Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Iceberg Tea
    Iceberg Tea
    Iceberg Tea
    Ebook123 pages2 hours

    Iceberg Tea

    By Annelies Pool

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Annelies Pool lives in a cabin in the woods outside of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada and likes to sit around, preferably in her pyjamas, and think (and write) great thoughts while her husband does all the chores. For example: how can you be spiritual when all you want is a fancy red car? Why are Northerners so possessive about mosquitoes? Why would men rather think about gas fittings than the meaning of life? Iceberg Tea, a collection of 50 personal stories about life in the Canadian North will touch your heart and make you laugh. Reading them is like sitting down with an old friend over a cup of tea.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnnelies Pool
    Release dateNov 26, 2011
    ISBN9780986560002
    Iceberg Tea
    Author

    Annelies Pool

    Born in The Netherlands, I immigrated to Canada with my family at a young age and grew up in southern Ontario. I came into my own in my twenties when I arrived in Hay River, Northwest Territories, at the tail end of a cross-Canada hitchhiking journey, and stumbled into a writing career. I had all my worldly possessions in a knapsack on my back, was broke and in need of a job. This materialized as soon as the publisher of a community weekly newspaper, the Hay River Tapwe, found out that I could type — all the qualifications necessary to be a reporter. I fell in love with writing about the North and never made it back to the road. After several years in Hay River, I moved to the capital of the territory, Yellowknife. I grew up, got married and settled in an off-grid cabin, about 30 km outside of town, at Prelude Lake where I lived with my husband and my dogs for 22 years. I became well known as a northern journalist and freelance writer, serving as editor for a number of publications, including the Northern News Services newspaper chain in Yellowknife and the inflight magazine, above&beyond, Canada's Arctic Journal. I published stories, columns and editorials in more than 30 periodicals and anthologies. The beautiful landscape of Prelude Lake nurtured my creativity and inspired me to explore more creative forms of writing. Ever since I began writing for newspapers, I had published creative non-fiction in the form of funny personal columns. In 2010, I published a collection of these columns in my first book, Iceberg Tea, under my own imprint Prelude Books. My journey from journalist to creative writer was also nurtured by NorthWords NWT, an organization that supports northern and aboriginal writers by holding an annual writers' festival in Yellowknife, workshops and other literary events. I was privileged to serve as president and then executive director of NorthWords for five years, helping to support northern writers and being supported by them in turn. Today, I have put the off-grid life behind me and am back in Yellowknife where I enjoy such delights as water running out of the tap instead of having to be hauled from the lake; doing laundry without having to start a generator; using an electric toaster; an electric fridge; a microwave and all sorts of other appliances we didn't know how to operate when we first moved in. In between periods of basking in my new world of luxury, I have been hard at ...

    Related to Iceberg Tea

    Related ebooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Ready, Set, Let go!

      May 15, 2019

      Ready, Set, Let go!
      11 min read

    • Article

      Fiction: Wolfdreams

      Feb 12, 2022

      Fiction: Wolfdreams
      6 min read

    • Article

      TWO ESSAYS from FINGER EXERCISES FOR POETS

      Nov 1, 2022

      Russian Formalists have a word, “ostranenie,” which means constantly attempting to discover new ways of looking at everyday things. There are almost always two realities rubbing up against one another in every poem, whether they are specified or not,

      10 min read

    • Article

      As the World Collapses

      Jul 27, 2017

      As the World Collapses
      7 min read

    • Article

      Setting The Scene

      Dec 5, 2024

      Setting The Scene
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Virtue Of A Hermit’s Path

      Jul 1, 2024

      The Virtue Of A Hermit’s Path
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Sara Fan

      Dec 16, 2020

      This memory feels like premonition of 2020—waiting for something that would allow me to move through the world the way that I originally intended but in the meantime taking in the world in the way that I hadn’t planned. The post A Year in Reading: Sa

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Unpassing

      Jun 12, 2019

      The Unpassing
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Beatrice Kilat

