Soon Day and Night will meet…and the long – shadow – days will be over.
Landscape
Travel theme: Paths
Nice company on your path is often welcome…
…family and friends…
But also – alone, reflective…
Stony, hard, tough…
Soft, warm and glorious
I love paths, and I love the memories when I once again look at them, remember them…a little bit of sadness, a little bit of…life gone forever.
These paths belong to the Azores, Spain, Madeira, New Zealand and Sweden.
Thursday Thoughts – Longing…
Sometimes I find myself longing for those velvet and satin nights. Nights with only the sound of…distant birds. Nights when you walk slowly, holding the air in the palm of your hand… and feel tuned in to… the whole creation. Sometimes, these cold, windy and rainy Nordic nights…
Thursday Thoughts – Moving a Town
Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland in Norrbotten County. Inhabitants – about 20 000.
Esrange Space Center was established in Kiruna in the 1960s, and they also have the Institute of Space Physics.
The re-development of Kiruna is a reconstruction project, as the Kirunavaara mine, run by LKAB, undermines the current town center. Several buildings, including Sweden´s most beautiful church and the famous Town Hall, are to be moved or demolished. The whole town center is to be moved 3 kilometers to the east.
The ground deformations became apparent in 2003, and the redevelopment started in 2007. The moving of the town was started in 2014 and is expected to be finished by 2100. According to the plan, there will be a denser city centre with a greater focus on sustainability, green and blue infrastructure, pedestrians and public transport rather than automobiles.
Walking the empty streets at night, the snowy silence is almost visible, touchable, embedding you in cotton cold. I wonder how the people here really feel…knowing most of them will have to leave their homes and their familiar surroundings for something they have not chosen themselves. A great piece of history will be lost, and I guess a piece of Lapland´s soul as well.
Wordless Wednesday
CFFC: Looking Down at Things
For Cee´s Looking Down…, here we are at Prins Philip´s Steps, Galapagos, waiting for the panga to come and take us back to Cachalote.
Travel theme: Turquoise
Those mountain lakes in Switzerland – they are my first thought when it comes to soft turquoise! Fresh and clear mountain water
Wordless Wednesday
Thursday Thoughts
This country road passes an old homestead, long since abandoned. I pass here maybe once a month, and every time I think…I really should stop and walk up that old road…
Today I drove past again…but something told me – this time I really must stop –
– so I finally did. I turned the car and parked it on the meadow nearby.
Happy to have made this decision, I slowly started walking towards the stonefences marking the road up to the house.
To the right, the fine old cellar that used to store food for the winter.
Then the house itself, on the left side of the road. I wonder who once lived here and why they left? The house lies beautifully on a hill, close to the forest and surrounding meadows.
My love for these roads with grass in the middle has a long story…all those childhood years I walked forest roads, meadow roads…and always with grass in the middle. StilI it is in me…I just have to follow them, to see where they go and what I eventually will find.
This road was very well kept, and must be used fairly often…
…at least by hunters
Another reminder of childhood days was this old telephone pole
Some finds I made, even if the walk did not last for more than 15 minutes. I was happy.
I believe we should try to do those little things…follow those whims and ideas we sometimes have. What do you think? It may take some time…but, I try to. Often with a positive outcome – for both me and people around me.
Galápagos – Santa Cruz and Darwin
From the lushness of the Amazon we flew to Galápagos – now in the dry season. We visited 10 of the 19 islands, starting with Santa Cruz and the Charles Darwin Research Station.
I guess most people recognize this gentleman as a Giant Tortoise, but some maybe think of him as the Galápagos Tortoise or the Elephant Tortoise. Length 150 cm and weight up to 250kg, and they can get very old. Of originally 14 subspecies, 10 remains. This gentleman here, might have been alive when Darwin came to the islands 1835 – just reflect upon that…
Lonesome George was very well known over the world as the last existing of his kind. Despite many efforts to save his species – the scientists failed. He died alone in 2012.
In the highland area of Santa Cruz, these giants walk and live. Not very well seen by the local farmers though, as they easily break any fence and eat 40 kg a day…
…but on the other hand they spread the seeds again back onto earth again …
These giants are not very fast…and we saw several of them along – or on – the road. There were even roadsigns to warn drivers about them.
Our guide, Juan, was a tough guy – almost military discipline – but that is needed to protect the islands and its very special wildlife. We were requested to stay in the group, only walk on the signposted paths and not move closer to the animals than 2 metres.
Most species are endemic, that is also why Darwin got easily observed material for his theories. In fact he did not visit the islands for more than 35 days – and from this came…The Origin of Species. Something that was to change the world for ever.
The research institute is very successful in breeding and releasing tortoises, iguanas and finches – among other endemic species. There was this great story of Diego, a tortoise of the hoodensis species, who 1905 was brought from Espagñola island to San Diego Zoo. He never liked it there, but stayed until 1965, when he was brought back to Santa Cruz to save his species from extinction. And he did – almost he alone! Now there are about 2000 of his offspring ”running” around on the islands! He would not be photographed though…turning his back on us all…
There are two distinct carapace shapes: the dome – shaped and in this picture, the saddle – backed tortoise
The saddle – backed have got longer neck and legs…
…when mating, the higher you can raise your head…the better chances the female will accept you
Freedom!
Leya 
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