The institute where I work is located close to Prestvannet, the lake on top of Tromsø island – one of my favourite places in Tromsø. I love visiting the lake in all seasons, here are some photos taken in winter, in autumn and in summer. When I first started my job, I imagined lunch breaks spent at the lake 🙂 But I forgot that as a meteorologist on duty you can’t really leave the building during your lunch break 😀 Oh well, I try to visit either before or after my shifts instead.

Last night I worked the late shift, which finishes at 23:00. It had been a beautiful sunny day (though only 10 degrees!), but it was becoming more cloudy during the evening. The light is at its most beautiful at this time. It was very quiet and the reflections were beautiful.

There are lots of birds nesting around the lake. Seagulls, terns, ducks and (red-throated) loons. The loons are beautiful birds, and their call is quite amazing. They have several different sounds they can make, some of them sounds more like a wolf howling than a bird! Below is a photo of a loon just landing on the lake, and in the other photo you can see a loon sitting on a nest.

What a nice walk! And slightly more successful than my previous attempt… About a month ago, in early May, it was beautiful weather and I thought I could take some nice photos of Tromsdalstinden reflected in Prestvannet. Except I forgot that it takes a while for all the ice to melt 😀 I got wet shoes from walking around in quite deep snow, but I did get some nice photos of the sea gulls that were already gathering, waiting for summer to start. Looking back, it’s hard to believe it still looked so wintery just one month ago!

More photos soon 🙂 Ti på Topp has started again, and we climbed our first top last weekend. In less than ideal weather – it was actually snowing! – but it was a nice hike. I hope to do another one this week. Paul is in Oslo this week for a conference. Lucky him, it’s 20 degrees there!