The Quiet Picture

That’s how much my Tricker weighs. And I’m glad it doesn’t weigh a gram more, or I’d have been in a spot of bother. You see, this was my first time out on the motorbike on my own and unsupervised. I drove to the Loossjön parking lot to practise my turns on a gravel surface. I had my camera with me because I’m itching to get a good picture of the bike, so I picked a likely place, parked the bike and had a look around. And then I heard something fall behind me. It could only be one thing - the Tricker had just hit the ground. I looked at it in disbelief, cursing myself for forgetting the mobile phone so I was on my own. Only one thing to do - heave up the bike. So I found out that 120 kg is the absolute upper limit of what I can push up. Relieved, I surveyed the damage and it looks like the bike is none the worse off for kissing the gravel, except for a bent clutch handle. Not too bent though, I had no trouble using it.

I didn’t take the picture.

And I did learn to check the ground under the sidestand - it will have to hold 120 kg!

It was a dull and gray day with rain in the air, but I wouldn’t let that stop me - I was determined to practise my motorbike skills and get on the road. It turned out that I didn’t need a lot of training anymore - I remembered everything from yesterday, and I got the foot brake down pat at first try. So I just needed to polish my curve taking and I can’t say I excelled at it, but I passed the test anyway. There’s only so much you can do on a small practice track, so I graduated to the road because the only way I can learn now is by doing. With the weather what it was, I had to settle for a very short ride. But the weather will change… and the road will be there waiting for me!

(Well it’s an obvious post title, so better get it out of the way already.)

This was a momentous day - I finally got to ride my motorbike!

So, time for the confessions of an MC newbie. I’m sure that every MC rider will laugh at the problems I had, and I’m equally sure that I will laugh at myself soon! Initially I wondered how I could lift my feet from the ground, I was convinced that I would tip over as soon as I lifted my feet on the foot pegs. As it turns out, I didn’t tip at all - and I only managed to kill the engine once. It was just a matter of learning one thing at the time - a few rounds on first gear, then second, gear down, gear up… during the first session, I even managed to get up to 3rd gear, but then the old parking lot I was training on started to feel a bit small because I hadn’t learned how to brake yet! By then my left hand was aching so bad I couldn’t pull the clutch lever any more, so it was time for a lunch break.

The second training session was a bit faster, as now I was introduced to the front brake. A lot of riding on 3rd gear, but after a few km’s around the parking lot, I was actually getting a bit bored - switching direction makes it interesting for only so long. I’m itching to get on the road and just let it roll, but before I can do that, I will have to learn to use the foot brake. And I have to practise corners, my turn radius is still too wide. So I will have to nail those down tomorrow morning, then in the afternoon I will get my reward - the road!

It’s official - we have no more snow. Well, that’s just what my snow meter says, there is no snow around it but there’s plenty of it elsewhere. About 20cm on my front lawn, and then of course behind the house there’s that 1.5m pile that fell from the roof. But the snow cover is patchy at best, so the flowers are now starting to sprout up, the birds are singing and there is insect activity everywhere. The hepatica behind my garage are blooming, and I finally got a snowdrop - the receding snowline revealed this tiny little thing earlier this week, just 5cm high. Looks like it’s the only snowdrop I will get, because otherwise I just have a handful of snowdrop leaves but no blooms. But I’ll settle with one - I’m happy!

I had to clone off a lot of dirt left by the melting snow. Image is also cropped about 7% all around for tighter composition.

My crocuses are finally blooming! Or maybe they have been doing it for days… but they are always closed when I come home from work, and they stayed closed yesterday also as the sun didn’t come out until later in the afternoon when my crocus patch is already shaded.

The flowers feel like a colour explosion after a black and white winter. How I love flowers… flowers and a macro lens. Does it get any better?!

Every spring, hundreds of cranes gather up in the open fields of Korskrogen, waiting for the winter to release its grip on their nesting grounds. The fields are not really photogenic, so I haven’t even tried to photograph them before. This year I thought I would try, just to have something to remember them by. I parked my car behind the only natural hide along the road, staked my claim on slab of rock and waited for the cranes to come closer to me. But the cranes are wary creatures and never came very close, they seem to want to keep a good buffer zone between them and the road, and my rocky outcrop was right next to the road. Under those circumstances, 300mm is too little so frame filling crane pictures were out of the question. But like I said, I only wanted to document them anyway so I was just happy to watch the cranes peck the ground and delighted to see a little bit of crane dancing!

(Cropped almost to half size)

There was also a lot of birds in the air, two large flocks of pigeons and then some smaller birds that were coming and going, and every once in a while a few cranes would fly overhead. I tried my hand at flight shots and I was surprised to find that I got a few which were almost sharp - but the blur is so slight that you’ll need to see the full size image to catch it.

Crane approach pattern

And could I please rant a little bit as well. While I was lying there on the rock, I was in full view of the road. There was a little bit of traffic, some cars stopped to take a look at the cranes, some cars slowed down a little bit and some cars honked the horn. Question. Did they honk the horn at me or the cranes? In either case - why?!

I went skiing again. Just couldn’t resist the trails which are in pretty good shape at the moment with what the recent snowfall. Glide was great, too good in fact - wasted a lot of momentum slipping sideways.

And my feet are not hurting - much.

I just wish I could put the same kind of effort into fixing problems and getting my chores done than I do at skiing, despite all the evidence that says that I shouldn’t go anywhere near my ski boots!

Nånting att fundera på: Bilavgaser förstör blommors doft

Do you think it will melt before midsummer?

 There’s about 15-20 cm snow on the roof, and it’s still snowing…

It’s starting to feel like Christmas already. The world was white in the morning, and the stuff kept falling all day. The sun sets around 8pm so there was enough light left to take some pictures, which felt a bit weird. Normally in the winter I can only hope that the snow won’t drop off the trees before the weekend, but now I can photograph it after work.

This is what the crocus patch looks like today

For some reason, not a lot of people like to be out in the forest in this weather. Actually, no one had been out today, it was pristine snow cover all around. Well, more for me then.

April weather (slightly cropped)

As I write this, I can hear the snow falling off the roof. So much of it has piled up behind the house that it reaches the bedroom window. So now I have to worry that some icy clump will bounce against the window and break it…