The Quiet Picture

It’s been a windy week with temperatures above freezing, so the beautiful snow we had last weekend is looking a lot less attractive now. But I wouldn’t let that stop me from going for a walk, I had an idea of a picture so I set out in the forest. The path took me past a cabin which I’ve never taken a closer look of, I just think it’s impolite to trespass. But now with snow on the ground, I didn’t see any tracks going to the cabin so I thought it would be safe. When I got to it, I realised that I wouldn’t have needed to worry about anybody being there – ever. Clearly an abandoned place, and I was really intrigued when I saw a pink Minnie Mouse backpack hanging from the chair on the porch. This was definitely not the kind of subject I had had in mind, but I’ll take it. The original picture idea I had didn’t work out anyway!

My cabin is shaping up nicely. There are only two major jobs remaining and I have a reliable guy to do them and then it’s pretty much done, actually. There are a few minor things that I have to take care of myself, but then again, a cabin owner’s job is never done. Most of the furniture is also in place, I only have one cupboard that’s waiting to be compiled and then I have to get a bunk bed in the guest room. The cupboard can wait, and the bunk bed arrives next week, just in time for my parents’ visit!

I have a two weeks vacation in September. Unfortunately this is a wrong year for a long autumn vacation because the birches are suffering from some kind of fungal infection which turns all the leaves brown and then kills them before the leaves would naturally turn colour. In some places the alpine birch forest was already stripped of the leaves and it looked more like October than August. In some other places the leaves were still hanging on, but they were infected so I expect the leaves to be gone by the time I have vacation. I’m not going to cancel my vacation though, because September is a wonderful time in the mountains. There won’t be any colour explosion but I can still enjoy hiking in the fresh mountain air. And if the weather is not so good, I can just sit on my couch in the cabin and read a book and take it easy… isn’t that what vacations are for anyway?

Spent the weekend at the cabin, and managed to waste most of it on putting together Ikea furniture. 8 hours on a wardrobe, and we were two people working on it! It would’ve been impossible alone. But… there was this one photo session that was worth the trip alone. Full moon rising just before sunset!

We did some scouting in the afternoon, but the first place wasn’t anything special. The second place was something I had figured out should work; I had been there before and felt that it has potential although of course I’ve never used the spot for a moonrise before.

We got to the spot a little bit too early. Moonrise was still about an hour away and to our disappointment, sunset was looking like a dud after a warm and sunny day. So that was a long wait ahead of us while the temperature was dropping, making the waiting all the more difficult. We welcomed any respite from the boredom and even I was happily shooting a distant reindeer with my short zoom, all the while knowing how hopeless it was. Then when I started feeling the cold bite through my clothes, I did some running up and down the plateau we were standing on. When I reached the lower end, I saw an opportunity towards the sunset so I gave up on waiting for the moon to appear from behind the mountain and set up shop at the new spot instead. I made sure that I still had a free view towards east (moonrise) so I would be able to switch shooting direction quickly. Just as I was trying to figure out what shutter speed to use to prevent blowing out the bright blob of the sun that was visible through the clouds, a glance behind my back told me that the moon was actually visible! I abandoned the sunset without hesitation and then realised that my lens was too short to properly compose the moon as it was rising above Blåstöten. But then, sometimes you’re lucky. To my absolute amazement, the sun came out and I found the dwarf birch glowing bright orange right in front of me! I should say that this is how I had planned it, but it really was just pure luck. With this foreground, it was easy to compose when I switched to vertical and zoomed to the max and I was glowing just as happy as the dwarf birch was glowing (unseasonally) orange. So imagine my disappointment when I discovered at home that I didn’t have enough DOF to keep both the foreground and background sharp… the mountain and the moon were soft. It almost broke my heart when I deleted these images.

But then I thought… are those images really beyond rescue? With some resizing and clever sharpening, I might be able to rescue something. With this in mind, when I was reviewing the failed images, I realised that they weren’t even as good as I had thought at first that they were. The sunlight hadn’t reached the mountain yet, I had been so concentrated on the foreground that I missed the light on the mountain. By the time the light did reach the mountain, I had switched camera orientation and zoomed out, which gave me a smaller moon and inferior composition but all-around sharpness as well.

So I’m thinking, what’s wrong with me when I miss something as elementary as checking DOF? If I don’t have the discipline by now to use my knowledge even when the situation is changing fast, then I will never have that discipline… I just have a lot of theories and more regrets. With that said, it was an awesome evening watching that moonrise. It was another awesome evening on Friday on Flatruet when we saw seven (7!) short-eared owls fly around us. And when it comes down to it, it’s these experiences that makes life interesting!

