One Fine Day

Twelve years ago I came to Finland for the first time and I had my first cabin experience. On R2's birthday this year, we went to the cabin to celebrate it. Thankful that we're still given time together on earth. The temperature was a bit colder than usual, but the sun was shining so brightly. I brought my snow shoes with me so that my legs wouldn't be stuck deep on some parts of the thicker snow while walking towards the cabin he he...The temperature dropped down to around -14'C during the night, but we had a gorgeous sunset and a full moon to enjoy.

I've made a short video clip. I deliberately didn't erase the actual sound of the video despite the fact that I did add the music so that you can all hear the crunch crunch of the snow below my snow shoes he he...We walked across the frozen lake and at the end of the clip, I was trying to make a hole on the frozen lake. Thankfully it wasn't that hard to do since the weather had been kinda warm. I remember one time we went to the cabin and it took R2 at least half an hour to dig into the ice and it was around 15 cm thick. We had to make the hole big enough to get some water for the sauna. 

FYI, at the end of the clip, I threw away my gloves since they got wet when I tried to get rid of some icy bits to make the hole bigger ha ha...


What else has been going on in my life? Well, the recovery process is still continuing. I've been exercising more regularly than normal, doing more stretches as well at work during recess or behind the till. A funny thing happened the other day. I had some brown kinesio tape on my wrists and both arms and a customer said, "Do you have problem with your skin or something? Why do you have so much band-aid?" LOL!!! 

Oh yeah, I've also bought a foam roller since I thought it'd help. The last time I met one physiotherapist, I got to try her foam roller on my back and it felt good. I've been using it a few times now. The only thing that my body doesn't like is the fact that in many poses, I have to hold my body weight using my arms and my wrists don't necessarily like it, but at least now I know how to do a self-massage for my lower arms that are pretty effective. Lesson in healing: better collect as many "weapons" as possible so that you can combine them all as you move forward in your healing process. This also means you've got to learn from different people and do lots of trials and errors since what works for you may not exactly work for someone else. 

36th Birthday Cabin Trip

Yesterday was my birthday and on Friday hubby took a day off so that we could go to the cabin before it got dark. He was afraid that if he worked that day, he may have had to stay longer at work. After all, we only get about 3 hours of daylight now as we move rapidly towards Winter Solstice where the sun doesn't even rise at all. Since there isn't that much snow yet, we could still make it to the cabin by car. It was more convenient this way because then he could bring a lot of firewood.

It has been a cloudy weekend, so we didn't really see any gorgeous sky or starry sky, though I saw some flashes of pink sky during sunset. Usually hubby is the one who ends up doing most of the stuff, but this time I wanted to try making a hole in the ice by myself (we need the water from the lake for sauna, you see). When I stepped on the frozen lake, I was a bit afraid if it would break, but when I started using the ice pick to make the hole, I realized just how thick it was. I stopped lots of time in between picking the ice with the ice pick to take photos of the sky. It was rather fascinating to see just how fast the sky changed in just 10 minutes or so.

The ice was at least 13 cm thick, so it took a lot of time before I could finally get some water. YYYEEEEEEEEESSS!!!! It felt good to be able to do the task HE HE HE HE HE...Hubby had to get more firewood and chop them off into smaller pieces (that also took a while). After that the party began ha ha ha ha...my kind of party. Just listening to music on the radio, going to sauna together, cooking the food in the fireplace, chilling out just the two of us. Bliss! What do I feel about turning 36? Thankful that I'm still given time to be alive. :-)

The temperature was about -1'C, though it probably dropped down a bit to -5'C during the night. It was a bit foggy when we arrived there, but for some reason it made me feel even more secluded from the rest of the world, because I could barely see the row of trees across the lake.

Anyway, here are some pics that I took:

The cabin from the back side:

Lots and lots of candles!

The sky when we first arrived:

The ice pick photo with the same background (about 43 minutes later, when the sky started to open up a little):

More photos of pinkish sky:

Okay, I need to go to bed earlier now (or at least try to). I have an early shift tomorrow. Hope you're all doing fine, people!

November Cabin Trip

I was so happy when we had a chance to go to the cabin and the weather report promised good weather. It was around -15'C when we arrived at the cabin yesterday evening, though the temperature dropped down a little this morning (about -18'C). The dusk was gorgeous as well, though I didn't manage to capture a good picture of it. There was a stripe of dark reddish colour above the horizon followed by dark blue. Ahhhh...just amazing!

Thankfully this time it didn't take too long for hubby to drill the frozen lake to get some water to warm up the sauna he he he he he...we went to bed rather early, actually, but we woke up pretty early as well as a result.

Anyway, here are some photos that I took...

A pic of me lying down on the frozen lake. The cabin is right behind me. If you wonder about the angle, I only brought my small tripod with me (very handy and light), thus the weird low angle ha ha...

Another pic of me, facing the frozen lake he he...In this era, it's so darn easy to be narcissistic. Dohhhhh!!! LOL!!!

My footsteps and maybe a reindeer's tracks hmmmm...Actually correction, a friend's son took a look at the pic and said that one of the tracks is definitely a hare's and the other one is possibly a fox's tracks, but most likely the tracks of two hares.

Just having fun on the frozen lake he he...

The moon...

Lots of ice crystal pics along with their zoomed-up versions. I cropped up different sections of the ice crystal photos to give better view.

I'm gonna be busy starting tomorrow, but at the end of net week I'll have some days off, so we'll see what I can do about blog-hopping. 

