Endtimes

The first thing to say is that I think this blog has been moving, like all things, slowly but inexorably towards its natural end. I started writing here to record observations about my life in the Arctic, to give myself a forum and so that my friends could follow my progress (that way they needn't imagine me freezing in grim darkness beside an igloo). But Marthe and I have now entered our last days of Arctic life. We left our jobs for good yesterday. We are packing all we own into cardboard boxes. This is not because we don't love it here, but simply because we are moving on. In a few days we'll start the journey south to Trondheim and from there to elsewhere. Some weeks from now we'll be starting a new life all over again, this time in Bergen.

Like many people who read too much fiction, I tend to view my life in chapters. This new move should signal some kind of ending, moving as we are from the country to the city. All being well, I'll also be moving from full time work into full time education. It would be strange to carry on this same site after such a complete upheaval so I think I'll soon stop posting here. Even the name of this page is tied up with discussion of Nordreisa and the surrounding area. Though I haven't always written as much as I'd like, I hope I've succeeded in communicating something of this incredible place. I encourage anyone who hasn't been to the north of Norway to come and experience it for themselves. Maybe I'll feel compelled to write about Bergen once we're settled there, but if so I think it would be better to start a new page than to do so here. Either way, I'll leave this diary up as a souvenir, and for anyone who might happen by and find themselves interested to hear about the time we have spent here.

The story is not quite over yet though. The spring came here with an incredible heatwave that saw us swimming in the sea a few weekends ago. Now the beginning of summer is upon us, and like last year that has meant that the area we live in has been characterised by low-lying cloud and legions of free range sheep, as well as the migration of the reindeer. We've gone to places and seen things I haven't had chance to write about or share pictures of here. So, over the next few days and weeks I'll be posting a series of final updates, starting with the post about Kirkenes and the Russian border that I originally intended to put up some weeks back before I got caught up in work and exams. I also want to write a little about the witch trials in North Norway, amongst other things. I'll probably also want to share something of the trip from here southwards. The chances are that I'll still be looking back at the time Marthe and I have spent here in the far North while we're settling into our small flat in the west country.

So, I hope those people who read this blog will enjoy these final posts, and I'd be happy to hear from anyone who's been reading regularly here over these last 20 months (there are not hundreds of you, but I know there are a few). I'm looking forward to putting these coming posts together, and I'm looking forward to the future beyond that too.