      Dec 13, 2019

      By that I mean that he’s a little practical and a little dreamy, a little horny and a little precious, which is just how I like a person. The post A Year in Reading: Beatrice Kilat appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      An Intimate Eclipse

      Feb 13, 2018

      1. In August, my family traveled to Kansas to be in the path of totality for the eclipse. We decided to watch from a farm on the Platte River. My husband, Nick, and I would be traveling from Connecticut with my parents; our two-and-a-half-year-old da

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Mamta Chaudhry

      Dec 23, 2020

      At a time when I’m housebound and only my imagination is free to roam, it is head-spinning to read the phrase, “if our life is vagabond our memory is sedentary” and wonder if in our ceaseless rush forward, these are days, too, that will be indelibly

      4 min read

    • Article

      Worlds Of Ink And Paper

      Nov 22, 2022

      As a young girl, I still remember my dear mother, smile on her face, curled up with Family Circle magazine in her lap. She was engrossed in an article titled “Butternut Wisdom,” written by Gladys Taber. At my age, it didn’t mean a thing to me. But as

      6 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Year In Reading: Garth Risk Hallberg

      Dec 18, 2021

      Simply put, Yoon Choi is the most ambitious and accomplished practitioner of the Chekhovian short story to appear in many years. The post A Year In Reading: Garth Risk Hallberg appeared first on The Millions.

      9 min read

    • Article

      Everything Happens SOMEWHERE

      Jun 15, 2020

      Everything, even thought, takes place somewhere. When remembering ordinary happenings and previous conversations, most people automatically recall where they took place and at what time. If not, they may ponder, “Now, where was I?” For more important

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Summer Book Is A State Of Mind

      Jan 2, 2020

      This summer, I’m reading Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout, again. I’ve read it about 50 times already and plan to read it as many more times as it takes before I get either a repetitive strain injury of the imagination or Stockholm syndrome and am fo

      6 min read

    • Article

      Erratica

      Mar 1, 2020

      There’s a term that’s been circulating in the spheres of poetry I like: geopoetics. I’ve heard it for several years, and have always loved it, despite never fully grasping its meaning. I figure it has to mean something beyond simply “poems about rock

      19 min read

    • Article

      I Ran Away From Home At 60!

      Feb 20, 2024

      Three decades ago, I celebrated my 30th birthday in the time-honoured tradition of all young people who think they are an adult but have no real idea about life, duty or personal responsibility – I got smashed. In fairness, I had quite a lot to get s

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Ayşe Papatya Bucak

      Dec 2, 2019

      I guess I believe reading generates empathy. I feel pretty sure it offers readers experiences they would not otherwise have. But does it change how we act? The post A Year in Reading: Ayşe Papatya Bucak appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      She grazes in a meadow, sulphur blossoms spillingfrom her jaw.At this moment she seems so calm, she could be holyif what that means is something like beingwholly unaware of the good she gives,how even her rooting tills the soiland even her shitting f

      2 min read

    • Article

      Rebel Love

      Dec 20, 2018

      Rebel Love
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mountain Companions

      Sep 11, 2020

      Mountain Companions
      7 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Nov 6, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Nov 6, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Sabrina Orah Mark

      Dec 15, 2020

      For most of November, I’ve been wandering around with Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book because I miss my grandmother and grief is also an island weathered by sunshine and storms. The post A Year in Reading: Sabrina Orah Mark appeared first on The Mil

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Vitality of Opposing Energies: The Millions Interviews Paul Lisicky

      Mar 17, 2020

      I was very conscious of trying to write about emergency—how do people survive when they can’t take for granted they’re going to be around in the morning? The post The Vitality of Opposing Energies: The Millions Interviews Paul Lisicky appeared first

      9 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Daniel Loedel

      Dec 8, 2021

      For my pleasure reading I needed books I could trust, the safe, soothing hands of favorite writers. I began with my treasured galley of Klara and the Sun. The post A Year in Reading: Daniel Loedel appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      In The Spotlight:your Writing Dark Side

      Dec 7, 2023

      Spooky season evidently offered creative inspiration aplenty for the WM writers, who responded to the call for writing in November’s crime-themed issue on the theme of ‘Dark Side’ with our fullest mailbox yet. The poetry and prose sent in demonstrate

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Iceberg Tea

    3/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A pleasant collection of friendly, informal essays about living in the Arctic. The author lives in a cabin just outside Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Most have been previously published in various journals and newspapers.

