The Quiet Picture

I have Friday and Monday off so I can go to the mountains for a long weekend to ski (cross-country). One of my main goals for this holiday is to photograph Mittåkläppen covered in snow, so that’s where I headed first. As I got to Bruksvallarna, I was wondering if it it’s going to work, because it was suddenly snowing and visibility was poor. It had been sunshine in Funäsdalen… I decided to drive to Ramundberget anyway, and that turned out to a be a good decision. It’s only 9 km from Bruksvallarna to Ramund but the weather changes quickly and varies a lot from valley to valley and mountain. It still wasn’t sunny, but I really wanted to do the Mittåkläppen trail so I took my chances. And would you know it - by the time I was halfway up, the sun started to came out! But I have to say, the going up part is no breeze. I was profoundly wishing that I had dressed in lighter clothes. But then I finally came up on the plateau, the wind picked up and I didn’t have to work the skis so hard, and I found myself zipping up the jacket and pulling the hat deeper. It wasn’t very cold as such but the temperature seemed to vary quite a bit from place to place so when I stopped for a long while when Mittåkläppen finally came into view and took my time shooting it, my fingers started to freeze. At times the mountain was completely shrouded in clouds and snowfall but after a few minutes it was bathed in sunlight. Glorious!When I started the loop back towards Ramundberget, I noticed that I was developing some serious blisters. I already had one from last weekend, covered with a Compeed plaster, but it seemed like it was chafing around it. But there was no question about my right foot… definitely a new blister! Luckily it’s mostly downhill on the way back, so it wasn’t chafing all the time. But that downhill part then… you’d think that it’s a lot easier than going up? Well, that’s what I thought, as well, but breaking down is really hard work! My legs were aching badly before I got back to Ramundberget. I’m so out of shape, I am… But then again, this was the longest trip I’ve done on skis. Normally I do one or two rounds at home (the loop is 2.5 km) but the Mittåkläppen trail is over 10 km.

After a tour like that, I was famished. I drove to the hotel and checked in, but I had an hour before dinner would be served. The room was chilly so I ended up under the cover to get some rest and keep warm. And then finally, food. Lovely! Only spoiled by small kids running around. I don’t get that… what’s the point of taking babies and other small infants here? What do they do, drag the baby carriage with a snowmobile? Slap skis on them when they barely can stand on their own? I’m completely missing the point here, as usual.

Here’s a top tip for anyone who wants to photograph gorgeous winter sunsets. You can either pick a day when I’m at work, or a Saturday or Sunday when I decide not to try sunset photography myself. Because when I’m trying it, the sunsets just ain’t happening! For example, yesterday and today. Nice sunny day so I figured that the chances are good for nice light at sunset. I go out with the gear to my designated sunset spot and observe clouds in the west. Now, which direction does the sun set? Oh yeah, west! Sometimes I don’t even know why I bother.

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Regarding that Peeping Tom I wrote about. It looks like there’s a door #4 - kids. I’ve never really liked kids and this sure doesn’t improve the situation! I checked the footprints and they are a quite small. The same footprints appear by my neighbours’ garages, looks like the kids have been playing around. The snow has piled so high that it’s possible to climb on the roof which is exactly what they have done, and then used the roof as a slide. Well, as long as they keep on the neighbours’ side, fine by me. But I’d better never catch them behind my window again… The words I’m thinking about do not bear repeating here!

I went for a long walk today, without the camera again but I just wanted to get a feel for the cold weather. When I came back, I noticed some footprints in the snow behind my house, in front of the window. I feel somehow violated… who looks into other people’s homes? I can think of three options, and only one of the moderately innocent. 1) A burglar was checking out if it would be worth their effort to break in 2) A sick pervert 3) someone who is considering to buy the flat nextdoor to me and accidentally checked out the occupied part of the house. The two first options worry me a lot, while the third one is unlikely (I need to check if I can see any footprints in front of the windows nextdoor).If it was a burglar, I don’t know what to do. If it’s a pervert or a prospective house buyer, I can prevent the violation from happening again by making sure that the curtains are drawn whenever I’m not at home. Which, I guess, is an invitation for the burglar to break in.

I thought Los was such a peaceful little village. What an illusion that was.

[Right, I just read the Blogger status page and it looks like they have had problems with their servers, maybe that's what was killing my entries yesterday. Third time lucky?]

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Alright so we did get a bit of new snow anyway. Just a little bit, enough to cover the worst of the ugliness the big thaw left behind. But it sure did get cold, a nippy -20 degrees this morning!I was looking at the pictures I took almost exactly a year ago. As hard as it is to believe it, but we do have a bit more snow right now than we did then. The winter didn’t really start until mid-February, so here’s hoping for an improvement this year as well.

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Since it’s a bright morning, I thought I would have a closer look at my 300mm lens to find out exactly what is causing the fuzziness. Well, doh! I was shooting through my window last Sunday, and maybe I shouldn’t admit this in public but I haven’t actually washed the windows since I moved here. This extra “filter” does no favours to the image quality. I took the camera outside for a couple of shots and nothing wrong with the sharpness then. Anyway, hoping that the squirrel and the birds would pay another visit to my feeder, I thought I would clean the window a little bit. I underestimated the temperature though - as soon as I had applied the wet rag on the window, the water froze. So I went from a dirty window to a dirty and frosty window, not much of an improvement there!

Ok so the entry from yesterday is gone now, for the second time. I created it in the morning, then in the afternoon I noticed it’s gone, and re-created it. And now it’s gone. Sheesh.

Something wayyyyy weird happening with my blog. I can see my entry from yesterday (at the time of writing this) but when I try to edit it, I get an error message that the post doesn’t exist. The post cannot be commented either for the same reason. So wtf?

When I drove home, it was raining. It’s +4 degrees, the snow is almost gone, and it’s raining. April sure came early this year.Looking at the forecast now, we’re not going to get the snowfall after all. It will just get cold. I’m sorry but it’s not enough for me. Real winter is about snow and sub-zero temperatures. Without one or the other, it’s not a winter - it’s just a sad reminder of what used to be.

Words fail me.