The Quiet Picture

Funny how time flies when you’re doing nothing. I honestly can’t remember exactly what I’ve done from day to day since I arrived to our summer house in Savonlinna. Somehow it sounds like I’ve been making perfect use of my holiday though…My sister with family and dog in tow arrived a couple of days after me. The dog is an absolute treasure, impossible not to like her. Quiet as any dog I’ve ever seen, very attached to people, will do any trick for a sausage but once she gets a whiff of a rabbit, you won’t see the tail of her. She’s one of those supposedly low-allergenic species but allergenic enough for me it appears, so in a way I’m relieved that they’ve left now, it’s getting easier to breathe.

Photographically speaking I haven’t done anything special. I aim to take at least one picture every day during my stay here and I’ve reached that, but the results are pretty much the same old same old. I was happy to see that not all the flowers had reached their peak yet, so I have something to look forward to next week. The weather has been less than perfect, a couple of days of rain which doesn’t really bother me but the wind is killing most of the ops. Currently it’s almost storming so I might as well sit inside and type this. If something good has to be said of the wind, then it’s that it’s keeping the mosquitos and biting flies in the hiding. Plenty enough of those otherwise!

Since it’s a long drive from Loos to Stockholm to catch the morning ferry, I drove to Älvkarleby for the night. It also provided me a chance to catch some sea air (not that I really crave for it) so I headed straight to the beach. I had planned to take some long exposure pictures of waves, but once I was there it just didn’t inspire. What I found all the more interesting was the barren pine forest and I tried long shutter speed here instead, moving camera up and down during exposure. Everyone and their brother does that at some stage of their photography careers and truth to be told, I rarely bother to get excited about such pictures. They all more or less look the same… so I won’t inflict my blurry pictures on you.

While I was walking around, I came across a map of the area, with some descriptions of what you can find here. The magic word was right there – orchids! So without further ado, I rushed back to the car and drove to closest parking and tried to find the trailhead. At first I almost ended up on a nudist beach. Naked people and me with a camera… I think the risk of misunderstanding would have been considerable! But I quickly found the trailhead and the common spotted orchids were the first flowers I came across, oh happiness! And this time, there is no shadow of a doubt that these are the real McCoy. They’re so Dactylorhiza maculata ssp. fuchsii it screams.

There was a promise of even more orchids – one of them new to me – so I followed the trail. Alas, I didn’t find new orchids but some other new flowers instead, including the biggest darn bluebell I’ve ever seen. Yes I’ve been living a sheltered life..

I wish I had had more time there. The coastal environment provides its own species for flowers, just the mountains did. If I ever take the same morning ferry again (in the summertime), I will make sure to do this same stopover in Älvkarleby but with more time to spare.

At the hostel, something gave me an allergic reaction. I couldn’t quite pin down what it was, maybe it was the place itself – Laxön (Salmon Island). I’m allergic to fish…

I hadn’t made any plans for my last day of this mountain trip, so when my photographer friend suggested Mittåkläppen with a plan B (=waffles in Djupdalen!), I didn’t need to think twice. The day dawned just like the two previous, cool and cloudy with little wind and maybe a small chance of rain. In other words, just perfect photography weather and I couldn’t have asked for better. We made quick time up above the tree line and found our first flower meadow.

On this last excursion I was lugging my 300mm lens with me, so far I had done all my photography with the 100mm macro. Having the 300mm with me means also carrying a tripod, and the bag gets very heavy after a while. I think I was better off with the 100mm anyway, because many of the flowers I was shooting were so small that I would’ve missed the opportunity had I had the big lens with me. Background is more of a challenge with 100mm than 300mm, but shooting up above the tree line solves that problem – the vegetation is so low that you can easily find an angle without a distracting background.

I didn’t have much time because I had to get home early in order to sort through the pictures and pack for the big trip to Finland. So I shot some rock speedwells and scottish asphodel (Tofieldia pusilla) (above) and then it was already time to head back. My friend continued up the mountain and I wondered if he made it all the way to the top because it had started raining… I reached my car just before the real raining started so no worries on my part. Rainy weather was exactly that plan B I mentioned, so of course I drove to Djupdalen to eat a waffle. This is not the first time I’ve sat in the cabin with a crispy waffle in front of me and the rain falling down outside, I think it was no less than two waffles last year… and somehow I hope that this won’t be the last time either!

When I started driving back, the rain and the clouds were covering the mountains and it was just as well. It’s easier to leave when you can’t see what you’re leaving behind.

You know you’re in the mountains when a herd of reindeer runs past your window while you’re having breakfast!

Today’s planned excursions were the Hamrafjället and Vättafjället mountains. Hamrafjället is something that no botanist should pass by, in fact the nature is so special that it’s protected as a national park. Just a few metres from the parking lot, and I already found an orchid that is definitely no orchid I’ve ever seen – a hybrid if there ever was one. Part spotted heath orchid, part… frog orchid? A bit further up, I found an orchid that was a genuine species, and a new one for me. Small white orchid (Pseudorchis albida), just the one, so I didn’t have many options for shooting it. And it also seems to be a touch past its prime. Regardless, it counts! I’ve added the image to the orchids page on minnak.net.

