Live from the Arctic Circle...
By Christer Lampinen on 12/24
re: 'We are now using the new website'.
Entries from our many visits to and around Sweden.
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.
