The winter is taking a turn towards light

[Katariina Roiha]

Our days in dark polar night are soon over. The Sun is showing up for the first time in two months the 17th of January. Daylight is on a clear day somewhat enough for my lense...

Our little finnish-scottish A-Peli is partly enjoying the cold (we had -36 C for a week) and partly not. The not-part is the lack of exercise.No living creature can be out with those minus degrees!
Thank god the temperature warmed up to -15 and we had the chance to let go all our anxiety!

and off we went...

It got a little sweaty at times. A-Peli is so used to freezing cold weather that -15 seems nothing :)

When we reached the top of the mountain, two of our english setters we found on point...

No chance in seeing the grouse. They´re white and daylight is hardly enough for the eyes...

A-Pelis little nose was very much interested in the scent of grouse...

After 2 h of heavy running in the snowy mountain we were happy and all our anxiety gone with the wind!

some pictures of the River Teno

and the faint hint of sun somewhere

[Cornelia]

Very nice blog spot, Katariina! Beautiful photos and I liked to read your story - I'm glad however that I could read your blog staying in a cosy, warm home....brrrrrr!!!

[Katariina Roiha]

Thank U all for your nice comments! My camera is kind of used to temperatures below zero and he(it´s a he because of the name Mark II)worked beautifully in those minus 36 degrees. My fingers did not ;)

The Sun is really important to those of who lose it for 2 months. And I am really suffering from the lack of photographing. But my life is about to change in a few days time, a week to say exact.

Susan Russell-Matsumoto wasn´t it amazing to be in Tromso when the sun comes up? To see the so called darkness which really isn´t? One of your setters , Great, was in Finland visiting, was it last New Years, with a friend of ours in Kauhava? I saw pictures of him. He really looks good! Do I remember right that his owner took him to trials in Norway? And he was prized as well?

Anyway, we are alive and well. And might start posting new blogs when the sun is with us again!

[Angela Roberts]

I really enjoyed reading your blog, makes me thankful for -4 here and just a little snow. How do you keep warm, even indoors? You and the dogs must be really looking forward to warmer weather and some sunshine

[Katariina Roiha]

Finnish houses are well built :) Actually the whole Finland is enjoying a real winter. For example in Helsinki the snow is as deep as it was somewhere in the early ´80s !

[Carmel Murphy]

The houses in the part of US I lived were all based on Finnish or Swedish type houses and so warm in the winter!!
The last time we had lots of snow was '82 and before that was '63 I even remember that one too!!;o( My age is showing!!;o)

[Susan Stone]

Great to see pictures of your dogs enjoying their 2 hours run, despite the cold. I'm looking forward to your stunning pictures once the sun lights up your beautiful landscape. Not long now!
We have not had very much snow where I live (low-land Switzerland) but today was -10 and dog's paws froze... what do you do about ice between their pads? Or is your snow so dry this does not happen?

[Dee Rance]

Absolutely wonderful pictures and text. We are having it easy hear, only got down to somewhere like -20 something at its worst and we do at least get a little more than 6 hours daylight at this time of year, but don't have all those wonderful open spaces, they look so inviting for the dogs and humans. We don't have snow any more it is ice. Packed solid.

[Katariina Roiha]

To Susan S.: Snow tends to get to paws no matter what the temperature is. I try to cut the hair as short as possible between toes but still snow gets into icy glimps. Our dogs chew them out themselves. When its really cold I´m not exercising them for too long, because of the icy-paws-thing too...among other matters as well.

I have tried all sorts of paw-oils and creams and they seem to make it even worse. So we are doing without any creams and stuff and we manage better that way... By the way today we had +3 C !! The weatherman is quite odd??

[Susan Russell]

Yes Katariina, I LOVED seeing Tromso in the "light" and we went training quite a bit during that visit - it made me realise that even where I live, which has very short days in winter, that we have LOTS of sun comparatively.

I was in Norway last March again and it was very light and I got to go to two field trials there at Arnoya and - oh darnit I can't remember the other - on skiis and I LOVED it! At one trial I was given a copy of Great's 2 AK certificate and a souvenir glass trophy! I got to spend some time with Great, I miss him! And I got to bring back Candy who is his daughter. Thanks for your kind words about him.

I shave the feathering out from between my dogs' feet during winter and it helps, and certainly when it is -20 and colder the snow sticks less than when it is warmer. They LOVE the winter and spend much of it outdoors even when it is very cold, they seem to prefer it. They occasionally curl up in the straw, but usually can be found standing on top of the gravel pile leftover from our house construction, surveying their domain. I heard a sled dog man from over here say he used to put vaseline on his dogs' feet and legs (he ran Irish) and they never got snowballs, but I have not tried it. I liked the dog "condoms" that I saw in Norway on Irish! Granted they did not help the feet, but no snowballs in the coats. (For North Americans, they look much like the full body and leg "swimsuits" that show folks use on coated breeds here at shows to keep them clean.)

I also liked the little tents that people zipped their dogs into at lunch time at the trials. And the fact that the dogs got a nice warm meal of hot water and canned food at lunchtime. And that the dogs were out all day with the entire gallery, some even pulling owners, and were fit enough to do it!!! Here people are seldom entering more than one or two half hour stakes in a whole weekend for fear the dogs will be tired. I am very impressed by the fitness of the Norwegian dogs and I am sure it is very similar in Finland from what I have been told. I can hardly wait to go back...maybe one year to hunt.

[Henk ten Klooster]

Super snowsetter shots! A-Pelis is Fire in Darkness.