Sparking about

Well, the snow finally arrived, and everyone had a big smile on their face, temporarily... Temporarily, I say, as Zeus decided otherwise... Norwegians had evidently had had it enough good, he must have pondered. Rain, high winds and mild weather generally has followed suite.

So, out with the Norwegian SPARK. This helpful device is as Norwegian as they come: an ingenious tool to help 'get about on sheet ice streets'. It's the equivalent of trawling a shopping trolley behind you, I guess. Except that you push it in front and kids are - shall we say - keen on it (especially when someone else is pushing!).

So, whilst we negotiate the icey streets of Tromsø for a while yet, here's hoping the snow comes back again soon!

...and so, Zeus, can we have this weather back please??

Søltilbakk - 21 January

There was a reason behind my smile here. I will let the photos tell the tale... ;)

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(Tromsø town)

(the slopes of Lille Blåmann mountain)

(shadows from the sun we hadn't seen for 2 months)

The sun is back. Long live the sun!

Toilet with a cold seat

New Years Eve in a cold place

A trip to Rostadalen, Dividalen National Park boundary.

A cold and beautiful place.

God jul - Christmas, Norway-style

Pre-Christmas in England, to celebrate Mum's birthday, then Christmas in Norway. Brilliant (utterly!) to have time at home, and yet nice to be back in Norway, also.

Reflecting, I have had the good fortune to spend Christmas in different places before. I've shared other people's Christmas days in New Zealand, Canada and Iceland. To be abroad is never the same as Christmas 'back in Blighty', but it is very wonderful nonetheless. You really don't know what to expect, so the experience of Christmas is a fresh and exciting surprise. And, Ah!The traditions of others... I'll never forget my mixture of fear (terror?) and delight at the live candles on the tree, when dancing and singing around the tree in Iceland (...great, but totally insane, insurance-wise, no?). Then there was joining into the snow golf tradition of playing golf with the neighbours and friends of my kind and generous friends the Ripley's, in Fort Macleod town, Alberta. Ha! That was one tradition that has not only survived but also enriched the years for that family, it appears: playing golf in the street The Day After The Day After Boxing Day with a club that is anything but a golf club (dangerous? Yes). And Boy! did we all get tipsy on cocktails at my friend Jo's, on her family's sheep farm in Otago, New Zealand! (the response to my question, "what shall I bring" was, "...a bottle of liquor" ;)).. Then, after learning how to make various delightful combinations of drinks with Callum and Matt, it suddenly poured rained from the heavens - right on cue, as the lamb was being roasted out on the grill on the lawn, and we were just settling down into a classic Southern hemisphere Christmas of winter sunshine and high temperatures....

So, to Norway (and to less talk of high temperatures)

Well, it started off with a stroke of Christmas luck - with me winning the almond in the rice-pudding dinner/dessert that you traditionally scoff on the eve before Christmas Eve. I'm proud I won, so you get to hear the whole story!

It's called risgrøt and is cream, rice, some tasty spices and... a hidden almond, buried deep (and blanched, for detectability-reduction...)... He he! - and I won the marzipan pig prize for finding the nut treat. Er, small problem: didn't know the rules. How was I to possibly know you are not supposed to EAT the almond evidence....? and if you eat the bloody evidence you don't get the massive marzipan pig prize. Hmm. Problem. Yep.

(Hmmm. I did show the evidence, but it was not so pretty - a half consumed almond is never much to look at!)

And then, to Lyngen, to see the family, exchange gifts, relax and... eat. Home-cooking, Norway-style, at its best. Pork chops, a broad range of home-made picked herring... and lots and lots of coffee and cake!

.. Add a trip in the snow-flurried darkness up to a mountain hut one afternoon and a massive fire in the woods up the valley (yes, those ARE Ferrero Rocher chocs you see there, melting beside the flames).... it all was pretty magical.

Cold. Dark. Warm. Christmas in Norway :)

Goodbye Sunshine, 2011

...it went from this, when it was impossible to escape the suns rays

To this moment, when we celebrate its departure, for two months...

(Pollfjellet summit, 1213m, the town of Skibotn seen in distance, below)