It does not get much more "Arctic" than this

With the holiday season well in the rear-view mirror and as the temperature continuing to plummet life here in the Norwegian arctic has slowed down quite a bit. Its not like Vadsø is a particularly lively place during the best of times, but things have been slow, even for Finnmark standards. For that reason when ever there is anything going on getting out an trying to enjoy it is not just "a nice thing to do" its a necessity in the struggle to sane! Ok, I guess I am getting a little gloomy here... but can you really blame me? heh, oh well. Anyway as you can probably tell by the photos the sun is now back and we are actually gaining about 10-15 mins of daylight every day (which is a reason to celebrate in of itself). I have been doing my best to get out with Emma and snap as many photos as possible, but my moody daughter and the cold has made it increasingly difficult. However when we do get it out we enjoy the crisp air and are happy to take advantage of any photographic opportunities. Today Emma and I made our way in to town to photograph some of the competitors in the local leg of a Dog sledding tournament. Having never seen anything quite like it, I thought it was quite exotic though the barking of literally hundreds of dogs was stressing poor little Emma out something fierce. In any case it was a good time. Hope you enjoy the photos!.