Winter and fall

" I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it - the whole story doesn't show. "

Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)

Ice on the lake

The lake is freezing over now, everything begins to get very quiet, and there is ice underfoot. We are waiting for snow now. And the lake to freeze completely.

A Day That Caught The Sun II

Someone is switching off all the light in Målselv. Daily changes, and now the sun doesn't hit the school area at all at any time of the day (or my cabin...).

See: http://helenjewell.blogspot.com/2007/01/there-came-day.html for previous blogging on the same theme.

So, thats just how it is here, now. And the poem expresses the mood, most mornings, as I snatch my walk to school....

Hmmm...Those were the days...

Moonscapes

But the sun going has a definite bright side - the moon is everpresent now, and moonshine can match the sun, when in its full phase. So, there is brightness and colour, even in the mørk ('dark time').

(not to mention the Northern Lights...)

(the moon is in this summit-view photo also, just really small!)

These photos were all taken the other day, as I stretched my legs out on the hills above the cabin. Boy, it felt great to be out ALL DAY on a Friday! .... that's the best feeling ever.

School rules

It's great, a place where the school rules include:

"The throwing of snowballs at one another is strictly forbidden"..... ;)

I am enjoying very much the commute to work these days - there is a nice light through the forest, and often a red sky to great me. The forest paths are icey now, so I have funky spikes that I can set over a pair of shoes - makes life easier.

Had 1000L of dry wood delivered the other night. Makes for a cosy fire, which is much needed right now. The temperature is bouncing from -10C to plus, er, something (not much, anymore!). Its the end of høst for sure....

And look who I found stealing the bird seed yesterday.... !

This morning

Just wanted to share this with you all. Full moon right now, and really stunning. I am enjoying a few minutes of fresh air every day on my way to school. Then, I am indoors all day, but luckily I don't work on Fridays. 'Fri' in Norwegian means 'free' in English.

Exactly.

Høst?

Snow arrived on Monday (although admittedly it is a bit 'rainy' instead today). This means the bike wheels are getting all sticky with snow (sigh). But the cabin looks nice :) And feels a little cooler inside these days, until I get the fire stoked!

Maybe 'høst' (autumn/fall) was just an illusion?

on the beach

Life is good.

I am living in a hut, in the forest out of town: sand beach, lake side view and sunset on tap (well, lake-water on tap, anyrate). The Northern autumn is here, and it is beautiful. This time last year I was training huskies in the woods locally.... now it's children! ;) I have now a post at the local school, as a teaching assistant (mostly English classes, naturally). I still work at the Målselv Asylmottak, with the asylum seekers. This gives me a variety of work. Keeps me out of trouble!

But, ho hum, I miss the outdoors, and it is a strange transition to be back indoors after all the tent-time I had. I get very itchy feet on sunny days. 3pm and I am ready to dash straight outside. I sympathetise with the students as they also seem rather keen to leave at the end of the school day (though I regret most of them dash outside to just dash inside to the telly straight after!). No t.v. or Facebook Crap to plague me right now: no electric!

I shall try and blog again soonish. But my current shortage of internet access prevents much progress. Watch this space and I will do my level best.... :) Sorry this update has been so late in coming.

...and Howdy There to Jane, from Yukon'96 days.

Amazing to hear from you again (I've only just read your comment!!)

- see below for my reply...

Cut and paste this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPiNQk4KrKE&feature=related for some good BSES 'propaganda' for their expeds ;) 

Svalbard

... leaving town for 3 months... (help! did I pack everything I needed? too late now...)

A short pause whilst on sea ice in Tempelfjordur

By some persuasion I have here some pics of my recent trip to Svalbard (Spitsbergen). I was away with some students from England, co-leading a small expedition for the British Schools Exploring Society (see http://www.bses.org/ for more, especially http://www.extremearctic.blogspot.com/ ). I was one of 2 Science leaders, Biology being my speciality ;) and there were 7 of us leaders, accompanying 15 young explorers on a mixture of science and adventure for almost 3 months.

We left on 2 April with skis and pulks (=baggage on ski-runners, designed to make life easier (debateable...)) and returned 16 June (without skis anymore!).

Not surprisingly, Spitsbergen was a stunning place to explore, and I was so lucky to work alongside a really great team (students and leaders combined). We saw only a very small section of the land there but it was a good taster. I enjoyed the pleasures of chilblains, (not as much as some suffered!) and yes, we saw many polar bear prints (no actual bears - ok by me! as I have seen enough of these in Canada, and being in a tent camp in close-quarters with a bear is not so comforting I didn't imagine). A big highlight for me was sightings of walrus and beluga whales. We also saw Svalbard reindeer, fox and ptarmigan a-plenty (which we endeavoured to count, despite hard conditions some days). It was a rollercoaster of weather, but mostly fine and clear, with coldest lows of -30C and highs of, (er) probably about +10C ;) We had a week of Cold Enough weather (to coin a phrase I used to use: "What's the temperature, anyone?"...(answer) "Cold enough!") and tips of fingers have remained a little tingly, (even now), yet thankfully I didn't suffer too much from cold toes, (as some did) and it was remarkable how quickly we missed -10C conditions when skiing.

