Live from the Arctic Circle...
By Christer Lampinen on 12/24
re: 'We are now using the new website'.
By billvision on 01/04
re: 'The Beginning of a New Year'.
Last night I took the dog out for a walk. It was around 10:30PM. The sun was near the horizon but it was still an hour away from dipping below the hills. The golden color from the low sun looked really nice on the buildings, flowers, and sheep!
Today we went the a Swedish midsummer party in Kuivakangas, a village just south of Juoksengi. The day started off with some games, and a quick pony ride. Jessica got three out of five baskets, and Zoe was not too excited about being on a horse so we cut the ride a little short.
Next came the raising of the May Pole. Zoe really enjoyed being thrown up in the air, again and again and again. After that it was time for a soda and burger while we listened to the band play Swedish Folk songs, and I rested my arms.
After the band packed up and drove off on a lawn mower (Hey I don’t make this stuff up!) the kids played a few summer games around the May Pole and then it was time to go.
After checking out the river and the ‘beach’, I thought I’d ride north to see if I could find anything interesting.
After a few minutes I found a cool looking ‘road’ that I figured would lead down to the river so I decided to walk down to the river’s edge for a little different view of the Torne River.
The water was so high that the road was flooded and I could not reach the river, so I turned left and headed into the trees and bush, climbing over blueberry bushes and some kind of spongy ground cover. Finally I came upon a small secluded pond, climbed up on a rock to take a few photos, then headed back to my bike.
From there I rode north again until a found a dirt road that headed up into the forest. This brought me up to the cross country ski loop and eventually to the top of Littisvaara, the hill where the shooting range and the radio tower are. There was a nice view of the Torne River and I found many young berries growing along the trails. From there it was all down hill to the house.
Took the camera and rode my bike around the village today. This is the first set of photos.
I started by heading down to the river. It’s amazing to see how high the water level is now. The water was very calm and the cloudy sky was just beautiful.
Then I headed up the road a bit to the ‘beach’. I snapped a few photos on the way. Well, I arrived at what is usually a beach, but with the water level so high there was no sign of sand, so I took some photos of the flowers. Maybe next month the beach will be visible again.
Today the river ice began to break up and float down the Torne River here in Norrbotten. It does not look as though it will be as sensational as it has in past years, but this will be my first time experiencing it, so I’m excited none the less.
Every year they place a small boat out on the ice just north of the bridge in Övertorneå. People try to guess when the ice will carry it under the bridge. I guessed the boat will pass under the bridge at 4:16pm on May 6th, which is tomorrow. I might actually be close.
Well Spring finally came to Norrbotten. The river water is rising and the ice is breaking up. Here is the first set of photos from the ice break. These ones were taken about 45 minutes south of Juoksengi at a place called Kukkolaforsen.
Here are some photos taken last fall at Kukkolaforsen, before the snow came.
Kalle just installed a webcam at the Arctic Circle in preparation for Walpurgis Night, a holiday celebrated on April 30 where people light huge bonfires.
The camera faces North toward the center of Juoksengi and will be left up after the celebration. Now everyone can see for themselves how long (and short) the days are way up north!
Today while driving to Luleå, I spotted a guy standing at the edge of an opening on a frozen lake, fishing! Naturally I had to pull over and take a photo.
That is when I noticed that the swans had returned. There were several standing along the edge of the ice and others floating around in the water.
As I stood there two of the swans began to flap their wings and prepare to fly away. I was able to capture them running across the water and taking off. Then they turned toward me and made a beautiful pass. The sun behind me lit up their wings against a fantastic blue sky.
Flickr now has a really nice feature called Places. If you have any photos from (or near) Juoksengi please upload them to Flickr and place them on the map. Here is the page for Juoksengi on Flickr Places
