Hi everyone and Happy New Year!
It’s been a couple of months since my last post in here. I really hoped that I would do some small updates in here more often, but 2023 was a busy, busy year all the way til the end of it. The most hard working year of my life. But it came with so many beautiful things that was very much worth the work. Especially my art studio, who took about 7 months of full focus and renovations to finish. But I got a treasure for a lifetime.

Honestly it feels so good that the year has come to an end now, and that I get to start a new chapter.
The first days of the year has been spent at home, keeping the fires alive in the stove and just taking care of myself, my family and my house. Because at this moment, it is -32 °C degrees outside and it’s been this cold for a couple of days. And even though it is very hard to keep our house warm, I love it with all my heart. The beauty of cold weather fuels me with energy and creative inspiration.

The past two days I’ve spent almost all time with daylight outside to capture the beautiful scenery of this frozen land. This morning the moon was seen above the trees in the pink, morning light and I rushed outside with my drone to fly away and get a better glimpse of it.

And the fire. The beautiful fire that feels like a door to ancient times.
The extreme cold temperatures forces you to take it slow and get warm by the fire. And even though we keep our house warm with fires throughout the whole winter, its not often that I truly sit by the fire for a long time to enjoy it. But when it’s this cold, it just happens naturally and it is the most magical thing.

Even the sound of it makes me feel so good. The sound of the wood breaking and snapping, and the flames moving. A kind of whisteling sound. Almost like strong winds heard from far away.

Beautiful little Nanook enjoying the sunlight as the sun just rised above the forest before it goes down again. Nanook is a winter lover, but his old age makes the winter harder on him, and his arthritis gets much worse when it’s this cold. So we take it very slow with him these days.
Just short walks outside in the garden, and a lot of rest and cuddles inside.

And the nights makes me feel like I’m in a dream. Or in a fairytale world.
The stars are shining so bright and the northern lights can be seen dancing on the sky almost every night. It’s so beautiful it almost hurts.

I stand there looking up in the vastness of the universe, and even though my mind is filled with a millions of questions without answers, i feel closer to the truth than ever before.

I took this photo of the nightsky last night, and the camera spent the whole night outside creating a beautiful timelapse that I will share in my next video.

It’s another beautiful night ahead of us now and I am just about to get out in the cold evening to set up my camera for another night under the stars. And then, I will enjoy a cup of warm tea in front of the fire.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you all a beautiful start on this new year. And thank you for being here. Sending you lots of love! ♥

49 thoughts on “Life in a frozen land

  1. Margreet Heidstra says:

    Hello Jonna & Johan, happy newyear to you to!!!! I wish you much peace & happinez and ballance for this new year❣️and a lot of love and health.
    I think that the both of you are so brave!!! It’s so cold in Grundtjärn and you are still happy and alive! I think that’s amazing. You are strong , verry strong if you can live there.
    Thank you for the beauty that you share with us. It’s really beautiful. Here in the Netherlands it’s raining for three months alreaddy. Much water everywhere, to much!
    But nature has his own way, we have to understand that. Nature tells us something. Ans when I look at your pictures, it tels me that the world is beautiful.
    Thank you Jonna🙏 take care & stay warm🔥
    Bug hug for you Johan Nanook and the cats🥰😘😘😘

  2. Julianne says:

    I just love the way you share your world with us. The beauty you capture from within your photos is absolutely majestic. Thank you Jonna!

    Lots of love,
    Julianne
    From Pennsylvania US

    • Alexis says:

      Our friennd Jonna,for sure we admire the same sky,from an other little corner on this cycle planet we see different colours but colours.Many many kisses on your Land and look over there you never Know some day we see the same Star.Happy new year in the hole jewelerry team over there.Yours faithfully ,we are your end and back on the journey of your letter.You are always welcome on our Land.Alexis

  3. Deirdre Faegre says:

    The photos are so inspiring, can I ask what camera you’re using? Makes me want to go to somewhere north of where I am right now!! <3

  4. Dimitri Hendrickx says:

    Thank you so much for sharing your life with us. It ‘s always relaxing and puts a smile on my face when I see how you are living your dream with Johan and Nanook. After all these years it feels like following a far away friend and I’m sure that your vlogs have such big heartwarming impact on so many people across the world. You’re doing the job of an angel 😇
    I wish you all the best for this new year, a lot of inspiration in your art studio and a lot of love! ❤️

  5. Anna says:

    Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos and how you spend the time in these cold days. Wow, -32°C is very very very cold. So good that you have a cozy fire to keep you warm. I send a big hug to you and your family and a big cuddle to Nanook ♡

  6. Christine says:

    Merci pour ces magnifiques photos! Je suis très impressionnée . Vivre dans le froid et loin de tout! Mais les paysages sont magnifiques. Très belle année!

