This is my old garden sofa…now resting, decaying quietly among the lilacs. For more furniture, click here.
Wonders and peculiarities
CFFC: Winter – Water
Cee’s challenge this week brings winter back…and lovely memories of a visit to my blogging friend Maria and the frozen waterfall, Tännforsen. For more winter, click here.
WPC: Surprise
Surprise – well, some surprises over the years are not easily forgotten. First out in the header – when our neighbours had not picked their red apples before the snow got them…and the second one – the first time I saw a swimming bus… in The Danube!
WPC: Security
Security is essential for humans to live a good life – and for our pets, it is their right to feel secure in our homes. Go here to find more interpretations!
On the Galápagos islands, the animals feel completely secure…and the sealions here represent this feeling very clearly to me. Whether humans are walking two inches from you, or you are sleeping together with friends on the warm sand, or having a delicious meal, or just being curious – or even being all alone without your mum! You feel secure!
Travel theme: Over
Over my head in the header and in the skate park. Over the water in Tibet.
As a teenager, my son´s happiest moments were in the big bowls of Malmoe skate park. I have been there too, just to see him enjoy, jumping Over me!
WPC: Atop
From Cheri this week’s challenge – Atop
…I really felt I was, and my daughter too – in New Zealand and in Norway
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Thursday Thoughts
In less than 8 weeks from now…the wonder will happen again…
Pictures from last year and Spring unfolding…
How much do I long for this? I cannot tell you. But, the blackbird sings in the evening now, the cranes, the lark and the lapwings have arrived. We are ready.
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!
The horns often got tangled in the ropes…
…but finally time for a new race!
…and the reindeer eager!
Almost unstoppable…
Well…the last guy was really funny – and he most certainly enjoyed this game even more than the reindeer….No sledge, just his boots!
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!
And walking them home can be rather tricky too – even more if they are two…
Art Suites – In the Rocks
When the first snow has arrived somewhere in November, artists from all over the world come together in the village to take part in creating the art exhibition of snow, ice and light that makes up Icehotel.
My guess is that they will spend quite some time in the cosy bar…! Here you get drinks in ice glasses…as they say – in the rocks.
From the beginning, the glasses were made by hand. But, as the guests started to get numerous, the capacity of three glasses a day became a bit too slow…so now they are machine made. Do you know that they last only for 30-45 minutes? Then the alcohol will make the ice melt and make your drink end up in your lap. Glasses made for fast drinkers like Hemingway then…
The selected artists who are invited to take part are not required to have worked with ice before. Instead, those who want to participate have to send in their ideas based on originality, and creating it in natural ice will pose a new challenge. Some 200 applications usually end up in some 40 artists coming here in November each year for the construction of the rooms. But this year they were about 60 – to decorate the new art suites.
The artists often work two at a time in the rooms, and when they are finished, they are allowed to stay one night in their creation…and only one night.
Let us walk down the corridor and peep inside some of the art suites!
Mermaid Fitness – Nina & Magnus Hedman
Oh Deer – Ulrika Tallving & Carl Wellander
In fact, should you spend the night here…you would get a mattress, reindeer skins and a sleeping bag for -28 C. My absolute favourite room was Living With Angels – artist Benny Ekman. I would have felt perfectly safe and secure.
Jukkasjärvi Icehotel
Icehotel is the world’s first hotel made of ice and snow. Founded in 1989, it is reborn in a new guise every winter, in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi – 200 km north of the Arctic Circle.
This winter season there is, alongside the classic Icehotel experience. ICEHOTEL 365. This hotel was built to be a permanent structure that includes luxury suites, each with private relax and bathroom, and art suites, all sculptured by selected artists. There is a large ice bar that serves champagne, and an ice gallery. This ice experience can be visited year-round and is cooled by solar panels during the summer months.
Let us first go inside the ordinary hotel and enjoy its cold beauty – 5 degrees C below zero.
As we walk down the aisle there are corridors on our left, all leading into rooms – the hotel has got 55 rooms and suites. I admire the grand chandeliers, all handmade in ice…
We approach the ice chapel, and the light is amazing. I have to walk slowly to take it all in.
The ice benches are all covered in reindeer skins, and we sit rather comfortably here. Artists made the altar and the decorations, as well as the baptismal font to the left.
The very white material making up the chapel is called snis – probably a merge of snow and ice, as that is what it really is.
The Torne river stretches 520 kilometers, and is the largest of Sweden’s four national rivers -in fact also one of the last untouched rivers in Europe.
It’s the Torne River that provides Icehotel with its ice in winter – and in the summer when the hotel melts, the water returns to its source. Natural ice requires a lot of work – before it is harvested in March, when it has grown its thickest. Months are devoted to maintaining the “ice field” and keeping it clear of snow for the ice to have the best possible conditions to grow.
Each harvested block weighs about two tons. The picture shows one of them standing.
In next post we will enter the new hotel and the cool bar…with drinks served in ice glasses. I will walk you through some of the spectacular art suites as well. I wonder if you would like to check in…? Hope to see you then!
Leya 
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