iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Thing 159 that I love about this place: social media "Helpers" page that is literally "First Name, Last Name, you forgot your wallet at name of gas station/grocery store/bar, come and get it!".

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Went fishing! Did not catch, but fishing friend gifted me one of the fish he caught. #food 🍜

Recreation site on the shore of a northern Canadian stocked lake. There is a pebbly beach. You can see a picnic table. The wind is brisk, so there is a line of white foam, along the water's edge. In the back, a wetland is golden; a two-peaked hill is a mix of conifer green with some open areas and bright golden poplar/aspen trees underneath a bright blue sky with white cloud wisps.

A gutted 15inch rainbow trout lies on a white plastic cutting board on a white enamel stove top. There is a white plastic container of dark, chunky marinade and a small bowl with half a lime and a chunk of lemon. The fish is very silvery, with a spotted tail/back, pink fins and a bright, clear-looking pale yellow eye.

White ceramic bowl of dark pink fish chunks marinading with garlic, ginger, fish sauce, bit of soya sauce, black pepper some sesame oil.

Dinner! A black ceramic plate covered with a pile of rice vermicelli noodles. There is a pile of pink, cooked chunks of fish, with bits of heat wilted dill and some salted peanuts on top. There is a dollop of chili/garlic paste on one side of the plate, a wedge of lime and some thinly sliced cucumber "quick" pickles.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Sign of fall on my walk to work.

Gravel path has a small poplar tree lying across it. The tree is part of a little bunch of poplars with drk grey bark and bright golden leaves. You can see three bright, jagged stumps where a beaver has cut down three of these little trees and (presumably) dragged two away, but left one. There are bright wood chips on the ground, visible between the leaves.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Last night's dinner: lemon chicken thighs roasted with onion, and potato, served with home-made tzatziki and local, baby cucumbers. #food 🍜

Black ceramic plate of dinner. There are two bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs with browned skin, a pile of pale yellow potato wedges with bigts of visible onion, garlic and dried herbs, a dollop of tzatziki with visible grated cucumber and bits of dark green dill visible through the white yoghurt and some glossy strips of light and dark green cucumber.

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Reposted by Val Monahan

The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 30/09/2026

Journalist and researcher Connie Walker told The Tyee many people don’t seem to know about the ability to save their records related to experiences at residential schools — nor about their looming destruction. thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...

thetyee.ca

‘There’s Still So Much Truth We Have Yet to Uncover’ | The Tyee

Inside the race against the clock to save testimony about residential school crimes.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Final song for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. No reconciliation can happen without truth. Link to youtube: official video for Tanya Tagaq's song Colonizer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LbW...

youtube.com

Tanya Tagaq - Colonizer [Official Music Video]

YouTube video by Tanya Tagaq

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Songs for National Truth and Reconciliation Day, closer to home. Link to audio only of Leela Gilday "Calling all Warriors". www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOnK...

youtube.com

Calling All Warriors

YouTube video by Leela Gilday - Topic

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Songs for National Truth and Reconciliation Day. First, from my home province in Mi'kma'ki. Link to youtube video of Emma Stevens cover of the Beatles "Blackbird" www.youtube.com/watch?v=99-L...

youtube.com

Emma Stevens - Blackbird by The Beatles sung in Mi'kmaq

YouTube video by Allison Bernard Memorial High School

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Tomorrow is Canada's National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, stat. in the Yukon. Many will wear orange shirts for those taken to residential schools, some never returning. Here's more about that. Link to Youtube video about Every Child Matters/Residential Schools. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuW4...

youtube.com

Phyllis Webstad - On Orange Shirt Day.

YouTube video by Orange Shirt Society

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Got my influenza and Covid vaccinations today. Two sore shoulders, no regrets. Hope you do the same.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

General reminder: if your "association", like the Second Sons, encourages people (yeah, they are all cis-men, as far as I can see) to march masked, they are cowardly and sad. Like, did you not read about how the KKK and Nazi are bad? Get a life.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Canadian fascism. A white guy, who was thrown out of the army for anti-vaxx actions goes all in on antisemitism, and a shooting spree . Men who spout this crap are a public danger. See also those who abuse family/partners. Some go on to attack the public. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.ca

Synagogue shooting was deliberate hate attack: Belleville, Ont., police | CBC

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Canadians: fascism lurks just below the surface of our country. This cowardly march (they were all masked, soooo strong!!!) took place in the run up to the national day of Truth and Reconciliation. They want promotion. Mock/shame them, instead. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.ca

B.C. politicians, leaders condemn white nationalist gathering on First Nation reserve | CBC News

B.C. politicians and leaders are denouncing a gathering of white nationalists on the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc reserve near Kamloops, B.C. Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir said the nation received reports Sunday m...

