Tag Archive for ‘Nature’

Ängholmen

So the last days of my holiday and the weather is warm and calm winds. We tried a new spot and landed on the small island Ängholmen. Like many of the small island without people the forest has been untouched for almost a hundred years. I share some pictures of this beautiful spot in the world.

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The history of this island links well back to present day and the Covid-19 pandemic. During 1800 this island was a cemetery for cholera victims. Cholera hit hard in periods during almost forty years. As an attempt to protect spreading victims were buried away from communities.

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2020-08-08 0 17

Cows

A cow died today. It was laying there in the field. In a unnatural pose. On its side. Did not move when approached. Alone. She was dead.

Was she missed this cow. She had a calf. He missed her until another cow gave him milk. Alone in the field. Lying there in her unnatural pose.

The pack left her to drink water. Lowed to let the farmer know. Something was wrong. She was missed, it was not normal. Lying there in her unnatural pose.

In some religions a holy creature. I understand why. Majestic and calm. Feeding on the grass. Reuse four times. Milk and poo a natural pose.

Walk but seldom run. The majestic cows. In tune with nature. Considered to be slow on the uptake. But take it easy her natural pose.

A cow died today. The farmer picked her up with the tractor. Why did she die? A plastic bag in her throat or a bite from a snake? Ended in her unnatural pose.

Did the farmer care? She was insured, was she not? But a tear in the farmers eye. All creatures in his care are precious to him. Lifting her up from her unnatural pose.

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Cows has been part of my life since I was a boy growing up on a farm. They are gentle creatures and brings calm to the surroundings. Was this cow I found dead in the field just a production unit in the farmers books. Or was she more than that. I think all living creatures are worth our respect and that is why I think she was worth this poem.

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2020-07-31 1 15

Pontoon

This past winter was one of the mildest ever. There was very little snow and the bay where we have the boat only froze once in early December. It was like a prolonged autumn. Not uncommon in the west coast of Sweden. This is due to the Gulf Stream that brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to Scandinavia. This stream also brings mild and rainy weather over the British isles and then continues to Scandinavia. The winter comes from the north east. Normally we have a few weeks in January and February with temperatures below Zero degrees Celsius. Then the bays in the fjord freezes and with the wind and stream ice will press on any pontoons or bridges until they break.

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So to save our bridge pontoon we towed it across the bay and pulled it up on shore where the ice will not reach. Normally but not this year. Some heavy storms and low pressure weather systems made the water raise far over the normal level. At some point, even if we attached the pontoon well it came loose and floated away. So in the spring when we put the boat in the water we went to get the pontoon just to find it GONE! The first trip with the boat was to slowly seek out the shores in the fjord to find the pontoon. Hoping that it did no damage to something or floated out to the sea.

Salvaging

After about one hour we found it far up on a rocky beach. It was intact and not far from the anchoring point but on an island. It was too far up on the beach to be pulled into the water by boat. Me and my son started to try jerk and snitch with ropes and planks to move it into the water. We tried using planks and stones to create a lever to move the almost 200 kilo pontoon. We got it to move but some large stones stopped us and finally my back said. “Stop, you foolish old man” with a snap. We had to surrender for now. And it took more than a week for my back to heal.

Before we could try again a new storm hit, moving the pontoon back up on the shore. So now we had lost all meters we managed last attempt. Fortunately it moved sideways away from the large stones. This time we came more prepared with more planks to use as lever and with more manpower. In the future I might write a blog on all Swedish swearwords because I think we used them all before we got the pontoon into the water. But we did it, YEAH!

Success

Now the wind had picked up and we got a strong head wind as we towed the pontoon to its anchoring point at the bridge. It is quite hard to steer a small boat alone in strong winds. So you can imagine the challenge towing a rectangular pontoon bridge. Now the challenge is to get the pontoon to the anchoring point without running into the rock or run the propeller into the seabed as the water is quite shallow. But with skill and MUCH luck we managed to steer clear and maneuver the pontoon to its anchoring point at the first attempt. Next year we will secure the pontoon better.

