At 10 AM the sun has struggled up over the tree tops.
By 2 PM it’s already on the way down and the sky takes on some fantastic colours.
I don’t know why, but I really dread the dark months ahead of us. I’ve never felt this way in previous years and I really don’t know how to combat this gloomy feeling. Any ideas out there?
… is what Loki did today. After walking the 2,5 km ski-trail, I didn’t put him on the leash soon enough – so when we got down to the parking lot he took off. Not far, but across an intersection to say Hi to our counsellor and her boyfriend. Why does things like this always happen when you’ve been bold enough to boast about something???
When my parents renovated Moms family home back in the 60’s, they found this old shoe in the attic. It sat in a glass cabinet for years, but disappeared when my parents divorced in the late 70’s. When Mom died in 2004 and I was sorting through her belongings, I found it in a box with odds and ends that I’m sure hadn’t been opened during the preceding 30 years…
I also put it in a cabinet and when I moved last summer, it ended up in another box – until the other day when I came across it again.
Now I’ve shown it for my last remaining uncle and he’s sure it was made by my Grandpa for one of the girls in the family. They are hand made with the heel fastened with wooden pegs and they were probably made some time during the late 1920’s. My Uncle is sure of that, since he remembered how the men were carrying gunny sacks with sawdust up the ladder to insulate the attic when the house was built in 1932. After that no one had any reason to get in there as there was barely room to crawl around on your stomach. The style was very common in all of Northern Sweden and is decidedly Sami in origin. They look very stiff and uncomfortable but in reality shoes like these were very soft and supple. Almost like walking barefoot, according to my Uncle.
Laurie from Dog Hair in my Coffee asked yesterday how I could let Loki and his dad off the leashes and let them run loose. Well… Where should I start?
First of all, I’ve almost always lived close to areas where it was/is possible to let a dog run loose. Around town we have places like the tiny lake I wrote about yesterday (close to Boulder Ridge I’ve mentioned a number of times) . There’s also dead-end roads leading to cottages, the shooting range and sandpits – not to mention miles and mailes of prepared trails. During winter we have no less than 10 km of prepared trails that can be used both for skiing and walking – in the summertime oodles more.
Secondly, both Loki and his dad (Raikko) have been trained to be off leash from a young age. They are both fine walking WITH a leash, which is the way we do it in the morning and at lunch and I don’t always let him off in the evening, even if I’d like to. He sure is a lot easier to deal with after he’s had a chance to expend some energy on romping around.
Like now tonight. My BFF has a 12 week-old puppy (Zorro) - a real tough little number . They played together for about an hour earlier this evening and Loki has barely moved since we got home.
Herding dogs are - generally – easy to train. They want to keep track of their herd – and for the lack of sheep or reindeer to boss around – they’ll keep track of their master or mistress. That’s something to work with when training. I started Loki off the leash from our first walk together – and except for a few times when the walk has become longer than I had planned, I’ve never lost him even out of my sight. Raikko is a slightly different matter… He has some hunting instincts that has made him take off a few times, but he’s never been gone for more than maybe 10 minutes and that was when he was chasing after a moose… Come to think of it -T- who was also his son would often do that – set off after some reindeer that he chased until he felt they were safely outside his territory and then come back, prancing with pride!
BTW. The one thing I’ve never tried is obedience training in class. My uncle and cousin who were both reindeer herders taught me how to deal with dogs and since they both had well-behaved dogs, I figured that was enough. For dogowners who live in cities I’m sure it may be the saving grace – but living as I do I think I can spend my money on other things.
My arm is beginning to ache, so I’d better quit abusing it. And yes – it did remind me of a scaly lizard when the cast came off!
I took Loki and his Dad out to a tiny little lake so they could run and play for a bit… I had two very wet but tired dogs on the way home, one of whom is snoring at my feet now. By now we all pray that the rain will wash away all snow so we can start afresh with winter once more. Because if this freezes over… Oh yea, I guess I’ve told you that already!
