Tussilago 2021 Apr 16 2021

As in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 I post a tussilago image in 2021, too:

I saw the first tussilago flower already on 1 April, but in a ditch by the E12 from the car. Today I searched for the flower and found a lot of them. I saw butterflies, too, hardly imageable considering the snowfall some days before.

Wrote a Tussilago article for the blog ✔︎
Spotted Dancing butterflies (small tortoiseshells) ✔︎
Watched common cranes (100+), whooper swans (250+) and northern lapwings (1) ✔︎
Got muddy boots while taking pictures ;-) ✔︎

Looks like spring will arrive this year, too.

April weather – kayaking through the snow Apr 12 2021

Yesterday the whole day was sunny. The sun was warm enough that we could take breakfast on the terrace. At lunch time we took a bath at Vitskärtsudden. Of course the water temperature is hardly above zero, but it felt springlike to go barefoot over the sand of the beach. Yes – sand, no more ice or snow!

Today however:

In the morning it has started snowing and since then it has been constantly snowing at temperatures round 0.3 °C. A good opportunity for …

… kayaking! Although wind had become stronger the Baltic Sea still was calm. Maybe it was the snow, that created a wet blanket of slush and made parts of the surface slow and doughy, but that I don’t know.

I just took a tour round Lillskär, but took some photos with my Nikon. That took time, because each time I took photos the wind blew me back 50 to 100 metres again. But as I said, the water was calm and it didn’t took long to round the island, cross a field of floating slush, disturb some geese and return home.

Short experiences can be great and memorable experiences!

A photo from the afternoon – still snowing. The original photo looked almost black-and-white and so I made this composition completely black-and-white with a slide blueish tone.

The background: a line of trees, dimmed by the intense snow fall. The middle layer: A line of rocks in the sea, covered with snow. The foreground: The sea, covered with a layer of slush.

April weather by the sea Apr 9 2021

Yesterday at lunch break: The sky is blue and the sun illuminates our little bay. After last nights frost it is still covered with fragile, transparent ice. I stand ashore and take a photo of some ice floes. The inner part of the bay behind me is still covered with thick, old winter ice you can walk on.

Today at lunch break: The weather forecast of SMHI was right: a hard and gusty wind drives wet snow from the sea. The water level is more than 60 cm over normal. (Remember: no tides in the Baltic Sea). The breaking waves have broken all the ice that yesterday still covered the bay and wash the ice floes ashore.

Impossible to make a photo without spray on the lens! Therefore you can see some pale bubbles on the photos.

I stepped from one large ice floe to the other. They float and move under my feet, they raise and fall with the waves but they are still stable enough to bear my weight.

And so looks our house from the middle of our bay Grundviken:

Time to show some more abstract black and white images that I made today. One of the wooden barrel (or whatever it is), almost covered by the sea. Another one of the snow bucketing down from the low hanging clouds.

Spring kayaking – kind of … Apr 7 2021

In the last weeks a lot of snow has melted and the sea ice has vanished. Only in some shallow, protected bays as Grundviken behind our house some ice is left. Spring is near!

Today I took advantage of the calm and sunny weather and took a short kayak tour round the island Bredskärssten. This island is 900 m from the mainland and round 300 m long.

Paddling to the island was easy. That’s, because we mostly have wind from the west and many kayak tours start with tailwind. Some ice floes floated in the lee of Bredskärssten.

I could hear a deep droning sound. A ship? I looked over my shoulder and behind Bredskär – the larger island nearby – the bow of Wasaline, the ferry to Finland appeared. I “parked” between the ice floes to take some images. with my mobile phone.

I continued paddling round the island. Two geese fleed loudly quacking from the island. I saw the reason seconds later: an eagle wheeling above the island.

Of course I had headwind on my way back. But the mainland was near and home in view all the time. Soon I arrived at the very same ice floe where I had started the tour. Time to continue my work in my home office …

With dressing, undressing, dragging the kayak and all the tour took an hour.

Black and white weather Mar 29 2021

+1 °C, grey and hazy with some rainy showers. I ignore the weather and go out for a longer walk. Time to put a black and white film in the iPhone.

The ice is breaking Mar 24 2021

The first own video on way-up-north.com – just a rough edit

It is wind and waves that break the sea ice in the spring. And it already feels like spring. Last weekend I saw the first whooper swans and then the first seagulls – either swimming or standing on the ice bridge to the near islet Lillskär.

One week ago I dragged my kayak over the ice to that islet to start a short paddle tour from there. Since then Annika and I could watch how the open sea nibbled at the ice from both sides until only a broad ice bridge was left over.

This ice bridge became narrower and narrower. Today I used my lunch break to slip into my waterproof suit and walk to Lillskär. Even the solid ice had become cracks and these future ice floes raised and sank with the waves. As if the sea would inhale and exhale under my feet.

I went to the island, trudged to the snow and watched the waves at the outer shore. When I returned I saw, that the ice bridge almost had gone. I managed to walk back without wading or swimming, but it was close. Half an hour later the last ice shield was crushed away by the waves and Lillskär is an island again.

Today I don’t show photos but a video. I apologise for the lousy editing but I’m a video newbie and wanted to publish the video today.

Two short kayak tours May 28 2020

Two short kayak tours from the new home by the sea.

The first one morning last week. Just round the island Bredskär. The water surface smooth as silk and in beautiful pastel colours. Everything was quiet beside of the complaining sea birds.

The second one the day before yesterday in the afternoon. Just to the beach at Vitskärsudden. Through tiny waves and a lot of rocks. At the sandy beach I met Annika for a bath. She came by bike. The Baltic Sea not as cold as last time. Summer is coming.

Both tours were equally fun and both of them made me very grateful that I may live here at this fantastic place.

Vitskärsudden – a short cycle tour with holiday feelings May 5 2020

Moving in into our house yesterday felt more like starting a holiday. More like having hired a cabin by the sea for a week. And so it still felt, when I made a short bicycle tour this morning. All motifs shown below lie max 1.5 km from our house.

I love the diversity of landscapes you can find here within a short distance. And I like all of them. The last image however is a bit special: It shows the shallow bay right behind our house. Here I’ll plan to have my kayak somewhere.

Diezeborg Apr 29 2020

The cargo/container ship Diezeborg has been anchoring behind the island Gåsören for some days. This evening I took my telephoto lens and tripod to finally take a photo of the ship in the blue hour. The ship is approx. 8.5 km away.

Heralds of spring 2020 Mar 27 2020

Another sunny day with temperatures round 10 °C. Today I spotted the first tussilago flowers – two weeks earlier than usual. And even the first butterflies – small tortoiseshells – fluttered around today.

The photo of the butterfly is a bit out of focus, but I didn’t want to disturb the little fellows that probably enjoyed the sun as much as I did.