Life up here

Cold, cold Saturday morning here in the Arctic. We had milder temperatures in between but are now back in the very cold digits below zero. It was -28°C early in the morning and I doubt it is any warmer now since the sun is not shining and if it chooses to shine a bit, the rays don't bring any heat yet.

As you know she is in charge of the security of the house. She dutifully fulfills her job but last night she just gave up in the end.

Couple of reindeers found out that the grass under the snow blanket in the garden right in front of the steps on the lake side of the house is very juicy and tasty and once they got the taste they really could not get that tasty table out of their minds. So the obviously well-fed pair were having a bite early in the morning yesterday and Tina just did not like it. She shot out of the door after the creatures who fled along the ice on lake. She knows she is not allowed to chase them in the woods and really never bothers them in the wild but she was not having them that close of the house. Reindeers, the survivors of the arctic, never give up, and they returned the second she retired inside the house. Her little house is in the other side of the house and from there she can see everyone who enters the yard from the road but if someone sneaks in from the lake, she has to trust her hearing. She monitored the yard from the various spots outside and at times chose to sit in front of the window inside. Several times a day she was forced to charge out and bark them out to the ice. She was very annoyed.

Evening came and then the night fell and as I was turning out the lights I looked outside and sure enough the reindeers had returned. Tina looked at me weary and sighed and I told her to go to bed and not to be bothered any more.

I have often told you how I love the sound of waves in summer and just listen to it in the quiet before going to sleep. Last night, even though it was very cold, I had the window open for a while and instead of listening to the birds and waves I was listening to reindeer digging through the snow and I actually could hear them munch. Eventually one of them came so close to the house that his antlers scratched the wall. Those sounds made me feel at peace with my world, the house was quiet, it was dark, very cold, and I was alone listening to reindeers eat outside.

And when the day broke this morning, the garden looked like this.

Wool with you,

Lene

PS. I turned off the comments last week, I was getting comments that I thought did not belong here. They belonged to different forums. I am turning the comments on again, but will read them through before posting. Sorry for the delay.