Northern lights

Wow what an amazing aurora we had last night. I had just got into my pyjamas as I get a knock on the door and it's Camilla and Anok letting me know that there is this amazing northern lights. I quickly get my camera and down jacket on and boots and off I go in my pyjamas. And yes for sure the whole sky was lit up with a green light and then it turned pinkish and moved rapidly over the evening sky, it is such an incredible phenomena. People always wonder how you cope with the long darkness up here in the North of Sweden and I have just one answer to this!!! White snow and beautiful "discolight" in the sky! I managed to get some half decent photos of the northern lights which I hope you will all enjoy. Arctic Sweden rocks!!!

Anok, Liéggas and Sii'vo chilling in Camilla's mums kitchen.
















Sii'vo, what a handsome boy!


















Liéggas
















Liéggas, Anok and Sii'vo posing
















Feeding time after dogsled run.













Apelsintallen (Orangetree)



















Out skiing in Abisko
















Dogsled came by when we were out skiing.

Back in Abisko

I am back in the little village again. I have now been here for two weeks and I am very happy to be back. A winter without snow is just hard to imagine I think. I have got another contract with Umeå University so I am working with CIRC again until the end of May next year. So I will spend the whole winter season up here. I am living in a different flat compared to before, it is a little bit smaller but I now have a balcony overlooking torneträsk, not a bad view I would say. I have also got 2 pairs of skiis now, my backcountry skiis and my downhill ones, ready to hit the slopes at Riksgränsen and Björkliden when they open up in the beginning of February. I have been out 4 times with my backcountry skiis, once in Kiruna and there I had the pleasure of skiing as the northern lights lit up the sky. On saturday I was out on the "kungsleden" and there are some places which are needing a little more snow but it was a nice day out there. Unfortunately we had a little storm on saturday night and a lot of the snow blew away so I am hoping for a nice downfall soon. Otherwise life in Abisko is relaxed and I am totally enjoying it, must be getting old... I have even started knitting!! I am making my first jumper and it is purple of course =)
Another very exciting thing that has happened is that I have got research money from the Swedish research board called FORMAS. This means I will get to do a post doc in Brisbane, Australia next year. At the moment I am planning on going over there for October/November next year. Will be a big change for me both when it comes to my research work and climate. From mainly a polar researcher to a subtropical researcher he he he. I do like my extremes!
I promise to put up some photos from Abisko soon and also some photos of Camilla's and her sister's lovely huskies. Anok (Camilla's dog) actually recognised me, or so I like to believe...

Last entry on my blog

So as I am no longer in Abisko and currently not on the move anywhere I am not gonna post anything here for awhile. I am on facebook and will add photos on there now and then. I have just got back from the flooded UK and the Glade festival so check out some pics from there http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10000&l=a97b0&id=541301820

Abisko time coming to an end...

A year goes very fast and now it is time for me to pack up my things and move to new exciting places. On friday we had a combined Abisko village party and my leaving party at the train station. The party was a big success we had bbq outside on the trainstation and the weather was reasonable, around 5 plus and only a couple of showers of rain he he he. It was a great turn out and lots of the students from the CIRC spring course came along and took part in the games that Camilla (the fountain of knowledge) came up with. So one of the games, if you wanna try it yourselves, involves 5 people, 10 tools and 5 apples. First you get 5 volunteers and then you show them ten tools and tell them to pick two each. After that you introduce the apples and tell them to use the tools they have picked to peel the apple and the one that succeeds quickest wins. The second game we had, had everyone in stitches with laughter. Again pick 5 people and what they have to do is put a marshmallow in their mouth and say "funny bunny" and you keep giving them marshmallows to place in their mouth and they are not allowed to swallow them and each time they get a new marshmallow they have to say "funny bunny". Janne won the game with 14 marshmallows in his mouth, impressive indeed.
I have more or less packed up everything, sent a few boxes down to my mums place already (including my piano, man that bloody thing has been all over the place... hopefully it can stay at my mums for indefinate now!). I worked my last day on friday and it feels kind of weird leaving, Abisko has grown on me and I have met some incredible people here. I will miss them all but I will be back when the snow is laying white in the hills that is for sure.






bbq set up outside the trainstation











Apple peeling by the students
















Janne with a mouth full of marshamallows











....funny bunny........








marshmallow "removal" unit = camilla and I















Dancing crew inside the trainstation

View from Ramnan, hilltop near Andenes




Andenes beach - midnightsun






Hole in the mountain!













