Tromsø 2024 – a special end-of-year review Dec 31 2024

Last December I changed my “work home” in Tromsø from a tiny studio to a flat with bedroom and kitchen. First I was a bit unhappy because the studio was near to the beach Telegrafbukta while the current one lies amidst the island Tromsøya.

But then I realised how beautiful nature nearby is. There are hilly forests, bogs and ponds and a zillion ways and paths leading through.And each season looks different. I walked there the whole year, either walking home after work or just taking a promenade. In winter I used my skis.

Here is a selection of photos from this year:

Short days in Obbola II Dec 29 2024

Just some photos from Obbola in the last days.

A flock of fieldfares in our rowan tree ❦ an icy morning by the coast ❦ sunlit ice fog hovering above the bay Vitskärsudden ❦ three roe deers eating rowan berries, leftovers of the fieldfares’ meal.

Translation:

English	German	Swedish	Norwegian
Fieldfare	Wacholderdrossel	Björktrask	Gråtrost

Routine detox Oct 28 2024

#routinedetox

Are you a photographer? Do you know the feeling that you are stuck taking the same pics again and again? Without evolving? I know it for sure. So I decided to do a bit of “photo routine detox” here and there. This is the first detox session, shot on 20 October this year.

This session’s rules:

iPhone with a cheap plastic magnifier (hand held) only
macro in the forest
develop as b/w with an image ratio of 7:6
publish exactly four photos, if I like any or not

These are the results.

Back in Tromsø – an autumnal walk Sep 19 2024

After five weeks of travelling with just two intermediate days I have come back to my work home Tromsø two days ago. Now I’ll stay here for a while.

Yesterday I have started working in the office again and today I walked home from the lake Prestvannet to my apartment after work. That’s five kilometres. Weather and nature have been showing, that summer says farewell and the wind is strong enough to tear out some of the tree’s green leaves, too. From today on I’ll try to take a one-hour walk every day. Let’s see, how long I’ll keep up that habit.

Some photos from today. Just the iPhone and some editing in Lightroom.

Norddeich/Norden Sep 12 2024

Annika and I were in Norddeich, the coastal district of Norden (“north”) in East Friesland, Germany the last days. The word “Norden” definitely qualifies that place for getting an article in my blog way-up-north.

Many streets of Norddeich have the theme “north” in their names. Am Nordkap (At the North Cape), Nordlandstraße (Northland street), Nordlichtstraße (Northern Light Street). Guess what, I like the names! Partly from my Scandinavian point of view, partly because I am from Northern Germany and therefore a “Nordlicht” (a nickname for people from Northern Germany) by myself.

Some photos from Tuesday, 10 September, the day of our arrival:

Yesterday on Wednesday, 11 September Annika and I rented e-bikes and took a cycle tour to Greetsiel. The weather was quite nasty for early September: strong gusty winds, hailstorms, cloudbursts and even a thunderstorm. And all that at temperatures around 10–11 °C. Kudos for the e-bikes! Without electrical motor support we wouldn’t have managed it against the wind.

It’s a long way to travel to Norden from our places. Round about 2800 km from Tromsø, my “work home” and still 1900 km from Obbola, my “home home”. But I think, I’ll visit Norddeich again some other time.

Spåret Sep 5 2024

After two weeks on the sea between Svalbard and Greenland I took the plane from Longyearbyen back to Tromsø and two days later the bus to Narvik and the train to Umeå. Since Sunday morning I have been in the familiar surroundings of my real home (“home home”) in Obbola again.

Two days ago I walked Spåret, a four kilometre promenade through the forests near us. It was warm and summery but also visible that Autumn has begun in parallel. What a contrast the forests are to the open ocean in the Fram Strait, the ice sheet near Greenland or the treeless valleys of Svalbard.

Afterwork car trip Aug 7 2021

This article is part of the series “2021-07: Back in Tromsø”.

Yesterday after work I started the weekend with a “scouting expedition” by car. I drove over the bridge Tromsøbrua and took the way to Oldervik. On the way I stopped several times to get to know Tromsø’s surroundings and to look for photo motives.

Some photos from yesterday: Common cotton grass and some mountains from the Lyngen Alps.

A short promenade to a near swamp Jul 6 2021

Spåret is a fantastic motion trail just some 100 metres from here. It is 3.6 km long and good for skiing (if not too much snow), running and going for a walk. It leads through forests, over large granite rocks, over sandy bottoms and passes some small swamps. When I walked there with Annika last weekend I spotted some beautiful pond-lilies. Today I took a hike there to take some pictures.