  7. Janine says:

    Dear Jonna, happy new year to you, too! Your photos are stunning and even though the cold must be pretty challenging, it has a very primal energy 😊 I‘m just surprised that your equipment works in these circumstances though 😄 Lots of love to you and your family ✨

  8. Lori DeLapp says:

    Happy New Year! Watching your videos and looking at your beautiful photos is my morning meditation. I always get up very early, and am so excited when I see a new post. They set a calmness in me that I take throughout the day. Cheers to a wonderful 2024.

  9. Riitta Härkönen says:

    Happy New Year to you and Johan and Nanook!!

    Thanks a lot for sharing beautiful pictures. I´m so happy you have time to send videos to us. It feels like I´m with you in the mounntains and forests!
    Keep yourself warm.

  10. Merel says:

    Så vackert igen. Tack!! Happy new year to you all!! That this yearay bring a lot of beautiful moments, experience and creativity!

  11. [email protected] says:

    Happy New Year to you and your beautiful family Jonna ♥
    Thank you for shearing this beautiful photos with us. I can’t wait to see your new video soon :).
    The year 2023 was also difficult and bussy for me – from September to December 20, we renovated our house and that was crazy! So these days I’m just enjoying the peace. I hope that you will also rest now and gain a lot of new strength for the new projects you will do this year.
    Sending lots od love and warm hugs from Slovakia.

  12. theo tuitel says:

    hallo lieve Jonna, nog steeds erg blij steeds weer van je te horen, te lezen en de fotos te bewonderen met zeker onze vriend Nanook, die ik ook in mn hart heb gesloten. Good 2024 en veel succes met je nieuwe onderneming. Druk zijn en hebben is good, maar blijf denken en doen aan alles wat je daar buiten alleman wilt en kunt doen in de natuur. Je bent en blijft een natuurmens, daarom bewonder ik jou zo en hou nog steeds van je. Theo. Wordt dit jaar 90 jaar hehe.. Groetjes.

  13. Julia Kern says:

    Thank you, Jonna, for your beautiful words and pictures. Nature is just so breathtaking. Every season has it’s very own beauty. I‘m already looking forward to your next video 💙❄️ sending you lots of love!

  14. Dixiwonderland.com says:

    Kallt har det verkligen varit 😳 När jag har gått till jobbet strax efter fem på morgonen så har vi haft -22 här i Trollhättan. Jag tror aldrig att det har hänt tidigare. Under dagtid har vi ca 12 minus vilket är mycket för att vara här nere i landet. Nu ska vi snart få plusgrader och jag längtar för nu behöver jag vår efter denna långa vintern 😅

  15. LARS 8463 says:

    Godmorgon Jonna
    Jag har vridit om nyckeln.
    Så dunket från väggurets sekundvisare
    påstår att tiden går som vanligt.
    För mitt “jag” kan gången,
    före, under och efter,
    kännas så olika.
    Och när jag nu, efter.
    Vänder minnet mot, under.
    Byter kapitlet som gick.
    Perspektiv till, har det redan gått?
    Och ditt? till, har det bara gått?

    Tänk att ha fått tid.
    Tid att tillslut, stilla få stå i svaret.
    När Andromedas och Vintergatans
    nattljus förenas,
    Hur ser det ut då?

    Är det slut på lussebullarna?
    Klia Nanook och Johan!
    KRAM
    ❤️

  16. Constantin Tiberiu Lazar says:

    Dear Jonna,
    I enjoy this new meeting with you enormously.
    I wish you a happy New Year in health, luck and joy.
    With love Tiberiu

  17. Sofie V says:

    OMG, THIS is the foto I have been looking for in your shop but could not find it. Just a photo of the nightsky in lapiz lazuli blue with thousands of stars! I do hope you put it up for sale!

  18. Gary says:

    Greetings Joanna from the beach in North Carolina, USA!
    Your lovely photos and inspiring words (as well as your grand videos) have amazed and inspired me for years. I would love to visit your beautiful homeland…but maybe not when it’s -32 Celsius. Ha!
    New Year’s blessings for a wonderful 2024!

  19. Mary Grigat says:

    Dear Jonna,
    A very happy and creative New Year to you! These new photos are so very lovely. You are so right about winter feeding the soul. When I am feeling low I just look for one of your videos or look at the photos and drone footage you create, and this makes me remember beauty. Thank you for all you do!
    Mary

  20. Marie says:

    Dear Jonna,

    Happy New Year to you too! Thank you for sharing your everyday moments and special experiences on your blog. I’ve been following your blog since the beginning, admiring your beautiful pictures and witnessing your artistic journey. Your sensitivity and appreciation for nature resonate with me deeply. Your life has been a constant source of inspiration and a place of longing for me. After all these years, I just wanted to say “Thank you.”