    Book preview

    Iceberg Tea - Annelies Pool

    Praise for iceberg tea

    Iceberg tea: what a marvelous collection of vignettes for the soul! What a feast, meditation and celebration of the many lives we live in this one.

    -Richard Van Camp, author of The Moon of Letting Go

    This book is a must read for any city person who thinks they know the north through books, but don't. With insight and detail, Pool shows the magnificent life up in Yellowknife. What comes off at first read as quirky, funny stories about life in the bush, later shows reflective detail into the lives and loves of Northern people. Writing while out in her cabin in the Arctic woods, Annelies Pool puts Thoreau to shame!

    - Cathleen With, author of Having Faith in the Polar Girls Prison

    Pool blends memory with imagination as she recounts unusual everyday routines punctuated by encounters with the exceptional moments of midlife. She draws readers into the warmth and familiarity of each of her 50 compact narratives with playfully poignant prose.

    - yellowknifer

    Annelies has a very reflective personality and there is a sense of ongoing personal growth that runs throughout her memories. And instead of pondering heavily on those around her, she more often focuses on her place in the universe. Fortunately, Annelies waxes philosophical while contemplating more down to Earth pursuits like lottery tickets and Facebook. She's a student of Tai Chi but she also admits to insecurities.

    -The Book Mine Set

    iceberg tea

    by Annelies Pool

    Published by:

    Annelies Pool

    http://www.anneliespool.ca

    SmashWords Edition

    License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Copyright © 2011 by Annelies Pool

    Contents

    Introduction

    The North

    Love and Family

    Work and Technology

    About the Author

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Sometimes life surprises you and you find yourself in places you never imagined you’d be. Your heart opens and you discover unknown qualities in yourself. I grew up as a city kid and when I was young, my only ambition was to move to a larger city. I never thought I would find myself, in middle age, living in a cabin in the woods in Canada’s Northwest Territories. But here I am and it still surprises me.

    I arrived in Hay River, Northwest Territories, by bus on a cold January day in 1979, after eight months of hitchhiking around Canada and working at odd jobs. I had spent most of the summer in British Columbia, working as a tennis court sweeper in Williams Lake, a bartender in Alert Bay, a forest fire fighter in Terrace. In the fall I moved north to the Yukon where I worked as a waitress in Beaver Creek. Now I was visiting a friend in Hay River and I needed another job. I also needed a place to stay because I could only afford three nights in a motel. Both materialized when the publisher of one of the two community newspapers in Hay River discovered I could type. He hired me as a reporter/photographer trainee and let me move into a rickety trailer with no plumbing, thin walls that collected frost on the inside and furniture salvaged from the dump.

    For me, the job, my new home in the trailer and being in the North was another adventure, but not a life. It was a stop on the road before I returned to my real life in the city. I didn’t count on the North burying itself in my soul. I fell in love with northern stories, the northern landscape and the northern people in all their beauty and tragedy. The years went by and I continued to write about the North for newspapers, magazines and any other publication that would print my work. I forgot, entirely, to go back on the road.

    In 1982, I moved to the Northwest Territories capital, Yellowknife. There, in the city on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, surrounded by the pink granite, lakes and boreal forest of the Precambrian Shield, I finally began to settle down. I grew up, got married, acquired stepchildren and dogs, and moved with my new husband, Bill, to a cabin at Prelude Lake, about thirty kilometres northeast of the city.

    We have lived here for twenty years now. Our place is along the Ingraham Trail, the start of the winter road to the diamond mines which has become famous on the Ice Road Truckers reality series shown on the History Channel. I never tire of the swish of the summer wind in the birch trees, the peace of the winter world, the black bears, lynx, wolves and caribou we sometimes see from our windows, or the dazzling lake that we glimpse through the trees when we stand on the right place on the deck.

