My Rubber Boots Are Leaking!

It's 5:45 am as I'm parking my car on the logging road. The sun is up since 5:15 but it's still just above the treetops so I expect the light to be good for some landscape photography.

Today I have decided to visit a mire (bog) I haven't been to before. It's a 15 minute drive from my home. The weather is clear and the temperature close to the freezing point as I make my way through the forest to the edge of the mire.

The sun greets me between the trees as I walk towards the mire.

Small trees, mostly pines, grow around the edges. But the closer into the middle of the mire I go fewer trees block my view.

I tried to visit this mire once before, but it was a spontaneous idea that time. I did not have suitable shoes so I didn't quite make it all the way to the mire that time. Now I have rubber boots. It's wet although frozen on the surface of the mossy ground. Sometimes I hear a sound of running water and bubbles coming up when walk slowly or stand still. It's more safe to move than to stand still.

Pines never grow tall on a mire. And then they die and become art.

I see a rock 50 meters ahead and decide to make my way there. My view from it is wonderful although it's not a big rock. The mire is very flat. By getting just a meter up will change your perspective drastically.

View from the rock.

As I stand on the rock I suddenly see a bird of prey keeping an eye on me from it's nest. I hurry to mount the tele lens but as I raise my camera the bird is already gone. No problem, though. The bird (an Osprey) flies back and forth to the nest during my hour on the mire. I get lots of photos of it. A couple of geese gets frightened (well, they surprised me too!) and take off and fly in a big circle around me. I can hear lots of different birds singing constantly. What a fantastic way to start a day!

An Osprey (Swedish: fiskgjuse) arriving at its nest.

Geese lit by the warm morning sunlight.

After a while my left foot start to feel wet. Yes, there seems to be a tiny hole in my rubber boot. No big problem, though, but I'll try to remember to patch the hole until next time.

Before I leave I find a dead tree lying flat on the ground where it once grew, died and eventually fell. It's grey and only short stumps are left from the branches. It's almost 3 meters long, but I decide to take it with me. It'll fit perfectly in my office interior.

First I took a photo of it. And then I just took it.

Dead trees in many different shapes.

Beautiful gray on beautiful blue!

Kind of cool, don't you think!

Me enjoying my solitaire morning walk in the wilderness.