Where have you been?

For the benefit of anybody who might follow my regular musings I would like to take some time to tell where I have been. My little grandson loves to take to school something to show and tell. He must be one of life's great enthusiasts because teacher has to tell him from time to time to let others share in their life's experiences. His father is after all a preacher of the gospel and so that might go some way to explaining his desire to tell people about his own exploits!

But what has that got to do with his silly old Grandpa?

  Well you see I have much to show and tell, they say that a picture tells the story so much better, so here is my explanation in picture form.

We have a lovely holiday in Sweden courtesy of daughter number 2. For our Christmas present and Ma's significant birthday we had a holiday we could only dream of before.
Stockholm this year is experiencing one of its rare snow-less winters. That was something of a shock to us due to the large amount of cold weather clothes packed.

 Home of the Nobel science awards.

Sweden's narrowest pathway, maybe Britain can better this?

Birthplace of the quirky Swedish artist Carl Larsson.

(Do you like the quirky style of the photograph?)

Not one of Larsson's but a giraffe crane shows the delightfully quirky artistry of the Swedish people!

Nothing can be normal here in this amazing country, Larsson has left his influence all over the place.

After spending 2 or 3 days in and around Stockholm we went on expedition. we took an plane to:

Where we were met by Lars a lovely and respectfully quirky Swedish man who is married to an equally quirky British lady called Patricia. they run the Porjus Northern Lights Complex.

 www.google.co.uk/#q=porjus+northern+lights+apartments

 Lars drove us the 50 kilometers to the complex where we arrived at close to Midnight.

After a little star gazing in the cold we went to bed the happiest old codgers on the face of this glorious planet. A childhood dream was being played out for Pam and never having been a dreamer I was equally in awa of what might be over the next 5 days and nights. All I could say was "I am in the Arctic circle!"

We woke up to this:

Words cannot say how we felt, we were just grateful to a very generous daughter and to our creator for the stunning world that we live in.


The significant birthday that Pam had recently celebrated was marked by something that she could only ever dream about. Again the pictures te;ll the story better than I ever could:

 We went by bus from Porjus to Jokkmokk where a Finnish lady called Karin took us to her home where she and her husband run the Arctic Husky Adventure Centre:

http://www.arctichuskyadventures.com

And this is what happened:

These must be the best behaved dogs in the world.

Adopted by Gubba and loving it.

Halfway house and much appreciated refreshments.

A fire in the forest which produced coffee and cinnamon buns.

Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does it get better than that?

I was amazed at these dogs, no barking except when they left the complex and re-entered. They loved to be hitched to the sled. They loved to run but more importantly they loved their owners and also people. The Husky Arctic Adventure Centre specialises in working with disabled children and so their dogs are not only clearly loved that are also immaculately well trained. Not one of them jumped up at me or even attempted to lick me! At last I have found some dogs that even I like.

But of course that was not all, a display of God's glory in creation capped the whole time:

What more can I say other than what a Christmas present, happy birthday Pam,a massive thank you Elaine and Jesus we love you!