Christmas wishes

Delightful rest, beloved pleasure of the heart

Bernarda Fink sings one of the most sublime Bach arias: Merry Christmas for all, and happy holidays!

The long arctic night

In the high arctic latitudes, the sun is absent for two months. But sometimes, lucky days, the full moon shines:

Down here in lower latitudes we don't often value the precious sun light and warmth. Those are priceless but free gifts to be thankful for.

Photo: Carl Skou, Kullorsuaq, Greenland

'Le' Wildcat Café - heritage site in the Northwest Territories, Canada

The Wildcat Café is located in the heart of Yellowknife, on old town's Wiley Road.

Coordinates 62°27′N, 114°20′W

In 1992, the cabin was declared a heritage site as an important old building, one of the earliest permanent buildings in town.

Built in 1937-1938 by prominent pioneers Willie Wiley and Smokey Stout, the Wildcat is a reminder of pioneering days.

The Café is a vintage log cabin structure and represents the mining camp style of early Yellowknife.

The Wildcat was a gathering place for the founders of Yellowknife: prospectors, miners and pilots.

Prospectors wheeled and dealed, community members held meetings and banquets, while visitors came and went.

Great place to try caribou, bison, muskox, arctic char in addition to the usual cuisine. And a coffee.

In 2011, the city of Yellowknife decided to completely renovate the log building, which had settled far into the ground and was leaning dangerously in several directions at once.

Reconstruction and repair continued during the summer of 2012 and the opening has been delayed due to a number of unforeseen problems.

 

The Wildcat Cafe is currently scheduled to reopen in the summer of 2013. It is now one of Yellowknife's most popular attractions.

The residents only disagree om the article : Le Wildcat, or The Wildcat ? As for now, the The wins.

It is surely a warm comfort to have a nice coffee in the Wildcat.

yupiii, 150 000 at last !

Celebration day, as I reach a magic number of viewers, one hundred and fifty thousand!

This is the statistic of the 10 most visited posts on Ultima Thule:

Oymyakon, Siberia - the Pole of Cold 21/12/2010	8743
Mount Thor, Nunavut: a mountain for Thule 29/11/2009	6527
The arctic ermine - the dearest arctic creature! 07/10/2011, 4 comentários	6280
Sein island (Île-de-Sein),Brittany, France 17/07/2010, 2 comentários	4099
Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island- Here lies the wrec... 15/08/2011	2660
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) , an atlantic creek and a... 12/07/2011, 2 comentários	2561
Rosslyn chapel- a scottish wonder 04/09/2010, 3 comentários	2032
Uelen, a Russian eskimo settlement :Start of the B... 16/03/2010, 1 comentário	1549
Tuktoyaktuk, like a caribou 08/07/2010	1439
Bouvetøya: the most remote island on earth 13/06/2009	1430

(I still wonder why Oymyakon is the winner...)

Thank you all so much !

Winter in the Arctic, Summer in Antarctica

As the arctic prepares for some months of long dark night...

... in the extreme south arrives a short summer, not warm but as good as it gets.

This is the best time of the year in Antarctica, with luck you can even find some flowers !

Have a nice summer down there, people of the iced South!