Aurora borealis

Aurora borealis (also called Northern lights). Already the sound of these two words are pure magic for me. Imagine parts of the sky glowing in - mostly - green light. Its form changing constantly. Sometimes the light is very bright with sharp edges, sometimes it's blurry. I usually go 'hunting' for them when I have the chance.

Since I arrived back home a few nights should have been good. There was only one problem: clouds. Every single time. Through facebook I joined a group alerting each other when the saw lights or chances were good.

Tonight was another alert. The sky was clear at -16C. I managed to convince my wife to join me in the search. The first few stops were not promising. Clear sky but no Northern lights, typical. So we went on to the next place. While driving there my wife saw some green light. I couldn't wait to park the car somewhere and get out. Fifteen kilometers Northeast of town into the middle of nowhere we finally found the perfect spot. What better way of telling what I saw than sharing a few shots:

A different arrival - the 'mental' gate

It's been a few weeks since coming back home and finally I arrived mentally as well. In the beginning a day felt like an hour and a week like a day. Seems I'm adjusting rather slowly.

Last night I finished arranging the pictures from our time in the US and a first strong wave of 'home-sick' hit me. People, places, it all felt so far away. Arriving home mentally was definitely the reason for that. Before I 'was' still in the US with our group, but now it really feels more like a memory. This is difficult but looking into the future makes me smile. There are so many ways and possibilities to reconnect with friends!

One other thing helped me (and still does!). A friend told me this:
"Don't have any regrets. The worst thing would be to go to the airport and thinking: Why didn't I see this or why didn't I do that."

Today the sky here is very bright, -10, sunshine and no clouds. So I went to our backyard for some pictures and I enjoyed a small vitamin-D dose (remember: no regrets :).

It's the sun!

Hats

Half past noon