Yes we are still here!

Hello everyone!

So sorry for the lack of posts over the last two months. Yes we are indeed still here in Savukoski, and we are still enjoying life in Lapland. Although we did actually miss Christmas and New Years in Lapland as before we had moved from Tampere to here, or even before we knew there was a chance that we would need to move, we had arranged to go and stay with my parents in South Wales for Christmas and New Years. And with the flights having already been booked and paid for and being of the non-refundable type, off we were!

Of course the journey from here to Helsinki for our flights was a little more involved than it would of been if we were still in Helsinki and involved a nice journey on the sleeper train from Rovaniemi the night before.





And they certainly go in for some interesting seating in Helsinki airport:



Well we had a fantastic two weeks, even if the British inability to deal with the odd flake of snow did at times cause some frustrated muttering from both Henna and I that things would of been easier in Savukoski, but we got in and out of the country OK, and my parents are arriving in a weeks time for their winter holiday with us. Although I feel my Mum may well be disappointed as the Aurora Borealis , which is a must see for her, seems to be less than eager to show off around here right now. Hope and cross your fingers for some Solar flares asap I think!

Anyway before we left Savukoski, I finally got to see some of the "smoke"...







I will admit it is not that easy to see, but as these pictures were taken around midday with my phone, they are pretty good!! It was incredible to see, and hopefully I will be out soon to get some pictures of the river, now that it is completely frozen! This has been aided by the fact that for much of the first week and a bit of 2010, and the last week or so of 2009, the temperature here in Savukoski, and for much of Lapland was around -30 degrees C and in some places it touched -37! So that will freeze most rivers solid I think. Although, it must be said that when I drove over to Tanhua to collect the dog from her Christmas holiday home there were several little bridges over small rivers and streams that were still flowing so fast and they were still clear of ice! Obviously driving in this weather and generally running of a car, does take some practising...

But the weather for the last week has been as high as -2 and today is around -5 with a very strong, cold wind. The girls have loved being back here with all the great snow to play in as well.





And now things are getting back to their usually daily routine I hope to be adding some more pics from the trip to the UK, in a separate post, as well as writing about what I, hopefully, will be getting upto over the next few months.

Thanks for reading everybody!

Gareth.