Around Longyearbyen (from Torgeir/YouTube)

Sixth week of the dark season

Can't believe it's already the six weeks since we said goodbye for the sun. Time has got so incredibly fast! I can't say that I'm specially tired or lacking energy because of the dark season. The difficulties I'm having on the mornings with to get out of the bed are just normal for me - I'm absolutely not a morning person!

My sixth week with Philips wake-up light started with little problems: I didn't wake up at all for the light or beeb-sound, but for back-up alarm on my mobil. Mhhh... but that has an explanation: We were having a weekend in a cabin and forgot totally to follow day rhythm. After that kind of weekend it can't be expected to be fresh... But - it's worth of it :D

Heavenly elk

My daddy is taking part of a hunting club and every autumn a freezer at my parents home gets full of delicious elk. Last holiday we packed a good amount of meat with us and relocated it in our freezer. Yum!

That good meat just need to be shared with some friends! In evening before I was planning to make a dinner I took a good piece of frozen meat and put it in the oven in 100 Celcius degrees. It was just laying on a wire tray and under it there were a bowl of red wine giving some moisture to the oven.

Eleven hours later was inside temperature of meat 70 degrees. Then I took meat out of the oven and laid it in marinade, which was just spiced with salt, pepper and juniper berries. Meat was laying in marinade seven hours, means until evening we were ready to have a dinner.

Before we got guests in the house, I put some potatoes, carrots, swede, leek and onion in the oven and heated up elk at the same time. While they were in the oven I made a sauce out of marinade, red wine I had in the oven over night and onions. We had also some lingonberries to give some extra taste. Oh, that was good! And food is always anyhow tasting best anyhow shared with good friends :)

Gave up for light...

The first time I gave up for light. Since I got the light, I have been (at least aimed) to wake up latest 9 am. No exceptions, not even in weekends, despite when I have got to the bed. Until now... It's Saturday and I was planning to wake up as usually. But somehow I woke up couple of hours before I should have and I was deadly tired. I remembered how difficult it was change the time without seeing properly buttons, so I just switched all the thing off. And were happily sleeping until 12 pm. Ah, that was so good!

An early bird

In this month I'm having only one early shift at work. As normally, I didn't manage to go to the bed early enough, so I got about five hours sleep before I needed to wake up. But - I woke up five minutes before alarm got off! Not bad :D That was good, because my partner was still sleeping, so then I was able to sneak me out of bed without disturbing him. And now, when I actually needed to get right away out of bed, it was working very fine :)

Taking out a dog at 6 am -28 Celcius degrees effective temperature and with strong breeze isn't the best thing I know, but that's a part of life when having a dog. And worth of it :)

Fifth week with the light

How to say that... Light is working fine, it's cosy to wake up for it. But I'm not giving good change for it - I was up until 3 am again. How I could be then fresh on next morning? I guess I would need "Go to bed - NOW" -service more than wake-up light ;)

But I love my energy light. That rescues my mornings :) With help of good cup of tea :D

Magical full moon

When it's full moon time, then you just can't be staying inside. In the dark season Svalbard is on it's best with light of full moon. Mountains bathing on moon light is just something miraculous.


We had today a trip to Sarkofagen, a mountain on the end of the Longyeardalen. If you can think really positively, you can say that there were still some nice twilight left in the middle of the day. Anyhow, sky was looking lighter in south. There were lot of powder snow, so partly we were ploughing through deep snow. We were doing lot of work, but my dog was just enjoying with soft deep snow - he really loves it :) From the top of Sarkofagen we were able to see Longyearbyen and the full moon was glowing over Hiorthfjellet. So beautiful!

Cosy mornings = difficult mornings?

Usually I'm going to work little bit later in day time, so I'm having good time in mornings. If I would be smart, I would wake up in good time and do lot of things before I go to work. Yep, I would... But it's not that easy! I know that I'm having good time. Bed is nice and soft, there is warm. And I'm tired... and that wake-up light is having a well working snooze function... And again it took far too long time before I was out of bed. I'm having really cosy mornings - but should I also say then, that it's difficult to get out of bed. I will try better... maybe later...

Shooting stars

It was night for shooting stars, Leonids meteor shower. Me and my friend took our dogs and went for skiing in Adventdalen. It was beautiful evening: Temperature around -18 degrees, some weak northern lights and the moon whitch is soon full. We had a really nice short skiing trip, but didn't see any single shooting star. Of course, we were not exactly staring at the sky, but usually you see them when you're just out on the trip. So we'll wait for Geminids in middle of December instead... Anyhow, North Taurids some weeks ago gave me a fantastic sight, so maybe I don't need to see every heavenly show. But it's just a nice excuse to go outside to have a little trip :)

Scooter season has started!

I have been listening already for some weeks scooters driving beside our house. But I have kept my fingers out of my scooter... until now. I couldn't wait anymore. There were just couple of minus-degrees, just perfect weather for first start. Checked first the engine, it was alright after a summer outside. And engine started without any problems. Perfect! Had a little drive into Adventdalen. Conditions were just perfect! The scooter season has started now :)

The fourth week

The fourth week didn't start easy. I woke up for alarm, but was far too tired to get up. No worries, I was having good time... Snooze, twice... Then new waking time by telephone... Finally one hour later I needed to force me up. Light all the time at the level 20 - and I still managed to sleep. And to say honestly, I couldn't say I was refreshed when I finally pulled me out of bed. Arrgh!!!

