Two summery macro-shots Jun 15 2019

Today, when I looked out of my kitchen window I saw the flowering lilac being swarmed by butterflies. There were some European peacocks but most of them were painted ladies. Most of them flattered away, when I came with my camera but one of them was so kind to wait with open wings.

If you look closely at its wings you can see that they are frayed and that the colours are not the freshest. No wonder, because these butterflies are long-distance flyers coming from Southern Europe or even from North Africa. They sail with the wind and use to fly north each summer – this year even to the Swedish county Västerbotten. So this little fellow probably has flown 3–4000 km. Incredible!

Now my macro lens was attached and I was eager for more insects. Perhaps some dragonflies at the shore of the Nördfjärden? I packed a neoprene suit into my car and drove to the place. I really saw many dragonflies – for example common blue damselflies or
four-spotted chasers – when I waded through the shallow water. However I didn’t get any photos I’m really content with. The dragonflies are so shy and so fast. I guess I’m too impatient for nature photography.

I made however a dragonfly-related photo I like. It’s a so-called exuvia, the leftover of the dragonfly after it has hatched. These exuviae have a great advantage: they don’t move.

Translations:

English	German	Swedish	Latin
European peacock	Tagpfauenauge	Påfågelöga	Inachis io
Painted lady	Distelfalter	Tistelfjäril	Vanessa cardui
Common blue damselfly	Gemeine Becherjungfer	Sjöflickslända	Enallagma cyathigerum
four-spotted chaser	Vierfleck	Fyrfläckad trollslända	Libellula quadrimaculata

Fog in Skelleftehamn Jun 6 2019

Yesterday fog patches pulled up from the sea. At the coast was quite dense and hid anything further than 20 meters away.

But fog does not only hide things farther away, it also reveals other things nearby. For example the many spider nets in a small bog nearby.

Colours above the Luleälven May 31 2019

Yesterday evening. We are at Storbacken near Vuollerim in Norrbotten, where we visit friends. They live in a house by the large river Luleälven. It’s a bit chilly outside but we still sit there, enjoy the fresh air and try to ignore the first mosquitoes.

I haven’t planned to take pictures but the warm evening light on the forest on the other side of the river becomes more and more intense. Two whooper swans paddle along the river. And finally, half an hour later there appears a rainbow and hovers above the Luleälven like a huge airy bridge. Beautiful!

22:20 – sundown colours on the forest on the other side of the Luleälven

23:00 – a rainbow above the river Luleälven

This morning. I sit in the living room while the fire in the fireplace warms up the room. Outside it’s 3.5 °C and it has been raining the whole night and the whole morning. That’s two of the many sides of Sápmi, the region of the Sámi people.

Two ways of paddling May 29 2019

Between these two photos lie 4 weeks and 620 km. I made the first one on a kayak tour in Skelleftehamn late April. The second one I took in Stockholm last week. (And no, I didn’t paddle the whole way.)

It’s no coincidence that I have called my blog way-up-north. I’m more often in Kirkenes than in Stockholm. There was however an important reason for travelling south to the capital of Sweden. I need a new passport and the only possibility to apply for it is in the Embassy of Germany in Stockholm. I was a bit nervous that I would have forgotten one of the needed documents as e.g. my birth certificate, but the documents were complete and anything went well. In a few weeks I will receive a letter with my new passport.

After the passport application I had some spare hours before taking the train back to Umeå and then the car to Skelleftehamn. It was warm and sunny and I decided to hire a kayak. A booked it for just an hour but it was fun to be on the water and see Stockholm from this perspective. On the tour before I used a dry suit for protection, this time I paddled barefoot and in a t-shirt. Nice!

I like Stockholm – it is a beautiful town – but I don’t want to live there. Beside of the ridiculously high prices for housing it’s too big for me. And of course way too south!

Stockholm view from Södermalm on Kungsholmen

A 2019 winter retrospect May 15 2019

The lakes are open and the leftover snow hides in some dark patches in the forests. The birches have started stretching out their leaves, butterflies flutter around and it doesn’t get dark anymore in the night. It’s like winter never happened, but the blog reveals that it did happen although I think it was too short. But that’s no real news.

This is probably the last winter article for long, for now it’s spring.