I’m not entirely certain what this building was used for, but I’m guessing it was a tiny flour mill. Almost every village had their own until in the early 1950’s and some of them were maintained long after that.
… which is not good. The sand that was applied to the roads this morning, has washed off and the ice forming on the lakes is beginning to disintegrate in places. The latter is detrimental for the cartesting industry as they rely heavily on test tracks on the lakes. If there is no blue ice, the tracks have to be man-made by pumping water onto the ice. That is time-consuming and might delay the testing season somewhat – what is far worse is the effect this type of weather might have on animals. The reindeer are sure to suffer, as will any other animals who forage on ground vegetation.
Oh – and I got to take off the cast today! My arm looks like a lizard and is really weak – but the physio department gave me some exercises to do three times a day. I expect it to take at least half a year before I’ve regained my former strength – even if I follow their instructions religiously.
Middle of November and here it’s raining! Not good – the roads are treacherous and the crews sanding streets and roads are running constantly.
There is only about 10-15 cm of snow – and now it has a crust of ice. This could turn into a small disaster for the reindeer herders as the animals won’t be able to dig through the ice to get bat their food. This happens quite often – but I can’t recall a year when we’ve had a rainfall like this in November.
Sometimes your plans come to nothing – that’s the kind of day it was yesterday. The phone rang shortly after I did the post about my new love – and since then I’ve put some 400 km on my odometer to help a friend of mine out of a real mess. Her life has been untenable for some time and finally it all came to a head – when her car was in the shop. She is now safe and taken care of by family – and I am so glad I was able to get her away from where she was!
This is the front of the bag I’ll be using with my Sami clothing – once I get it done. Since I left after dark yesterday and returned at dusk today, I haven’t had a chance to try my camera anywhere else than inside – but My Oh My! This is what a good camera will show you… The patterns on red background are sewn very sloppily, which I’ve never seen before. Come to think of it – I’ve never noticed that the white borders are that dirty…
The weather tomorrow is supposed to be of the “socked in” variety, so I’m not sure I’ll get a chance to use the camera outside this weekend. Bummer!
I’ve been thinking about this for some time now and after a week that has felt as if there were two full days in each 24 hour period, I decided this was The Day. I’ve bought myself a new camera – a Canon EOS1000D with a 18-55mm lens and a 70-300mm Tamron lens.
No, I didn’t win on the lottery (I always forget to buy tickets) but I didn’t go on any holidyas during the summer and none are planned for the next 8 months or so… I dare anyone to tell me that I shouldn’t have splurged on myself, this one time.
The battery is charging right now (takes about 2 hours) and I can hardly wait to try the camera! That’ll be a bit of a challenge until I get the blasted cast off (on Monday) but worse obstacles than that haven’t stopped me before, so why should now be any different?
Isn’t it lovely?
It’ll be some time before I can use this combination without the tripod – but what an incentive to get on with phys training once the cast is off!
Pictures courtesy of Googles.
… is the only appropriate word for this.
Yesterday the entire 2,5 km track was chewed up by the logging equipment. Today they had again been there to collect the timber and haul it out of there – but less than 24 hours after the devastation yesterday, there was a fresh track made by one of the guys from the Ski Club. Now, wouldn’t you know someone had already managed to walk in the tracks when I was there shortly after 5 PM? I guess it was easier than to walk on the side…. Grrr.
This is one of the ski trails just on the edge of town. I’ve started taking Loki for walks there as there are fewer dogs frequenting that area than the one closer to home. I realised the other day that some of the trees along the trail were marked for removal but what met me this afternoon really threw me.
The trail is chewed to pieces by the logging equipment (well, that is fixed after another snowfall…) but what is far worse is that the logging operation in the area is quite extensive.
In a recreational area close to the largest community in the county! As if there isn’t wooded areas in other locations that could be logged! As if…
Incredible!
BTW. Aside from cold shivers every now and then and a bit of a runny nose, I’ve been doing fine after getting the flu shot.
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