The Quiet Picture

I was on a brief visit to the cabin this weekend. My parents came over so I got to show off the cabin and the landscape that I love, and I think they were impressed so I hope they understand why I’m not in no hurry to move back to Finland any time soon. Or ever.

We got lucky with the weather on Saturday, but even the sunshine couldn’t change the fact that the landscape looks less than spectacular at the moment. The birches are really suffering from the fungal infection and in some places the leaves were completely gone already. I didn’t see any birch at all that looked normal, because even the birches that still had leaves were clearly infected.

Sunday’s weather was a perfect match for the bare trees. The clouds were hanging low and you couldn’t even see through the length of the Fiskhålsgraven ravine.

Mom & Dad are now on their way back to Finland (through the storm) and I have the rest of my two week vacation to myself. To be honest, I still don’t have any ideas of what to do. But let’s face it – if I have nothing to do, then I’ll rather have nothing to do at the cabin than at home!

So the exhibition is now open for public! I’d lie if I said it was a crowd magnet, but the (very) positive thing is that the few people did come also liked the pictures. Co-incidentally, the Ljusdal camera club was holding an open-air exhibition in town which was a lucky break for me, because the club members made out a large portion of my visitors. If I’m going to have another exhibition, I have to advertise more or it will be downright embarrassing with the lack of visitors!

A few times I listened to the visitors without them knowing I was the photographer and they were still saying nice things. I didn’t keep score but I got the feeling that the nuthatch picture drew the most comments. I’m not surprised… it’s probably my favourite as well!

Since I had some time in between visits, I had a look around Rosehills. It’s a garden market so there were plenty of flowers, even if it’s a late season and a lot of shelves were already empty. I was going to have the camera with me anyway because inevitably, some people will want to talk about the technical side of photography (especially the camera club members), but obviously it was useful for shooting the flowers as well. I didn’t want to complicate things with a tripod so I was missing the stabilised version of the 150mm macro… I’m trying to resist!

Ever since January when I agreed to put together an exhibition, I’ve been in pains to select the images to use. I decided to go with my blog name, and then tried to select the quietest pictures of the bunch to represent the style that’s closest to my heart. But now it’s all done, the pictures are hanging on the walls and the exhibit opens tomorrow! I must admit I’m a little bit nervous, it’s my first real exhibition and the lack of self-confidence I was suffering from during my younger years is rearing its ugly head. By “real exhibtion” I mean the kind where you actually care about how you present the pictures… the one I had in Loos a few years feels really sloppy in comparison. Maybe it was fine for our small village, but if there’s one thing that I’ve learned now is that if you’re going to present your best work, then the work deserves nothing less than the best presentation you can give it. Pinning unframed pictures to mobile walls is not it!

So I hope I’ll get at least a few visitors so it’s not going to be completely embarrassing to stand there. It’s going to be nice weather in any case so I hope it will be a nice day all around!

05:25 – Somebody knocks on the door. I try to open the door from the left side (like at home), it fails miserably. But in the end I get the door open from the right side. “Hello, I’m your new neighbour. If you’re planning to drive out today, then you should move your car to the main road because we will have a big truck block the road today”. My cabin is by a cul-de-sac, so there’s only one way out. I take the keys and park the car at the first best lay-by by the bigger road. It seems to be a nice morning though, foggy at the moment but the sun is clearly on the go. But I am so tired from yesterday’s hikes that all I can do is crash back in the bed.
06:45 – Somebody knocks on the door again. This time I remember how to open it. “Can you move your car a bit further out? It’s too close to the junction, the truck needs more swing room.” So I move the car, see what a beautiful morning it is and give up on sleep.

* * *

One thing I have been dreaming about for several months it seems, is the waffles at Djupdalsvallen. I know it sounds silly to miss something you can easily make at home, but there’s so much more to it than just the waffle itself (which, I have to say again, are the best I’ve ever had).

The target of today’s hike was Lill-Mittåkläppen. I’ve been up to Stor-Mittåkläppen a number of times but the smaller mountain should also be good for flowers and it’s one of the 60 toppar peaks. The day was warm, so I couldn’t wear any more layers than a t-shirt. Blood-sucking demons… everything from mosquitoes to gnats to horse-flies. And then I had to get across big boggy areas and very soon I felt that my feet were wet. Whether it was because of walking through water or sweaty feet in the hot sunshine, I don’t know. But I don’t like the idea of water soaking the Gore-Tex, in my experience the first time the Gore-Tex hiking boots are soaked through, they lose their water-proofness (which obviously wasn’t so good to start with, if they get soaked through…) so they kind of lose their purpose. But it has happened with several boots so I know it’s a fact, no matter what the brochure says.

Anyway, once I was across the bogs, I faced a reindeer fence. I got lucky and quickly found a hole in the fence, so I was able to crawl through. Then I had to cross a small creek and after that it was all uphill to the top of Lill-Mittåkläppen. I had a look at the melting snowfield in the steep side of the mountain for some flowers, but I lost my interest quite quickly when I almost lost my footing a couple of times. It would be a quick way down, but rather painful I think. Up on the top of the plateau, the biting insects finally left me alone. But I wasn’t done with flying critters yet, now I had a pair of gulls circling around me, apparently they have a nest close by. I was a little bit worried that they would start dive bombing me, but I got spared from that.. even if they flew so close to me that I could hear the swoosh.

And after all that hiking and wading and climbing and crawling and biting, I found that I couldn’t actually reach the top. There’s another reindeer fence that surrounds the top from this side and I couldn’t find any opening in the fence that would’ve allowed me to go through. I didn’t feel like following the fence either, I was getting a little bit worried about the time. Djupdalsvallen closes at 16:00 and I had to get a waffle, no matter what! So it was with some bitterness that I gave up, I will still consider this mountain as conquered even if it bothers me that I didn’t actually stand on the highest point. But as you can see in the picture, I was very close in any case.

