Thursday, September 30, 2010

Autumn Pictures...

from us to you...

The last days have been a dream for every nature photographer. Also for me (Anne), as an amateur, I yearn for the sun to set again after a 24 hours of daylight summer at the arctic circle. Lapland offers a lot of motifs during this time of the year. Plus it's nice not having to freeze your fingers (or feet) off due to still mild temperatures for Lapland standards. ;-)




And last but not least The FlickrAward Winner! ;-)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Flowing Smoothly

Flowing Smoothly
Flowing Smoothly
Originally uploaded by LapplandTimes
Yes, I did it! Today I went outside to experiment with my camera a little bit. After a couple of landscape and reindeer shots I took these pictures of a beautiful river close to where we live. I wanted this smooth effect and after my unsatisfactory shots from last time I was pretty happy about these results. :-)

Tamed River

If you have any further tips, please let me know. :-)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Hiking in Finland and Sweden - Backpacking Video

The short film about our backpacking tours in Finland and Sweden in August and September is out! Yesterday, Anne finished the video about Hiking the Karhunkierros in Finnish Lapland and Backpacking in the Vindelfjäll Nature Reserve in Swedish Lapland. This video truly brings back memories and shall inspire you!


Backpacking in Finland and Sweden from Janne@LapplandTimes on Vimeo.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Preparing for Winter

What's been going on @LapplandTimes during the last week?

Well, we have been quite busy with our potato crop (altogether we have 100kg! of potatoes), moose meat, carrying 4.8 tons of pellets to our cellar, taking part in elections in Sweden, repainting door and window at our shed, making jerky from moose meat for the first time! (gosh, it's so good!), cooking good food from fresh moose meat and potatoes and enjoying beautiful autumn colours on our evening walks.




After three days of hard work our potatoe land is 'empty' again
Approx. 100 sqm of potatoe land

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Hiking at Trollforsen

A week ago we went hiking at Trollforsen. The Trollforsen is part of the Piteälven and an attraction only a few kilometers from our home.

Every year we visit this special place a couple of times with its untamed waters.

Now that autumn is in Lapland and everything is so colourful the place is even more magical.

It looks like the blueberry bilberry bushes are on fire.
The trail leads to an island surrounded by noisy streams.


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Lucky Moose Hunt

A little over a week ago hunting season started in Sweden.

Our neighbour has been quite lucky this year already. A group of five hunters shot two grown moose in only a couple of days. One of them with a slaughter weight of 307 kg(!).

We cannot wait to try this year's first moose meat...
...Svempa gets lucky already ;-)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Backpacking in the Vindelfjell Nature Reserve


A couple of days ago we came back from another multi-day hike in Sweden's largest nature reserve. 


We walked 90km in 6 days through Swedish wilderness. Starting and end point was Ammarnäs. A very desolated trail not far from the more frequented famous trail Kungsleden (King's Trail). On the entire trail we did not have any mobile phone reception but every 15-20km there were huts equipped with an emergency phone. Luckily we didn't have to use them but it's good to know that they are there.;-)
We took a tent with us as we wanted to walk in our own time and go off the actual trail after three days (with no huts in 40km) and walk an even smaller trail plus we did not know if the huts were all open if you hadn't reserved them beforehand. The huts were open to stay overnight. There was firewood for the stove and basic kitchen equipment and a bunch of remittance slips to take with to pay a fee of usually 100SEK and pay once you are back in civilisation. This concept is based on trust of course.

We met six people in six days, which was not too bad actually. ;-) Greetings to Dietmar at this point, hope you made it back home savely!

During the daytime we had max temperatures of 25°C and during the nights it was close to freezing point.

September is autumn time in the Swedish fjell and everything is so colourful - just beautiful!

All in all it was an awesome tour, full of adventure, stunning views and challenging exhaustion - very much recommended if you want to walk in solitude.

If you wish to see more photos and a more detailed description of our tour visit us on our German blog.

Should you have any questions regarding the tour feel free to ask!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Pleasure Before Work

Yeah, normally the saying goes like this: "Work before pleasure" but this time it's different.

Yesterday, we came back from our wonderful multi-day autumn hiking tour through the Vindelfjäll nature reserve in the Swedish wilderness (report with pictures coming soon!).

Today was back to everyday life, meaning: WORK
As we started with the renovation of our shed in the end of July it was time to continue the work before temperatures won't allow any painting anymore.

In July we started to scrape off the old colour from our shed, which really is one of the most unpopular jobs on earth...

Today at 20°C in the shadow, an unusual warm day for this time of the year in Lapland with bright sunshine we didn't have anything better to do than paint the shed...ummm...well, someone has to do the job...
...at the end of the day the painting job was done... at least on one side... ;-)

After four years in Sweden and each year of renovating our buildings from the outside during the short summer in Lapland we can see a light at the end of the tunnel...

The procedure of renovating our buildings from the outside goes like this:
1. Scraping off the old, loose colour
2. Replace rotten pieces
3. Hose down the scraped area and let dry at least a day before repainting
4. Repainting (we even had to repaint our buildings twice because it's been so long since they were painted the last time)

To keep the amount of work smaller it's recommended to repaint timber buildings every 15-20 years (depending on the quality of the paint). Our buildings haven't been painted in a very long time thus the amount of work.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Sweet and Juicy

Hurray! They made it!

Umm...who made what?

Our black currants and strawberries are ripe!

So what?

What do you mean 'so what'??! We are in Lapland at the arctic circle, remember?!

Right. Show me the berries. I don't believe you.


Yum, yum. They are sooo huge! And sooo sweet... never tasted anything like that!

And look at the strawberries! Don't they look yummy?
Yum,yum...delicious. Gimme more!


Up here you need patience when growing these things in your garden but eventually they'll get there.
Honestly, they are much sweeter than the berries anywhere else in Europe we've tasted so far. Our guests from mid Europe agree. It must be due to the long growth period.

Copyright

Important Copyright Notice: The photos, text and videos of this blog remain the copyright of the Author Anne Wolter. Under no circumstances should the photos, text or videos be used without my express written permission. Please contact me if you wish to use or publish photos, videos or text from this blog.