Fieldwork

This week just passed I have been out in the field with Janne. We are looking at respiration under the ice and what is being respired during winter. We sampled 5 lakes in total and they were all frozen over, the first one was out in Stordalen and the weather was pretty ordinary, with rain and grey skies. The next lake was closer to Kiruna and we had a real nice day, on the way to the lake we got stopped by some raindeer on the road (which is a very common thing up here). I still find it exotic but northerners don't. The raindeers are up on the road licking of the salt and they are sort of stupid as when you come there with the car they do not move they sort of hesitate in which direction they should go and even when you beep the horn they move very slowly. So after the raindeer encounter we got to the second lake it was a little walk to this one and in half a meter of snow as well so good work out for the thighs. The ice on the lake was interesting as it was covered in snow and the first 10cm where sort of soft so you sank down and then hit another layer of ice. I mean I am used to the lakes in the Antarctic with clear ice and solid to walk on. But the lake ice was totally safe and around 30cm thick. During our sampling there, two raindeer turned up on the lake so we had some company during our sampling. The other lake sampling went well and one of the lakes had no snow on it and was perfect for iceskating, have to get a pair when I get back from Oz to go skating. We had nice weather during the whole sampling time not too cold aroudn 0 to minus 1 so pleasant working temperature.
On thursday evening the CIRC crew went into Kiruna for a free meal which was very nice, we hade Arctic char (röding)for main meal and chocolate pralines for dessert, very yummie. Then we went for a beer at one of the local pubs in Kiruna, I never been to a pub in Kiruna so that was fun but it was a thursday so not too many people out and about. And yesterday we had our CIRC meeting talking about our research for each other to see if we can do any possible collaborations.
And today I woke up to a beautiful fresh layer of snow ahh it makes me happy seeing the white layer outside my window when I do my blinds up. Later on this evening I am having a late 30th birthday party and will use the very nice deco I got from Claire, got birthday candles and lots of other things to put up.
Time will go very quickly now before I head to Australia. On thursday next week I am heading down to my mums place on the train and spending a night there and then on the saturday I fly to London and finally on sunday I start the long flight to Sydney. Oh yea it is gonna be great fun over there.