    Our cabin is off the grid and beyond the reach of city services. My computer is powered by solar energy or a diesel generator when the sun isn’t shining. We haul our water from the lake in a big tank on the back of the truck and our winter heat comes from a giant woodstove in the middle of our living room. We take our own garbage to the dump and hope the house doesn’t catch fire because we are thirty kilometres away from the closest fire department.

    In this wilderness I have developed the skill of sitting quietly and thinking great thoughts while Bill does all the chores. Iceberg tea is a collection of these thoughts – essays about an ordinary life nurtured by the northern landscape.

    Enjoy!

    The North

    The night I saw Jupiter cry

    It was one of those cold January nights when the stars were tossed against the midnight blue like diamonds. Well below minus thirty, the air was clear. My husband Bill and I drove to the airport to pick up his sister and her husband who had come to visit. Vancouverites, unused to the northern cold, our guests wore borrowed ski jackets and the short walk across the tarmac from the plane to the terminal building left them shivering. We wasted no time in bundling them and their luggage into our truck, then set off on the half-hour drive to our cabin at Prelude Lake.

    Halfway home, Bill veered off the highway, stopped by a frozen lake and insisted we all get out.

    You have to see this! he said pointing to the sky. The Hale Bopp!

    We scrambled out of the truck, and huddled in the cold with our hands in our pockets, looked up. The Hale Bopp streaked against the velvet sky, its tail fanning out behind it. The night was so silent we could almost hear the comet swish. Everything dropped away and we were propelled into that timeless state where all that exists is the Universe in all its immensity.

    A breeze rattled the birch trees and broke the spell. We realized we were freezing our butts off. Laughing, we piled back into the truck and as it sped down the highway, we agreed that Bill was crazy. Who but a crazy man would make his guests get out of a warm truck in the bitter cold to look at the sky? Yet all these years later, that moment watching Hale Bopp is what I remember about that visit.

    Bill has been an aficionado of the winter sky ever since we moved to Prelude Lake. It’s hard not to be out here. We are away from the city lights and on long winter nights the dark wraps itself around you like a shroud. Unless you learn to see the light, blackness will settle into your soul. Bill has learned to identify the constellations and planets and he has gained an intimate knowledge of the phases of the moon. He watches the sky through a huge pair of astronomical binoculars. This always makes me laugh because when he raises them to his eyes, he looks like a bug-eyed cartoon character.

    We go walking under the full moon when the trees cast long shadows in the snow. Or a quarter moon when the cold bites my teeth and the sky is alive with stars. Bill will point to the brightest star and tell me it’s Venus and even though it looks like all the other stars, there’s something magical about knowing that particular one is a planet. If we’re lucky, the Northern Lights will sweep across the sky and leave us unmindful of the cold and dark.

    I am always moved by the winter sky, but never more so than the night last year when I saw Jupiter.

    I was already in my pyjamas, feet up, reading before bed when Bill went out to walk the dog. He returned, raced across the living room for his binoculars, then was gone again. Seconds later, he was back.

    Come and see Jupiter’s moons! he said.

    Do I have to?

    Yes!

    I pulled my parka over my pyjamas, jammed a fleece hat onto my head, shoved my feet into a pair of Sorels and, feeling like an escapee from a dementia centre, went out. When I looked through the binoculars, I saw Jupiter with four moons trailing it like tears. I looked at the sky, then back at Jupiter, then back at the sky and it seemed like the whole sky was filled with Jupiter’s tears, icy drops scattered throughout the Universe.

    I have never been able to see the sky the same way since.

    When the animals speak

    I awoke from an afternoon nap to find my young husky staring at me. With one brown and one blue eye, Princess usually has a startled look about her, but this time her look was deep and wolfy. Unblinking, she held my gaze for a minute, then closed her eyes, lay down and went to sleep as though satisfied with the communication. I was having one of those tormented days when the world pressed heavily on me, but her look transmitted peace and connection.

    It reminded me of a series of dreams I had a few years ago that have never quite left me. I met a wolf deep in the snowy woods and fear pricked my hands when I saw

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1