Midnatt i en perfekt värld

Grundtjärn, Sweden…

where do I begin?  This place is absolutely beautiful…

I’ve spent nearly a week in this small village on the edge of the world… the peace and quiet here is like nowhere i’ve experienced.. but still the place feels strangely like home… I’m beginning to notice the small nuances of the far north… when and where the sun rises and sets… the trail the moon carves through the sky… changes in cloud directions… patterns of wind and stillness. mosquito schedules….

The place is completely alien compared to Boulder, CO… though it shares some similarities with the climate in my native Canada, i am still new to the 24 hour light in the sky… it’s like being on another planet.. not to mention the broad bow that the sun follows through the sky… rising and setting in nearly the same place as we approach summer solstice… I’ve heard that the sun will only set for 10 minutes on the solstice next week.

I’m still a little unsure of directions…but based on a quick compass reading, the sun seems to set around magnetic north, and rise around North Northeast… the environment turns magical in the sun’s absence… In Boulder, there was usually a 15 minute window of magical twilight glow each morning and evening… but here, the magic endures the night as the still air allows mist to collect over the lake..

Last night we made a small camp fire next to the lake and balanced rocks all night, took photos, echoed whistles across the vast lake, and had some wine….  the sun went down for about 3 hours this night.. no darkness.

The mist began collecting over the lake by about midnight… instantly lifting with the slightest wind…. then between midnight and 2 am, the mist grew thick over the lake and by 2:00 am the sky began shifting into a magical purple twilight…lasting about 45 minutes… I imagine the extended sunrise and sunset colors are from the sun moving at such a shallow angle to and from the horizon…

Beautiful!