From All Of Us…

…to all of you:

Merry Christmas!

Here’s my sister, telling us all to gather around the table. We’ve been cooking, slicing, dicing and carrying on all day – and I’m famished!

I’m In Heaven

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.

Just Because

On Friday I treated myself to a $6 bouquet of cut flowers. I’ve been waiting all weekend for the lilies to bloom but was beginning to think they were real duds when nothing seemed to happen.

Until today when I was met by the loveliest smell as I opened the door.  Two perfect lilies and the whole apartment smells wonderful.  I take that as a good sign for a week that promises to be very busy.

Yes, that’s a Jackson Beardy print in the background.

A Day Well Spent

On Sunday I went along with my friends when they were gathering their reindeer for a day of branding and butchering. Some calves are always missed when they do the initial branding in early July, but since the calves keep to their mothers more or less for at leat 9 months, they can still brand them. This time of year, they are also slaughter some of the males – for their own needs and to sell the meat.

Here’s the next generation getting lessons in how to brand their animals. Yes, these two sisters will eventually take over after their parents.

The female reindeer still have the black velvet cover on their horns, but the males have started shedding it in preparation for rutting season. Some of them were actually getting kind of randy – but didn’t have nothing for it as the females aren’t interested just yet.

Colmis

…is the Sami word for this…

… the result of where the inner bark was harvested to become a cover for sinews meant for sewing. They needed to be kept supple and prevented from moulding, which the bark did.

I’ve had a wonderful day, listening to the people from the museum sharing their knowledge and recent findings. So much more enjoyable than spending the day at home, doing laundry and crap like that!

Skärrimjokk 3

We finally arrived at the third and most impressive fall. The walk there took a good 2 hours – and yes, Loki walked like a real trooper all the way there and then back.

I’d like to get back to this spot during spring flooding, but I suspect it would be a pretty wet adventure.

This is where we turned around and went back to the tent. The descent took about an hour and Loki crashed almost immediately. Poor little guy! I thought for sure he would be tired the following day – but nah! He was rearing to go at 8 AM!

Skärrimjokk 2

We finally made it to the second fall.

We had bypassed the first fall to avoid having to fight our way through a big patch of willows – besides which it isn’t all that big this time of year.

To Soothe My Soul

Yesterday evening my niece and I made it up to the top of Galtispouda, our local ski hill. This is what we saw down below us.

We had to stop on the road before we got to the steepest part because of the rain. It was pelting down so hard the windshield wipers couldn’t keep up, but from this view it looked like a pretty tame shower.

The mountain was totally obliterated by the dark blue clouds after a similar rain storm today. The sky was a brilliant light blue in the other direction and the sun beat down on my back when I shot this.

Back To Reality

First day at work and I spent the first two hours waiting while the Tech department made it possible for me to check e-mail and access a printer from the computer in my new office. Nowadays we can’t just call them on the phone and get 25 seconds of  verbal help – now we need to mail a “Support Request” to them for every little piddly thing. Easy as pie to do when you can’t get into your ——– mail program! Why do I get a sneaky suspicion that this is part of a plan to record every single little thing they do – sort of an insurance to secure their jobs for the future. Maybe that’s what teachers need to do as well – keep a detailed record of everything we do during our days. Too bad we can’t get the students to submit a “Support Request” every time they need something from us….

Silbojokk  (just pronounce the j as y in yo-yo and okk as ock in rock) on the other side of one of the lakes/water reservoirs along the road to Norway.

At first we planned on traversing the gully to get to the other side, but we stopped on this side of the willows and juniper. The vegetation at this altitude is wickedly dense a mere half meter from the ground and our legs would have been scratched into tartan patterns. Besides  - Loki was constantly wrestled to the ground by the bushes.

Just a Taste

Took off yesterday morning for a short trip across the border to Norway with my niece. We ended up in Rognan – just so I could smell the sea for a few hours… and… oh well – it’s all part of the package.

On the way back to Sweden, we went by Junkerdal where I found this beautiful field.

Does anyone know the meaning of its’ name – Common tancy?

In the next few days I’ll post pictures from a wonderful trek we did along a jokk (creek in Sami) on the Swedish side of the border. That was after we had pitched the tent and had supper close to the road but secluded enough that we felt almost alone.