Puffin in flight















Puffin take off












Puffin running on water











Puffin digestion


















Happy spectator of puffins














So is this in Thailand or Norway??












Bleik island - puffin island














On the boat out to bleik island












Bleik Island













Swim in a lake 69 degrees north, pretty cold!


























Bridge in the background goes to Sortland













Climbing up high
















Andenes view from up and above


































Little fishing hut

Vesterålen-Andenes

Yesterday I came back from a weekend in Norway. I went to Vesterålen to visit a friend of mine Harald who works in Andenes. Andenes is the town at the tip of the island furthest north, the town is actually bigger than Abisko and has 4 supermarkets shock horror!!! Apparently they normally have real bad weather there. Rain and wind is the norm however when I was there it was glorious sunshine which we made the most of by being out hiking and checking out a bird island (bleikoya). On this island there were thousands of puffins nesting and puffins are one of my fav birds so it was amazing to see them. They are amazingly quiet birds and they run on the water to take off. However they seem to be a bit back heavy and sometimes they don't actually make the take off and have to settle back on the water. Bad design I think. The fell (mountains) in Norway look rather different to the ones around Abisko as they are more pointy than in Abisko. Actually when we went out to Bleikoya it looked so much like in Thailand that I for a minute or two thought I was much further south than 69degrees north! Anyhow I hope you will enjoy the beautiful photos from our amazing neighbouring country Norway.

Riksgränsen

Finally I had a go in the skiislopes again! Was a year ago I was at riksgränsen skiing so about time! I went there with Camilla and I bought a skiipass for the afternoon and hired skiis. I went up the hills with Camilla and her sister Sofia, both who are great skiiers. I was nervous as usual and tensing up the first times down the hills but finally in the end I was starting to enjoy it and boy oh boy it is fun to go down them hills all you wanna do is get back up again and head back down he he he. Camilla gave me some real good tips and was very patient with me, must have been frustrating for her to wait for me all the time but she didn't seem to mind. Camilla and her family have a caravan up at Riksgränsen and we have been up there a couple of times this season and been out at the local pub there where there is always a huge party and lots of alcohol consumed. We have had some big nights there and lots of fun. Maybe there will be some skiing again this weekend, I am sort of a bit annoyed I did not try and go downhill a bit more this season. I could have become a skiimaster he he he. Oh well, I will have to go on a skiingholiday sometime in the future. So as I had so much fun going down the hills I have a lack of photos to put up but I managed to get a few snaps of Camilla in her new hat =)

Since my last update the snow has quickly disappeared from Abisko and we are having very long days. Finding it a little hard to sleep as it does not get completely dark in my bedroom and you sort of loose track of time as it is light for so long (actually I do not think it gets completely dark now). One of the cool things I have done since my last update is to try out dogsleding. I got to try this up at riksgränsen on vassijaure (the lake up there). I had four dogs, three huskies and a bird dog. I found it a very interesting experience, the dogs are so excited to pull the sled and before the start they are just crazy! I got told not to let go of the sled whatever I did, always make sure you got a firm grip. It was not as hard as I thought but then again we did have a wide open space, there is no way I would have been able to make them turn that is for sure.
I have had a frequent visitor outside my house. The local elk, called number 81 because of it's tag. I will be doing something in the kitchen and can just notice something outside my window and it is number 81 walking by. Rather amuzing I think. Otherwise my time here is coming to an end and today I actually booked my train ticket for going "south" (for me Hudiksvall is still north of Sweden but I suppose it is south as it takes 18 hours from here). Feels a bit odd moving again but also exciting to do new things. I have applied for money from the Swedish research boards to do a post doc in Australia but think it is rather hard to get funded so will we see what happens.

Pålnostugan (Pålnohut)

Last weekend, the girls (Camilla and Laura) and I skiied to a hut called Pålnostugan. We started from Tornehamn and skiied on Torneträsk, about 8km, to the hut which was situated in a bay of torneträsk. Camilla brought along her dog (Anok) and her sister's dog (Leigas) and they helped us pull some of our stuff to the hut. Camilla had them attached to a sled and then herself on skiis, stearing them. Well, I don't know about the stearing part of it all. The dogs have some difficulties in knowing what is left and right he he he. The hut was really nice and we had lots of food and some red wine and enojyed our evening there. Camilla slept in her tent as she wanted to test out her new sleeping bag and keep the dogs in there. In the morning I got woken up by two guys kissing me (fourlegged guys!), that was a nice surprise =)

Anyhow here are the photos from our little trip away from Abisko.