Photos from the mountains

[luzula]

I am in the Swedish mountains for two weeks, taking advantage of the fact that I can teach from anywhere (as long as there is internet). My parents and I rented a cabin and drove up, bringing all our food, and obviously we are isolating ourselves up here. The weather is lovely, with blue skies and thick soft snow, and we're going cross-country skiing a lot (well, when I'm not teaching).

Here I am in my red anorak.

Snow and sun and trees.

I think these mountains are on the Norwegian side.

A willow tit! Not pictured: the sandwich crumbs we kept throwing at them. The English name is weird to me, since in Sweden they mostly live in coniferous forests (the Swedish name is "talltita", or "pine tit"), but it seems they do indeed live among willows in England.

An ancient, twisted Scots pine. The top half probably killed by the fungus Cronartium flaccidum.

Comments

[regshoe]

Absolutely gorgeous. <3 Especially that one with the lovely low sun on the trees, and then the distant mountains... you've got some very beautiful scenery in Sweden, thank you for sharing these.

Willow tit (I agree the name is a bit random—my UK field guide says mostly coniferous forests too, though it also mentions wet woodland where I suppose there might be willows) is a bit of a mystery to me, because I can't reliably tell the difference between it and marsh tit (Poecile palustris, which I don't think is found in the Swedish mountains!). But that one is very cute!

That Scots pine is a proper Gothic tree, very nice.

[tei]

Wow, this looks lovely!

[isis]

It looks lovely. What's your daylight span at that latitude this time of year?

[jesse_the_k]

Beautiful!

I can imagine the squeak a boot would make in that sugar-fine snow in pic 2.

The Scots pine is perfectly angsty.

[nnozomi]

These are gorgeous! (I wish you could send me some of the snow. You wouldn't miss just a bit of it.) The tree shadows on the snow are incredibly beautiful.

[mergatrude]

Oh lovely, but it makes me shiver. I'm not a winter person, so I prefer this view of it. ;-)

[chestnut_pod]

Wow, truly lovely!

[starshipfox]

I love the picture of the venerable Scots pine. Amazing the way its grown with the wind. The willow tit is so cute -- I don't think I've ever seen one! It's always lovely to see snow :)

[dhampyresa]

I love tits! They're so round!