A good thing about living in Norway is that we have a short, easy ride to our house in the north – to the Arctic Circle where the sun never sets.

DHH owns the family house with a group of relatives, and there is a rotation system giving everybody a fair share of the summer months. This year we had the place to ourselves in June. Around here June is generous with light, but, we are afraid to say, often also with the rain and the wind.

For this reason much of our time was spent indoors. However, if you cannot go out into nature you can also sit and wait for nature to come to you. The birds fly by our window, the hare and the otter patrol the grass fields and the water, and if you are very lucky some big game also come your way!

This happened a bit past midnight on a Saturday night when we were still up, browsing the net and doing our knitting. In the corner of our eyes, three meters from our living room window, appears a mother elk and her calf. They had another adult for company, and the three of them spent almost a full half hour circling our house. An elk protecting her young cannot be trusted to be very friendly to intruding photographers, but in this case they stayed close enough to let themselves be pictured thru the windows.

The night shift at work! Our living room is very good place to sit in case something big appears between the window and the water.

DHH’s grandfather built this house in 1930. This pic is from 1964, and the place looks more or less the same today.

We had some visitors, and we wanted to take them to the local mountain cafe and viewpoint. We did not stay long, however!

Mostly, we had to entertain our visitors indoors.

The Grandmother was the kitchen’s first owner, here pictured ca 1957

Mowing the lawn (I) DHH age 3, his parents and grandfather in front of the outhouse in 1956.

Mowing the lawn (II) DHH and the same outhouse in 2017. The equipment has changed, and there is nobody around to eat the grass anymore.

No fishing this year, the hooks are gathering rust on the outhouse walls.

The eternal knitter – outdoors on a rare day of sunshine.

DHH’s flying favourites are still around to scream at one another.

Due north! From our place the sun at midnight is partially hidden by a low island, but since we are a fraction south of The Arctic Circle we would not see the full disc anyway. However, we have full daylight at midnight for a couple of months.

DHH carries his pro photo equipment wherever he goes, but ES proves you can also get good shots with your phone.

Our barn is older than our house, it has been part of the landscape for more than one hundred years.

The Grandfather´s sheep in 1961.

The midnight sun also decorates the inside of the house. The exact time is given by the radio.

We had three visitors one night. We only got pictures of two of them. We were happy we had solid walls and a pane of glass between the vigilant mommy and ourselves.

As always, the grass is of course greener on the other side.

June is the time for mothers and babies. With this pair however, DHH dared to take his camera and himself a little closer.