Three pictures above were taken at Prestvannet Thursday, May 14.
Cemetery at Elverhøy; only three weeks ago, gravestones were completely covered with snow.
Picture above and remaining pictures below taken at Prestvannet May 16.
Spring has come to Tromsø at last! After our last snow, a week after Easter, the weather began to warm up, and it rained quite a bit. There are still piles of snow here and there, and many of those will probably remain well into June, but most of the ground is visible and things are greening up. Spring flowers like crocuses, tulips and daffodils are blooming, and wildflowers are appearing in the midst of dead leaves and grass that have been under several feet of snow since last November. The temperatures have been pleasant (60 degrees feels like a heat wave!), and we have had lots of sun—we now have 24 hours of daylight. I sewed black material to the back of our curtains to block out the sun in our bedroom, and we try to close up the curtains and blinds about 9 every evening to simulate "night." Many people have the "problem" of having too much energy, and are unable to sleep well at night. We have a north-facing window in our kitchen, and the sun blazes in through it in the early hours of the morning. We have it blocked somewhat, but it is still very bright.
This last weekend was beautiful, and it was a holiday here. May 17 is Constitution Day in Norway, and it is a wonderful celebration. We will post pictures from that day on in our next post. On Saturday, May 16, the church at Elverhøy had a lunch concert that Mike and I attended. The program was presented by students from the music conservatory, and it was really professional grade. There was a soprano with a wonderful rich voice; instruments were the organ and piano, along with cello, violin and tuba. The opening was a piece by Sigfried Karg-Elert for the organ and violin. Then the soprano, accompanied by the organ and cello, sang music by Jean Langlais, Bach and Maruice Duruflé. Then a sonata by Beethoven was performed by the cellist and pianist. The last performance was a "joik"--a traditional Sami form of song that was written and performed by one of the students, who was accompanied by the cello, violin and tuba. He was dressed in Sami costume and was really into it--it was fun!
After the concert, Mike and I decided to try out a different path from the church, just to see where it went to. As we were walking in a neighborhood that was new to us, we saw a friend, Gabby, working in her yard. Her husband, Rick, is a physical chemist who teaches at the university. They had invited us over at Christmastime, but the weather had been bad, and we didn't know exactly where they lived, so we didn't make it then. So it is nice to know where they live now. They invited us for coffee on their balcony, which has a wonderful view of the mountains to the south (every place in Tromsø has a wonderful view of mountains really). After coffee and visiting, we continued our exploration and saw a few new places (found the garage with the rosemaling on that walk). Our way home took us by Prestvannet, which looked a beautiful deep blue in the sunlight. On the Thursday before we had walked by the the lake and it was still covered with quite a bit of ice, but on Saturday only small pieces along the edges were left, and the birds and the ducks were having a grand time.
Mike has completed his first exam, and received an A (yea!). His next exam is in two weeks, so he has begun studying for that, and is working in the lab as well.
