The Quiet Picture

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?

Today I hiked to the peak of Lill-Skarven (1224 m). It was promising to be a relatively easy and quick hike, except that if you park your car by the road 84 in Tänndalen, the entire hike is uphill from there to the peak. The only places where it levelled off at all was when the trail crossed some small wetland areas (duckboards over them). There is an alternative route with less climbing if you take your car up to the Fjällparkering which is close to the tree line. But having done a few of these small mountain roads, I didn’t want to put my car through the ordeal again so I decided to punish my feet instead. But my feet were fine, and later on when I walked down that road, I found that it was actually quite fine as well. Maybe next time then.

The view from Lill-Skarven is fabulous. I know I always say that the view is great, and naturally it always is because the peaks give you a high vantage point. But Lill-Skarven is better than average, it feels right in the middle of the mountains and closer to them as well. And one thing I found attractive is the view towards the valley of Anderssjö with mountains all around.

On the way down, I decided to check the view from the Skarvvålen height. It doesn’t require any climbing as it’s just kind of an extension of the mountain, but I was looking for an alternative viewpoint towards the valley and the Hamrafjället mountain so it was worth checking out. It turned out that the view wasn’t that special, but then when I was going back to the trail, I saw a herd of reindeer on the slopes of Lill-Skarven. They were moving slowly but the general direction was east, which is where I was heading as well. So I thought it’s worth a try to see if I could get closer to them, and took a diagonal approach so I would be ahead of them if they would continue towards east. And amazing things happen – they did come towards me and when I saw that I might have a possibility to use them as silhouettes against the sky, I took the risk of getting closer. And they allowed me to do it!

What I then got to witness is something I will not soon forget. The herd consisted mostly of females, plus two young bull reindeer and one older (bigger) bull. The reindeer mating seasons starts in September and the two young bulls were sparring with each other, crossing their antlers so I could hear the sound they were making. If only they would’ve come up a few steps closer to me I could’ve gotten their fighting profile against the sky… but I wasn’t that lucky. And by the time I got their silhouette, they were not sparring any more because the big bull appears to have cooled them down. It was not tolerating any challenges so it chased off the young bulls while running around the cows to make sure they would not stray off.

Although the reindeer allowed me to get so close, they did keep a watchful eye on me. I’ve heard that the only time a reindeer might be a threat to a human is during mating season when the bulls get too excited. So when this running and chasing was going on, a couple of times it looked like they would be running towards me and that really got my heart racing! But this is probably still early season for them, the bull was flemming but none of the females were ready and I didn’t really see any aggressive behaviour from the dominant male, apart from the moment it thought the young males got too close.

It’s easy tell the males and females apart. All reindeer grow horns, but the males shed the velvet skin on theirs before mating season while the females keep it, and just like with other animals with horns, the older the animal the bigger the bigger the horns. So if you look at the pictures, you can easily tell apart the cows and the bulls, and also the dominant male and the future challengers (they didn’t seem to pose much of a challenge today).

What did I say about putting experience first and pictures second? Well, this one was an experience for sure. And one of my photographic aspirations is to picture a reindeer silhouetted against the sky, and I think I kind of got that one as well. Can’t ask more from a hike!

The flower season is starting to wind down, but there are still some interesting flowers left. Orchid-wise, the only thing to look forward to is the ghost orchid, but then again, that’s plenty to look forward to. It’s just an amazing flower! Twayblade is still in bloom, so are some late heath spotted orchids and we even found one very late blooming early marsh orchid, and I know that the creeping lady’s-tresses should be at their best right now (note to self: photograph them!). One exciting flower we visited today is the moor-king lousewort (Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum). In my mind I always see it as an alpine plant, but it does grow in the low-land as well and we have it. And then the bog star is up and coming, I definitely hope to explore that beautiful flower in more detail this year.

But the best discovery today was not a plant at all, but a place. I’m always keen on some waterfalls, so my guide took me to a stretch of the Svartån creek which turned out to be pure photographic heaven for me. Because of the big rains in the past days the creek was nearly flooding (and the colour wasn’t very nice because the creek is mainly fed by run-off from the bogs) so it wasn’t showing its best side for me today, but there is absolutely no denying the potential. I’m already dreaming of October and all the colours…

When we were making our way back, it suddenly dawned on me that this was part of the Hamra National Park now, as it was extended in May. It made me even more happy, knowing that this fabulous place is protected. The landscape may not be spectacular, the plants may not be rare, but in my eyes this place is as special as it gets!

Take 1

When I set out northbound, I saw some very dark clouds ahead of me. Otherwise it was sunny, so I figured it was just showers and drove on. I ignored the rain, but when the hail started pounding the windshield, I turned back.

But I was right, it was just a shower. I waited it out at home, decided to dress for rainy weather anyway and set out again.

Take 2

Same road, same direction. When I got there, the raining had already stopped and now it was blue skies all around. The lovely overcast weather had been replaced by a harsh noon light… I worked around it by playing with shadows and light. The bog rosemary was blooming at its best so the timing was right in that sense anyway. When I was almost done with my session, I heard the thunder in the distance. Very dark clouds in the north. I headed home to wait it pass.

I didn’t need the rainy weather clothes though. Even if the day is on the cool side, the sun is very very warm and you don’t want to be wearing rain gear…

Take 3

The thunder storm never made it all the way to Loos but the rain did. And hail. Once the sky started clearing, I set out again, but in a different direction this time. Last week the butterfly orchids had looked like they would be blooming this weekend, but they didn’t. The cold weather had effectively frozen them, I didn’t see any difference to last week’s status.

So I thought maybe the early marsh orchids then. They were already blooming last weekend, so that would be one in the bag. I was trying to find photogenic individuals – no problem with finding individuals, but the photogenic aspect was too much to ask. All early marsh orchids in this location were very small and setting them clear from the grasses would’ve been impossible so I didn’t even try.

I also had a look at the twayblade. No progress from last Sunday.

I gave up.

Take 4

I drove home and when I parked the car, I noticed that the pansies that had mysteriously appeared next to my garage were still blooming and the colours were incredible. I normally don’t photograph garden plants but these pansies were runaways, there’s no way anyone would’ve planted them here. So I focused as close the 150mm macro allowed me, and still had to do some cropping to fill the frame… but I got what I was after. I’ve always wanted to try this with violets, but the wild ones are too small. Pansies however, big enough to pull this off without using extension tubes.

Come to think of it, I might as well have stayed home all day. I can see the pansies from my living room window…

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…