Utö

We were off to New York in the beginning of July but unfortunately will not have time to show you any of those pictures yet. Just so many :)) 
I do want to show you though where we spend Sunday, fewer pictures to edit :). Beautiful island of Utö is located in Stockholm's southern archipelago, and actually one of the largest in the Stockholm archipelago. Boat over from the mainland, Årsta havsbad, takes about 40min. Once there, we rented bikes and explored. The island is full of everything from pine and deciduous forests, marshes and an amazing coastline especially on the eastern side. The side facing the open sea with its sandy beaches, cliffs and pine trees twisted by the wind.
Because it had been a bit cold and rainy we were more or less alone on the beaches, surprised? :) 
Gruvbyn that we arrived to with the boat is located in the middle of the island where the old mining and quarries are. They can still be seen scattered slag heaps. The iron mines date back to 1100s and were not closed till 1878. The shafts are now filled with water and the deepest is around 215 m deep! 
There is much more of Utö to explore, but you can go there yourself and find out. It's worth it.
This Saturday I will travel to brother in Kalix and then on to Finnmark in Northern Norway for some Char and trout fishing, and then from there to Kalix again to pick up my wife, and then on the next adventure, hiking in Sarek NP.
                                                                                           

 

Beaver tracks in Tyresta National Park

Happy New Year All!
I'm back from Christmas holidays, and it's time to get started with photography and blogging again.
While in Sweden I only went out on a photo-sessions once in Tyresta NP as the weather was extremely dull almost every day. It's surprised me how heavy the clouds are there compared to here in UK.
In Tyresta, just to get out and get some light, I followed a so called 'barnvagnslingan' which might translate to 'pram loop' :) that is around 5km long. In the beginning you follow a stream which after a while turns into a lake. A few years ago while living in Stockholm, you could see traces of beavers there, but they now had built proper dams along the stream and almost roads through the forest. Along the path I met couple of other walkers and they were as me pleased to see all this activity. Sadly didn't see a beaver as they nocturnal, and I couldn't be that bothered to wait :)
Another time when out fishing (no trout caught) I was kept company by a Weasel. It was incredibly curious, running back and forward checking me out just 1.5m from me. The sad thing is that I didn't have the camera with me!

This is just a easy start to the New Blogger Year which I hope will be filled with a lot of new photo-adventures. If you have any suggestions on what we should see/do here in UK, let me know.
Until next time!
                                                                             

Tyresta National Park. Stockholm, Sweden

New year and new opportunities, Christmas and New Year's Eve was spent in Stockholm.
Arrived to a fantastic fine winter landscape in Stockholm on Dec. 21 with a lot of snow on the branches and trees and it made ​​it even nicer. I had one goal that week and that was to go to Tyresta NP and shoot winter landscape.
It's incredibly nice there when there is lots of snow everywhere, but because it was overcast for a whole week before the sun appeared. And it was unfortunately many days with temperatures above freezing which made the nice winter landscape started to disappear.
But luckily it was still pretty nice when I then arrived to Tyresta the only sunny day.

Facts about Tyresta National Park: Tyresta NP and Nature Reserve is one of the largest unspoilt woodland in Sweden outside the mountains. The area has one of the finest primeval forests south of the mountain region and in 1993 established Tyresta as nr: 23 NP in Sweden.
The National Park covers 1970 hectares, for the vast majority consisting of forest in an alternating rift with pine as the dominant tree species on top of the rocky areas and tree in the fertile valleys.
Around the park are Tyresta nature reserve as a protective horseshoe in the south, east and north. The reserve covers 2700 hectares and the total is the protected area of nearly 5000 hectares.

The reserve is also dominant coniferous forest but there are also rich deciduous forest areas, valuable old farmland and a piece of the inner archipelago.

Click on a picture to enlarge them!