Yorkshire dales National park

Last weekend, Friday to Sunday, was spent in the Yorkshire dales NP. We have passed the area before, on the way to the Lake District NP, but this time actually stopped and explored the area.
For the first time this year we were to camp and the weather couldn't be worse. Showers, snow, hail and chilly winds, but there is no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing :) So in the end it was not too bad.
The list of things to do and see was filled, so we kept busy and warm.
First was the circular trail 'Ingleton Waterfalls', it's 8km of a walk along River Twiss and Doe with their 8 waterfalls through woodland and a bit on the moors. It's a very nice trail, rather easy but unique with its waterfalls as you can get Very close to them.
The trail took us 3-4hrs to walk, with all the photo breaks. And they were many because there were so many nice things to shoot ;)More on the other walks and sightseeing in the next post. Until then Have a great Sunday!

                                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More pics from the Botanical Garden

As I mentioned in the last post, I had some more pictures from the Botanical Gardens to show you.

While walking around in the garden I saw that the squirrel were eating the crocuses! Rather funny, and I have never seen it before or heard of it...
But it is must be really nice with something crispy and green compared to all the nuts it HAD to munch on during the winter :))
Anyhow, hope you enjoy the pics.
Next blog will be about last weekend and the wonderful Yorkshire Dales National Park.
                                                                   

 

Crocus

Last week was warm and sunny so I took the opportunity to spend few days down in the botanical garden here in Sheffield.
The crocus was at its prime but as usual is was over just in few days. I tried to get photos with butterflies feeding from them, but unfortunately I only had the macro lens with me the first day and it was impossible to approach the butterflies with that. So I decided to take the big zoom with me the next day, as with my luck it was strong winds and the butterflies never even showed up. The day was not wasted as there are always many other things to photograph there but more about that in the next blog.
                                                                           
                                                                           

Ice fishing

And so we continue with some pictures from when me and my brother did ice fishing one of the days.
We took the snowmobiles and drove 5-10km downstream Kalix River to a place where big perch gather during the spring.
Unfortunately, the weather was really bad, with fog and low pressure so there were no perch. If you didn't know this before, they are very sensitive to low pressure and then they just sulk at the bottom.
Anyhow, we kept trying for few hours and we got few but it they were really small. More suitable for the cat food :) than anything else. After drilling the 7th hole, we gave up and went home. It is not the easiest to drill 15cm diameter through 70ish cm blue ice.
The weather just got even worse when we driving back home, sad without the perch dinner I was so looking forward to :(
                                                                     

Brothers Border Collie

Border Collie puppy

 

Snowmobile in the mountains

So, back from Kalix, Sweden after having spent almost 2 weeks up there.
Was hoping that there would be this beautiful winter landscape waiting for me there, but was greeted by very warm weather and actually rather small amounts of snow. The winter has been unusually mild and the coast almost didn't have any snow (according to Swedish standards)
While just few miles into the country, there was plenty of it, more than one meter to be 'precise' :)
My brother got as a gift from his wife few days of snowmobile adventure in Ammarnäs, approx. 400 km towards Norway from Kalix, and of course he had to have me as company.
We had few lovely active days with incredibly fun snowmobiling there. By active I mean we drove freeriding among birch trees, up the hills with loose snow and swamps. Everywhere else except on the designated snowmobile trail as they are pretty boring :)
But it is not so easy to drive in deep snow where nobody else has gone before, and you have to have a different kind of snowmobile for this. It has to have high ridges and longer strap so it makes its way through the deep snow, but You will get stuck doing in any case at some point. As you can imagine its not the easiest to dig the snowmobile out of more than one meter of snow. Not just around it, but a bit in front of it too.
So in the evenings the body was rather tender, but oh so fun it was :)We stayed at the Ammarnäs hostel which is a bit cheaper alternative to hotels, but to be honest, the standard was really high. The weather was, maybe not the best with the clouds and a bit foggy at times, but warm at just -2C. It had actually rained few days before we arrived.
Anyhow, it was amazingly fun so I'm actually thinking of getting one. Just need to figure out where to have it :)
                                                                          

Örnbo a old settlement from the 1860

Brother driving the snowmobile

Snowy views

Brother doing a donut

One of the places we got stuck :)

                                                   

Some pics from Rivelin valley

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Menade du: Jag har under 3 dagar försökt igen att fotografera kungsfiskare

 

Earlier this week, for 3 days I had been trying to photograph the kingfisher but unfortunately without any good results. It also seems that it is about to leave the place for good, as it today did even show itself once. I couldn't either find it on any of the other ponds.
Anyhow, some good news, the dipper has come back to Rivelin! It is building the nest, and it has lots to do as it last year got flushed away. I'm look forward to taking pictures of them later in the spring and summer.
Since I have not been able to photograph the kingfisher I have tried to take pictures of other things while walking around. No remarkable images but fun to try to find some other stuff too sometimes. Spring has truly arrived quickly this year and every day the temperatures have been around +10C. Flowers like crocus, snowdrops and daffodils are already flowering everywhere and it feels incredibly good to see some green again.
By the time you read this, I'm already in Kalix in Sweden visiting my brother and his family. We're going up to the mountains and snowmobiling which will be awesome. I will try to blog from Kalix too, but no promises :)

 

                                                                      

Dipper watching their nest