The mosquitos and horse flies appreciated that.

From top to bottom, from left to right:

Sundew, a carnivorous plant. Can grow directly on mud.
Heath spotted orchid. Protected in Sweden and other countries.
Cloudberry, a berry growing on wet ground. Rich in vitamin C. Guarded by mosquitoes …
Sphagnum (or peat moss), the main building bog of peat bogs.
Cotton-Grass, a sedge that looks like wool. Loves wet ground.
European white water lily, an aquatic plant with blossoms of great beauty.

Past – present – future Apr 23 2020

About ten years in Sweden and what will happen next

← Past

Have a look at this photo. It’s a special one:

10 years ago – my first morning in my new life in Sweden

This photo I took the morning of 23 April 2010, exactly ten years ago. It was the very first day of a new chapter in my life: Living in Sweden.

So today it’s my tenth Sweden anniversary. What a great life I’ve had all those years!

I’m especially grateful that I got to know Martine and Lasse right from the beginning. It was the balcony of their former house in Skellefteå where I took this photo from. Lasse and Martine not only gave me a room to stay for the first weeks but much more. They introduced me to many great people and showed me the surroundings, among others Skelleftehamn.

When I took these photos on 24 April 2010 I didn’t know that I would buy a house in Skelleftehamn only a month later and move there in summer 2010.

☉Present

The month of April uses to be the month between winter and spring. It still may snow intensely but the snow won’t last. And so it is this year, too. The rivers are mostly open and only the lakes are still covered with old ice.

The lake Falmarkträsket – snow mobile trail marking

The lake Falmarkträsket – ice at the bathing place in Långviken

But this April is special. Although the weather is really fine I’m inside quite a lot. It’s not because of corona or work but …

My combined guest room and library this evening

… because I pack my things. I’m moving. I’ll leave Skelleftehamn after almost ten years! The removal van will come in three weeks and I have a lot of stuff. The 35 banana boxes on the photo are filled with books and I didn’t even start to pack my winter equipment. Down jackets, sleeping bags, pulka, skies, winter boots …

→ Future

I’m going to move 148 km south. Annika and I have bought a house in Obbola near Umeå, the largest town in Northern Sweden. In two weeks Annika and I will finally become sambor. Sambo (sam = together-, bo = to live) – is the common Swedish term for people in a relationship living together without being married. Oh, how I’m looking forward to live together with Annika after years of a weekend relationship with many car rides on the boring E4 between Skelleftehamn and Umeå.

I’m also looking forward to something else. The house is located by the Baltic Sea. It’s only sixty metres from our terrace to the shore and I’ll be able to see the sea from my “office room”. There will be no excuse why I shouldn’t take a ten minute kayak trip before breakfast, when the weather is nice.

It’s hard to make photos from the future. The photos below I made three weeks ago.

The photo I couldn’t take three weeks ago was of the mink strolling along the shore. Wrong lens …

Day 9 – Ystad and Österlen Jul 17 2019

This article is part of the series “2019-07: Southern Sweden”.

16 July – Bjärnum—Ystad—Mälarhusen

After some wonderful relaxing days in Bjärnum Annika and I continue our tour through Southern Sweden. Today we will reach Ystad, our southernmost destination on our journey. From Ystad to Kilpisjärvi in the north it’s almost 2000 km by car.

From Bjärnum to Ystad however it’s less than two hours. Ystad is a beautiful medieval town. We strolled through the streets and alleys and I only took some snapshots because we looked for a place for lunch.

We found a restaurant near the boat harbour where we ate fish and looked at the sea, the small sailing boats and the big ferries. From Ystad you can take the ferry to Bornholm (Denmark) and Świnoujście (Poland).

Next stop: Ales stenar (Ale’s Stones), a megalithic monument east of Ystad. It consists of 59 large boulders formed in a shape of a boat, probably 1400 years old.

Next stop: Sandhammaren. Dunes, a long sandy beach and the clear Baltic Sea invites us to take a bath. Or two. Summer holidays.

We decide to look for an overnight stay. We pass a small wooden sign by car. It says “Stuga for 2” – cabin for two. We are lucky. Although it’s main season the stuga is free and we can stay for a night. It’s in Mälarhusen in the corner of a garden, incredible cozy and the beach is not far away.

We take the car to the next ICA to buy food. After a dinner with pasta and salad we take another promenade along the beach. At the horizon we spot land – the Danish island Bornholm. Finally a reason to fetch the tripod and the huge 150-600mm telephoto lens from the car and make a photo of Bornholm, where I have been more than 40 years ago.

A barley field on the way to the grocery

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