Welcome summer!

We have got some really summerly days here in Svalbard. Amounts of snow has been just disappearing! When the weather got suddenly warm (up to +10 degrees Celcius) and same time came lot of rain, the risk of the avalanches got also high. Luckily no human life has been lost but some roads needed to be closed for a while when avalanches tumbled over and also one cabin got totally damaged.

But we're happy that summer is coming. It will be great to be having some trips to the mountains without skies. And I really like that brown colour we're getting on the mountains in summer time. When I was still living in the mainland I didn't like so much brown as a colour. Now I think that variable brown colour mountains are having is really nice. In the same time I'm waiting forward to have little bit holiday in the mainland. I can almost feel the smell of grass when I'm just thinking about it.

Lunckefjellet - The new coal mine

Store Norske is planning to open a new coal mine in autumn. We'll be still based in Svea, but the way to work for miners will be just longer. Those, who will be working in Lunckefjellet, need first to drive through the old mine (that's about 10 km) and then over the glacier (about 3 km) before they reach the new mine.

This is an opening to the old mine on Skollfjellet beside Marthabreen.

People are working hard to get everything ready for autumn.

Lunckefjellet is on the other side of the glacier, Marthabreen. Opening to the new mine is getting to be ready.

These are our new storage halls. We'll see if we'll be working there after a while.

The blue building is called cathedral. It's huge as a cathedral. Actually it's a silo for coal which will be transported by conveyor belt through the old mine to Svea.

Symphony for Arctic light

I was supposed to go to work on Thursday morning, but weather was bad again. There weren't any local flights until Saturday fornoon. That was actually just fine for me, because Nordnorsk Opera og Symfoniorkester had a concert here on Friday evening. I'm not any big fan of opera, but Tchaikovsky is just fantastic and Grieg is something great as well. I guess that a trip to Longyearbyen was an experience for those who were playing in the orchestrer, but for us, who is living in Longyearbyen, it was an experience to listen that kind of great music.

 

Norwegian National Day

Norwegians are celebrating their National Day at 17. mai. That's a big day with parades and celebrations and it's spesially a big day for children with lot of activities.

We didn't really have a nice weather for celebration in Longyearbyen. It was snowing and blowing and even the dog find it best to stay on the lee-side of his snowhill.

Dogs weren't welcome to join the parade. I can't really understand why they couldn't join on the end of the row with "små og store", but we respected the wish and didn't join at all. 

Instead we had a dog-friendly walk. It was blowing and snowing, but anyhow, we need to have a walk every day regardless of weather.

It's not yet really summery in Svalbard, but at least winter is over and it's spring. We have parked our scooters for sommer even though the toughest are still driving.

Tree hugging

We are out of the house every other week while we're working in Svea, so that gives limitations what kind of plants I'm able to have at home. If it wouldn't be like that I would love to have a total garden on my living room!

Last year I shortened all of my yucca palms so that we were able to see out of the window again.

Then I didn't cut my dragaena. I was counting it was still having good enough place to grow one more season. I was wrong...

Actually I should have cut it already before it reached the roof, but I didn't manage to do it.

After cut I measured the length of the plant: it was about 3,50 meter. I think that was pretty impressive thinking about that the plant has been growing in the arctic. We got the plant in early 2006, so it was now about seven years old.

I put the top of the plant straight to the pot, so we'll see if it manages to start to grow again. I did the same with yuccas last year and none of the died.

As I'm having now mostly just non-flowering houseplants,  I decided to buy some new ones with flowers. I'm counting to that these will survive even they won't get water every day.

I bought also one Hortensia, even though it's having higher water requirements.  I'm not so sure about how it will survive alone over days without water.

Moods of spring

After a short week in Svea it was nice to come back home and enjoy a week off in Longyearbyen. We got a really nice days with spring weather.  

Now we were having a better view over the town - last week everything was  just foggy.

With this kind of weather it was nice to have a walk with a dog around the town. There were a real  feeling of spring everywhere. Snow buntings were singing, little oaks were busy by the mountains sides and a polar fox were howling somewhere close by.

Waiting for better weather

My work week in Svea usually starts on Thursdays. Last time I got some ekstra days in the town because all the local flights were cancelled. Finally on Saturday forenoon we got a flight and the work week started. Even though work week started couple of days later it finished as normal on Wednesday. I didn't complain too much about a shorter work period!

Over the white landscape

We were having some wonderful days on our scooters during those last beautiful days in April.

A seal is having also good time on the sea ice. You can see Noorderlicht, a sailing boat frozen on ice, on the background.

Mars and April is also a busy time for tourist companies. We met a  line of 38 scooters, guides included. Somehow I was happy I wasn't part of them.

Glacier fronts are always imressive.

I think that seal must have one of the most beautiful places to have his breath hole.

A stone formation called Tarantellen, Tarantella in English. I quess you can see why it has got that name.

We were having a break by Mittag-Lefflerbreen, in Austfrjoden. Suddenly glacier calved and a huge piece of ice collapsed just behind us. We were far enough from the glacier front, so we weren't in risk to get some ice on us, but sea ice made really spooky sounds after collapse.  We decided to move on the other place pretty quickly.

I think mountains with stripes are really cool.

This picture is taken about glacier melt water basin. Ice is totally clear and it seems to be endlessly deep. There is really stylish patterns on the ice, which are totally impossible to capture on pictures.