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A SAILOR’S LIFE FOR ME

The laziest of days. How many naps is it possible to take in one day? Ships are the best, especially in rough seas. This trip continues to delight and sooth…here’s a disjointed bit of unimportant babble…enjoy the photos! Thursday, /August 23rd/Fourteenth day of travel. 12:50pm: And the tiniest of blips in my perfect life-on-the-road. Nothing is wrong; I’m on the MS Finnmarken in a luxurious (by my standards) cabin; I’ve grazed the… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Atlantic Ocean, Hurtigruten, Karl Ove Knausgaard, MS Finnmarken, Norway, Norwegian coast, overpacking, PHOTOGRAPHY, rough seas, ships, Travel, weather

TROMSO TWO…

The ‘tomorrow’ in this post is today. Lovely day. Need nap. Off on the Finnmarken tonight. Back in a couple of days. Cheers. Here’s an occasional travel dilemma. Tomorrow’s a ‘free’ day. In a sense, all travel days are free…as in no work to go to, no apartment to clean, no chores to do. Nevertheless they each have their assigned tasks whether that involves lugging suitcases to a conveyance of some sort… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: airbnb, Arctic Circle, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, Travel, Tromso

A WANDER-ABOUT AND HOUSEKEEPING

Svalbard is now part of my history. Tromso is the present and a float down the coast on a Hurtigruten ferry in the near future. It’s my twelfth day of travel and so far I feel quite fit and eager. The great burst of well-being from a short round of prednisone is wearing off but it was greatly appreciated for climbing off and on the good ship Linden and jumping in and… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Bemidji, fish burgers, maps of Norway, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, Travel, travel housekeeping, Tromso

ONE LAST GLIMPSE

Just a few more photos before reluctantly departing Svalbard…with thoughts of a December/January return, an overnight dog sled trip, a visit to the Russian town for borscht, and northern lights. Dreaming… We took a jaunt out to Basecamp’s cabin, climbed a little mountain…and Mette said I was very agile…(see Scott, I’m just like an ageing mountain goat) The two humans and three dogs that stay at the cabin came back to the… Read More

Category: THIS WORLD Tags: Arctic Char, Arctic Skate, Basecamp Explorer, Longyearbyen, Norway, PHOTOGRAPHY, Svalbard, Travel

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

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