Despite the multitude of flowers in the forest, the first real attraction on the excursion was a large marshy area just below the forest line with no less than six different species of orchids plus other flowers. Despite this, I did surprisingly little shooting, just a few frames to add some species to my collection but nothing serious. Until I found two butterflies resting on a fragrant orchid, that is. The butterflies were clearly alive as they moved a little every once in a while, but otherwise they were just sitting tight on the flower and didn’t even mind me removing some grass blades. Shooting was tricky though, because the flower was constantly swaying in the wind. I rattled off a good few frames (try 42) to make sure that I got at least one which is sharp, and that’s just about the result I got. Glad it’s digital!

Time flies on these excursions, and this one had taken over 5 hours even if the distance was just a couple of kilometres. I headed back to cabin for a much needed late lunch, and then drove to Tänndalen to catch the trailhead for the Vättafjället excursion, where my guide book had promised that some common spotted orchids would be growing next to the path. Even if I earlier swore that I’ve finally confirmed my discovery of the Dactylorhiza maculata ssp. fuchsii, later on I got some second thoughts about it. So this time… if I see something that reminds me of the species, then surely it must be it! As it happened, I saw one about 20 metres from the parking. And search as I might, it was the only one – the rest of them were more or less definitely Dactylorhiza maculata ssp. maculata. So is this the real McCoy then? I still don’t know! Why can’t I find something that would fulfil all the 4 signs I have for separating these two species from each other?

Another slightly questionable new species I found was Norwegian wintergreen (Pyrola norvegica). Just as with the spotted orchids, P. norvegica and P. rotundifolia were long considered to be the one and same species. The flower looks about the same, but the easiest thing is to look at the leaves – P. norvegica has shiny oval shaped leaves and this wintergreen I found certainly had such. It also looks like the round-leaved wintergreens don’t like the mountains, so the Norwegian (sub-)species takes over instead.

I have taken 249 pictures in two days, that’s a new record for me. The number of keepers is slightly less impressive though…!

My holiday has officially begun! My plan is to spend 3 days in the mountains, come home for a re-pack and then take the ferry to Finland where I will spend the rest of the holiday.My first target was Ljungdalen. I had found a great botanical book about Härjedalen where the author gave some tips on good botanical excursions in the area so I had picked some to do myself. I started with the Torkilstöten mountain and I have got to say a big thank you to the author of the book! It was just simply amazing, with beautiful flowers everywhere. The mountain avens were nearly all withering, but other flowers were in their prime and a whole lot of flowers still only budding. Summer comes late to this mountain with large fields of snow still clinging to the mountainside and I wasn’t surprised to see coltsfoot blooming in one of the meltwater runoffs.

Moss heather (Cassiope hypnoides)

Having spent over four hours on this little mountain, I went for the second excursion I had picked up from the book. The target was to reach the lake Öjön and then continue a little past it. I found different orchids in plentiful – more Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp. cruenta than I’ve seen before – but nothing new, so I didn’t make any real effort to photograph. When I reached the lake, the trail got faint and headed through a thick bush of dwarf birch. I made a half hearted effort to follow and soon decided to turn back. I was getting a bit tired, I was sick of the bugs and there weren’t any new and exciting flowers for me to look at so sitting down for dinner just sounded too good to resist.

I haven’t had time to search for an ID yet…

I think I’ve mentioned a few times that I never get lost. There might be occasions where I don’t know exactly where I am, but my sense of direction rarely fails me so I always find back to something familiar. I have to say, this time I did get lost. I was so concentrated on looking at the orchids that I suddenly realised that I couldn’t see the trail markings anywhere. I found a path of some kind though and I followed it… to a group of mountain cabins, only I didn’t pass any cabins on the way up. I saw some people in the nearest cabin, so I asked them where the parking lot was. Just down that road, they said – ok great, I hadn’t seen a road when I came up but I remembered that the trail had taken off to the right of the parking, so maybe this road came in from the left. Except, it didn’t – it was the wrong parking! So I got back up to the friendly cabin people, showed them my map and pointed out where my car was. It turned out that I had gotten seriously off the trail – I was way out to the north. I’m glad those people were there because I thought I had come too far south and left to my own devices, I would’ve started my search in a completely wrong direction! The irony is that I had my GPS with me – I just didn’t use it to create a track. You know, why waste battery time on tracking because I never get lost…

I had another look at the round-leaved wintergreens I had dismissed as un-photographable yesterday. With some generous gardening – and by that I mean weeding – I was able to get a clean background so I guess you could call this destructive photography rather than creative, I feel kinda bad for doing that. I have make a bigger effort to learn to control the background clutter compositionally, rather than to remove it altogether. Anyway, I can now check off Pyrola rotundifolia from my “wanted” list, I just wish the grasses didn’t have to suffer for my art…

Cropped a little bit all around. And observe the light band of very OOF grass in the lower right corner, in spite of all the weeding.

June started off with a bang, with high summer temperatures. The period came to an abrupt end with a few days of rain – and the odd snowflake! No kidding. The rest of the month was rather dull, weatherwise, with temperatures between 10 and 20 degrees and hardly any rain at all. And speaking of it, rain is becoming a serious issue. Here in the northern Hälsingland region we can soon start talking about drought, while the southern Sweden is struggling with flooding. It’s a big old country.

Temperature (High): 27°C
Temperature (Low): 5°C
Temperature (Average): 18°C

Barometer (High): 1028 mbar
Barometer (Low): 986 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1007 mbar

Total of sunny days: 10

Snow: ever so little a few km east from Loos… and plenty in the mountains!

Rain: 32.5 mm
Days with rain: 8