A Tale of Two Elk

This picture was published in our local paper, Hallingdølen early in 2010 (before we moved here) and received a commendation in the yearly Newspaper and Magazine Awards.

The story behind the picture is that of an elk that managed to jump in through the sitting room window of an elderly lady, living in Ål in sheltered accomodation. The elk became extremely stressed as it could not find the way out, and you don’t really want a large, stressed elk in your house. So she wandered down the corridor to find a neighbour who was a registered hunter. He came with his gun and put the elk out of its misery. 

On a similar theme, I found this video from the 8th of February of this year. Looking at the relatively minor damage to the car I suspect that the driver was able to brake before hitting the elk. Also in their favour was that they were driving a large 4×4 and the laminated windscreen was probably bonded into the window frame. Your average adult elk weighs between 300 and 400kg, which is as heavy as four adults and not something you want to hit at any speed.

The outcome would have been quite different if the car had been a normal passenger car and/or the car had been travelling faster at the point of impact. You can understand why temporary signs warning of the danger of elk crossing are placed on the main roads during winter.

First sun day

On the 23rd of January we got the first hint of sun in the house. We noticed the faintest of shadows on the wall in the living room for the first time since late November. Up to this point the house had been bright enough, but lit with a light so diffuse that there were no shadows cast through the window. So this was a cause to celebrate, and Damae clearly enjoyed the moment.

This shadow was caused by the slightest sliver of the sun poking up above the lowest part of the valley wall across from us. It lasted perhaps just ten minutes before the sliver disappeared.

It would take until the 1st of February before we had a real sharp shadow cast on the wall.

The round ball of the sun was now clearly visible above the valley.

It is really lovely to have the sun back in the house. It will be a couple of weeks before we see the sun all day above the valley, that date will also go into our diary. But for now, a couple of hours a day of full sunshine, warms the house up nicely and bathes our part of Gol with dazzling winter light.