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.
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.
Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland in Norrbotten County. Inhabitants – about 20 000.
Esrange Space Center was established in Kiruna in the 1960s, and they also have the Institute of Space Physics.
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.
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.
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.
For Cee´s Looking Down…, here we are at Prins Philip´s Steps, Galapagos, waiting for the panga to come and take us back to Cachalote.
Those mountain lakes in Switzerland – they are my first thought when it comes to soft turquoise! Fresh and clear mountain water
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!
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…
”Jokkmokk’s Market has a long history and is considered to have a four hundred-year unbroken tradition. Permanent marketplaces near the Sámi’s winter settlements were established by the Swedish crown at the beginning of the 17th century in all the Sámi Lappish territories on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia. The purpose was to strengthen the state’s control of the population in the north as well as to collect taxes, hold legal court and spread the Word of God. Planning a market in the Lappish territories during the coldest time of the year had several advantages. The Sámi were gathered in their winter settlements in the forest area with winter grazing for their reindeer and the frozen waterways constituted magnificent roads for the merchants, state officials and men of the church.”
http://www.jokkmokksmarknad.se/visitors/history/
”Renrajden” is every year led by Per Kuhmunen and his family. It takes at least a year to tame the reindeer as much as needed to follow their leaders through the market place and let people touch them. At the Snow Scene in the middle of the market place, they sometimes let themselves be interviewed and photographed in the traditional Gákti. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A1kti
The Sámi people have always led a harsh life, and today they also have problems with the global warming that hits hard up north. As the weather wavers between warm and cold, the ground will get icy and the reindeer cannot find food enough. Last year some 30000 reindeer starved to death in northern Russia.
Per Kuhmunen and his family comes back every year to Jokkmokk’s Market. Today they are met by film cameras and ordinary cameras, radio and TV. But they seem to enjoy it.
Between Old and New.
Leya 
Du måste vara inloggad för att kunna skicka en kommentar.