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. 

Magic in the Air #2

Sometimes words just can't express the magic that we've witnessed in life, so I hope this time this short video clip that I'm sharing gives you a glimpse of the kind of magic I saw last night...It was so gorgeous that I wish each of you could be there and just bask in its breathtaking beauty...

6th Wedding Anniversary Cabin Trip

Yep, just got back from the cabin again. R2 took two days off 'coz I've been getting work during the weekend so it's kinda hard to go there then. Didn't take too many pics, but I did take some ha ha...but first of all, here are a few pics of the cakes I bought. Yep, the first one I bought a few days before our anniversary already LOL!!! Couldn't stop myself 'coz it looked SO delicious (and it was!!!).

The second one I bought for all of us (it was a frozen one), so I brought it along to MIL's place. Luckily BIL and SIL also came over that day, so we shared the cake with them, too. Otherwise we'd have been eating too much cake HA HA HA HA HA HA...

We arrived in Kelujärvi at around 5.30 pm yesterday and it was SO dark already. Mind you that the area had no electricity (the path towards the cabin near the lake, I mean). Usually we had a flashlight with us, but this time each of us had a head light (the one with the rubber band that we could put on our forehead) hi hi hi...I bought it a few hours before we left at a nearby store. It was only €3 (it included the batteries already!). Pretty cheap!!! And it was nicer to walk in the dark without having to carry a flashlight in your hand ha ha ha...

Because it was so dark already, I didn't take any pics. The lake was already completely frozen, though I didn't dare walk on it yet 'coz the river water downtown Sodankylä is still running like normal (only parts of the surface is covered with thin ice). But that helped us a lot in getting some water for the sauna, 'coz R2 didn't have to dig too long to get the water hi hi hi...It was a glorious starry night, though. The sky was very clear and the stars were twinkling happily up there.

We went to bed early 'coz R2 was too tired already and I woke up at 6 am due to my screaming bladder. Had to get up and go to the outdoor toilet. R2 woke up as well to burn more firewood 'coz the cabin started getting cool already, then we went back to sleep HA HA HA...At around 9 am the sunlight woke me up. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO bright outside and just lovely (around -8'C). Thankful that we got a chance to enjoy the sun, 'coz at around 12.30 pm it went cloudy again and the sun was already hiding behind the clouds.

OK, here are some pics...enjoy!!!

This is the frozen lake. Don't the funny-looking small piles of snow on the surface of the lake remind you of a meringue pie topping? (click on the pic to see a bigger version)

Plenty of birds were eating and chirping happily outside the cabin. Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

Ice crystals. Marvellous under the sun!
 

More ice crystal pic. This one below is from the car window:

Another one. This one is formed on the car door:

Here's the original photo:

Playing with my shadow HA HA HA...

Had to fix the colourings of the pic below 'coz I took the pic against the sun (there was no other way I could take the pic):

A one-winged angel? :-D

Web of...deceit? LOL!!!

OK, that's all for now. Take care, people!!!!

Thought Mixes

Ummm...I have so many different things to say, so I'll just write them down in a list.

1. I do love face-to-face conversations, but I tend to thrive more on one-on-one conversation than a group conversation (this can also apply to phone calls/chats). That doesn't mean that I don't like group conversations. Not at all. It's just that one-on-one conversations have a different depth and focus compared to a group conversation. I've always felt like this from ages ago.

I have so many fond memories of group hang-outs with my closest friends back in Indo, but the thing is nowadays it gets harder and harder to match up the schedules, so I find that cyber talk with them is more effective in sharing our lives with one another. I know that some people who don't really like cyber talks and with them, it's by far more effective to have a face-to-face conversation.

2. I have a hate-and-like relationship with Facebook. There were a few times that I was considering stopping the use of it, but it's getting so hard these days, because most of my close friends and my brother and SIL find it easier to share the latest photos there. And it's also easier for me to share my photos with my bro (and Mom will be able to see them too) through Facebook rather than just bombarding his mailbox with so many pictures.

3. Yesterday we went to Kelujärvi with BIL and MIL because MIL wanted to plant some potatoes there (among other things that we did there). It was a gorgeous day. Had a morning shift and then after work the sun was shining hotly (almost no wind) at around 20'C. I got to sunbathe and at some points it even felt too hot for me that I had to go hide in the shades ha ha ha ha...

Walked down to the cabin area near the lake and take some pics. Watched two wild ducks far away in the middle of the lake and wished I had a better zoom to be able to take better pics of them. At one point they were calling each other and then they met in the middle for a little while. It was a lovely sight, though I could only see two black shapes without being able to see their original colours. There were SO many mosquitoes, though I was safe enough after spraying myself all over with Off (mosquito repellant). We ended the eve there by going to their wood sauna. Lovely! :-D

Here are some pics...first pic: Hubby busy preparing the ground to plant some potatoes.

Next pics are pics of the ducks:

Then pics around the lake area:

And other random pics:

Cabin Trip Feb 2012

FINALLY I had the full weekend off from work and we could go to the cabin in Kelujärvi. The only problem was that it had been snowing a lot in the beginning of the week, so I was wondering how tough it'd be to reach the cabin. FYI, the cabin was a few hundred metres away from the house and now that the house was empty, there was nobody clearing the path towards the cabin anymore.

We arrived there on Friday after work at around 4 pm and the temperature was -18'C.

See how thick the snow is if it's not cleared up?


Even before we started the journey there, R2 had trouble already getting some firewood for the cabin (mind you, there's no electricity in the cabin nor an indoor toilet). Look at the pile of snow covering the pile of firewood!


The sled in the above pic was used to carry our stuff with us. It was REALLY heavy 'coz we had to bring drinking water with us (there is no running tap in the cabin).

OK, now here we were starting our tough walk in the snow...notice the deep impressions of our footsteps in the snow.


In some parts, my leg went as deep as my knee. Granted, I'm only 145 cm, but it was really tough work to walk towards the cabin 'coz we had to really pull up our leg high to make each step.


Standing on top of the frozen lake...


ALMOST THERE!!! It went a bit uphill from there, so R2 had to rest a bit 'coz he had the tougher work with all the burden on his back plus he had to drag the sled. Notice that in the pic below, he was standing on top of a more frozen snow so that his feet didn't sink too deeply into the snow.


Anyway, the sky was GORGEOUS when we got there...lucky enough we could be there before sundown, so we could enjoy the glorious sky...







Another battle we had to win was to try to get water from the frozen lake. There was at least 30 cm of snow on top of the icy lake surface and then R2 had to try to make a hole. The ice itself was at least 30 cm thick, so it took a LONG time before we could get some water to heat up the sauna in the cabin (the sauna uses firewood). He almost gave up 'coz he had run out of strength (mind you he hadn't eaten anything yet at that time and it was already close to 5 pm). He shouted out, "HALLELUJAH!" when we finally got water HA HA HA HA HA...

After that we could finally eat and then went to sauna, listened to the radio, and went to sleep. On Saturday it was snowing lightly. It was -10'C but grainy weather. Lucky that we got to see the gorgeous sky on Friday!!!

Here's a pic of me posing in front of the cabin. The view behind me was the frozen lake. Notice how grainy and grey it is compared to the photos on Friday!


See what I mean? It was still quite a sight, though, to see the sun like that he he...


I also saw lots of hare's paw prints everywhere...here's a comparison between my boot and the hare's paw prints. My boot size is 39 (My original shoe size is actually 36, but for boots I always buy bigger sizes so that I can wear three pairs of socks in the depth of winter and still feel comfy wearing them).



All in all, it was a well-deserved, relaxing cabin trip. Would love to do it again later on! :-D