Lately I’ve been writing a lot about my cabin, but here’s a couple of new pictures from the first weekend that I spent in the cabin. It was quite nice actually, if a bit basic. It’s amazing what a difference it makes when you get it clean and orderly, have a radio in the background (even if P4 is the only station with good reception) and the room is filled with the scent of pizza straight out of the microwave…

I’m not sure how much more disappointment I can handle, so I sure hope that the guy who promised to fix the rest after midsummer really will do it. I don’t have to cancel my planned vacation in July even if he doesn’t fix it, but two weeks is too long without hot water and a fully functioning toilet!

The rest is up to me though, I need to get some furniture in. Then there are some issues that I need to solve, caused last year when the layout of the cabin was changed without my knowledge. My separate bedroom and guest rooms were merged into one and the plan I gave to the electrician isn’t really compatible with reality… for the most part it works, but for example the ceiling light I wanted above the dining area is now on the wrong side of the room. So I don’t have any light in the kitchen/dining area at all, it’s not a problem in the summer but I have to sort it out before autumn!

Would you believe, I was cleaning again. Not inside the cabin this time, but on the outside. It looks godawful, there’s a big pile of junk next to the stairs and bits and pieces scattered around the cabin. It was easier to remove those bits and pieces, but that big pile of junk is another matter. I decided to create two piles instead, I put all the wooden material (planks etc) under the cabin and all the other junk in a pile which I covered with some sheets of plywood to make it look less disgusting (just barely) and stop the lighter junk from spreading around the cabin again.

I had been waiting to see if the sun would come out but it wasn’t quite the sunny day I thought it would be. I wanted to do my hike anyway, I was planning a longer one into unknown territory so I didn’t want to leave it too late. I drove to the Kappruet parking lot, this is a small alpine skiing centre with just one lift and it was up this lift corridor where I started. The trail I was going to take would take off after the lift and the first thing I noticed about the trail is that it’s no summer trail for sure. I was not going to walk through the wet bog so I had find a way around, and that was followed by another bog and another and another… on the map it looked like an easy A-to-B but in reality is was an A-to-B-to-C-etc-to-Z with what all the detours I had to take around small wetland areas. It got a lot easier when I reached the actual foot of the mountain, now I just had to ascend to the top but no more detours. Until on the way down – since I was not following any trail and I didn’t have a GPS because I thought I could rely on SportsTracker which I couldn’t do because my phone battery was dying and I didn’t have a charger… anyway, absolutely no risk of getting lost. Just aim for the radio mast next to the ski lift (the same radio mast by the way which is apparently the reason we don’t get a mobile phone signal up at the cabin).

Well, no matter how much extra hiking I had to do. What matters is that I “collected” another peak, had a great day and even was lucky enough to catch a sunny break!

* * *

As you can see in this picture, the sky was very dull. I just wanted to take the shot because of the cairns, there’s 3 in the picture but there were 5 at this spot. Now, I understand that the cairns used to have a specific purpose historically speaking, but I find it hard to believe that all these cairns here are built for practical purpose. Which means that hikers like myself have built them, and now I really want to know why. Is it like the scribbling you find on toilet walls? Kilroy was here? Why do people pile up rocks (or scribble on toilet walls, for that matter)? But the really funny thing is that all these cairns are not even on the real peak of the mountain. The real peak is that little nipple in the background, and yes, there was only one cairn up there. So the way I see it, people cheat. They climb up the mountain, notice that they have some way to go before reaching the actual peak, and instead of taking the trouble to reach the top they pile up some rocks instead. Is this some normal social behaviour that I completely miss?

Take only pictures, leave only footprints. I ain’t gonna pile no rocks.

Very windy on Saturday but I had planned to drive to Funäsdalen anyway so it was fine. I did some shopping; got myself a new backpack again! My quest to find the perfect photo hiking pack, part 7.

Back at the cabin, did some more cleaning and cleared out some junk, so now it’s starting to look like a liveable place. Just needs a lot of furniture. I also discovered that I have no talent whatsoever as a DIY handy(wo)man, I even fail with the simplest things like setting up blinds on a window. But it sort of worked anyway, the important thing is that it blocks the light in the bedroom, I’ll fix the rest later…

In the evening when the wind wasn’t so bad any more, I did a small hike. I wasn’t planning to go to the Fiskhålsgraven ravine, but somehow I ended up there anyway. On the way up I followed the little brook with its many small waterfalls but the sunlight made it difficult to shoot in the forest for all the contrast. Not that there were so many opportunities, the brook is still a litte bit flooded and it desperately needs some greens for decoration.