Do you like more stories from me Ulle Haddock? Like, subscribe and please comment!

2020-07-30 0 10

Painting

Today I painted a house. My sons house. Taking down the wood around the windows. Making sure it is well done. Well done to sustain the windy autumn and winters. Autumn and winter when rain comes down almost horizontally. Hammering against the windows and the trim boards.

The soothing strikes of the paint brush against the wood. Before and after are clear, simple. Protecting the wood against the forces of nature. Forces to reclaim, reclaim the wood. For now, and many years to come a shelter for my son. I cannot save him from his inner demons. But I can shelter him from the forces of nature.

Nature that we love so much. Offers recreation and keeps the demons away for a while. Walking the forest to pick mushrooms and watching the wild life. The birds, nightingale singing its lovely tune. The hawk screaming and fighting with the seagull trying to steal its eggs. Go out with the boat, just sitting there.

Painting, gently back and forth. Like I stroke my sons hair when he was a child trying to sleep, soothing. A layer of protection against everything that wears down. Around the windows always white. White as the gentle snow. Snow that muffles the noise. Painting a house, my sons house.

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2020-07-22 0 11

Photos before Rain

Share with you some photos taken on walk in the forest before the rain. I think the light was perfect and I am pleased with the result.

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Nursery for fish. We need to preserve our oceans.

I hope you like these pictures. Sadly I had to add the last picture. It was found in a inaccessible part of the forest. How did it get there? Like, subscribe comment and there will be more from Mother Nature, please be gentle to her.

2020-07-20 3 6

Photos

I wrote a post about how I like to take photos with my Mobile phone camera and I got a lot of likes from other bloggers that like photography. I have checked their blogs and tips with great joy. They have inspired me to look at the possible motives in a new way. So thank you https://wanderingambivert.com/, https://fotosbykarin.blog/ and everybody else. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Clouds are amazing on a summers day and compact in the storm.

On the islands of the coast the wind is the most magnificent sculptor and since many of the islands are uninhabited and difficult to access there is very little human impact. Look at the pine to the left, it has found a place to grow in very little soil, stubbornly pushing its roots under the rock to find water. The tree to the bottom right is one of my favorites twisting so much it has grown over an old branch of the same tree. Even with many branches dead this tree is still alive standing on the west side of the island, a true survivor.

The right hand side picture is taken with the portrait mode on the phone and the left side is with normal setting.

One of the tips was to use the portrait mode when taking scenic pictures and I have experimented a bit with it. It is a bit more difficult as you need to stand close to the object in foreground but as you see in pictures above the colors gets deeper when taking a picture in a very bright summers day by the ocean. I will keep experimenting and learn more even if my family sighs every time I stop to take a picture laying down or bending over backwards to get that perfect angle. If you like to follow my progress, or downfall, please like and subscribe. Tips and comments are most welcome!

2020-07-13 0 7

Thinking

On the rock high above the water. Sitting and looking out over the bay. The rustle from the leaves in the breeze. My special place, so peaceful and calm wherever the wind comes from. In early spring I hear the eagle owl calling for its mate. Down in the water a pair of swans swims gently through the water. The swans stay together for life and work together to bring up their cygnets. Every year I see them having two but seldom see them grow to adults. Thinking of the worry you have for your children. Never stops even when they grow up. Going to university to live in the large city with all dangers, the noise.

On the rock high above the water. In the winter I see a family of moose cautiously move across the ice. It breaks and one of the calf’s goes into the ice cold water. Struggles to get up. The mother looks at him and calling. Calling to the other calf to go around, to the struggling one to fight. To far away to help. It goes under once, twice, disappears and like a miracle gets its head over the water and struggles to solid ice. Manages to climb up. I am standing up now and my pulse is rushing. Thinking of my own children, praying they will manage their way to adulthood.

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On the rock high above the water. In the summer the bay is full of boats seeking shelter from the strong west winds. The smell of barbecue smoke filling the bay. Someone diving into the water from the deck. Scaring up the ducks that lifts of while making loud noise. The duck mother screaming hurry, hurry, danger, danger. The sun against my skin warming me. I am calm my son sits right beside me. No talking, just sitting, thinking.

