Symphony of light

We have had fantastically beautiful week. Whenever you have looked out, it has been just so nice, even though freezing cold. At the day time we're getting a clear blue twilight - and in the same time full moon and even polar lights! 

When you are seeing this kind of weather forecast, you can't be in a bad humour. Clear sky, not too bad wind and stable cold temperatures - perfect!

It's nice to wake up for breakfast and enjoy a cup of tea while watching strengtening blue light.

The sun is still about 6° under the horizon at it's highest, but it's close enough to remind it's excistence.

I don't actually know if I'm more fascinated about the increasing day light or full moon over the mountains.

16 centigrades both inside and outside - just below and above zero. I don't actually believe we're having that cool temperature inside the house, but we're living in an old house and windows are not the best possible to keep coldness outside. But I don't mind about it. The town is heated up by surplus heat from the powerplant and at least we're having a natural ventilation in.

Town under the Moon

It was nice to come home again, got highly greeted by our dog and sleep on our own bed. Now we're having a full week free. It's almost the full moon, weather is perfect with around -16 - 18 Celcius and I have got my snowscooter from a service. What else would be asked for a nice week in Longyearbyen?

A week between storage racks

I think that period, when we're getting light back is fabulous. I'm almost excited to see a difference in the amount of the light and change of the lenght of twilight time every day. But at work in Svea I used most of the days inside, being busy with everyday tasks. I was only quickly visiting outside and yearning for to stay there with the blue light.

We're having pretty many storage racks in different storage halls. In our storage you can find things from packages of tea to huge mining machine parts. Almost everything you need in Svea, in the mine and the community, is found here.

We're not only having huge storage racks, but there is also places to the smaller parts.

I think I'm having a really nice work, but it's still nice to take the way to the airport after the work week. A week free in Longyearbyen is highly valued!

Liebster Blog Award

I got a surprise when one of my readers nominated me for a “Liebster Blog Award.”

"Liebster" is a German word which means dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favourite (I don't speak any German, but that was written in one webside). The idea of the Liebster award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers, all in the spirit of fostering new connections and to bring attention to these brilliant blogs.

The rules for Liebster Blog Award are :

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog
4. Nominate 5 blogs to receive the award.
5. Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, first I want give my thanks to Lankavakka where I got my award. In this blog you can see all kind of beautiful things what can be done with your hands. This blog is written in Finnish - maybe you need to have a look how good google.translate actually is.

I want to give my nominations for some people living in sparsely populated areas, telling about their everyday life in the far North.

From Ibajay to Nuuk: A blog from Nuuk, Greenland, from a Filipino who has moved from home to the other side of globe.

Fort McMurray Adventures: A blog from Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. Not only about life in Fort McMurray, but you can also find a way to Arctic Bay, in Nunavut, Canada, where the blog writer was living earlier.

Baffin Island Mary: A blog from Pangnirtung, in Nunavut, Canada. A new adventure as a teacher in Baffin Island started in autumn.

Finnskimo: A blog from Kotzebue, in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska. A story from a real FinnSkimo - but be warned: "There are also pretty big chances you'll see cute little animals before and after they're killed.", as it was written in the blog!

Chilling in Nunavut: A blog from Baker Lake, in Nunavut, Kanada. A cosy blog where you can follow a young couple adjusting to live in the Arctic.

I think these blogs are worth to have a look!

South greets North

This dark season has been really nice and easy, that is how I feel about it. We have had enough snow all the way and there hasn't been any long lasting mild periods. When there is enough snow and I'm having dry shoes I'm mostly just happy. And now: We are already getting first signs about return of light!

Middle of the day sky is getting already nicely lighter on the south side. Sun is there, under the horizon, getting closer and closer to us again.

Just turning 180 grades, towards north, and we can see northern lights dancing over us - also middle of the day.

Cold steel and frost

After New Year we got one more visitor on our harbour in Svea. This time most of the cargo weren't directly for us, but anyhow, the boat gave some work for us as well. Soon ice is laying over van Mijdenfjorden and then we're waiting for summer and an ice free season for shipping again.

Even though snow is nicely cleaned away from the front of containers, there is still some manual work left. We start with that we need to find a right identification number for a container. They are there, somewhere under snow...

Town with a white coat

I woke up for cosy sounds in the morning of New Year's Eve: Strong wind was howling on the corner of the house. What would be nicer than lie on the warm bed and listen the sounds of wind outside?

The complete town got covered with a white coat.

Our dog has got a huge snowhill in the front of our house. I showelled the top of it flat so now he can confortably lay on it and keep a watch over the neighbourhood.

Even though there were still pretty much wind at the midnight, people went anyhow out and shoot the fireworks. As an owner of a dog I'm not too fond of that, but I'm really happy how well our dog was reacting for shooting. So now we have started with a new year again!