Since I didn’t like the idea of wading through those mires again, I had this bright idea of going over Stor-Mittåkläppen. Exactly what made me think that climbing a second mountain (which is almost 200 meters higher) would be better than getting wet feet I’ll never know, and I can honestly say that halfway up the steep slope I was seriously questioning my decision-making process. Again. Why are my ideas good only when I get them?

But I made it to Djupdalsvallen with over half an hour to spare. And the waffle was just as good as I remembered it was. An adventurous day with a perfect conclusion!

* * *

I have a love-hate relationship with hikes like this, I hate them when I’m doing them but afterwards when I get back safe, I love them. My biggest concern is that one day I will hurt myself pulling out these silly stunts like exploring the steep side of a mountain with a heavy backpack that can throw you off-balance. I can’t always even call for help – for example today, there was no mobile coverage until I was almost on top of Lill-Mittåkläppen so sometimes I’m well and truly alone. If I hurt myself so badly that I can’t move, I will die there. Nobody knows where I am and nobody will miss me until I should be back at work. So this is a little bit scary sometimes, but what the heck. I’m doing what I love doing and if I have to stop doing it, then I will stop living. Easy decision.

During my excursion yesterday, I found some potential motifs that I chose not to shoot but I felt deserved a second chance. They are really close to home so I didn’t even pack the bag, just took the camera and tripod (and a generous layer of mosquito deterrent) and had a closer look. Glad I did, because I had a really good time shooting the twinflowers and green-flowered wintergreens.

Next weekend I will be shooting flowers in the mountains. Just five working days left, and I have vacation! The other day I calculated that I have had 17 days of holiday (besides the bank holidays) since July 2009. Add a year-long stress about the cabin and some significant changes at work and I can honestly say that I need a vacation! Ok I hear you asking, why didn’t I take out more vacation… I tried to. I had a lot more scheduled last year, but then the cabin got delayed, and delayed some more, and I kept cancelling my holidays with every delay. Shooting myself in the foot, in other words. On the upside, now that I can use the cabin, I will be wanting to take out every day of vacation I can!

After the huge disappointment last year when I found someone had cut all the lady’s slipper orchids in one location, I decided I have to do something. I can’t stand watch there every day, so I ended up creating a sign where I pointed out (in a gentle manner, no accusations!) that all orchid species are protected. I offered one of my pictures as a print as a trade-off for anyone who had planned to pick the orchids this year as well.

I put up the sign a couple of weeks ago and today I visited the location to see how the orchids are doing. My sign was still up and so were the orchids! Although to be honest, I don’t think anyone has been there at all, even to look at them. The local folks normally check another location, which is exactly why I’m now visiting this place instead because I don’t want to add to the wear and tear. I started to wonder if these people who pick lady’s slippers have possible also selected another location… but I can’t check them all.

So in this location anyway, the orchids were safe. It turned out that they are early this year, they are already starting to be over bloom and there were no buds at all. They were not as numerous as some other years and I noticed something interesting. I’m almost sure that they are smaller this year than they normally are. I noticed this with the calypso orchids as well, they were definitely smaller than normal. So I’m wondering what could be causing it. Maybe the really warm period in the spring which made them spurt too far ahead considering the season… The next orchid in bloom will be the lesser butterfly orchid, I saw a couple of individuals today which had just started to open up. So let’s see if those will be smaller than normal as well.

I also found some creeping lady’s-tresses orchids in early stages of bloom. But it is such a small orchid anyway that it’s impossible to say if it’s bigger or smaller than normal.

Exciting times anyway – I need to adjust my head to think that this really is summer now, because the flowers are popping up everywhere!

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!

I’m trying to fight off a cold and it seems like I’m doing a good job at it, because I’m not getting very sick… but I’m not fully fit either so something is going on. Normally I stay indoors when I have a least suspicion of having a cold, but yesterday was an exception. We had agreed to drive to the mountains so I just packed up some painkillers and hoped for the best. And to my pleasant surprise, it was fine. In fact, it seems like doing something like that just helped me feel better!

But anyway, the trip. I was rather naively thinking that we would get sunshine, blue skies and white mountains but we got clouds, heavy wind and snowmelt instead. Oh well. The weather is obviously always a game of luck, but I didn’t expect to see so many black blotches on the mountains. I’ve done many April mountain trips and now that I checked my old pictures, it proves that I wasn’t completely wrong in expecting those white mountains (just check out the pictures from my April trip last year!). But if the weather is a game of luck from day to day, then the seasons aren’t the same from year to year either.

If the clouds hadn’t been bad enough during the day, they just got worse in the evening. In fact, when we drove through Slagavallen which is at about 850m altitude, we found ourselves inside the cloud. So just when it was at its worst, it was at its best – the best pictures of the day, right at the end of it!

It was finally a sunny day, and what happens? I’m sick. Three of my colleagues were in different stages of having a cold this week and it was apparently impossible to dodge the bullet so now I’m just hoping that I don’t get any worse than I am right now. Last night was bad enough. The good news is that I don’t have fever (yet) so I was actually able to go outside just a little bit and work on a Christmas card idea I had. Other than that, I’m just too busy feeling sorry for myself to do anything constructive. I suck at being sick.

Just to give myself an excuse to whine about my aching sinuses, I’ll post a photo from last weekend. The snow cover gave a good opportunity to try high contrast (or high key, except it’s not really actually high key) with the spruce. Work in progress, I’ll try to nail this during the winter.