Dogs of summer

Pia. A bit shy, but such a sweetheart:


Linus, still a puppy. The wife taught him to walk the stairs while we visited. After he had managed walking them the first time, he ran the stairs up and down like eight times - before collapsing on the floor and falling asleep within two seconds:



Sita. Not a puppy anymore, but she still got lots of energy:



Update: If you want to take a look at the puppies we visited in Båtsfjord yesterday, go here! We'd love to have a dog, but can't because of allergies. Sigh. Still, the owner of these dogs said we could borrow one whenever we wanted to go for a walk:-) He's a "professional" dogowner, and last year he won the 500 km race in Finnmarksløpet, the world's northernmost sled dog race. Not bad!

Wooo-hooo!

More summer photos

The first day of our summer holiday - Ifjord mountain on the road between Båtsfjord and Hammerfest. Not the fastest route, but we wanted to drive along the coast. The snow? Yes, that's the end of June in the north of Norway:


Sunny Hammerfest! Taken from the house where the wife lived during our long distance relationship stint last year. Didn't like being apart, but the house and family where she lived in Hammerfest are truly lovely. We keep in touch with them, and stayed there a couple of days on our way south.


Birtavarre, where the in-laws live. 700 km further south than Båtsfjord, and a bit more summery!

Engineer's Corner

Engineer's Corner
(Wendy Cope)

(Why isn't there an Engineers' Corner in Westminster Abbey? In Britain we've always made more fuss of a ballad than a blueprint...How many schoolchildren dream of becoming great engineers?
-- advertisement placed in The Times by the Engineering Council)

We make more fuss of ballads than of blueprints--
That's why so many poets end up rich,
While engineers scrape by in cheerless garrets.
Who needs a bridge or dam? Who needs a ditch?

Whereas the person who can write a sonnet
Has got it made. It's always been the way,
For everybody knows that we need poems
And everybody reads them every day.

Yes, life is hard if you choose engineering --
You're sure to need another job as well;
You'll have to plan your projects in the evenings
Instead of going out. It must be hell.

While well-heeled poets ride around in Daimlers,
You'll burn the midnight oil to earn a crust,
With no hope of a statue in the Abbey,
With no hope, even, of a modest bust.

No wonder small boys dream of writing couplets
And spurn the bike, the lorry and the train.
There's far too much encouragement for poets --
That's why this country's going down the drain.

Holiday is over

And I'll post photos one of these days... :-)

Here's a photo from today's sunday walk: