Durin's Day

One evening, as the leaden winter grey skies were gathering to hang heavy over the chill Lappish air, there was a small gap in the clouds. And the light of the setting sun shone through to light up Saana... the lonely mountain.

The lonely mountain, as seen from the KAIRA site.

It reminded me of this passage from an old children's book...

"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond, "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole."
"Durin, Durin!" said Thorin. "He was the father of the fathers of the eldest race of Dwarves, the Longbeards, and my first ancestor: I am his heir."
"Then what is Durin's Day?" asked Elrond.
"The first day of the dwarves' New Year," said Thorin, "is as all should know the first, day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin's Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together. But this will not help us much, I fear, for it passes our skill in these days to guess when such a time will come again."

-- J.R.R.Tolkien, "The Hobbit", 1937.

We didn't see any dwarves that day nor, thankfully, any dragons. Yet still this is a magical place; one of the few remaining quiet places in the world. And winter is at hand.