Week 171 December 12 to December 19

Manuela Morgaine

Breathing the sky, December 9, 2023.

Ruth Maclennan

Fuglefjella, Svalbard, October 2023

This is the view northwest from Fuglefjella – Bird Mountain. The birds had all flown South when we hiked up here, though we saw a pair of ptarmigans and a few reindeer. 

We climbed up a narrow ravine and along the plateau to the edge of this cliff. It was snowing and windy, until we reached this view of a string of pink mountains floating above the sea. I fell under the same spell as everyone else, imagining Ultima Thule – the overused northern no-place, to yearn for but never reach. Tired out and with freezing fingers and noses, standing on the edge, only 1400 miles from the North Pole made it almost believable that over the horizon was a heavenly land of milk and honey.      

Katja Stuke

Katja Stuke, Cars, Osaka Ikuno, 2017

Liza Dimbleby

Winter Sun, November 2023