just twilight.

I even have some hope that I might see some aurora, although realistically that probably wouldn't happen until September, and I'm supposed to be in Nova Scotia by then. At least that was the Plan.

The Plan, however, is undergoing some deep thought, and may be revised.

Beading project: background trials

Projects

I have been working on the beading project, and making good progress, but I reached the point where I couldn't decide about the background. Should it leave it plain leather or bead the background? If so, what color? White? Black? Silver? Gray?

I ended up trying a bunch of things and not being particularly happy with any of them. White is traditional, but the light flowers wouldn't show up well, and I really wanted the flowers to "pop."  Silver was pretty, but felt too glittery. Gray was in interesting compromise, but looked to pebbly (too much texture). Black looked was possible, but I couldn't get enough detail.

It was necessary (oh yes, absolutely necessary) to go back to the bead stores in town to see if there was anything else that would work. I ended up finding some small (size 11) black matte beads that I'm hoping will give more detail, and also give that pop that I'm searching for.

Yes, it has been an interesting project. The next one will be better.

Inside the Bear Baw Quilt Shop

I also visited the Bear Paw Quilt Shop in the hopes of getting a small project that I could work on in the car when the weather turns for the worse. I wanted a memento of this trip north, and beading has made me realize how much I miss working with needle and thread. I do like the beading, but it is proving to be a challenge to manage small beads in the car. There is just no good, flat place to keep them accessible. Also... if I work outside, I have to make sure it's not too windy!

The Bear Paw Quilt Shop (their tag line is "Compassionate care for the quilt-addicted") is down in the basement of a building on the main drag (Front Street) of downtown Whitehorse. It's not a large space, but it is PACKED with fine cotton fabrics, kits, notions, and finished art.

I confess that fabric prices made my jaw drop. Quilting here is an expensive hobby. Prices are on the average $20CA/yard (yes, that's TWENTY DOLLARS PER YARD).

Of course, to be sure, this is on a par with the prices in Fairbanks, which were $15-$19/yard, and which made me gasp last year.  I can see the advantage to doing small projects.

Canadian-themed quilt

One truly does need to be addicted or devoted to pay those prices, but I totally understand that there is nothing like seeing color combinations and feeling the fabrics to see how they come together. I've bought fabric online, and there have been some... surprises. And shipping here is expensive, just as it is in Fairbanks, so the justification of being able to know what you're getting is probably worth paying for.

I did find a perfect small project of a "stained glass" fireweed applique that can be used as a pillow or wallhanging or a piece of something larger. I also succumbed and purchased one panel of a Canada-themed print (see at left), with squares denoting different Canadian towns. I've been (or am planning on going) to most of them on this particular panel, and it's the kind of thing that can be used for lots of different things (pillows, aprons, vertical or horizontal wall hanging, even — gasp — a quilt.

Everyone really is celebrating Canada 150. One of the quilt shop ladies asked if I knit, because, she said, "The knit shop is now carrying new yarn from each province and territory. They are all out of the Nunavut one, but the Yukon blue is just lovely."

I did manage to resist that, and am not even looking for more qiviut.

I also got more needles, because, ahem, the beading project has been eating them up (breaking), plus I need some that have smaller diameter eyes to accommodate the smaller beads (size 11) beads I got.

It's something of a vicious cycle.

I have made friends with "David" at the library. Interesting fellow, very amused (or horrified) by the political situation in the States. He keeps up on all the latest articles, and then comes and has to tell me about it, so I have my own private news service. He has a house in St John (armpit of Canada, he calls it), and has moved to Whitehorse temporarily. He's looking to sell that house and move permanently.

Whitehorse is a small enough town that I starts running into people that I recognize.

I would love to write more here, but the wifi is agonizingly slow, and I used up my entire allotment of data yesterday. So I'm going to see if this will post, and make a couple more short entries. There might not be any photos at this rate... I'll have to edit them in when I can. Even re-sizing them is not working well!