Birthday Cabin Trip: Crunchy Snow

I asked for the whole weekend off so that we could spend time at the cabin. Fortunately for us, for the past few days the temperature had dropped down a lot compared to the days before. That meant that it was easier to walk along the snowy path towards the lake he he...because the snow had frozen quite well so that our feet stayed on top of the snow quite well.

We arrived at the cabin at around 5 pm and it was already so dark. There was a beautiful orange full moon hanging low above the horizon and it was a starry night as well! The temperature was -18'C. Funnily enough, the inside of the cabin was only about -6'C he he he...

Here's a pic of R2 trying to get some water from the frozen lake for the sauna. We were afraid it'd be so hard to get the water again, but thankfully the ice layer wasn't too thick. I remember one time it took maybe half an hour for him to use the tools before we could get some water (we almost gave up and R2 was sweating so much after all the hard work!!!):

 
By the time we got the cabin ready, I saw a halo around the moon, but it was SO hard to get good pics of it. One of the reasons was that when it got that cold, it was hard to press the button of the camera after a while. My fingers were freeeeezzzziiinnngggg after taking lots of pics (some of them were failures!). Here are some pics anyway...

Can you see the stars in the next pic? My monitor's setting is a bit darker than normal, so I'm not sure if it's still too dark or not...hmmmmhhh...

Woke up at around 10.30 am the next day. The sun had just started rising by then and it was gorgeous. Here are a few sunrise pics I took.

And we left the cabin at around 13.30 (around the time when the sun was just about to set). Here is a pic of the lovely pinkish sky at sunset:

Oh yeah, on Friday morning I made some cupcakes from a cupcake mix (with sourcream topping plus brown sugar sprinkles). Easy to make and yummy enough for us ha ha...here's the pic!

And here are some pics of tilhi/waxwings. I stood only a few steps away from them, can you believe it? One of the perks of living in Lapland ha ha ha ha...Aren't they SO cute and round??? :-D It got so dark already by then so I had to fix the pics a little...Hope you enjoy the pics! :-D

P.S. As you probably notice, there's not that much snow left 'coz until a few weeks ago the temperature got really warm, so most of the snow had melted! However, yesterday in southern Finland there was snowstorm in many places that brought so much snow (as much as 35 cm or so in Helsinki if I remember correctly). 

 

Long Overdue Photos

I haven't been taking photos with my camera in a while and the battery was dead, so here are two pics from the end of August he he he...taken during our cabin trip at that time. 

And here are two pics taken this weekend. MIL bought some liquorice pipes and we had fun posing hi hi hi...

And some outdoor photos:

And here's a pic of our hands just for size comparison. :-D

Hope you've had a lovely weekend, people! :-D

The Orange Moon Setting

Okay, I finally found a free video converter, but it was hard to choose the settings for the video...anyhow, here's my attempt at showing you how orange the moon was. It was that orange (just like what's shown on the video). 

Cabin Trip Easter 2012

After work on Thursday we went to the cabin. The day started off sunny but then it got cloudy during the afternoon. We arrived at the cabin at around 4 pm and this time we had no trouble walking on thick snow 'coz it had condensed in many parts and became harder (compare it with Cabin Trip Feb 2012). There were tracks of cross-country skis in many places.  

I forgot to note the temperature that day, but it was probably around 3'C under the sun and closer to 0'C after it got cloudy.

Here are some cloud pics...I LOVE taking pics of different cloud formations ha ha... 

This is what the view on the frozen lake when we had just arrived there...

 

Zooming in on the above pic...

Then the dark clouds shifted and here was what it looked like...

Another view of the lovely clouds...

After taking those pics, we tried clearing the path towards the lake before we could get some water for sauna (not drinking water). Then R2 had to get some water, so again he had to do hard work to make a hole in the thick ice. At around 6 pm the sky got so dark again and snowstorm came. It probably lasted for about half an hour or an hour at most, then we enjoyed a very nice view of sunset at around 8 pm (click to view it in a bigger version).

After the sun went down, the sky was filled with stars!!! And a full moon! :-D

At around 5 am I woke up to pee in the outdoor toilet and I saw the HUGEST orange moon ever (I took a short video clip of it but I haven't converted it yet). The orange moon was dangling so low in the sky as it was about to set. I've never seen the moon that low and that huge and that orange before...just amazing!!! I tried taking pics of it but it didn't turn out great (it only looked yellow and it looked small). But anyway, this is a very lame pic of the setting moon...

I'm telling ya that the real deal was more orange than that. I just wish you could all see it for yourself...but anyway...here is why we had to clear up the path before we could get some water. Pic taken when we were on the way back to the car...

Yep, the sun was shining SO brightly on Friday and it was so warm. :-D Here's one other random pic I took when I was there...

OK, now I still have plenty of things to do...wishing you Happy Easter and for those who don't celebrate it...then hope you've all enjoyed a longer weekend! :-D :-D :-D

3BT: January 22, 2008

1. Hearing news about the full-time Finnish course starting February 4th until July 10th and the possibility of getting some money as a full-time student (don't know yet how much I can get, but IF I can save enough to buy a plane ticket to Indonesia, then I may be coming home at the end of this year!!!)

2. VERY tender duck. YUM, YUM!!! Never tasted duck that tender even though the duck was obviously HUGE (the ones I had in Indonesia were so small compared to this one).

3. Hubby didn't complain when he had to go back to the kitchen to turn off the light as I had forgotten to do so. I said to him that I was already warm under the blanket, so I didn't want to go to the kitchen. You're SO WONDERFUL, Hubby!!!! ;-D

4. Planting my eyes right above his so that all we could see was each other's blurry eyes and then giggled together HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

5. Hubby getting me some yoghurt as he was about to get some while we were watching a movie, so I didn't have to get up and get it myself. I felt like a princess HA HA HA HA HA...

6. Watching a full moon above the apartment building across the street. Very beautiful!!!

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