Cabin Trip: Rainbow, Crecent, Gorgeous Sunset

I haven't been blogging here 'coz I've been busy with work and I haven't really got any inspiration to write ha ha...yesterday we were planning to go to the cabin but I wasn't too sure if we were going or not 'coz it depended on whether or not R2 had to work late. Thankfully he didn't have to stay too long at work he he...so we went shopping for food and drinks first before we went there. It was raining when we arrived at around 4 pm, but we got to enjoy a rainbow!!! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! The temperature was around 5'C at that time. 

Here are two rainbow pics (I wanted to take a video but it was raining pretty hard at that time so my lens got wet):

Luckily about an hour later, the dark clouds went away and I saw a lovely crescent in the sky. I took some pics as the sun was setting, but the sky became even more gorgeous after the sun had gone below the horizon. Pink, orange...that was just SO breathtaking. And it wasn't too cold to stay outside to enjoy all of it he he he...I ran back inside to get my camera and take a short video clip 'coz there's no way a photo can capture the beauty of it all. 

Here's the crescent photo:

Sunset photo:

Gorgeous flaming sky photo:

Gorgeous sky video clip: 


We really enjoyed our cabin trip this time 'coz we got to be there early, so we had plenty of time to do anything. We warmed up the sauna, listened to the radio, laughed together, and just enjoyed being surrounded by nature. I even saw a few swans far far away from me, but my camera couldn't capture them clearly 'coz they were just too far away. How I wished I had a crazy zoom for my camera ha ha ha ha...but anyway, we were treated with so many beautiful views already, so no complaints there! LOL!!!

Here's one photo of the swans far awayyyyyyy from me:

Hot Autumn Days

We went to the cabin in Kelujärvi again on Friday. It was such a dark and cloudy day and there were very strong gusts of wind. The temperature was around 15'C. The next morning I woke up at around 9.30 am and it was still cloudy and rather dark, though half an hour later the sky cleared up and the sun was shining so brightly. It even went up to 20'C for a few hours with very little wind (the thermometer pic at the bottom of this post showed a higher number 'coz the sun was shining directly to its sensor). 

Then the temperature cooled down a little (it got windier) and it was already down to 14'C by the time we got back home. But still it was HOT considering it's already September in Lapland and we could sunbathe without wearing any jackets. AMAZING!!! It's gonna be interesting to see how our winter will be like this year. I sure hope it won't get too warm - otherwise we won't have a white Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, here are some pics I took yesterday. Because the weather was so good, I decided to walk to the bridge in Kelujärvi. I love walking there because the place is always so empty. There are never much traffic and I can just be on my own, basking in the beauty of autumn sceneries he he...

I hope you've all had a beautiful weekend as well!

Busy Week

Been busy this week - fighting off the symptoms of a cold (and possibly sinusitis) as well as working and trying to rest enough and then going to the cabin is enough to make me silent online. So far I've managed to fight off the symptoms by drinking lots of warm tea with fresh lemon as well as cleaning my nose with a Neti Pot (it's called "sarvikuono" - meaning rhinoceros - in Finnish).

I took my camera with us to the cabin, but unfortunately I must've done something wrong when recharging the battery 'coz it was empty when I took it out. Dohhhhh!!!! It was such a shame 'coz we saw lots of birds there including some ducks walking on the side of an empty street, a hare, and there were lots of lovely raindrops on leaves after the rain this morning. Oh well...next time then! I took some pics using my mobile phone camera, but they don't come out as well. Still it was a lovely and relaxing trip. MIL stayed in the old house as well and she made some pancakes. We ate them with fresh strawberries, fresh cloudberries, and some cream. Yummy!!!

There're already autumn colours showing here and there. It's such a weird summer. I think the leaves have started changing colours already 'coz about two weeks ago the temperature dropped down to 2'C during the morning (at least that's what a local wrote in her FB wall post). Although the day temperature can still get up to 10-17'C, but the night temperature can be colder than that. I've just checked the weather prediction site and it seems that it can go up to 22'C on Wed and Thu. We shall see. Yesterday it was only about 13-14'C during the day but today it is a few degrees warmer.

Here are some pics I took with my mobile phone:

Back from Kuusamo!

Hubby and I went for a week trip to Kuusamo (about 3 hours away by car to the south from here). We rented a cabin 'coz we found a good price for it and we just relaxed a lot during the week. That's also one reason why I haven't been blogging or blog-hopping too much. We did bring a laptop with us this time, but I didn't want to spend too much time online.

It was 24'C when we arrived there last Saturday and it was also around 24'C on Sunday. During the week the temperature went down to around 15'C during the day with some cool wind and it got colder during the night, but the sun was shining almost the entire week. :-D Friday morning was cloudy, but it got sunny during the evening (it went up to 18'C even in the evening). Now we're back in Sodankylä and its 20'C and cloudy. Not bad! :-D

Here are some photos that I took. The surrounding area of the cabin. We went for a walk around the area...

 

R2 watching some geese from afar...

A closer pic of one of the geese. :-D

A pic of me bowling. Photo taken without flash. Because we went in there at around 7 pm, they turned off the lights and then went for a bowling with bowling pins that glowed in the dark. Dunno what it's called in English, but it's called "hohtokeilaus" in Finnish. My first time bowling ever ha ha ha ha ha...

A sneak peek for the rescue centre that we visited (I'll write another post for it along with the video clips). The caretaker feeding a bear...

And a pic of a sleepy fox named Mikko. :-D Ain't he gorgeous? The caretaker said that they fed him lots of reindeer bones and salmon.

A pic of a reindeer and its youngling. It just so happened that two reindeer fawns were born the day before we visited the place he he...I didn't take a pic of the lynx, 'coz I thought it was better to take a video clip of it (couldn't get closer to the cage due to safety reasons).

OK, I'll go unpack now and cook and stuff. Lots of things to do still, but thankfully I still have another week of holiday to go he he he he he he...