Northern Lights – The Planet is Working!
All stressed out today . Way to much on my calender for this weekend.
So I took out the garbage and noticed something I have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of times; Northern Light. It was building in intensity above Narvik, but soon filled the entire sky! Eventhough my tiny pocket camera can never portrait the real thing and do it justice, below you’ll find a few examples of tonight’s Show.
30 minutes watching this show and all the stress had gone! Magnificent. Try that Pharmaceutical Industry – Northern lights in a pill – no can do!
Northern Lights above The Ofoten Fjord
Northern Lights above The Ofoten Fjord 2
Northern Lights above The Ofoten Fjord 3
Northern Lights above The Ofoten Fjord 3 - The picture was pressed to the max, but was unable to depict the enormous dancing lights covering most of the night sky.
Northern Lights above The Ofoten Fjord 5
All work and no play
At least I have my good friend Jacks beautiful pictures taken out in the islands of Vesterålen (Bø) to relax my eyes on once and a while:
Bø in Vesterålen - photo: Jack Lihaug
Low sun shines on the mountain peaks by the Ofoten Fjord
Low sun shines on the mountain peaks by the Ofoten Fjord
Last shimmer of daylight in the North
In 20 days there is no sunshine and most of the day is pitch black until 13th of January. Around Christmas there is just an hour or two of twilight. The rest of the day it is totally black. In that perspective I must say the electricity producers should be ashamed of themselves. They practically give away industrial electricity to neighbor countries like Sweden and Denmark for free, while old, poor people in Norway freeze to death during the winter because they cannot pay the electricity bill. Shame on you!
Sometimes I get a feeling that the owners of the energy companies and politicians almost hate the people they are here to serve. There is a widespread nepotism in this society that will devour it unless it is stopped. To build a good society, both heart and mind must communicate with each other in the decision makers. Today it more or less seems that the only thing they are interested in is their own reelection, their own benefits and their own pension. That is no way to govern a society.
Well, we still have got the beautiful nature – for now…
Last Shimmer of Daylight in the North
All the Saints Day
All Saints Evening - Narvik Cemetery
My mother got it mixed up a bit. She thought that Halloween coincided with the Norwegian equivalent “Alle Helgens Dag” – all the Saints Day. It didn’t. Alle Helgens Dag was today, so in line with the tradition we went to the cemetery this evening and lit a few candles on the grave of my beloved father and grandma and grandpa. Everything was so silent in the snow. I really miss them a lot. They were all such kind people. Especially my dad. We could talk about everything. It often ended up in the subjects philosophy, technology, natural sciences and politics. Funny, it seems that my arguments persuaded him several times about what was the right thing to do. Even though he could be head-strong from time to time, he always listened to me and I to him. The best father-son relationship ever!
Moving can be a slow and painful affair
I started the Norwegian Success on Facebook “Ren norsk fisk uten kjemikalier”. This was a campaign against pumping fish full of waste products and phosphates in order to improve wight and coulour, which in well over a week gathered almost 5.500 fans. Not bad for a Norwegian site. But there were quite a few complaints about the title. It was not correct Norwegian, it was not serious enough etc. etc. so. I title on a Facebook Site cannot be altered, once it has been published (thank you very much, Facebook, for making our lives so easy…) I put to a vote if we should move to a new group. There was a majority, although not big, for moving. After long deliberations with myself and my brilliant co-administrator, Ann, the decision was made to move.
This is obviously a painstaking process. From yesterday until now in 19 hours only 320 people has migrated into the new page. It seems as if people don’t really read messages sent to them from Facebook Sites. In fact the old group is actually growing..! What a headache… Well, I am quite confident that people in time will like the new page better.
Thanks for all the birthday-wishes!
It’s been a nice day with lots of delightful birthday wishes. Thanks a lot!
I grew up in the Apollo era and was born just a few months after man first set foot on the lunar surface. Ever since my childhood days I have loved space exploration. I remember when I was 3-4 years old, running around in the garden at night with an empty bottle of Tabac aftershave that I got from my dad – held up against the starry night sky – imagining that it was this black and white Apollo spacecraft traveling to the moon!
Yesterday I was hoping for the Space Shuttle Discover, STS-131, to blast of on the second last Space Shuttle mission in history – but unfortunately there was a hydrogen gas-leak from the bleed off valve and the mission had to be scrubbed. Looking forward to the blast off!
Space Shuttle "Discovery" waiting on the launch pad. The launch yesterday had to be scrubbed due to a hydrogen bleed off valve leak.
More Pure Fish
Today there has been a lot of private work, and I have done some translations. Apart from all this, there has been some more campaigning on the Campaign for Pure Norwegian Fish, and luckily the main public service news-channel in Norway, NRK, still keeps the focus on food additives – which is really admirable! Signing off with Today’s Panorama:
Today's Panorama of the inner part of the Ofoten Fjord and Narvik (please click for a larger picture)
Norway (almost) cut in half – The house is shaking in the hurricane
It is blowing hurricane today in Northern-Norway. Hurricane force winds starts at 63 knots – today a weather station measured 109 knots winds (126 miles per hour / 202 kilometers per hour).
There is an ancient, mythical Norwegian creature from the sea called “Draugen”. Today my friend the photographer Jack Lihaug actually captured a picture of “Draugen”:
Draugen - Photo: Jack Lihaug
Draugen (painted by Theodor Kittelsen)
See more of Jack Lihaug’s stunning photos on his Facebook-page.
Today’s Panoramas (Halloween 31st of October)
The City of Narvik at the base of the Ofoten Fjord (the inner part of the Vestfjorden - The West Fjord).
Silent before the Storm - There is a storm brewing South-West of Narvik.
Allehelgensaften – All-Saints-Evening – Halloween and a bit of history…
Allehelgensaften in Norwegian, more or less directly translates as All-Saints-Evening or in English Halloween is tonight. Halloween traditions have made it’s way into Norwegian culture and we have already had two lovely kids at the door for some candy with the Norwegian term for “trick or treat”: “Knask eller Knep”! 🙂 Lovely!
We’ve also been to the cemetery lighting candles today. At the same time we drove up to a vantagepoint above the city and took some pictures of the beautiful sky and the newly erected memorial over major Ivar Hyldmo, chief of the “Hyldmo-Batallion” that fought long and hard to secure the First Allied Victory during the 2nd World War in recapturing Narvik from the German Nazi Occupation Forces. My grandfather and a lot of my relatives took part in this epic battle to free Narvik. Luckily my two grandfathers (one a Norwegian soldier, infantry, the other a German soldier and radio-operator) and my grandmother (a telegraph-operator) all survived the war in Narvik, or I would not have been here to write this blog…
Major Ivar Hyldmo - Retired Colonel, spent 2 years as a Prisoner of War in Germany - and survived, later became a Brigade-Commander for peace-keeping forces in Germany and a Norwegian Military Attace in London. Now, 70 years after the war he and his men got their memorial in Narvik. Ivar Hyldmo was a loved and respected grade-school teacher by trade. The memorial reads: "Go boys! Norway's at stake! - Erected in Gratitude"
Memorial over Major Ivar Hyldmo (ret. Colonel) with one of the hills he and his men stormed in the recapture of Narvik in the background. This was the first allied victory against Nazi Germany in the 2. World War
Halloween 2
The All-Saints-Evening first "Knask eller Knep" - Halloween "trick or treat"!
Wonder how the poor, little guy can see through his mask…!
The Troll Hunter Official trailer ENGLISH version!
Ohh, no – here they come again!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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