Up at the ravine, I saw the sun bathe the cliffs in warm evening light, and the light also reached a birch inside the ravine. Just the perfect opportunity so I set up the tripod and got ready to shoot – and a cloud appeared. Well, the wind is still brisky, so it will blow away the cloud soon, right? Wrong. Somehow the cloud was morphing on the spot so instead of moving away, it just simply stayed there and blocked the sun. Extremely frustrating, because it was just about the only cloud in the sky at all! I have seen this phenomenom before, I guess you have to be a photographer waiting for the light to notice that half the time the clouds morph instead of move. But I waited, and then waited some more, all the while knowing that the more I waited the less chance I had that the light would still reach the birch inside the ravine, with what the sun going down. And then finally, I had an opportunity that probably lasted all of 10 seconds, and took my picture. Sure enough, only the tip of the birch was lit at this point so that was an opportunity lost.

Then I set up the kit on a new spot. And waited some more. I think all in all I waited about half an hour, all because of one small cloud that just kept changing its shape in front of the sun! But I got my second picture at last and and the cloud looked like it would be dissipating, but I didn’t care any more. My fingers were numb with cold, I had heard on the radio that it has been a very warm day elsewhere in Sweden but it sure wasn’t warm up there.

On the way down, I noticed that the cloud was gone. It never blew away, just morphed itself out of existence.

I have a mini-holiday and this is the first time I’m actually going to sleep over in my cabin. I’ve got electricity there, the radiators work, there was a good chance of getting running water – luxury!

When I got to the cabin, I met with guy who was going to help me with the water. Sure enough, we got it going with just a minor flood in the bathroom, nothing that good mop doesn’t fix.

Then I set to work with cleaning and mounting more furniture. While I was getting along with it, I met with some new neighbours (they are all very nice here!) and a guy who had an expert eye and pointed out some more problems with the cabin. Not what I needed, so I made a few phonecalls to try to organise things again and felt better afterwards so I could concentrate on an IKEA chair with a missing hole. Exactly, a missing hole. I had a powertool with me and I had a toolkit, but I had left the drills at home. So I took the biggest screw I could find and screwed it through where the hole was supposed to be, and then I used a sandpaper technique (without sandpaper) to make it large enough – it figures that the missing hole is the biggest one of the lot. And when I finally got frustrated with it, I took a hammer and just simply tried to hit the darn metal plug but all you achieve with violence is to break things, so the wood split… Note to self: Always bring the FULL toolkit when you’re going to work with IKEA furniture!

With all the time I had spent on one lousy chair, I decided to enjoy the warm evening sunshine instead. I wanted to check out the lake and the Mittån river that runs from the eastern end of the lake, so I took the trail that is very conveniently almost behind my cabin and headed down to the village. Now, the only problem is that there are lots trails here. I was sure that the trail I needed was going straight so I ignored all the trail crossings, but soon I was starting to feel that it was sure taking a lot longer to get to the village than I had anticipated. I found the reason – I had walked in the wrong direction and ended up too far in the west. But at least I came out from the trail in a place which I recognised, so knew which way to go from there. Sort of – after another wrong turn and time wasted, I finally got down to the lake. Of course by now it was getting a bit late so I just walked to the bridge that crosses Mittån, took a picture (no points for the wind beaten lake) and headed back. I made an educated guess where I would find the trail that I was supposed to follow in the first place and I actually found it right where I figured it should be. Walking the trail this way, I got back in a fraction of time I had taken me to go out and indeed, it’s a very short bit to walk from the cabin to the village. It will probably take me some time to learn where all these different trails lead… but time is something I should have now, and I’m not talking about this mini-holiday!

* * *

I have no Internet connection from the cabin, no telephone coverage either for that matter. So I’m posting this from Funäsdalen, the wind is blowing almost storm so it’s a perfect day to do some shopping. I’m not the least bit tempted to go up on a mountain in this wind, but at least it’s a bit sunny so I need to find something to do in the afternoon that doesn’t involve cleaning or furniture or lakes or alpine tundra.

* * *

Oh and my first night in the cabin! A little bit sleepless to be honest, until at sunrise (I can see the summer sunrise from the “kitchen” window) I finally put on the earplugs to shut out the birds’ chirpy chatter and the occasional cracking from the radiators. I’m a light sleeper.

Another trip to Messlingen, with a mission. I’ve gotten over the disappointment from the last time, and I’ve actually made some significant process – I’ve found a reliable craftsman who can finish the cabin. Although it won’t happen until after midsummer, but I don’t have any vacation until July so that’s perfect. Today’s job was to do some cleaning and furniture assembly because I intend to spend my first night in the cabin in two weeks’ time and I wanted to prepare for it. No toilet or running water so I will have to rough it, the cabin is kind of a glorified tent at the moment… with solid walls and proper roof, and a microwave oven.

But I’m getting ahead of things.

