Midsummer

Yesterday was Midsummer Eve. The official day (always a friday) coincided with the real midsummer. Last night was the shortest of the year on the Northern Hemisphere. For Kiruna, it means no night at all, since the sun never set. But it has not done so for a couple of weeks now, and will not do so the next weeks. One long day. This may be one explanation that summer may be short here, but ever so intense. Flowers are exploding. Everything happens within so short a time, everything lives very intensely before cold days and long nights return. Life forms here seem to be perfectly adaptet to the short and light season.

Even for us it is a beautiful time. Living in the arctic means living with extremes, with great variation. Which I find stimulating. Two weeks ago it was snowing - even if the sun never set at night. Now we enjoy flowers, and the first mosquitos have turned up as well. (that's the price we pay...).

Have a good Midsummer where ever you are!