The Quiet Picture

The flower photography season is now open - even if these are just buds! But I just couldn’t wait any longer, the snow is dirty and weather is boring but the spring crocus buds are absolutely beautiful. Every day when I come home from work, I pause by the flowers and just look at them, marvelling at how they grow even when it’s a cold day.

Most of the crocuses are violet coloured, or white-violet - only two yellows so far.

This is just about the first time I’m using the Sigma 150mm f2.8 for its intended purpose - macros. Can’t complain! I also found it to be an absolute joy to be working with a shallow DOF again.

I planted the bulbs in organised rows, which might not have been the best of ideas. But now that the flowers are starting to grow, I can see that they are spreading out, and the lines can effectively be used for creating OOF foreground.

I also saw some wild flowers today - coltsfoot! Last year I found the first hepatica blooming on this date, but now I can’t find a trace of them yet. I’ll settle for the crocuses then and keep my fingers crossed for the snowdrops. I can see some leaves already.

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I drove to Gävle yesterday to buy motorbike clothes. So now I’m all set up - the only thing I need is a dry road! It will take a while though, because the weather seems to be cooling now and SMHI is forecasting snowfall.

It was a fairly good March, actually - maybe not as sunny as you’d expect, but just a decent winter month. Even got a cold spell in the second half, but now in the last few days it seems like spring is coming with a vengeance and the snow is visibly disappearing. The first sign of spring was that my crocuses started to sprout up (the 9th), and the first swans were spotted at Dåasen on the 26th.

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Temperature (High): 5°C
Temperature (Low): -11°C
Temperature (Average): -2°C

Barometer (High): 1009 mbar
Barometer (Low): 974 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 994 mbar

Total of sunny days: 2

Snow cover (High): 63.5 cm
Snow cover (Low): 44 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 55 cm
New snow: 24.5 cm
Days with snowfall: 20

Rain: 10 mm
Days with rain: 4

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2007
January 2008
February 2008