Snowy white memories

"No way!  More snow and trees to play in!  You ARE kidding me?!! ;) "

As many of you know I have been dog-minding Snow White a good while now, a retired racing husky who was looking for a new forever home.  I was tempted to take her on, but it was so soon after Dovre's passing :(.  Anyhow, happy end to the story - she has been re-homed to work some more years, and she now lives in Finland with her old buddy Skare (the black and white chappy here :)).

Good luck Snow White!  Here's to a long and happy retirement!

You do mean we are going skiing, right?  Er, soon?

(Girls Night Out at a local hut! nam! (yum!))

And this is the pose that I will always remember her by - a charming 'I CAN wait for you to get ready but I AM impatient!' That always melted me to smiles and laughter! 

 Dogs 'talk' to us often - and by no clearer body language than this!

(Look, there's even another dog waiting for us!)

Hope to meet up with Snow White again - she was a real trooper!

The sun finds me!

Shortly following our trip to find the sun at 800m, the sun found US and hit the house a few days later,  at valley-level, the 1st of February.  That was pretty nice also, as you can see from my expression.

A few more days, and a bit more sun.  It is like this all the time now - summer approaches like a racehorse now...

Although spring has to power its way through first - and that can be quite dramatic.  For example, last night was incredible, wind (40 m/s on the plateau) and rain and sleet and puddles.... What weather! 

As one Russian said to me, 'it's like England, no?'

Floods on the streets and pathways with an icey bed to it.  You never see THAT on the tourist brochures!

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Beyond the icey puddles... there is THIS to look forward to: only a few months away, now!

The pure magic of sunlight!

There is a time of year that is pure magic: when the sun comes back.  I think this moment signifies so much for those that have lived the long winter up here.  Light really does mean hope :)

So, here are some snapshots of a journey up a ~ 800m hill to greet the sun this year, on January 18th.  Just don't be deceived by the warm colours - it was bitterly cold!  (The sun for about 10 minutes above the horizon after 2 months away doesn't shed much warm yet).

 Nothing like seeing one's own shadow again :)

 Sunlight over, but the light-show continues a few minutes further, on the skyline westwards

Reisadalen - viewed from the top end and looking downwards, along it's 100km length