More Rain

… 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.

 

It’s Raining!

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.

How Come…

… foxes always seem to know when the ice is strong enough to hold them?

These tracks along the shore wasn’t there yesterday afternoon – but Mr or Mrs Fox had wandered along the shore some time before 9 AM this morning.

 

Waxwing

Loki demanded a walk around 10 AM today and that was exactly the time a flock of waxwings were feasting on the frozen berries of mountain ash around the parking lot.

Lokis walk was cut short so I could grab the camera and get a few pictures of them. Less than 2 hours later, they were all gone.

The Footbridge

This bridge connects the mainland with a small island close to the marina. The island is part of a small park where the Sami organisations have erected some old buildings that are now in disrepair. Now it looks as if they (we – I’m also a member) will start renovating them in the spring, so I won’t take any pictures out there until the work has started in earnest.

Found out today that I’m good for a few hours of meetings and not much more… I’ll be staying at home the rest of this week.

Update.

I can’t decide if I like this picture. It’s exactly what came out of the camera on the setting “Snow”( can’t remember shutterspeed and all that & can’t find it right now – what with being one-handed… Yeah, I know – pity me!)

I swear I haven’t tweaked it in any way -but it gives me an unreal feeling…

Unexpected Shapes

After watching 60 Minutes (yes, one of the Swedish channels has the show on a couple of weeks after it has aired in the US) I went out for a long walk in a favourite area. Incredibly, but most often I’m all alone there – even that it’s only minutes from town. I often wonder where all the other dog owners in town take their dogs… Or is it that they seldom do take them out for a run?

The patterns in the ice reminds me of The Statue of Liberty – which I didn’t get to see whan I was in NYC. It was closed for maintenance and I was only there for two days.

Isn’t it amazing the patterns that will be created when water turns to ice? A solid sheet forms under certain circumstances and spikes like this when there is a very sudden drop in temperature.

Another Try

Tomorrow morning I’m again heading towards the coast with -W- for his interview at the Migration Authority. Currently, the temperature here is just above freezing and I’m anxiously awaiting the weather report to find out what the predictions for the night is. I do hope the road conditions will be better than Wednesday last week…

I saw these along a side road last week but I never thought they would have survived the winds and snow fall over the past week. Even such frail creations as leaves way past their prime have a fantastic resilience, it seems.

Is It a Whale, or…

On my way to work this morning, I swung by the shore where the view normally is the ski hill (also featured from the other side the other day…)Today it looked like this and reminded me of a whale. Not the ones I’ve seen in captivity but the one I caught an ever so brief glimpse of outside Shingle Point in the Yukon. Seems unreal that I’ve been there once…

Serenity

…has many faces and this is one of my favourites.The first ice under the setting sun and as an added extra – a dog checking out what will soon be a wide expanse to run over. Raikko is fearless on ice and I have to admit that this is not a sign of superior intelligence in a dog. They can actually rip out their claws if they get caught in a tiny crack on that shiny surface.

This week is also shaping up to become “one of those” where the surprises are more  rule than exception. We’re beginning to see the contours of the new administrative organisation, but since we don’t know much more than that, it feels very much like the old saying about “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” The work must be done so during the day it’s easy to keep busy – but I’ve started waking up way too early in the morning. I’ve actually thought of taking Loki for a late-night walk in an effort to stay up longer… The trouble is though, that I zonk out before 10PM almost no matter what I do!

Back to the title – walking in surroundings like this goes a long way towards keeping – or even restoring – sanity!

Snow

We got a good 6-8 cm overnight. I’m to drive some 450 km today on roads that may be very slick under the snow. This is Loki’s first encounter with snow and it took him a few minutes to get off the porch, but once he got the hang of it he was off like a bullet.

Do I think this will stay? I hope not!