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DIDO, DOG OF THE NORTH

Chapter One of Marjorie’s Marvelous Meanderings is drawing to a close. It’s a rainy morning in Longyearbyen, 7am, and I’ve been sleeping soundly with heavy curtains drawn. I don’t like to do that (FOMO…right Lace?), but sometimes you just have to miss a ray or two of that midnight light…and get some sleep. I have loved every minute of this Arctic time. There’s still a photo album or two to go of… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Basecamp Explorer, DOGS, Huskies, Longyearbyen, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, sled dogs, Svalbard, the Arctic, Travel, working dogs

ME AND THE POLAR BEARS

To see polar bears in the wild…that is a worthy goal. We were out in the zodiac, nosing along the shore, squinting and gazing and scanning and hoping. I told Mette it was perfectly fine if I did not see a bear…it’s difficult for me to focus binoculars so I maintained my state of denial just in case. Then. There. They. Were. Right there in good solid eyesight range, no need for… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Basecamp Explorer, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, polar bears, Svalbard, Travel

GLACIER. ICE. FOREVER MOVING.

It was a glacier day. I’ve had glacial ice in my Bailey’s in Alaska and Greenland and walked on an Icelandic glacier. This day was special though because we took our time puttering and floating at the glacier’s edge, listening for cracks, admiring the artistry of the small icebergs that dot the bay, and thinking our own private thoughts about the fragility of our earth. We sat completely silent, seven of us,… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Basecamp, Craig Santos Perez, Linden, Longyearbyen, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, Svalbard, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Glacier, Travel

WALRUSES

The evening was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. All of the beaches around the fiords (nearly) empty of detritus. Just us seven humans, sailboat in the distance, bleached bones and rocks scattered about, and the walruses. Grunts and snorts seem to surround us, midnight sun gilds a watery path out to our three-masted schooner…it could have been a couple of centuries ago. Back in Longyearbyen now. Perfect week…perfect…you’ll see what I mean… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Basecamp, Lewis Carroll, Linden, Longyearbyen, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, polar bears, Svalbard, The Walrus and the Carpenter, Travel, walrus, walruses, zodiac

THE GOOD SHIP LINDEN

August 17th now. Back on land. I’ll take you post by post through a few remarkable days. First however another glimpse of that amazing midnight sun…at midnight. ON BOARD THE GOOD SHIP LINDEN: TUESDAY, AUGUST 13TH. On board the Linden…out of Longyearbyen. Forty-six degrees, feels much colder to this New Mexico-habituated body. We’re sailing (well, actually there’s no wind, so technically we’re…what? Chugging?) now to our berth for the night which is… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Arctic, Longyearbyen, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, Svalbard, the ship Linden, Travel

ULTIMA THULE

What is a person called who’s happiest when it’s cold and dark and wet outside and warm and cozy inside? A Northerner? An Icicle-Lover? The Abominable Snow-Shrew? Whatever the name, that person is who I am. You see why keeping up my spirits in a hot dry oh-so-sunny climate, where every building interior is maximally refrigerated,is something of a challenge. It is 12:40am here at the Gardermoen Bed and Breakfast. Two hours… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Abominable Snow-Shrew, Atalantic, chionophile, Gardermoen Bed and Breakfast, hygge, introvert, Joanna Kavenne, Longfellow, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, pluviophile, POETRY, Svalbard, The Ice Museum: In Search of the Lost Land of Thule, Travel, ULTIMA THULE

A LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO … DAY

Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway. Here’s a first look at that midnight sun phenomena. From my camera/phone to your eye. SAS to Tromso, then Longyearbyen, Svalbard. I am excited…back to the Arctic. We land in the chilly overcast afternoon and head through town to Basecamp, my hosts for the next week, in a cabin and on a ship. An exceptionally nice meal and the first of all the gorgeous sled dog photos to come…. Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Basecamp Explorer, Land of the Midnight Sun, Longyearbyen, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, real food, Svalbard, Travel, wooden schooner

SIX WEEKS AS A NORWEGIAN

MAYBE I JUST FELL OVER AFTER ONE LINE TOO MANY? Just over 24 hours—Albuquerque apartment to Oslo Airport Bed and Breakfast. How many times in those hours did I say, “I simply cannot do this again…I’m too old for long walkways and heavy backpacks; for sitting upright for the whole bloody 24; for thinking I’m so tough when I’m not.” But guess what? Now I’ve been in my little unadorned, but cozy-enough,… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: airplane meals, BOB DYLAN, joys of flying, Norway, Norwegian Air, PHOTOGRAPHY, Six Weeks as a Norwegian, Travel, travel diary, travel errors, travel exhaustion, travel mistakes, Windy City Taproom

MY EXTENDED FLOREN FAMILY

I’m just back from a few days in South Dakota, adopted land of my mother’s family. The time with my first cousins was just as family time should be and the reunion with more distant cousins likewise. Then there’s my ongoing exploration of the family tree and the grandparents and cousins that go back…and back…and back. Now I am considering ‘extended family’ in a whole new way—in layers and branches and trees…. Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Aasen, Aasen Family Reunion, ANCESTRY, Baltic, Erik the Red, Floren, Leif Erikson, Norway, Ole O. Floren, Ovidia Mathilda Floren Neset, PHOTOGRAPHY, Pioneer Cemetery, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Travel, West Nidaros Lutheran Church

THE NESETS OF NORWAY AND MINNESOTA

THE ‘BEGATS’ According to cousin, Arne Neset, of Stavanger, Norway, Neset history begins in the late 17th century when one of our ancestors, Knut J. Haugen, appears to have bought the farm Haugen from the bailiff Christian Mouritzen Torup in Grendi around 1695. Thanks to Arne’s fairly extensive research here’s what we know. First a ‘begat’ paragraph to bring the family up to the 1860s. For five generations, the family name was… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: ANCESTRY, Ancestry.com, family history, history, Minnesota, Neset family, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, Travel

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