Thursday Thoughts – Longing…

Sometimes I find myself longing for those velvet and satin nights. Nights with only the sound of…distant birds. Nights when you walk slowly, holding the air in the palm of your hand… and feel tuned in to… the whole creation. Sometimes, these cold, windy and rainy Nordic nights…

marocko-758_copy

WPC: The Road Taken

For this week’s challenge, Krista asks us to show something that surprised us on “the road taken.” Many roads taken…but this road over the moors up to Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s Wuthering Heights really surprised me. We walked for hours, and the landscape was just as beautiful and haunting as in the novel…one of the world’s greatest love stories. I almost felt them whispering in the wind, laughing and running, hand in hand.

scarborough-7-561_copy

Travel theme: Bark

Travel theme: Bark

Imagine a lady dog barking at my best friend…and he doesn’t say a word against her. Does not answer. Just keeps playing along in the wild game…Maybe Totti is a bit like the giant flower terrier in Bilbao – a cool beauty.

CFFC: Looking Up at Things

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Looking Up at Things

They were fixing our roof…and I looked up at one of the guys – who looked down on me…

Thursday Thoughts – Moving a Town

Kiruna  is the northernmost town in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland in Norrbotten County. Inhabitants – about 20 000.

norrland-och-vasterbotten-363_copy

Esrange Space Center was established in Kiruna in the 1960s, and they also have the Institute of Space Physics.

norrland-och-vasterbotten-351_copy

The re-development of Kiruna is a reconstruction project, as the Kirunavaara mine, run by LKAB, undermines the current town center. Several buildings, including Sweden´s most  beautiful church and the famous Town Hall,  are to be moved or demolished. The whole town center is to be moved 3 kilometers to the east.

norrland-och-vasterbotten-346_copy

The ground deformations became apparent in 2003, and the redevelopment started in 2007. The moving of the town was started in 2014 and is expected to be finished by 2100. According to the plan, there will be a denser city centre with a greater focus on sustainability, green and blue infrastructure, pedestrians and public transport rather than automobiles.

norrland-och-vasterbotten-350_copy

Walking the empty streets at night,  the snowy silence is almost visible, touchable, embedding you in cotton cold. I wonder how the people here really feel…knowing most of them will have to leave their homes and their familiar surroundings for something they have not chosen themselves. A great piece of history will be lost, and I guess a piece of Lapland´s soul as well.

Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Any Camera or Photographer

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal, Galapagos.

Pelikan and photographer – both of them relaxed.

galapagos-3-and-4-025_copy

 

Travel theme: Turquoise

Travel theme: Turquoise

Those mountain lakes in Switzerland – they are my first thought when it comes to soft  turquoise! Fresh and clear mountain water

Jokkmokk – The Reindeer Race

Every year there is this race on the lake – and it is great fun to watch it. The reindeer are indeed not very tame, and they have to be handled rather like the wild creatures they are… But they seem to like this game – and the running!

Well…the last guy was really funny – and he most certainly enjoyed this game even more than the reindeer….No sledge, just his boots!

norrland-och-vasterbotten-239_copy

The reindeer are quite unstoppable as well, as you can see from the pictures. When they have finished the race…they will go on running!

norrland-och-vasterbotten-241_copy1

And walking them home can be rather tricky too – even more if they are two…

norrland-och-vasterbotten-325_copy

WPC: Against All Odds

Against the odds – my very special and wonderful friend, Mille, survived his severe illness and lived his last two years thanks to my daughter’s loving care. He was so close to death several times, but she managed to save him through natural medicine from the Japanese sea, and through loving care. No veterinary has managed to explain how this really worked – but it did. He was strong and lively throughout his life. And we are so very grateful to have known him. I have had some dogs in my life, but no one like him. I called him Iron Man.

Mille died in May 2014. This is the last picture of him, standing in his beloved water, the sea at our summer house. He had just turned 12.