    Best regards.

  21. Hrafna-Flóki says:

    “And the fire. The beautiful fire that feels like a door to ancient times.”

    Indeed, first is hard to forget an image from relatively recent times, when you laid curled up with Nanook in front of a stove in a hall of an old school. I have always admired your strength and persistence. I have wondered how a young woman can so courageously endure so many hardships ? Most of the other people would have run away after few days.

    On the surface there seem to be two currents in your life pulling you in opposite directions. One pulled you out of Gothenburg to
    Grundtjärn and pulls you further to Marsfjällen. The other one pulls you back to the city like Sollefteå. It seems like contradiction
    but when I reflected on it they are not opposite. You explained it the best through an expression you used in one of your latest
    Instagram posts: “The best of two worlds”.

    Neither excessive poverty and hardships nor excessive wealth and convenience are particularly conductive for creative and
    spiritual endeavours. The issue is how to find a proper balance between these two. Material energies, related to survival of our
    vehicles in this world, our physical bodies, have a tendency to increasingly absorb our attention. If you recall the story of swami’s
    underwear, one has to constantly ask a question how many pairs of underwear does one really need ? Nobody can answer this question for you. You have to make your own decisions according to your own priorities. It is a fine balancing act.

    Fire can bring memory of more distant times. There is such a tremendous yearning in so many people to find an authentic doorway leading beyond the world they perceive with their senses. I wrote long time ago that people consider you more than just a girl on social media living in a northern Sweden. They relate to you as a spiritual leader. In this context It is amusing to observe how we cannot outrun our own destiny.

    Isn’t hanging jewelry on a Mother Tree overnight performing a form of shamanic ritual ? This is what shamans and shamanesses do.
    They perform rituals to propitiate and invoke Powers grater than ourselves to grand healing and prosperity for individuals and the whole tribes they belong to. People already relate to you as a völva and you act in this capacity whether you are conscious of it,
    ready to accept it, like it or not. But don’t get upset by the news that destiny rules our lives. We can change it but but change
    requires appropriate knowledge and skillful action. More about it next time.

    Hanging jewellery on the tree overnight has some implications. If you allow even the slightest possibility that this can make a difference
    for anybody, you have to allow a potential that shamanic healing of Nanook is also possible. This two events belong to the same
    category, don’t you think. I don’t mean accept it, just allow it. Story you told us can make a great mythological saga I started working on.
    I call it a “Saga of a benevolent Völva”.

    I wish you, your family and all of your followers wonderful, successful year 2024. Lots of love. ❤️

  22. Aimee says:

    Such beautiful photos, but I am very glad that it doesn’t get that cold here (although we are very cold here too right now). I’m glad you are at the end of your “get shit done” year and now have space for other creative endeavors. 🙂 I think that my 2024 is a combo of hibernation for the winter, and then get shit done when it warms up again.

  23. Hrafna-Flóki says:

    🌲🌲🌲🌲 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲 SAGA OF THE BENEVOLENT VÖLVA 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

    Once upon a time during a Viking Age, in wild forests and mountains of northern Scandinavia, what is today a part of Sweden,
    lived beautiful, wise, powerful, benevolent völva named Jóhanna. Everybody loved Jóhanna and she loved her people.
    Every month she came to a Great Hall to tell her people a new, uplifting story. Even the battle-hardened Viking warriors used to sneak
    into a Great Hall by the back door during her visits. They also kept leaving before the other people, so nobody could notice their strangely watery eyes.

    Everybody loved Jóhanna but she was particularly fond of handsome, young warrior named Jóhann. Ignoring the teasing of his
    comrades, he used to come to the Great Hall first, sit in a front row and lovingly gaze into her penetrating, blue eyes.

    Jóhanna did everything she could for her beloved people. Among other things she produced magical amulets of good luck, happiness, and prosperity for them. In order to fortify amulets with magical powers, she used to hang them overnight the on a large Mother Tree growing near her dwelling. Only Jóhanna knew that the Mother Tree was a tip of a branch of a Great Tree of Yggdrasill
    protruding from the ground and had an immense magical power.

    When an evil trickster Loki learned about this ritual, he was furious. He despised an idea of people enjoying good luck, being happy
    and prosperous rather than being unlucky, unhappy and miserable. He shape-shifted into fox and stole a bag of magical amulets
    hanging on the Mother Tree. He didn’t notice though that when he grabbed it, his sharp canine teeth cut the bag and magical amulets
    started escaping from it one by one. When an evil trickster realized that he won’t be able to hang on to them, he dropped the bag and run away.

