Tikapur
Posting this from Stockholm where I am a couple of days from work.
At least one photo a day
Street corners
It was a very hot day in the southern Terai. We were few kilometres from the Indian border. We had left the hills behind us and reached the flat area and the temperature had gone up considerably. It was dry season and the main color my eyes could see was the light, dry, brown of the barren fields. The weather has become more erratic over the last few years, they told up at the meeting in Tikapur. Dry and wet seasons have changed in their intensity and duration. This makes life very difficult for farmers.
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Seeds and legumes shop in the Terai
At least one photo a day
Classic cross-country in Lapland
I have grouped the photos from Lapland in a gallery which you can find also here
At least one photo a day
Candle lights
“The street looks really nice with all these candle lights”, I said.
“The atmosphere suddenly changed as soon as the sun set”, she said. “Just before sunset there were all these people walking quickly towards Boudhanath, to start walking around it and recite their prayers. They all see a bit in a rush. Now that is dark, they are quietly walking in the narrow streets near the pagoda where they stop to light these candles.”
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Near the pagoda
I am in transito in London, so just one photo today from Kathmandu. When it got dark I walked around the area near Boudhanath. As soon as the sun set, all these stalls selling candles pop up in several streets. I saw this young woman stopping a young monk and asking him to take a selfie. It was a nice moment.
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Boudhanath /3
At least one photo a day
Boudhanath /2
“By prostrating before a stupa, we turn our face away from our egos and toward our enlightened nature. By circumambulating—walking around the stupa in a clockwise fashion and reciting prayers—we keep the image of enlightenment at the center of our attention.”
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Boudhanath /1
Boudhanath is a stupa in Kathmandu. Located about 11 km from the center and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupa’s massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal.
The Boudha Stupa dominates the skyline; it is one of the largest stupas in the world. The Stupa is on the ancient trade route from Tibet which enters the Kathmandu Valley by the village of Sankhu in the northeast corner, passes by Boudha Stupa to the ancient and smaller stupa of Charumati Stupa (often called “Little Boudhanath”). It then turns directly south, heading over the Bagmati River to Lalitpur – thus bypassing the main city of Kathmandu (which was a later foundation). Tibetan merchants have rested and offered prayers here for many centuries. When refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Boudhanath. The Stupa is said to entomb the remains of Kassapa Buddha (Wikipedia).
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And now Kathmandu
I was back in Kathmandu last April. I had not been back for many years. I lived there of a year in 1999-2000 when I started working in international development in food-for-work project funded by the German agency for international cooperation (GTZ at that time). This is why Nepal and Kathmandu are special places for me. The first night I was back, I went for a walk to Thamel to take some street photos. I stayed in Nepal for three weeks for work and will post over the next week or so some of the images I took.
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Onnea Rovaniemi / Happy Birthday Rovaniemi
On our way back from Lapland we had a stopover in Rovaniemi. We had enough time to visit the Arktikum, the science centre and museum about northern nature and culture. In one of the side rooms the museum has a photo exhibition about the 60 years of the city of Rovaniemi. It is a very simple display. One TV screen shows a slideshow of black and white photos about the 60 years of the city. I sat and started to watch it. I took my camera and started to take photos of the photos I was seeing. They are very nice images of everyday life, people and their jobs, sport, music, concerts. A great set of images about the city and its citizens.
You can see the images below. The images are straight out of the camera. The only edit has been the change of format from RAW into JPG. I have not cropped any image nor changed resolution or contrast.
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Pyhäjärvi village
We had about 15 km behind us. We followed the cross-country ski track through forest and miers covered under a deep layer of snow. At one point the track made a long gentle turn to the right. It was the Northern tip of the Pyhäjärvi (Pyhä Lake) and of the ski track we were following around it. At the end of the turn the track started to follow a long series wooden electricity poles in a straight line. The track run between the village of Pyhäjärvi on our left and vast snow-covered frozen lake on our right. We stopped when we saw a young boy selling warm coffee and juice to skiers. While I was sipping from my paper cup I looked around. Up on a gentle slope the wooden houses where deep in the snow. I imagined the dark months of December and January. How many hours of light do they have up here? and when the summer arrives, does the sun set belows the horizon or not? what jobs people have? are they all working in the tourism sectors? what other work exists so up north? do young people stay here or do they move when they finish their studies? how is it to live so up north?
We finished our drinks and skied for about 1 km to the cafe Mummola to have something to eat before the last stretch of 8 km to get back to our cottage. Temperature -14C. Blue sky. Not a cloud.