Tired on the third week

I like to wake up with my wake-up light, but to being totally honest, waking up is still difficult. This week I made one extra step on the way up: first to the sofa, where I cuddle a little stunt with my dog, and when he gets enough of that, to the kitchen beside the energy light. Even though, I wouldn't like to stop using my wake-up light, I think it's so cosy to wake up for it :) And it's nicer to wake up in the light room than in a dark one.

Northern lights

Last evenings we have had fantastic northern lights. Green lights has been dancing over the sky. When I'm watching those light-shows, I remember so good, why I'm living here :)

Days are getting darker

I'm at home, time is around 11 am and I'm waiting that it's getting reasonable twilight outside. I'm having a day off and were planning to have a twilight-trip on the valley. But I'm getting soon inpatient and I guess I need to just admit, that we're not getting anymore much lighter as it's now - so I'll be just going out on that half-dark. Yep, I need to get used to have my trips again without real light. I know it's not that bad when I get out, but it's to get yourself first out.

The third week starting

It's still some hours twilight at midday and if it's anyhow possible, we spend that time outside. Mountains looks so beautiful with that indirect light, they are somehow like glowing. This is fantastic beautiful time here :) I'm start to get ready to wake up at 9 am, despite which time I have got to bed. That would be really nice, if I could keep somehow that sleeping rhythm over the dark season as well.

Freezer outside

There were -19 degrees Celcius outside - perfect temperature for unfreezing and cleaning a freezer! I have been planning for long to do that, and finally I managed to do. So, all the things from freezer outside and hot water inside to freezer. I don't want to even tell how much there were ice... But sometimes it's practical it's cold outside :)

Sleep so good

Very normal morning... Woke up for beeb-beeb at 9 am. It was so nice and warm in the bed. I was thinking that I will listen little bit radio before I get up. There were some nice music, and started to listen it. And then  music was over and I looked at time. It was 10 am!!!! Ok, anyhow, it's a day off, so I wasn't any hurry anywhere. And it was so nice and warm in the bed...

"Go-to-sleep-light" wanted

I guess I might need more "go-to-sleep-light" than wake-up light. This time I was "only" up until 2:30 am. I think it can't be expected then that I would be kind of fresh when I wake up on the morning. I lose really easily day rhythm, especially in dark time, so this winter I try to keep me waking up every morning at 9 am, also on weekends. We'll see how long time this promise is holding... Last year it really didn't work.

Out on twilight

Now it's just some hours twilight middle of the day. Me and my friend had a day off and we decided to spend that with being outside while we're still having some light left. We took our four-pawed companion with us and just hiked up to Platå-mountain, mountain beside Longyearbyen. Around half eleven day had dawned and about four hours later, when we got down again, it started to be dark. It was nice weather and town looked so beautiful on twilight. Now it's getting really fast dark, so it's nice to use these last possibilities to be outside on twilight.

Dogsledging

My friend is having some huskies and I was helping her with them. We went to have a little sledging trip into Adventdalen, the big valley beside the Longyearbyen. That was really nice :) It was dark, but you were able to see mountains around you. And just silence around you... Dogs were working very well, also they love to run on the real snow instead of training on the roads. Winter season has started seriously :)

Nightbird

I went to sleep at 3 am... How smart was that? Very little, found I out on the morning... But, surprisingly enough I woke up anyhow about five minutes before alarm, just for light. Not bad :)

The second week is starting

The second week is starting with Philips Wake-up light. I had a weekend "break" of it, because we were out of the town in a cabin trip. But now I'm back in normal routines :) It was pretty easy to back in town life - I woke up seven minutes before alarm got off. It was nice to be laying in the bed, when you knew that you're having good time before you need to get up. And when alarm went off, I took myself beside the kitchen table and continued wake-up process with energy-light and cup of tea. After a little while my partner got up as well and made for us some freshly baked doughnuts. That's the way to get up :)

Weekend in a cabin

We're not owning a cabin, but it is possible to borrow them, if you're living here. For us meaning to be staying here in Svalbard is to enjoy nature around us. So, we like to borrow different cabins around and spend some time there when it's possible. A cabin we borrowed doesn't have electricity or water, but we needed to carry with us wood to warm the cabin up and we also carried some water, so that we didn't need to smelt that from a snow. It took about three quarters to walk to the cabin from the car, so that's actually pretty reasonable distance to carry things. We haven't yet taken our scooters on use - there is a risk to break it when to snow cover is that thin as it's now - so that's why we needed to carry our things to the cabin. Later, when we will have our scooters on use, trips will be much easier.

It was really nice weekend. We had around -14 degrees and the sky with bright stars and northern lights was just fantastic. And as we turned time to wintertime between Saturday and Sunday, we got an extra hour to sleep. That was nice too :)