I stayed on Spitsbergen after the expedition a few weeks more (thanks Ulli and Maret!) and ended up hitchhiking back to mainland Norway on a boat... as you do! (two days of ocean sailing and more whales :)). In this spell in Longyearbyen (the main town) prior to departure I ended up as impromptu Tour Guide for the day for visiting cruise ship tourists from England. It was a surreal twist for me to be in this role, at the end. What did I know about Longyearbyen's history of settlement, mining, etc.? I had just been out on the land, and a long way from the tour guiding world.... I soon had the visitors out of their tour bus and onto the tundra, examining the micro-world of arctic plant life :) They thanked me profusely for this small side-track to the main tour. It was odd and yet strangely touching. I was no arctic explorer by a long shot, but it must have been obvious to the group that the sight of varied plant life after 3 months in the snow was something worth sharing!

Now it is back in Målselv, to the trees, and the relative luxury of mile upon mile of 'green-ness'. I enjoy the contrast, and yet I do already miss the open landscapes further North. There is so much more up there to explore yet....

Photos will never quite do the trip justice, but here is a - very - short selection. Enjoy!

(...er, and I didn't pack all I needed... blister kits and anti-inflammatories were a little lacking from my kit. ....Ah well, Next Time...)

northern camping

I am off tommorrow for 2.5 mths camping with BSES and some very motivated leaders and young people. I am looking forward to the trip very much. I am very pushed for time tonight as we need to load sleds, fix skins on skis, etc.

So, this is breif as breif! However, I wish you well, and will post some photos in JUNE :)

Let it just be said it is beautiful weather, clear skies and sunshine today and -25C. We look forward to skiing to Basecamp 1 tommorrow and a good weather start to the trip.

Take care all, and I will be thinking of you and looking forward to catching up later on.
hx

Arrival in Longyearbyen

First, copious packing - the BSES Kit List... argghhh, 'just finishing packing' not to be recommended after a few goodbye beers with friends

Remembering classic essentials such as duct-tape.

Then, a great flight (weather was perfect)

arrival in Longyearbyen

As British as Marmite

Well, last weekend the asylum centre hosted its first International Food Festival here in Bardufoss, with mouthwatering dishes from around the world. My personal contribution was 'flapjacks', an easy recipe, and a tasty delight.  In England we grow up on this stuff - its full of butter, syrup and sugar. 'Good for the ass' as the Norwegians like to say! ;)

(I should mention that a group of Kurdish boys from the centre hijacked my cake, and put it in their own KURDISH food section of the party - hmph!!! By the time I located my own dish that had been cunningly disguised amidst the countless Kurdish dishes - with Union Jack sneakily hidden - well, there was only these crumbs left! (and maybe a few confused bone fide Kurds who didn't know about the switch and were scratching their heads.... not really recognising this particular Kurdish speciality!)) 

It's hard to tell in the photo how delicious and tasty flapjack is.....if you want to see how it looks.... here's the recipe (specially for Ann ;))

Trev's Flapjack

1.5 cup butter

4 level tablespoons Golden Syrup ('lysyrup')

1 cup granulated (brown) sugar

4 cups rolled oats

a pinch of salt

add, 

ginger, cinnamon, chocolately bits, etc. to taste if you want to be fancy 

Method

Grease shallow, square (ish) pan

Melt the butter and syrup together in a big saucepan on low heat - don't let this burn!

Add the oats (and ginger, etc), salt

Mix well

Pour out onto the tray - smooth it all out and press it flat

Bake at 170˚C until golden brown at the edges (maybe 30 minutes)

Bingo! It's done :)

N.B........CUT WHEN STILL WARM AS IT WILL SET ROCK SOLID

***make a cup of tea, sit back, and eat lots of it :)***

Yesterday and today II

Horses today: galloping in fresh, deep snow really is the biscuit ;)  Dogs yesterday: much harder work with the dogs as it was a small team of 4, and we were heaving through deep snow, all of us.  Although they heartily deserved it, they didn't share in my beer afterwards... (though I have to admit that as Blaebaer was barking at me and my beer with so much curiousity I let her test it [she didn't take to it, just tried to tip it out of her bowl...what a waste...the price of beer in Norway!...what a waste...]) 

Redpoll Day

In their hundreds... I saw them just here, by the ski track, devouring last years rowan berries. Glad to be back up North guys?  Well, it was warm today.... but tommorrow???