Before I even got to Messlingen, I checked out the calypso orchid which is just a short detour. Normally they are in bloom in late May/early June, so there should be some buds by now. And yes there were buds, and also a number of individuals in full bloom so I reckon they will peak in about a week. I already have a lot of closeups so I will attempt some environment shots instead, like the one here.

When I arrived at the cabin, I set to work straight away. Out with all the junk, clean the floor and put together a table and a chair. The floor will take more work though, even after vacuuming and washing there was still a layer of dirt on it so I will have to take more cleaning equipment with me next time. While I was working on the furniture, I heard a knock on the door. A neighbour! I was really nervous, I had been avoiding to speak with any neighbours because they must be furious at me for letting this construction work go on forever and the place looks like it does. So I was absolutely amazed to hear that he had no grudge against me, he understood that my contractor was the problem here and told me that I should absolutely not worry about any neighbours, they’re all nice people. I can’t tell you how relieved I was about that conversation, I was almost floating on air! I have been so worried about what the neighbours think that I have been embarrassed to park my car at the cabin every time, just hoping that nobody would notice me. When I finally had finished the table and the chair, I was truly happy to sit down and have my first cup of coffee in my cabin!

Time was flying by and my choices were to put together more furniture, or go for a walk. So I went for a walk, and I didn’t even consider other alternatives than the Fiskhålsgraven ravine. It’s just a 3 km hike on a good trail, but about half of it ascending – about 200 m to the top of the ravine. I’ve been to Fiskhålsgraven many times before, but this was the first time I came from the Messlingen direction and the trail gave me a pleasant surprise, which in the future will make the ascend a whole lot easier. The trail follows a small brook which is of course constantly falling so you just need to take your pick which particular section you want to shoot. Because this is still early spring in the mountains, there’s nothing growing along the brook and it’s not looking very nice. But come summer and come the green, it will be a whole different story!

When I was walking up, I had an epiphany. It was a real feeling of belonging, something I rarely experience. Normally people would have that feeling when they’re at home, I mean that’s were you belong, right? But not me… my home is just a place where I live. I’ve never felt that I’ve grown roots anywhere, it seems like everything is just temporary in my life. Even if I’ve had the same job for years and lived in the same flat for years, it’s still somehow temporary (it’s very evident in my flat, it’s full of temporary solutions!). Never trust anything, because the moment you do the earth will cave under you. So I’ve never belonged. Until that moment walking through a naked forest… I belong here. Amazing. The cabin that has been killing me in the past year is now saving my life, if you please pardon the dramatic license!

Back at the cabin, I had another cup of coffee. Do I dare to trust?

I’ve never been to the mountains at this time of the year, so it was quite exciting to see what they look like. But then I heard that this is a rather unusual spring, the snow has melted very early (it has been warm over there as well) so I guess I can’t draw any conclusions as yet.

The day was glorious, blue skies and sunshine. [rant] Which was just well, because my cabin is a big dark thundercloud weighing on my head (and heart). It hurts, it really hurts. If anyone knows a reliable carpenter, I’ll be all ears – that darn thing has to get finished asap, if my contractor can’t do it then I bloody well take care of it myself! [/rant]

We took the scenic road back home and the same place which gave us those nice “in the cloud” pictures three weeks ago provided a great opportunity once again. This time with sunrays filtering through clouds, I had to use HDR to make any sense of it and the pictures need some more processing, I just quickly put them through LR/Enfuse to get a preview. I’m just not inspired to work on them at the moment, the cabin is killing both my creativity and my will to live. Ok, creativity anyway. But if you’re a carpenter or know one and can finish my cabin (it’s probably just a day’s job anyway), I’ll be much happier!

It’s been quiet about my cabin project but now it’s coming along again. The permits got delayed, then the cabin frame got delayed, then the big freeze set in and they couldn’t do the groundwork. No big issue for me, I’m not in a hurry.

But now the groundwork is almost done. I went there on Saturday to take a look (because some things I don’t believe until I see them!) and was delighted and scared at the same time. Delighted to see that instead of creating a small parking place close the road, they had created a driveway all the way to the cabin (which probably was out of necessity to be able to access the cabin site by big machinery in the first place). Scared because the cabin suddenly became very much a reality. Not sure if that makes sense… but this whole project is so much bigger than I ever imagined. It is costing me more money than I ever imagined. To be honest, it’s sometimes frightening the living daylights out of me. Had I known what this would be like… never in a million years would I have gotten myself into it.

But, the process is irreversible now. For good or for evil, that cabin is going to be there and I have to pay for it.

And then I did that little snowshoe walk in the winter mountain scenery. And I loved it. I love the mountains. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a sense of belonging somewhere since I moved from Finland. I belong to the mountains.

And then the cabin didn’t feel like such a burden anymore. Cost it what it may, but it will be my homebase in a place where I want to be more than anywhere else in the world.

Does that make any sense?