2006-07-23

This week was, basically, beautiful but boring. Not tedious, exactly, just not very special. Outside it's getting brighter and brighter. Fewer stars shine through the lighter blue of the sky. Bumps and ripples in the snow cast diffuse shadows. It's hard to believe that a month has passed since midwinter, and we'll soon see the sun again.

Inside we've fixed the pool table to obey something close to the laws of physics we'd grown up to expect. We were tempted to leave it bumpy and rutted as the local knowledge would have helped in the summer pool competition, but we gave in once balls had to climb hills to enter the pockets. As a prelude to our first short trips sometime in August we got the jingly-janglies out and spent a morning rescuing each other from the crevasses that lurk in the lounge and bar.

As ever we've been filling up the melt tank. As it has been very cold outside (-35 C) the mound of snow around the shaft has frozen solid and yeilds only to a hefty blow from a mattock. The last couple of days have given us a blessing with winds just strong enough to drift snow along the ground (in vague snaking forms at knee height) which fills in the funnel just above the hole down to the tank. This drifted snow is soft and easy to dig, although it does mean we have to excavate the opening of the shaft before we can fling all the snow back down and into the melt tank. Usually we have a team of three people digging snow for about twenty minutes every day, but because everyone was feeling friendly and fancied a bit of exercise eight of us went out today. With only seven shovels between us I decided to take some pictures instead of digging. Quite relaxing, if you ask me.

Orange

Purple blue (with Chris)

Dull but bright day

Melt tank shaft filled with drifted snow

Mass melt tank filling