Waxwing – Seidenschwanz – Sidensvans
Freezing over – day three
A picture from yesterday where the morning was as cold as the day before. This will close the little series about ice on the Baltic Sea because today morning it was more than 10 °C warmer and hardly any ice was left. Tomorrow it all will be gone until it starts to get cold again.
Freezing over – day two
Another chilly morning, with -7 °C it was the coldest in Skelleftehamn this season. Again I woke up quite early and took a tour to Storgrundet. There lay more ice on the sea than yesterday and you could see that it was partly ice floes that froze together the night before. However, the beautiful ice rim that I photographed yesterday was gone.
I made a short stop at the lake Snesviken, that is round about one kilometer long. Since we had only two frosty nights after a longer warm period with day temperatures above 10 °C, I was sure that the lake was completely open with perhaps a bit of ice at the shore.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I realised that almost the whole lake was covered with ice – after only two frosty nights. Incredible how fast it goes!
This evening I had a meeting in Ursviken at the Kanotudden – the canoe bay, where the canoe club has its location. This bay is part of the Skellefte River and it starts to freeze over, too. I really like the clubhouse. It’s a pity that it’s hardly used in winter time – it would be the perfect location for a public winter bath site!
Late October sunrise
Even after switching to standard time you don’t have to stand up extremely early to catch the sunrise over the Baltic Sea. Sunrise today was 7:06 and since I already was awake I took the car to the shore. Sky was clear and illuminated in warm orange colours while the open sea was of a deep blue. A nice contrast and since there ware hardly any clouds the photo has some kind of an abstract look. When the sun came – click – I made this photo:
After two warmer weeks it was chilly this morning with temperatures round -5 °C. Of course the sea is still open, but the water puddles on the waterfront were covered with ice.
Did I say “of course sea is still open”? Well, not everywhere! After making the photos above I drove to the little beach Storgrundet where I saw the first thin layer of ice lying on the cold sea water. (The photo itself is far apart from being good – I’ll try to make better ones tomorrow morning if it’s as cold as today.)
Another frosty morning
-5.6 °C showed the thermometer when I woke up at 6:15. I don’t need to look through the window to know that it’ll be a nice morning with mostly blue sky when it’s so cold in early October. And so it was.
The photo above is taken almost at the same place as the 1st photo three days ago. I prefer the older motive but like the intense colour of the sunlit clouds in the background. To other shots:
Have a look at the second photo, the one with the grass in the foreground. Why isn’t the horizon straight? That’s because I stood knee deep in the water myself, breaking the ice. When this happens, water from the hole will start to cover the ice. I just could take my camera, look through the finder and – click! – take a picture. One second later parts of the ice were covered by a thin layer of water.
That was the main problem: There is no save ground round these swamp ponds, where you could take your time for making pictures or even use a tripod. No, you stand knee deep in water on unstable ground, knowing that another step could bring you in much deeper water. I’m always afraid I could fall into the water and drown my expensive camera. It will me much easier when the ice is thick enough to stand on.
After a while the sun started to rise. Time for some more experimental images:
I realised the frozen bug on the second photo first, when I looked through the images at home. It’s hardly 2 mm big but looks quite huge on this macro photo. Learning: look at the motive even more precisely.
Two sides of an autumnal morning
A cold side and a warm side. The difference? 19 Minutes and 500 meters.
It’s really fascinating that even larger water areas than mud puddles start to freeze over after just three mornings with temperatures below freezing; today round about -5 °C.
Scandinavian luxury – I
What is Scandinavian luxury?
When you drive home from a good rehearsal with the chamber choir and see a faint polar light through the front side window of your car.
When you arrive home and ignore the aurora, because you saw it already at least five times since August.
When you, just before going to bed, open the door and look outside.
When you sit on the wooden panel just in front of your front door and look at the intensifying Northern Lights, already wearing your pyjamas.
And make some photos – just half a meter from your front door. They won’t be the best, but you don’t care.
