Wednesday 14 March 2012

Pretty crockery, Space & the Northern Lights

Have you heard of the Danish shop Falby? You can find it here. Today I walked to university, in the sunshine, to meet the lady who is helping me not to be sad anymore. After my meeting I went to the little book shop on campus. They sell a lot of stationary and books and things, but also a lot of pretty things for the home. I bought this little cup to drink my coffee from during my long afternoons of writing to you all. It's nice to have pretty things :) 


We have been lucky to have some sunny days, after all of the snow that fell last week. The sky is also wonderfully clear, which means cozy nights of taking my lemony-tea to the little woodland area behind my flat and searching for planets and constellations.


 Joe Richardson (visit him here) wrote a lovely comment yesterday, asking me whether I had seen the Northern Lights before. The answer is yes, sort of. At the moment there has been some special 'solar events' which means that we have a higher chance of seeing the Northern Lights. (You can actually check the Aurora forecast here, if you like). 


Whenever we hear about there being higher auroral activity, we get so excited! We take some warm drinks, our big cozy jackets and trek out in the snow in search of a dark, sheltered place, away from any source of light pollution, in order to have the best chances of seeing them. I have only seen them once since I've been here, since Oslo is a bit too far south. Since they are low on the horizon here, they can be difficult to spot. Last November we heard that the activity was high so we went and found a little dark area behind our flat and crouched down behind a fence (to block out the street-lights). After gazing into the sky for a few moments, we noticed a thick streak of feint green lining the horizon and watched as it slowly brightened and darkened, almost as if the sky was breathing. Despite it being pale and feint, it was still very beautiful. One of my ultimate dreams is to go and watch the Northern Lights from further north in Scandinavia. I would like to see the pink ones! 


Have any of you ever seen the Northern Lights? Were they as beautiful as you had imagined? 

(pictures lovingly taken from hereherehere & here)

inspire nordic

17 comments:

  1. I've never been lucky enough to see the Northern Lights, but your post reminded me of exactly how I feel when I watch the Perseids each year. I'm that dorky friend that gathers everyone together to have a meteor shower viewing party. :) I love the way you put me there. Thanks! And thanks for stopping by my blog, too. Glad to have you!

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    1. I'm that friend too. A meteor shower viewing party sounds lovely! I've never seen a meteor shower before!

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  2. Nikki,

    Actually, I'd love to stay over in Iceland for a month, locked away in a cabin to focus on writing - the scenery alone would be amazingly inspiring.

    With you permission I have a link to this amazing guy who does time lapse filming of amazing landscapes combined with beautiful music - the link is to another blog of mine which is in a state of hibernation at the moment. But if you'd like to take a peek, please let me know and I'll happily share the link :)

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  3. The little cup is so cute.

    And I would love to see the Northern Lights. They look beautiful. We had them at least once in our area, but I missed them.

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    1. I spent this January in the North of Sweden and there was lots of activity but it was cloudy the whole time. It was so typical since they were visable in England during that time!

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  4. Hello, thankyou for your comment! You like Nordic languages and cultures? I love the Finnish language! :D
    I'm definitely following this blog, it's actually interesting! :D

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    1. Thank you :) I'm glad to hear you like Nordic languages too :D

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  5. Great sky and pictures, here in guangzhou I didn't saw the sunlight in 3 weeks because the pollution...:/

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    1. That must be hard! We had a long winter here with lots of dark and gloomy days. We missed the sun terribly! I hope you get some lovely spring days soon!

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  6. Well, I'm from Sweden and grew up in the north parts so I've seen this many, many times - always beautiful! :-)

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    1. Lucky you :) Someone once told me that in the areas where they get to see the Northern Lights really often, they are used to it and don't really care about seeing them. But I just can't believe that could be true!

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  7. Growing up in Wisconsin, USA we did get to see them a couple of times. I remember being in grade school being woken up at 3am to go look at them. It was so amazing to see the greens and yellows spreading across the sky!
    And now my husband works at the Space Weather Prediction Center, so I always get to know when there's a chance we might see them :)

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    1. That must be so great! I wish I had the chance to see them more, but I live too far South. How cool to work in a Space Weather Prediction Centre!

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  8. Nikki,

    My latest post contains two videos I think you'll enjoy, the second of which was filmed in Norway.

    All the best,

    Mark

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  9. I get so inspired by your blog!

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    1. That's so lovely to hear! I'm so glad you do :)

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  10. Everything is excellent in this post. This mug is really too good. I thought it might be best to consider buying a full dinner set at auction. I impressed by that.

    catering crockery

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