    When Jóhanna discovered the trail of escaped amulets she courageously followed it. She recovered them all and distributed them among her people. The moral of this story is that good luck will not stay with evil persons. It will desert them sooner rather than later.

    Völvas usually were single women but nothing could keep Jóhanna and jóhann apart. They married and lived long, happy life together.
    When they approached the end of it, their love for each other was still very powerful. However they knew that their spirits are always connected in a mystical dimension, they desired to experience their life together in Midgard again.

    Jóhanna could not resist using her powers and pulled few magical strings to make it happen. Technically it was a violation of the rules
    of Midgard since this decisions are made by the Norns. Sitting on Hliðskjálf Allfather saw what she did but touched by the power of
    her love for Jóhann, he was happy to let her get away with it. The rest of the story unfolds before your own eyes.

  24. Stuart says:

    Hej Jonna, just woke up and in my dream through the night, you Johan and Adrian were here to visit me! Eating cakes and deciding what to do with some gem stones 🙂 It must be 10 years now since we’ve been chatting about Aurora photos! anyway, the door is open and coffee is on.. 😉

  25. Hrafna-Flóki says:

    Nanook’s latest problems are a manifestation of what I have been trying to point you to for the last few years. Your mental and particularly emotional state may profoundly affect your physical environment and everything in it. While this is true for everyone,
    the influence you may have is much stronger, especially with objects you have a very deep emotional connection to.

    As you put it, Nanook is a foundation of your life, after so many years together you are practically a one living organism.
    Whatever happens in one part of it, immediately affects the other part, especially when this part is vulnerable due to its age.
    Nanook’s latest predicaments are a direct result of a fear you have about loosing your art studio. Just look at it, when he got cough you prayed a lot. This means you took your attention off your fear and put it on Nanook’s well-being and he got better. When you relaxed,
    meaning your fear had a chance to capture some your attention again, he got a vestibular syndrome.

    To get to the bottom of it, one really needs to figure out what is this fear all about, where is coming from and what can be done
    to get rid of it. You use profound words trying to answer these questions.

    “My art studio is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received in my life. It is hard to explain why. But it gives me feeling of safety that
    I’ve never had in a place before. It feels like I’ve been looking for it all my life and now I have it. I just have this deep fear of losing it.
    I wish I could stop dreaming these horrible dreams. I am sure if I just give it some time I am going to be able to just feel Gratitude instead of this fear of losing it.”

    First thing that strikes in these worlds is that what you really care about is the feeling of safety that you have been looking for all
    your life and not the building itself. You just happen to believe that this feeling is somehow connected to the building.
    Maybe this not the case at all. I will continue in the next comment coming soon.

  26. Hrafna-Flóki says:

    Your dilemma is like the one of a newborn baby. After coming into this strange world, it discovers that there is a wonderful, nurturing presence of its (Divine) Mother, that gives it a miraculous sense of security. Because the baby sees its (Divine) Mother mostly in the nursery (art studio), it concludes that if something happens to the nursery, it will lose connection with its (Divine) Mother and security coming from being in Her presence. But it is not a building itself that connected you to the Divine Mother but your intention, attention, effort and persistence that you put into transforming it into a temple. Buildings may come and go but having this attitude, you will never lose connection with Her.

    Divine Mother gave you this studio because you got a job to do – inspiring others. This studio is your tool to do just that. Why would She allow anything happen to it. Divine Mother dwells in your studio herself. One cannot imagine better protection than that. Her intention is to preserve it and you cannot have any doubts that She controls everything in this manifest reality.
    Yes, one day your art studio will turn into dust but this is not coming anytime soon.

    She sent you a reassurance in your dream. When the fire of your fear started consuming your studio, firefighters come immediately. They have knowledge, experience, equipment and extinguish the fire instantly. But your materialistic conditioning kicks in. You fail to recognize that they are the Divine Firefighters, sent by a Divine Mother, who can be everywhere in the same time. By believing that they have other places to go, you send them away. When the fire ignites again, you realize that your individual resources are tragically inadequate to cope with it (slow faucet).

    Seek guidance of The Divine Mother and you will be able to extinguish the fire of your fear swiftly. Do not allow conditioning
    of a materialistic society you grew up in to stand in a way.