When you just slip into your boots and take another shot from the garden.
When you can experience this without being in a holiday – like it happened to me one and a half hours ago: That’s Scandinavian luxury!
Total lunar eclipse
Tonight in Skelleftehamn, 2015-09-28.
Some kind of autumn
Yesterday I dreamed of the first frost. The window panes of my winter garden where covered with frost patterns and even the floor was covered with frost. The door handle looked like bluish solid ice and I wanted to make a photo. Then I woke up.
No, winter is long away and even autumn hasn’t come fully yet. It’s still quite warm and autumn colouring has only started. Many birch trees are still green – weeks later than normal.
This is one of the reasons – beside of being very busy in the last weeks – why I hardly made any photos in the last time. But I made at least one picture that I want to share with you. That’s perhaps as much autumn as I could get this weekend round Skellefteå.
An overnight stay on the island Gåsören
Saturday
The advantage of short kayak trips with overnight stay: you can start quite late. It was 7 p.m. when I started pulling my loaded kayak from home to shore. A quarter later I sat in the kayak and started paddling. It’s only four, five kilometres to the island Gåsören that shone in the warm light of the evening sun.
The first thing to do: Put up the tent before sundown. The second thing to do: Taking a picture of the lighthouse before sundown. The stomach reminded me of thing number three: Preparing food and eating. Todays dinner: Graved salmon on fire roasted bread à la plein air.
I was quite curious if I would catch the first polar light. The short term forecast of Soft Serve News wasn’t too bad. But even if the sun already went down round 9 o’clock – two and a half hours earlier than eight weeks ago – I still had to wait for the sky getting darker. After a while however I could see the first faint greenish garlands. My first Northern Lights of the season 2015/16! Great!
But then I saw something in the sky that I thought was much more fascinating: Right above the red coloured northern sky I could see a layer of lucent clouds. They looked really strange because there weren’t red or purple – they were pale white! I never saw something like that before. They looked extremely far away, almost extraterrestrial. I wondered if this perhaps could be noctilucent clouds – clouds that are found in extremely high altitudes of round about 80 kilometres. I stayed awake for a long time, I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from this wonderful phenomenon. Two pictures of the clouds:
Of course I checked my hypothesis directly, when I went home. Yes – I guessed right. My first noctilucent clouds ever. I was really lucky and I’m happy that I could see them just from my tent.
But let’s leave the Mesosphere and go back to earth again. If you tent on the island Gåsören, you can see other lights, too. Lights of civilisation: The peninsula Rönnskär is quite nearby. On Rönnskär there is Boliden Rönnskär, one of the most efficient copper smelters. You think industry is unsightly and ugly? Well, not Rönnskär by night in my opinion:
Sunday
I woke up in broad daylight although it was only half past five. I took one halfhearted picture out of my tent and then I started reading.
I started the book “Norwegen der Länge nach” written by Simon Michalowicz that was published just some weeks ago. Simon hiked from the Southern tip of Norway to the North Cape – round about 3000 kilometres.
I read in the tent – I read sitting in front of the island’s sauna — I read sitting or lying on a floating boat bridge, only interrupted by a short bath in the Baltic Sea. I followed Simon’s tour and just couldn’t stop reading. It was noon when I finally finished the book. If can warmly recommend it to all German readers that love Scandinavia or are interested in hiking. There’s a website as well: www.simonpatur.de.
I wasn’t alone on the island. Some people hired the old lotshus – the pilot’s house for an overnight stay. The first motor boats came in for a day visit. And both summer cottages – there’re only two on Gåsören – were used, too. From T. who owns one of the cottages I learned that it was international lighthouse day today. So before I packed all my stuff together and paddled home I went up the two stairs in the old lighthouse and made a last photo.
I was home again half past two. Many experiences and a good book in less than twenty hours – that’s a fine weekend.
Translation:
| English | German | Swedish |
|---|---|---|
| Noctilucent clouds | Leuchtende Nachtwolken | Nattlysande moln |