So on the shortest day of the year, I took the following pictures around 2 pm. Enjoy!
Tonight is the longest night of the year and we're in the midst of a month of 24-hour "darkness" up here in the Arctic. Which is a bit misleading, because the darkness isn't complete. For about 4-5 hours in the middle of the day, we get quite a bit of light, as the sun is just below the horizon. Of course, it is dark the rest of the time, but then we get to enjoy the moon and stars in the daytime. :)
So on the shortest day of the year, I took the following pictures around 2 pm. Enjoy!
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What happens when you get temperatures of -35 C, with winds so strong that temperatures feel like -49 C? Well, if the wind gets into the wrong place, it can freeze your water pipes, even though they are supposed to be insulated! So yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of the phone -- my upstairs neighbours were calling to tell me that we had no water, and that the landlord was going to come and try to fix it. You don't want to leave the frozen pipes too long, because if they burst, you're dealing with thousands of dollars in cost. The issue wasn't at the place where the pipes come into the house (we thought maybe the circulation pump had stopped and that the heat trace - an electric heating wire - hadn't come on). But in fact the problem was where the pipes run along the kitchen wall. Well, a bit of hair dryer action behind the stove did the trick ... And soon we had water for a hot shower :). Now just need to get a plumber to insulate the pipes better, and at least that issue should be behind us. Adventures in Arctic living. I'm just glad that I rent, not own - I don't want the responsibility of a house up here. Too many things can go wrong! The sun has disappeared from the Arctic sky, and won't be seen for a month. Yesterday we saw our last sunrise and sunset (at 1 pm and 1:30 pm respectively). The next time the sun will peak above the horizon will be around January 6. Below are some pictures I took yesterday around 1:30 pm. Below is what our weather forecast will look like for the next month - lots of moons and stars! We're down to 1 hour and 20 minutes of daylight now (sunrise 1 pm, sunset 2:20 pm!). The darkness is coming, but somehow I don't mind with these northern lights to entertain me in the Arctic sky...
Saturday night (in fact, early Sunday morning around 1:00 am) the sky went crazy. Green and blue and purple and pink lights danced and waved. People who have lived here for a few years have said it was the best show they've seen yet. Of course, in the mad panic to get dressed up warm and not miss them, I didn't have time to find where I had put my tripod. So the pictures below are kind of blurry and hazy, but it gives you a general impression of how beautiful they were... The pink and purple didn't come out properly, but below are some of the green and blue lights. God did good. |