Three wise men (Dickie Winter Base Commander, MVT Bonner Lab Manager, Simon Field Ops Manager)

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Angels (Beakers and Claire Doc)

Mr and Mrs Clause! (Matt Doc and Johnny Mech)

Some things in Antarctic waters are much larger than anywhere else one species is that of parbolasia corrugates a giant antarctic marine worm. This picture was taken by the marine assistant at Rothera – Terri.

Terri on christmas eve doing CTD

Today was the most beautiful day of the season and luckily for me I wasn’t on SAR! It is still stunning outside at midnight! This is the problem with continuous daylight you never want to go to bed when it is such amazing weather and you also can’t stand being inside.

We left at 10:30am and got back to station at 5:30pm after bagging all three stork peaks. We started at the northern end of the range and worked our way along the traverse which was rocky at some points and had lots of snow in other areas so we had to take our crampons on and off. There was a group of 8 of us and we roped up in two lines of four people in each. Lots of tea and cake breaks were required especially as the scenery was so breathtaking. We could see the islands reflected in the perfect calm of Ryder Bay. On my radio I could hear the coxs on SAR enjoying time on the boats out on the water as many people on base decided that was the place to be on such a beautiful day.

Two weeks ago I felt very ordinary as we had open mic night in the bar. There really is so much talent here at Rothera and lots of it is hidden under a bushel as it were.

Lots of people got up with immense talent playing instruments. Unfortunately due to the bandwidth limitation I can’t put a video up. We had banjos, guitars, electric guitars, piano and Mel’s beautiful voice. It went on until late friday night.

My presents – a fruit bowl from Clive and a painting from Matt Doc

Claire and Adam at dinner

Clive and I at dinner

My present to Claire the bookcase finished and filled!

Back to work this morning Boxing Day at 7am with two hands stitches are out. Christmas was amazing day off. I have this evening off and tomorrow. Already done one SAR today for the airplanes and will be taking a group to Lagoon to stay on the island tonight at lunch time. Meantime catching up with some work in the boatshed and helping in the kitchen. It is a beautiful day down here and I need to go work off christmas dinner! Love to all.

All day you can hear the ice shifting and sometimes at night you will hear what sounds like thunder or artillery fire. The other night I was sitting up at the memorial at 10pm and saw a little bit of snow moving on the ice cliff at south cove. Unfortunately I didn’t get my camera out quickly enough but this picture shows the brash ice and the waves created by a large calving from the cliff and you can see the fresh blue ice.

It reminds me to stay a sensible distance away when I can in the boats.

After the nativity play last night which is the best I have ever seen and mince pies and mulled wine the four of us headed up for some christmas eve skiing and vals. The snow was really beautiful for skiing but unfortunately with my stitches it was a no go for me.

Claire, Adam, Clive and I spent the night in the caboose and woke up to presents on christmas morning. The bookcase for Claire was too big to get up to the caboose so some elves put it in her room for when she got back in the morning.

Adam and Claire had to be at work by 9am so they left early Clive and I stayed till past midday we had to take down the pyramid tent and I wanted to make a snowman.

We had some visitors Ant and Simon came up and as Clive had the guitar we spent an hour just listening to three talented people and made our way down for brunch.

Phone calls and opening of gifts and before you know it it was time to set the tables for christmas dinner. I got some beautiful presents – Clive made a fruit bowl on the lathe, Claire made me a gingerbread house kit and lots of yummy things from home, Adam gave me a flight in the UK with him on the planes he flies and Matt Doc my secret santa dd a beautiful water color of a twin otter over Jenny Island framed. Wow I am a lucky person.

After too much food and chocolate it was time to watch some 007 in the form of Casino Royale and then bed time at 11pm as I had to be at work this morning.

Hope you had an amazing day with friends and family.

Love
Ash

The sea ice and brash is in Hanger Cove pushed against the runway right over the sediment plates that needed changing out. We also needed to do some collections. I picked up 50 urchins while Terri took pictures of the sediment panels and did some other collections. The north side of the runway is very different diving from south cove as there is much more scouring by icebergs so it is not as diverse in terms of species and what there is a lot deeper. There are lots of nemertean worms along with the urchins.

Looking out from the Caboose last night at the tents.

Tents dusted with snow this morning
The station this morning covered in snow.

Last night Adam kindly took me up to the caboose at Vals as I can’t drive a skidoo yet and I stayed at the cabin. It snowed all night and was really beautiful this morning with the light on the Bay. This morning the snow was a foot thick and with not a single track pristine as far as they eye could see.

The station has a sewing loft which is a great place to hide away and do projects if the weather is not good for boating. I spent the morning making fire extinguisher covers admitedly one and half handed as my stitches come out on christmas day.