Photos from last summer

[luzula]

Well, I thought I would post something not related to my current fannish obsession, so: some photos from last summer! I suppose this post could double as some sort of "Visit Sweden's Beautiful Nature" commercial. Which is fine; do come visit! : )

Here's one of the campsites from when I hiked in the mountains. The map had the symbol for archaeological finds--yes, prehistoric people, I understand why you also made your campsite here!


A moss which only grows on poop, in this case reindeer poop. It's some sort of Splachnum, don't have a flora right now since I'm on a train.


Another mountain campsite, this one more bleak. I spent three or four hours here searching for the rare plant Carex bicolor but failed to find it.


Here's a rare plant I did find. In Sweden, Arenaria humifusa only grows (so far as anyone knows) on this one mountaintop in Padjelanta. I found it after two hours' searching; it is tiny! I mean, that's my fingernail in the photo.


A more showy plant: purple saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia, found in polar and mountainous regions around the northern hemisphere.


Another lovely view: Lake Virihaure in the evening.


I looked at insects a lot last year. Here's a very cool moth larva: Orgyia antiqua, which in English seems to be called rusty tussock moth.


And finally, here's a climbing photo from September, with me going off the side of a bridge. I love climbing, but my shoulder's been wonky since November, but getting steadily better. So towards spring I should be able to get back to it.

Comments

[hyarrowen]

They're all beautiful pictures, and either Luzula is a giantess or that's a really tiny plant. I love the wide, sweeping vistas - the mountains are more or less how I imagined them, very old-looking. And purple saxifrage! I remember seeing that in flower on Ben Lawers, on Tayside! As for the poop-moss, that made me laugh - it's so pretty for something that grows in a rather gross place.

Lovely photos.

[luzula]

Glad you liked! : ) It's a really tiny plant, I promise. And yes, very old mountains--in fact part of the same mountain range as the Scottish mountains, geologically speaking.

[hyarrowen]

Must be some strong evolutionary reasons for the size... not eaten by reindeer? But how do its leaves get enough sunlight? I bet that tiny plant is really old in its own right.

Northern Scotland has the same look about it. Sutherland is similarly worn-down-looking, apart from mountains like Suilven which shout, "look at me!!!" despite being quite small. It's all wonderful on a sunny day. Less so when it's cold, wet, rainy, foggy... But according to the calendar pictures it's always sunny, so that's OK.