At least one photo a day
Searching for the northern lights
One thing you do when in Lapland during the winter is to go out in the night and look up to the sky. And so I did. I also found an app (there are many) that given 30 min forecast of the northern lights: how weak or strong they are. It give time to get ready. Put the winter clothes on. Read a some blogs about the camera set up for taking photos of the Northern lights. Switch on the head torch and get out. There are northern lights every night, but they are never the same. I learned that they come in a scale from 0 to 9 (9 being very rare and being visible also in central Europe). So, I got out at nights during our trip to Pyhätunturi and look up at the sky. The first night they were barely visible. The second night they were a faint greenish cloud at the horizon. The third night they were a bit more visible, between 2.5 at the horizon. The last night they were up above our cottage. Like a cloud of fine dust, very high up in the sky, that moves along a wind stream and slowly changes shape as it moves.
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Classic cross-country skiing landscape
At the start I follow the track with my eyes. Two parallel lines in which the cross-country skis find their way forward. It takes me few kilometres to get into a rhythm and be able to see the landscape around me. When I do, I can fully realise where I am. When I stop to catch my breath I see sky which is totally blue. Not a single cloud. No wind. The temperature is -15C, but I do not feel it. I feel warm from the sun and the exercise. I listen to my breath slowing down and realise that around me nature is totally silent as if I were in a landscape painting. I start again moving. First the right ski, then the left one, then again the right one. And so on and on. I try not to push too much with the sticks and let the legs to the work. In half an hour I will be up at the cabin and look forward to the coffee and the wood-fire stove warming up the room.
At least one photo a day
Classic cross-country skiing /2
At least one photo a day
Classic cross-country skiing /1
The classic cross-country skiing style is often used on prepared trails (pistes) that have pairs of parallel grooves (tracks) cut into the snow. It is also the most usual technique where no tracks have been prepared. With this technique, each ski is pushed forward from the other stationary ski in a striding and gliding motion, alternating foot to foot. With the “diagonal stride” variant the poles are planted alternately on the opposite side of the forward-striding foot; with the “kick-double-pole” variant the poles are planted simultaneously with every other stride. At times, especially with gentle descents, double poling is the sole means of propulsion. On uphill terrain, techniques include the “side step” for steep slopes, moving the skis perpendicular to the fall line, the “herringbone” for moderate slopes, where the skier takes alternating steps with the skis splayed outwards, and, for gentle slopes, the skier uses the diagonal technique with shorter strides and greater arm force on the poles (Wikipedia).
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The trees in Lapland are smaller
The trees are smaller up here in Finland. The forest is not to thick as in southern of Finland. It is as if it is more difficult for the trees to grow up here in Lapland. The winters are longer. The summers are shorter. The weather is harsher.
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Pyhätunturi
We travelled from Rovaniemi to Pyhätunturi today. It took about three horus by bus. The more we travelled North the higher the snow. It feels we are in a different country. Of course this is still Finland and we are quite above the Polar Circle but the difference with Southern Finland where we live is quite striking. This winter we had almost no snow. It has not been really cold. It is only up here, 6-700km more north where we find the real Scandinavian winter.
We arrived in Pyhätunturi at about 4pm. Went to the supermarket with the cross country skis and now prepare dinner. Today I have the photos I took from the bus.
Here a brief text from Wikipedia about Pyhä National Park which is nearby. Pyhä-Luosto National Park (Pyhä-Luoston kansallispuisto) was established in 2005 when Finland’s oldest national park, Pyhätunturi National Park (established in 1938) was joined to Luosto. This makes Pyhä-Luosto Finland’s oldest but at the same time newest national park. The new park covers 142 square kilometres (55 sq mi). The most important features are geological specialities, old forests and wetlands. The park’s base is formed by Finland’s southernmost, 12-peak tunturi line. The tunturis are remnants of Alp-like mountains of 2 billion years of age. 200-year-old or older pine tree forests grow on the hills. The highest tunturis are Noitatunturi, 540 m (1,772 ft), and Ukko-Luosto, 514 m (1,686 ft).
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To Lapland
Let’s leave Stockholm now. Today we left a gray and without-snow Tampere and travelled by train up North, to Rovaniemi. We will stay there for one night. The next day (Sunday) we will get the bus and travel two and half hours further North, to Pyhätunturi. We will be above the polar circle and in the heart of Lapland. I will be posting as usual daily (at least one photo a day) and almost live this week. Today I start with some photos from the train trip and from Rovaniemi.
At least one photo a day
Fotografiska
Stockholm has many museums. The one I love the most is Fotografiska, the Museum of Photography.
Fotografiska is the largest photography museum in the world. We celebrate photography, but beyond being a simple museum we offer inclusive spaces for conversation and community. We believe in creating a common ground that invites everyone in, where our guests can listen to lectures, stay for dinner, or meet friends. Our mission is to inspire a more conscious world.
Here some photos from the exhibition of Finnish photographer Pennti Sammallahti
At least one photo a day
