And then...

 Winter was properly here on Tuesday morning

And today, after the winter winds have settled a little, it's even looking quite pretty

I am excited by the snow this year, seeing that I was away most of the winter, and haven't been close to  snow since January. I am also already exhausted by the snow, realising that it means six months of hoping our neighbour will come and clear our driveway in the morning, of starting every car journey ten minutes earlier in case you have to clear off the ice and snow, of getting stuck, of darkness, and so on.

Snow is very nice at midday, when you have daylight, when you don't have to go outside, and you have your book and your tea and your sofa and your cat. Other than that it can be a bother. I remember that. Still, at this moment I can enjoy it. (It is midday. I am inside. I have a lot of the aforementioned things.)

Winter is coming

 and it has been present in the mountains for a while

but now, it's creeping down towards us

Apparently it did snow on ground level today. Luckily, we were visiting my sister two hours away from Tromsø, and only had a nice, sunny albeit chilly day. My dad has changed the tyres from summer to studded ones. This week it's supposed to start snowing, and the winter winds are on their way.

Also, I have lots of photos of babies.

All the important news from the North then, through my blog.

Some title

My newly made bed, even if it doesn't look that newly made

Here, a photo from a few weeks ago, when we still had sunshine and a nice autumn. We've now moved into late autumn, which has all the rain and wind, and all the leaf-less, sad-looking trees.

I've not edited the photos from the North Cape. Nor have I transferred the photos from my last visit at my sister's. For now, you'll have to enjoy looking at my room. Very yellow, isn't it?

Tomorrow I'm off again, holding a volunteer training for my Global Dignity volunteers, this time at Finnsnes, a two hour drive from Tromsø. Here I quote my mum: "When you consider how awkward and shy you and I were in our teenage years, isn't it a wonder how we're both enjoying having presentations, trainings and courses in front of lots of people?" Thanks, mum. I do agree, though.

Back in Nicaragua

Bosawás

is where I've been this week. Nadia, one of the girls from my group, came up from Oslo, and we spent two entire days locked up in my family's house in Tromsø, working on choosing images for the photo-book we'll be making and also writing texts and making postcards for our information work.

I've also held two trainings for my Global Dignity volunteers, and will be doing more this coming week. We went to a moustache themed party. I've been to a small festival arranged by the city's oldest bank, been to a book swapping event, a vintage fair and a second hand market, I've watched too many films, too many QI reruns and just enough Friends reruns.

Life is being very busy right now. I'm hoping this will right itself in a little while, and it can go back to just being a normal sort of busy.