Archive for December, 2009
The dark season
Everybody’s favourite complaint these days is that the days are so short – the sun sets already at half past two so there really isn’t a lot of daylight. For such a short trip on the sky, the sun never gets very high either which means that the light isn’t exactly blinding even at noon. 
And it will only get worse before it gets better… what we really need right now is snow to reflect the little light there is. We do have a little bit of snow here in Los, actually, but it’s not the kind of snow that makes the landscape beautiful, so my hope of doing any photography today was the birds. And this is how we get back to the issue of light. On a lightly overcast day, I struggled to get any decent shutter speeds even at ISO 800. Not that it mattered so much because the birds didn’t seem to like me very much today and promptly scattered as soon as I showed up with the camera. I did get a few frames so I could finally see how the new perch works in practice and this great tit was kind enough to settle on the lichen covered part of the branch, which is exactly where I would like to have them. But most of the time, they just won’t listen to me…
Padding
It’s been looking like winter this week and I’ve been looking forward to the weekend to enjoy it. So I didn’t waste any time in the morning, left as soon as there was enough light. I was also a little bit worried that the temperatures would creep above freezing so I definitely had to do my photography before that, or miss all the snow on the trees.
What I like most in the early winter is the open water in contrast to the snow and I knew just the perfect place for that – Svartån. There’s not too much snow to make walking difficult (or hard work), but it does get a bit tricky when you walk in a terrain which is half rocky and half boggy. Following the creek is hard enough in the summer, but now that all the crevices and water holes between the rocks and cliffs were covered by snow, I had to make some major detours to view the creek without getting my feet wet (or broken). But I didn’t mind it, it’s such a great feeling to be walking in a snow covered forest. It is so quiet… even the sound of the waterfalls is muted. And when you get away from the waterfalls, all you can hear is the snow under your feet, your breathing, even your heartbeat. My goodness me how I have missed winter!
Weather – November 2009
SMHI says that this November is one of the warmest ever, warmest since 2000 anyway. I remember November 2000 quite well because I moved to Sweden right at the end of October; it was snowing when I got off the train and I trudged to the hotel through wet snow and feeling quite happy about it, actually. If there’s one thing I missed when I lived in England it was a proper winter, so a snowy welcome was just the ticket for me – the only problem was that the snow melted away quickly and for the rest of the November (and most of December) the weather wasn’t radically different from England. But then the snow finally arrived just in time for Christmas, and I was smiling every time I stepped outside! Let’s hope I don’t have to wait until Christmas this year. At the moment it’s snow on the ground, but it will apparently get warmer next weekend again.
Temperature (High): 7°C
Temperature (Low): -6°C
Temperature (Average): 0°C
Barometer (High): 1022 mbar
Barometer (Low): 981 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1001 mbar
Totally sunny days: 0
Rain: 71 mm
Days with rain: 16
Snow cover (High): 9 cm
Snow cover (Low): 0 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 1 cm
New snow: 22 cm
Days with snowfall: 9
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