Winterly Tromsø in May May 5 2019

I’m sitting in the bus somewhere in Northern Finland. We just passed the sign “Tornio 410 km”. Are we there, it’s only some more minutes to Haparanda from where a car ride of another 270 km awaits us. Then I’m home.

Home from the incredible interesting and inspiring but also exhausting Barents Press International Media Conference that took place in Tromsø for two days. Great speakers, great talks! Here are some of the topics:

EU and the struggle against fake news
How to make your climate change story into a click-blockbuster
#Barents #Beingyounghere: Official book release
Norwegian spy scandal in Russia: A close friend’s story

At the same time winter had come back to Northern Scandinavia and so to Tromsø. I used the mornings and evenings to walk round or just visit the roof terrace of our hotel to make some pictures of Tromsø.

Thursday 2 May – the weather is quite nice. I’m glad to walk around after the long bus trip there.

The breakwater Sørsjeteen with the art from Chris Reddy

Friday 3 May – the morning is windy. First it’s dry but then snow showers rack over Tromsø for the rest of the day. Some of them are quite intense.

A bunch of bright red buoys on a fishing vessel

Saturday 4 May – Tromsø is covered with fresh snow. The air is cold but the ground is warm and so the snow is partly melting again. In the evening some very intense snow showers cover Tromsø with more snow.

Clarion Hotel The Edge, my accommodation in Tromsø

Sunday 5 May – partly cloudy, partly blue sky that reflects in the sea water. And so do the ships.

Although I enjoyed the conference it was a bit of a pity that I didn’t have more time to take pictures and explore the city. On the other side I’ve been in Tromsø several time and probably will be there again.

I would love to work there for some months but the tax rules of the non-EU-member Norway would make that quite complicated because then I had to declare taxes both in Sweden and in Norway.

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From Haparanda to Tromsø through the bus window May 2 2019

Four pairs of looking-through-the-window photos and a bonus proof photo

I’m sitting on my bed of room 223 in the Clarion Hotel “The Edge” in Tromsø. I’m here to join the Barents Press International Media Conference that will take place tomorrow and the day after. We from Skellefteå took a car to Haparanda at the Swedish-Finnish border already yesterday. Today we took the bus to Tromsø.

I took photos through the bus window, all with my Nikon D750 and an old 70-210mm/ƒ4.0 lens.

Pair 1 – along the river Torneälven

The Torneälven is the border river between Sweden and Finland. We drive on the Finnish side of the river. Almost all snow has melted and the river is ice free now. Sometimes large walls of ice floes lie along the riverbank.

Pair 2 – moorlands

We already have crossed the Arctic Circle. The coniferous forests are behind us and large moorland frame the road. It’s windy and temperatures are hardly above zero. From time to time it snows.

Pair 3 – winterland

The more up north we travel the snowier and more wintry the landscape becomes. We pass Kilpisjärvi and are in Norway now.

Pair 4 – fjords and mountains

Fjords and mountains – both are typical for Norway. And both can be seen from the bus. A lot of other participants have never been here before and the Oh-s and Ah-s do not stop. And they are right, the landscape is both beautiful and impressive. (… and quite unphotographable from a driving bus.)

Bonus photo

At 7 o’clock we departed in Haparanda, at 17 o’clock we arrive in Tromsø. Later I make some pictures from the roof terrace of our hotel. A Hurtigruten ship with the ishavskatedralen in the background. Take it as a proof, that I’m really in Tromsø.

Opening the kayak season 2019 Apr 25 2019

Two days ago a personal weather record was beaten. It was almost 20 °C in Skelleftehamn. in April! In town 22.1 °C was measured, the warmest April day for at least 15 years. And that’s what my garden looks like: beside of a stubborn patch of snow in the shadow of my neighbour’s garage my garden is completely free of snow.

While the air was warm, the seawater was still very cold and I would not dare to paddle without a drysuit. I didn’t want to be boiled in the drysuit and so I postponed the kayak opening to today, when it was colder again.

