Hello Sun, my old friend! Hyi loskapaska...

Today ended the sun-free period in the northest part of Finland, Utsjoki. Since Nov 27th the sun has stayed below the horizon...

The sun was above the horizon luxurious 10 minutes. If the sky was clear, people might have seen the sun properly from high places, like on top of a fell (a small mountain / big hill).

Already on Saturday the sky was glowing red. This image is from last year, compliments by YLE.

Next week the day gets longer pretty fast; Already on Monday the sun is up for over an hour. The lengthening continues day by day, until mid May the sun will not go down any more.

The white nights, nights without the night continuous days, or how ever you want to call it, continue late July when the days again start to shorten until late Nov.

This is a strange, beautiful country we live in! And I love it!

OK, about a week ago I was hating the weather; The slid was back - Loskapaska oli palannut!

It was raining pure water on and off for 2-3 days and temp was somewhat +2-3 C. The roads became like Belgium in the winter time. And now I mean the 2 half days of winter that Belgium normally has. This year I have understood they had for few days a proper winter.

...and now they are back to dull fall-type of season they call winter, just because the calendar says so...

In few days the beautiful images in southern Finland dissapeared, including Marge Simpson -lookalike BBQ at the backyard, behind one of the candle lamps. Same thing with these sticky snowfalls hanging from inch-by-inch iron bar.

Well, this pile is not as big any more but it is still there.

Same thing with the snow on top of bushes - I had to strip them from the snow before the rains came. Othewise the branches would have snapped... Let's see how these fellows survive the winter.

Now the we are back below freezing point, all the wet slid has frozen into icy bumps on the roads so it is again fun to drive - instead of just steering from one place to another.

I love winter - still!