

The best back yard I’ve ever had
Published: 12/06/2020
Reading time: 3 minutes

This was the view from my living room window last weekend. I was wandering out of the kitchen and did a double-take, suddenly captivated by this breath-taking view that had simply presented itself to me without my having to so much as step outside the front door. ‘Do I really live here?’ I thought. I forgot what I was doing and just watched this guy walking up the pristine white snow that had fallen overnight. Just him and his dog. I opened the window and let the crisp, cold air pour in, bringing the scene outside right into my living room. But I felt like a voyeur, somehow trespassing on their privacy, breathing their air, and I closed the window again, returning the outside scene to its rightful place.
This view, out the back of our house, has to be one of the best things about living in Nuuk. Our backyard is this mountain – sometimes an immense and silent backdrop to the falling snow, sometimes a foreboding greyness in the thundering wind and rain.

When the snow is deep and powdery, kids flock to the back of the house to dig holes and tunnels. Our son has been known to leap, with his friends, from the window, disappearing in howls of laughter into the powdery whiteness below. One memorable and very snowy winter we dug a snow cave immediately behind the house – a cosy and silent hideaway that we filled with rugs, sleeping bags, and pillows, and lit with candles. Being only metres from our living room window and our home wifi, our little family snuggled in for the night to see a Netflix film, watching our frozen breaths condense above us as we drifted off to sleep.
I like to sit with the window open, breathing in the cool air and listening to the nothingness radiating from our mountain. But sometimes I am surprised and flinch at a swooshing sound as the occasional skier shoots past, sometimes waving from only metres away. Again, I feel that I have somehow crossed between two worlds, that I am not entitled to experience this pristine natural beauty, sitting, as I am, at my dining table.

In the winter, the midday sun baths our mountain in brilliant white light. In the early spring, the sun’s drawn-out descent coats the lingering snow in a blanket of pastel evening light, first yellow, then pink. In late spring, water pours over its rocky slopes and rushes down the stream by the side of our house in a surging torrent. And in summer people wander, zig-zagging, loitering on the bushy slope, hunched over, chatting and collecting blueberries.
And only once in a while, there is an even better view of our mountain than from our living room. On those rare occasions, I lie in bed in the darkness, watching the ghostly, green lights – drifting, dancing – silhouetting the dark horizon of the mountain that is our backyard.
Read more travel blogs from Arctic Alien
-
3 Day Glacier Adventure | Kangerlussuaq
Tour startsKangerlussuaqDuration3 daysFrom 7995 DKKSee more -
Flights Included!
Wonders of Greenland | South Greenland
Tour startsFrom Copenhagen From IcelandDuration8 daysFrom 24500 DKKSee more -
5.00(5)Wild, wonderful & vast
Kapisillit Settlement Visit | Nuuk
Tour startsNuukDuration6 hoursFrom 2095 DKKSee more -
Includes 1 to 7 Passengers!
Kangersuneq Fjord Safari | Private Charter | Qasigiannguit | Diskobay
Tour startsQasigiannguitDuration5 hoursFrom 6200 DKKSee more -
Winter In Ilulissat | 5 Days | Disko Bay
Tour startsIlulissatDuration5 daysFrom 5500 DKKSee more -
Private charter!
Midnight Sun Cruise | Maniitsoq | West Greenland
Tour startsManiitsoqDuration2 hoursFrom 3700 DKKSee more -
5.00(7)
Afternoon Kayak among Icebergs | Ilulissat | Disko Bay
Tour startsIlulissatDuration3 hoursFrom 1295 DKKSee more -
Dog Sled Expedition | Tasiilaq | East Greenland
Tour startsTasiilaqDuration5 hoursFrom 1700 DKKSee more -
Flights included!
Hike and Kayaking | South Greenland
Tour startsFrom Copenhagen From IcelandDuration8 daysFrom 21400 DKKSee more -
Accommodation and tours included!
4 Days with Wildlife Safaris, Glacier Hikes, and Arctic Cuisine | Kangerlussuaq
Tour startsKangerlussuaqDuration4 daysFrom 6560 DKKSee more -
4.89(28)
Nuuk Icefjord | Nuuk
Tour startsNuukDuration6 hoursFrom 2195 DKKSee more -
4 hour Dog Sledding Tour | Kangerlussuaq | West Greenland
Tour startsKangerlussuaqDuration5 hoursFrom 2725 DKKSee more -
Explore the Cultural site of Qilakitsoq | Boat tour | Uummannaq | North Greenland
Tour startsUummannaqDuration3 hoursFrom 1500 DKKSee more -
Best of winter in Greenland | 5 Days in Sisimiut, West Greenland
Tour startsSisimiutDuration5 daysFrom 9300 DKKSee more -
Scenic Flight | Nuuk
Tour startsNuukDuration30 minFrom 6380 DKKSee more -
5.00(1)
Snowshoe in the Northern Night | Ilulissat | Disko Bay
Tour startsIlulissatDuration2.5 hoursFrom 550 DKKSee more -
5.00(1)
Snowshoe Winter Hike | Sisimiut
Tour startsSisimiutDuration3 hoursFrom 490 DKKSee more -
Ice fishing | Uummannaq | North Greenland
Tour startsUummannaqDuration5 hoursFrom 2000 DKKSee more