When I leave the house at 8:45, it is 4 °C. My favourite starting point is still icebound, so I walk to the peninsula Näsgrundet with the kayak in tow. I use a belt and a rope to drag the kayak behind. When the kayak is balanced on the cart I have the hands free and can walk normally. 25 minutes later I reach the shore where I put on drysuit and life jacket. Soon I sit in the kayak and realise, that even though I miss winter there are fun things to do when it’s warm as well.

It’s colder on the sea and I put on my neoprene gloves and waterproof hood. As I expect some of the paddle routes are still blocked by ice. There is still ice between the island Bredskär and mainland so I cannot circle the island. I have to return. I pass a large ice floe – time to enter the floe for some minutes. It doesn’t move, probably it sits on a large rock.

I kayak along the islands Bredskär, Klubben and Flottgrundet, always along the open outsides. Then I head for the island Nygrundet, where I made a very special snowshow tour a month and a day ago. The ice heaps have vanished, only a long strip of ice follows the coastal line. Time to take a break and to have an early lunch. Crisp bread, cheese, fresh grapes and a bar of chocolate. I feel a bit cold and put on my lightweight down jacket, but I would have preferred my winter anorak. I even make a small fire on the ice but more for having it gemütlich than for additional warmth.

After the break I’m full and warm again. I pack my stuff and continue my kayak tour. I paddle along the outside of the islands Nygrundet and Gråsidan, where I make a short photo stop.

Then I continue to Bredskär, where some quite high ice walls are reminiscent of the winter.

I try to paddle between Flottgrundet and Bredskär but soon come to a large area of old and soft ice. I measure the thickness with the paddle – round 30 cm. I decide to walk over the ice and drag the kayak behind. First it works well …

… but then the ice gets softer and softer. Just some steps next to the island I break through. It is not a sudden movement, the ice just slowly gives way. Paired with the buoyancy of drysuit and life jacket that’s probably the reason why I only break in up to my chest. The hole is small and it’s a matter of seconds to get on the ice again. Carefully I take the last steps until I reach land.

Sea ice and lake ice have a strange way of melting in spring. The solid ice transforms to an array of long vertical ice needles. There is hardly any connection between one needle and the next and it’s not possible to lift larger pieces of ice from the water without breaking them. When you get out a smaller piece and drop it, it will splinter into many parts. The structure shown on the photos below is round 10 cm thick.

I continue walking, partly on ice, partly in shallow water. Then I can paddle again. But not for long. Soon I reach another ice field, this one looking very unstable. So I cross the ice by staying in my kayak and pushing myself forward with the hands. Ouch – the vertical ice needles hurt, even through the neoprene gloves. Alas it’s only 15 meters to cross, then I’m in open water again.

The rest of the tour? Slowly paddling back to the starting point – taking off the dry suit – putting on soft shell and down jacket because I feel cold – put the kayak onto the cart and attach it to the belt – walking home. The tour took 5 hours, 40 minutes. 5 km of walking, round 10 km of paddling. Here’s a sketch:

Legend: on foot | kayak

Spring sprint Apr 22 2019

The warm weather of the last ten days has made the snow melt quickly. Many birds have arrived, among others swans, geese, cranes and northern lapwings. The first spring flowers are blooming and butterflies flutter around.

Some days before I still had up to 40 cm of snow in my backyard, now there are only some snowy patches left that probably will thaw away soon.

Even at Storgrundet – my favourite beach and one of the places where the sea ice uses to remain longest – the first large patches of open water can be seen.

Since most of the sea ice has been vanished I want to open the kayak season this week. I need however another starting point than Storgrundet. Even though the ice has holes, most of it is still thick enough to walk onto. I met a couple that crossed the ice to visit their cabin. The man told me, that he crossed the ice a week ago, too – by car!

Boats between ice and water Apr 16 2019

Normally I try to make a winter kayak tour as soon as parts of the sea are free of ice. Not this year. Either it was too windy or the sea was ice covered again or I was travelling.

While my kayak is still sleeping in the garage two other boats have already been taken out. I saw them in the afternoon but made the photos in the evening.

It may look like the sea is frozen again, but the transparent ice is floating freely. Look closely and you’ll realise that the second boat has moved while I took the photo and therefore is a bit blurred.

Although the boats are a clear spring sign the ice makes the photos look still wintry. Today’s day temperature however was round 10 °C and for the first time I jogged in a t-shirt.

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