    And you need this guidance for another reason. You have to be free of fear to support Nanook. Without your support he literally
    cannot stand on his own. Lots of love ❤️

  27. Hanna says:

    Av någon anledning kunde jag inte kommentera under din video så jag skriver här, vet inte om du läser. Med anledning av din dröm om att ateljén brinner ner. När vi hade köpt vårt hus oroade jag mig ofta för att komma hem till en hög med aska. Det finns många andra saker jag oroat mig för också, jag kunde ligga vaken på nätterna. För mig har det fungerat att kapitulera. Acceptera tanken att huset kanske brinner ner, men jag lever åtminstone. Samma sak med djuren. Ja, min häst kanske bryter benet i ishalkan. Men jag lever åtminstone och jag kan glädja mig åt den tid vi haft. Min mamma dog 2023. Jag hann inte oroa mig så mycket, det tog bara tre månader från sjukdomsbeskedet. Men jag fick kapitulera inför sorgen och låta den skölja över mig. Din dröm om ateljén kanske även speglar oron för hunden. Förhoppningsvis kan den släppa taget om dig nu när han blir bättre. Och tack för inspirationen att “sätta igång”! Jag har ett eget projekt som jag påbörjat nu i januari, som tar mig utanför bekvämlighetszonen men som jag plötsligt kände att jag MÅSTE göra. Dina videos ger inspiration. Tack!

  28. Laurie says:

    Hello, Jonna. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. I appreciate how you can be grateful for your surroundings even when it’s so bitterly cold. And thank you for sharing photos from a part of the world that I will never get to see. Take care.

  29. Maureen Dunn says:

    Dear Jonna and Johan,
    What a blessing and treat to have discovered you on my tv’s YouTube app after cancelling my YouTubetv subscription. I was motivated to begin for the first time painting with water colors. But…I’m finding myself intimidated about beginning and daunted by building a space in my condo for a micro studio. Would you have any thoughts to a green, newbie person desiring to touch my inner creativity at 63 yo. I feel now is my time.

    Thanks from the depth of my heart for sharing your life and love of nature and your soulful relationship and life with Johan and beautiful Nanook. Spelling ??

    Warmly,
    Maureen Dunn 🫶🏻❄️
    Rhode Island, USA

  30. Katja says:

    Jonna, thank you for this winter freshness and your warmth in sharing your heart.
    I am sending so much love!!
    I am very thankful for you.
    Thank you! ✨❤️✨

  31. Brian Seeley says:

    Jonna,

    I’ve never replied to a blog or a YouTube video before, but your video explaining Nanuk’s situation really touched me. I don’t know if there’s any chance you’ll see the comment I left on that YouTube video, but my YouTube name is “publicservantforlife”. I described something that may be a one in a million chance of helping your beautiful dog, but who knows? Maybe a one in a million chance will work for him…I hope so. In that YouTube comment I describe a situation that made me feel like Nanuk looks like. I meant to include a link to what I had and how I was cured of it, but forgot before hitting the send button. Here’s the link to what I wanted you to consider, even though you may need a very open-minded vet to try this:
    https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/canalith-repositioning-procedure/about/pac-20393315
    Good luck and give Nanuk a hug for all of us who love him too!

    Brian

  32. Lauren Skrobot says:

    There’s nothing more peaceful that a winter’s night, surrounded by stars that connect all of us, that make us feel a magnetic pull to the wide universe out there. The stars have always felt like a warm hug, not unlike that of spending an evening curled up by the fire. I think it’s because these things have been around for eons and will continue to exist for many more. I also find truth in them, and while I still ask questions to the night sky, something these days is pulling me inward towards reflection.

    I just recently moved to Colorado (from Florida) where I have had my first chance exploring a frozen wonderland, listening to the ice creak under my feet and seeing the beauty everywhere I turn. It has been a profound change and one that I hope helps me align with who I am and my want to be closer the mountains and to nature. We moved out here because we fell in love with being out in the wild and being able to photograph others just like us.

    Jonna, you are the most inspiring person I know of, thank you for always showing us the beauty of the world and the beauty of being honest and open with ourselves.

  33. Silia Kontothanasi says:

    Thank you Jonna once again for bringing that magic in our lives. Those pictures are literally breath-taking . I can imagine the deep silence up in those mountains where only the sounds of the forest , the trees and the wind can be heard. I wish all the best !! Sending much love from Athens.

  34. Julia O'Donovan says:

    I’m reading this a bit late, but I still loved the beautiful winter pictures nonetheless 🩵 That picture of Nanook is so sweet 💖

  35. Angela Ang says:

    Hi Jonna
    Great I found your YouTube channel.
    I am enjoying watching your videos and listen your voice and words.
    I am visit your part of world in Jan 2025. May I know how to prepare in such an extreme cold climate. How many layers is need. Awaiting to your tips.

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