Friday, March 19, 2010

Acquiring a pet in Iqaluit

Now that we have settled in here and we know we will be staying a while, I decided to get my daughter a pet.  Originally I thought I would get a fish, like a betta or a goldfish.  There are no pet stores in Iqaluit, so it's quite expensive just to have them shipped up here and they are not guaranteed to get here alive.  When I was in Arctic Ventures one day, I noticed they sold hamster food.  I figured, where there is hamster food, there must be hamsters.  I made up a few signs with tear-away phone number tabs saying I was looking for a hamster.  Only a few days later, we got a call.  A family was ready to part with their pet and were happy to find a new home for it.  My daughter is just tickled.  She loves to watch it, carry it around in the caddy, and watch it run in its ball.  She also likes to feed it broccoli and carrots.  All in all, a good diversion.

Monday, March 1, 2010

I Miss Trees

One of the things I really enjoyed in the South was our family nature walks. We didn't go often, but I loved taking our weekend drives along the outskirts of town and stopping in here and there for a stroll amongst the flora and fauna.  I happened upon a website yesterday, http://www.allposters.com/ . It has many posters of trees and nature in general as well as art prints, movie posters, photography, travel posters, and many others.  The 'Tree' category is even broken down into all the different types of trees.   Needless to say, I will be plastering my walls with posters and prints of maple trees and all the other things I miss about home.