Tuesday 27 December 2011

DARK AND STOMRY

(...is a drink at the Kokomo Tiki bar but that's not what I'm after here.)


A storm swept over us yesterday of a seldom seen strength in Scandinavia. Some roofs and pieces of buildings flew off, traffic signs tipped over and trees broke down in the hard wind. The officials sent out warnings trough the media for people to stay inside. But what do the harbour workers do? Go out in the wind and load the ships! (which were not running by schedule I can tell you). We had to close down parts of the harbour due to safety risks as some contraptions were about to burst.

After finally finishing my very long and tiring week of work I drove out to Eddi in the countryside  where the electricity had been off since seven in the morning. Right after driving out of town and the suburb area everything was dark. When we left some hours ago, our place was still without power, even though the village nearby was lit. (Good thing I was busy and lazy and missed out on picking and storing berries last summer, as things in the freezer -some of those lambs you've seen in posts before...- had started to melt by then.)


Luckily we have a wooden stove to heat the house and cook food on. The house itself is not heated by electricity but by it's own wood chip system, but the system need electricity to run.
Candlelight and a burning fire is of coure cosy, but less cosy is the fact that unlike in the city, water here (from a well on the far) does not run by pressure bit the pump work with -you guessed it- electricity. So no running water and no working toilet. I've spent my summers in the archipelago without those comforts, but it's a little different in June than in December :)


I put candles everywhere. I learnt this trick with using old porcelain cups as candleholders from my friend Maiju, she again had spotted it in some store long time ago. It gives a very nice light!


Warming my feet by the oven and cooking tea.

It was not only the electricity that was not working, the mobile phone network, which usually is nothing to cheer about over there, was also pretty much down and I couldn't get online. That was it!
We're back in town now.

4 comments:

Frollein von Sofa said...

ooh la la, I was thinking of you when I heard about the storm yesterday. sometimes the power of nature can be really spooky...I always get a terrible headache when a storm is about to come.....glad, you "survived" it and I love all the candles in those tea cups ! best wishes for 2012 from woody and me

Chloe Innvaer said...

Welcome back! The pictures are wonderful, I have never been without power for that long, but I would think a bit of it is peaceful! I love having candles everywhere, but I don't know how I would do without internet! I am glad you made it out alive ;)

Miss Maple said...

I'm hoping you're warm and comfortable again now. I like the candles in the teacups. Looks almost magic.
Have a colourful day!

Carlin said...

I'm glad the power's back on for you!
I would like to say that I haven't had the power go out for longer than a moment or two since I lived in Wyoming, which is a state in the USA that's rather infamous for its bad weather.

I really, really want the power to go out for a long time, though, because I want to carry a candle around everywhere and pretend I'm in another time :)