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Craving all the braises and stews now! Made beef stew, for dinner. Re-hydrated dried morels/used their tea. Thanks @fox-e-laurence.bsky.social! Onions, carrots, potatoes, red wine, tomato paste, garlic, minced Klondike apples, thyme, rosemary, hot paprika salt and cracked black pepper. #food 🍜

White ceramic bowl full of small whole and pieced dried morel mushrooms, re-hydrating in warm water. The mushrooms are dark brown, with lighter stems/interior. The water is already brown, from the steeping. You can see bits of dirt at the edges of the bowl, on the mushrooms.

Same square ceramic bowl full of rich-looking beef stew. You can see dark brown meat chunks, bright orange chunks of carrot, light yellow chunks of Yukon gold potato, bits of onion and a dark brown broth that is reddish at the top, from paprika. YUM!

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Posted an article on "bird vagrants". A black vulture just got recorded in Mayo, Yukon! Not the first vulture known to have ended up this far north: Yukon Birds (classic local publication) documents a turkey vulture that showed up, feeding on rotting meat at the Dawson City Dump, in the '90's.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My pen, my pen, you took my pen!!! Niche Can-con, seen in the wild, this week. IFYKYK.

A public service counter. There is a wood-framed glass or Lexan window, with a small gap underneath for paperwork/ID cards. On the public side, a blue pen, tied with monofilament. Just behind the frame, a small pen.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Excited by this year's crop! Feeling rich.

Dark purplish-red berries in clumps at the end of dark green, small plants growing along the ground. You can see sphagnum reindeer moss underneath them. They need damp conditions.

A big red plastic bowl full of small light red to purple berries. First rinse, so you can see bits of leaves, stems in among the berries and dirt clinging to the sides of the bowl. These are Ńtl’àt, (lowbush) cranberries, aka partridgeberry, lingonberry.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Speed-running fall, as we always do. Still gorgeous.

View of quaking aspens: silvery trunks with black areas, bright yellow leaves, many still on, but many on the ground below. Through the branches, you can see a dark blue horizon and a sky that is dark blue with strips of light-edged grey cloud.

A karst pond and trees viewed from above. Quaking aspens and poplar trees have yellow and pale orange leaves. Between them, dark green spruce and lighter green lodgepole pine The pond is dark bluish green with a neon green rim and a bright yellowish-white strip of sandy beach before the brown of shore grass begins. Its shoreline is roughly a half circle, in the image. Trees are blurrily reflected in the water along the far shore.

My side yard. The ground is almost completely covered in bright yellow cottonwood/poplar leaves. You can see the two different yellows of the leaves top/bottom sides. At the top of the frame, raspberry canes with pale green leaves, two grey tree trunks and a section of weathered grey wooden fence.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Dinner: bone-in pork chop seared/braised with apples, onions, garlic, Dijon, thyme, rosemary, white wine, salt and pepper. Served with diced Yukon Gold potatoes that were roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano. #food 🍜

Stove top of dinner: pile of well-seared pork chops in a metal dish; white ceramic bowl of tiny, Klondike apples (bright pink/red, smaller than a golf ball with stems; big cast iron frying pan of sauteed onions and a wooden spoon.

Black ceramic plate with one big, braised pork chop that has bits of bright green minced kale and chunks of cooked apple, onion and garlic on top. There is a pile of browned potato chunks beside it. You can see brown braising liquid on the plate around the pork/potatoes.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Yukon Grain Farm veggies have dropped! Wish everyone had world class, super-sweet root veggies/brassicas in their grocery store every fall. So good! #food 🍜

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Today 9/25, is apparently Dolly Parton Day. Have my Covid and Influenza vaccinations, in her honour.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Not new, but a fall favourite: Kluane Lake this day, 2018.

View across a calm lake, late in the evening. Near shore and the other side of a small bay with spruce trees are silhouetted grey/black. The water is light blue/silvery and the trees of the little bay are reflected. The far shore is golden from the water to the top of mountain peaks, some a bit dusted with new snow. The sky is blue with white wispy clouds and bigger grey ones. The angle of the sun casts dark shadows in the valleys and one side of the ridges of the far shore.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Dinner: seared/braised chicken thighs served with a Bullet Hole sesame bagel. #food 🍜

Black ceramic plate of food. There are two seared/braised skin-on/bone-in chicken thighs buried under what they were braised with: carmelized onion and garlic, squishy bits of red cherry tomatoes and dark green wilted kale. The sauce also has Dijon, fresh thyme and rosemary. There is a nice, toasty-looking Montréal-style local sesame bagel. Cooked for leftovers, but they were so delish, we ate up the extra chicken/braising goodness.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

@fox-e-laurence.bsky.social check it out. Just like salmon and caribou, birds have a “do something different” minority for species survival.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It's always fun when a writer friend has something new coming out. Peter isn't on Bluesky, but his short-stories/his description of them is. Link to "The Big Idea: Peter Watts" on @scalzi.com site Whatever. whatever.scalzi.com/2026/09/22/t...

whatever.scalzi.com

The Big Idea: Peter Watts

Times are tough, and according to Hugo award-winning author Peter Watts, they ain’t getting any better. But perhaps not all hope is lost. Optimism seems to be the surprising route Watts has t…

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Feel like crap. Happy with past me for making extra elk pasta sauce so fast (delish) pasta could get prepared while I napped. Not expecting to be up long. Hoping the rest knocks this back/am able to go to work tomorrow.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Good friend is heading out moose-hunting, tomorrow. Hoping him safe travels and good hunting!

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Congrats @fox-e-laurence.bsky.social! Well done, friend! Sorry CBC misspelled your name. www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

cbc.ca

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Dinner: local, fresh "Irish style" pork sausages and wheat bran blueberry/low-bush cranberry pancakes, maple syrup. Low-bush cranberries in the Yukon are called partridgeberry (in Nfld) and lingonberry (Scandinavian countries). Excited for leftovers for breakfast!

Black ceramic plate with four large, well-fried pancakes (dark brown). You can see red and dark blue burst on them: blueberries and (the Yukon) cranberries, also known as partridge berry/lingon berry. Two links of well-browned sausage. You can see that the sausage has lots of green (herb) bits. There is a puddle of maple syrup hardly visible, due to the dark plate.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Dinner: North African-spiced lamb and roasted eggplant, served with fresh, salted cucumber. #food 🍜

Black ceramic plate with a big, half globe eggplant that was roasted after being smeared with a paste of ground cumin, coriander, ginger, allspice, ginger, paprika, cayenne, olive oil and lemon juice. Eggplant covered with cooked ground lamb, onion, leek, some roasted eggplant (I roasted six eggplants, put some of their flesh into the meat sauce), and the same spice mixture used on the eggplant. Served with local, fresh cucumber with coarse salt.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Got back to Wolf Creek, today. So gorgeous. Yukoners, the count is on for non-snow hiking/berry picking. Don't miss out!

The Yukon River in full fall colour: bright orangey red dwarf birch, yellow alders and yellow willow on shore with grey, dead spruce. In the water, river weed is yellow brown with some shallow water deadfall. The water is clear near shore. Out further, the far shore (spruce trees) is reflected. The actual far shore has a line of yellow low grass/bushes with dark grey/green spruce trees.

Looking downstream along the Yukon River. The water is dark with ripples. The far shore (a grey/brown clay slope) is reflected. Around the corners: dark green/black spruce, distant poplar still pale green and fall yellow. The far mountains look completely dark under a threatening sky of light grey with a larger grey cloud mass.

Overlooking the Yukon. You can see small trees with bright golden leaves on the steep slope with a bit of green, yellowed grass and exposed brown/grey clay. Below tall spruce trees above the jade water of the river. The far shore is spruce trees on a flat terrace. Some reflected in the water. Upstream: spruce trees both side, some lit up, some almost black. The farthest hills are dark. The sky is light and dark grey.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Think an ornithologist should study cold-adaptive behaviour in English (house) sparrows in Whitehorse, Yukon. In winter, they spend hours underneath newly parked (some idling) vehicles to keep warm. This "hide under stuff" behaviour continues all year. Just saw a bunch fly UNDER a wooden pallet.

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Val Monahan @valymonahan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Self-response rate: 91.2%. Yeah baby, YEAH.

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