a quote from Barry Lopez, author of one of my favorite books about the Arctic, arctic Dreams:

It is my belief that a human imagination is shaped by the architecture it encounters at an early age. The visual landscape, of course, or the depth, elevation, and hues of a cityscape play a part here, as does the way sunlight everywhere etches lines to accentuate forms. But the way we imagine is also affected by streams of scent flowing faint or sharp in the larger ocean of air; by what the North American composer John Luther Adams calls the sonic landscape; and, say, by an awareness of how temperature and humidity rise and fall in a place over a year.Over time I have come to think of these three qualities–paying intimate attention; a storied relationship to a place rather than a solely sensory awareness of it; and living in some sort of ethical unity with a place–as a fundamental human defense against loneliness. If you’re intimate with a place, a place with whose history you’re familiar, and you establish an ethical conversation with it, the implication that follows is this: the place knows you’re there. It feels you. You will not be forgotten, cut off, abandoned.

I walked my woods, this cold wintry day. Gusts pulled snow twisters from a thin blanket. Trees creaked in the wind. I saw signs of my work. light splashed a pattern across the shoulder of a distant mountain. No birds followed. In a depression below me,deer beds.

The generations before me, I knew so well. The recent warmth was troubling, believing that the way we live truly is having an effect. First impacts are being felt in vulnerable places, we seldom see. The wind reassures me.

Text: Averill Cook, Photograph: Jock Gill

This is an image from early afternoon, looking out on the Mackenzie River delta in Aklavik, NT Canada. What do you see when you look at this image from out the window? What do you see out your own window?

When I look at this image I see a connection between land and sky and I get a sense of quiet and peace. When I look out my window here at the University, I see contrasts and a sharp distinction between land and sky. It’s interesting the colors of our world and what we see and percieve out our own windows.

Happy New Years, here are some pictures from New Years Day 2007 from the Windows Around the World program.

When you look out a window, we frequently see what we expect to see. Windows Around the World is helping children see different environments and to watch the changes that occur out that window over time. In another posting someone was talking about trying to get a handle on climate change and coming to realize to that they learned the most by just observing. This is part of the study on climate change - observations. It takes time, but if we watch a place over time we can see changes in the environment. It is fun and all of us can take part in making observations.

Hi, I’m a biological oceanographer by training and most of my research is focused on zooplankton, the little tiny animals in the ocean. Much of my work is done in the Arctic. Two years ago, I was working in the Beaufort Sea and I had the opportunity to develop an education and outreach program. While I was trying to think of what to develop I thought about my feeling, Knowledge and impressions of the arctic and I thought about what people say when they hear I am traveling there. This ranges from wonder and excitement to pity. While I can tell people about the light in the arctic at midnight in the summer or blue twilight at noon in the winter or the golden glow in the fall, it’s hard to understand unless you see it. I wanted to develop a program that would let people see the arctic and give children a chance to learn about polar regions and how they are similar and different to other regions. In seeing this, the children would begin to see and learn about the connections between regions. With this in mind, my husband Jim Rich and I developed the Windows Around the World program (www.WindowsAroundTheWorld.org ), that lets children, teachers, parents and anyone come and see what it looks like in different areas.