Winter solstice

Just as the queen cancelled her Sandringham plans, we decided to stay in Umeå for Christmas rather than taking the train up to Kiruna. Even if Anna is still really sick, the kids had at least recovered enough to join me for a hike in the cold winter sunshine, completing Strava’s one-hour “Winter Solstice Walk” challenge and checking out the cross-country skiing scene near Grössjön. The picture below was taken at noon, so the sun really does not climb much above the horizon at this latitude.

Though perhaps a bit stupid given my own health status but I did also run 10 km this morning, meaning that I now only have 96 km left to run during the ten days that remain of 2021. With Kiruna cancelled, I am thinking of spending some of my expiring SJ points on a train trip south sometime during the first week of 2022. Given my special January challenge (more on that in another post) and all the teaching I have coming up, I think it will be a bit difficult for me to do anything except running and working during the latter part of the month :-)