In the years that I have lived on Svalbard I have often described the passage of the year as being more like one long day than a year with seasons. One with weeks of sunrise and sunset, and months of night and day. Of course this is not truly accurate either. In fact, I’m not […]
A Farewell to Darkness Read More »
Cyanotypes are one of the earliest methods for putting a photographic image on paper. Sir John Herschel experimented in 1842 with a method of coating paper with light-sensitive iron salts, exposing the paper to sunlight, and then washing with water. The result was a cyanotype, named for one of the chemicals used, potassium ferricyanide, which
Cyanotype: The Arctic Blue Read More »
I have been gone for most of October out on the Arctic Circle Residency which was an amazing experience. Writing about that will come later. This is about coming home. We arrived, 30 of us, back in Longyearbyen after an intense few weeks seeing and experiencing amazing things and developing close bonds such as one
The Yellow Trail begins (or ends) at the Ilulissat energy plant. Before starting the climb up the long wooden steps I first went to look at this lovely sculpture. There was no sign for it, and I couldn’t find any information about it online, but it was beautiful and I assume a tribute to fishing
Greenland 12 August Afternoon at the Icefjord Read More »
This day rose with blue skies, decorative clouds, and a little wind. I spent it mostly alone, as soon we will be shipboard, and then there will be no escaping other people. While I can be social, my energy ccomes from solitude. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I enjoy company and that going
Greenland 12 August Morning in Ilulissat Read More »
After two days of travel I am in Ilulissat. My two days of travel were first to Oslo, and then Copenhagen where I met with Lena, Bianca, and Jessica. Copenhagen has a nice feel to it. Perhaps I will come back someday. The flight to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland took much longer than I realized. Naively I
Greenland 11 August 2023 Read More »
“So you want to understand what will happen as we lose the ice on Svalbard?” He took another swig of beer, then set his glass down on the table creating a new ring on the surface. “Imagine you have some ice cubes on the table. If you like, you can arrange the blocks across from
Today was spent working on the 2022 calendar. Every calendar I have made has a title that has personal meaning for me. The first, 2018, was titled One Good Year. This sprang from my desire to have one year where no one died. The previous years so many people died. My husband, my brothers, my
Persistence of Vision Read More »
Winter is in the air. The temperatures are not yet cold, a little above zero. But you can taste what’s coming, and now that we lose the sun, temperatures get lower at night. We have had frost. Today I was walking along the river, and I saw ice. I scrambled out into the river bed to look.
I was in Seattle when corona broke out. My plan was to stay for a month, visit friends and family, and sell my condo. When I left Svalbard for Seattle there was merely a whisper of this new disease in China, and that people in Italy were ill. Two weeks later everything changed. Two weeks
Drift Ice: Loss and Change Read More »