Boats seeking shelter from the coming summer storm.

On the rock high above the water. The rocks carved and shaped by the ice, steep in one end and rounded in the other end. Rounded boulders left by the ice. Blue clay at the bottom of the bay left by the last melting ice thousands of years ago. Thinking of the people lived here since the rocks and narrow fields raised from the ocean bottom. The rich water bringing in the herring and bringing prosperity just to vanish again bringing starvation to the table. See the remains of stone-masonry. Cutting the red granite, men working in the hot summers day, in the cold cold north west snowstorm, in the rain falling almost horizontally with the south west wind. Working to provide for their children.

On the rock high above the water. Turn to the west where the storm is roaring over the shielding cliff. Thinking of the fishermen. Today struggling with rules and over fishing from floating industries. Going out in their small boats against the forces of nature. Not knowing if they will make it home. The sea provides and the sea takes back. Stories told of the old days when boats were forced to go out in harsh conditions and froze in the ice for months. Boats crushed against the cliffs caught in the storm and the dark. Many children waiting in vain for their fathers.

On the rock high above the water. My favorite place shielded from the wind in three sides. The gorge ends in a steep cliff with a 15 meter drop down to the bay. A place presenting the beautiful things in life. A sideline to watch natures drama and scenery all year around. A place to sort for a sheep thinking man. If you like to read more thoughts from me Like and Subscribe.

2020-07-07 0 9

Forest Gold

There it stands. Yellow and bright like gold. A breeze through the green trees. The smell of Forest, life and decay all in the same breath. On the ground among last year leaves and branches from the winter storms it pushes through towards the warming sun. The chanterelle. Gently I pick them up making sure the tiny roots are spared for next year. A warm feeling spreads in my body as the smells brings me back to my childhood summers when I was with my mother and grandmother in the big forests around our summer house. Happy memories of warm summers swimming in the lake and walking to the neighbor a kilometre away to get fresh water or up to the old lady by the road who had a phone to call home to the city. The road smelled of hot asphalt in the hot summer day. In the house my mother was always offered a cup of boiled coffee. Me and my brother got a glass of strawberry juice and a cake called “hallongrotta”, Google did not manage this translation, but it was a soft cake with raspberry jam in the middle.

Coming home I clean the mushrooms and splice them to see that there is no insects or worms inside. Again the smell. It must be the mushroom that has the most pleasant smell. This task is a bit boring I must confess, it takes the same time to clean as to pick them even if you are careful. When they are cleaned you fry them in butter with a sip of olive oil, salt and pepper and when they are almost ready you put some bread in the pan to soak up the fat. A perfect evening meal together with fresh milk.

Don’t worry about the fat, you will burn it off tomorrow when you go and look for more!

Sorry guys but I am hungry and make this a short post before I go and eat. Please let me know if you like this and feel free to comment. I wish I could share this with you all.

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2020-07-02 2 3

Photo on the go!

Today it is easy to always bring your camera as one of the benefits is that you can use it to make phone calls, check your E-mails or check some fact on the web. I love this opportunities to take pictures of the nature around me, in fact all pictures you see on this site are my own taken with a mobile phone camera. Not the fanciest or most expensive one, but quite an ordinary model.

Just a sample of the things around us in nature.

My pictures have not been altered in any other way than cropping to get closer. I find it better to take the picture without zooming and then zoom in in a simple editor. Usually you manage better stability and avoid blurring. Instead of working with filters and other effects I try to just use natures own lighting. As I live close to the ocean this comes for free.

Using cropping and the natural light, background and foreground the create interest in the picture.

As you take your walks you will find the motives without looking for them carrying a heavy camera with a large objective, that is another type of photography and I leave that to others. Nature is my main focus as I spend lots of time in the outdoors but lately I have tried also take pictures of man made structures. So like and subscribe and I might share these with you in the future.