abstract, art, flowers, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, plants, spring

Throwback Thursday: during a short rain break

It’s mid of May. So, we’re in the middle of spring. To be honest, usually, spring starts in March over here outdoors, sometimes even in late February. First trees getting their leaves, spring flowers are blooming, temperatures are rising, and blue skies replace the grey blanket above our heads.

This year, we have spring flowers, but quite late and the trees are getting their leaves, but the temperature won’t rise. We still have temperatures between 10°C and zero. The sky is merely still grey without any structure and it’s drizzling very often. Not much rain, but enough to annoy us, while nature does not benefit because the amount is too small. 

In German, we have a weather rule “Der April weiß nicht, was er will” (April does not know what he wants). This describes the overall fast-changing weather conditions we experience in April. Even snow and ice are still possible and could possibly remain for a few hours. But, the overall statistics say, April 2023 was colder and wetter in comparison with the average since the beginning of weather recording more the 100 years ago.

Take care!

 

landscape, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, spring, travel, world

Travel Tuesday: at visit at the shore

What a huge bay. Nearly no people (find the tiny black dots at the edge of the bright sand in the distance). Following the only path for about 20 minutes from the parking lot and you’re alone with the wind, the sea, and the shore.

A few minutes later, I turned back and saw a very dark sky and rain falling from the dark clouds. Very fast, the rain reached us and we got wet. Very wet. I guess, I never was that soaking wet before (except when went swimming or taking a shower).

Only about 20 minutes later, the rain moved further and the sky was perfectly blue again. But, my tracking clothes were drenched and each step in my tracking shoes felt like treading water (but, inside my shoes). The rain went through the fabric of my trousers and ran down my legs to wet my feet, socks, and shoes. 😫 In general, the fabric of my tracking pants is quite water-resistant. But, that rain was much too heavy. In my backpack, I had a rain cover to hide completely under it, but the rain came too fast and too heavy. No option to open the backpack without flooding it. To be honest, I already was in heavy rain a couple of times before and never got that wet _inside_ my clothes or shoes. So, I didn’t expect to get soaked. Iceland 2014 was heavy when talking about becoming wet from rain. Whole days of heavy rain. But, this quite short rain was heavier. 😳😲

While my tracking pants dried in about 10 minutes and the jacket didn’t need too much longer, drying the socks and the shoes was a bigger problem. Fortunately, we were heading to our vacation home. So, I was able to change the socks. But, I had to get the shoes dry. There was a plan, to go out again that evening near sunset.

But putting paper towels and tissues in the shoes while not wearing them and helping a bit with a hairdryer, I got them dry enough for another use that evening just in time.

Lesson learned: never again take only one pair of hiking shoes on a trip!

Take care!

 

animals, autumn, bird, fall, landscape, nature, photography, seasons, wildlife, world

Throwback Thursday: wet

This is my contribution to The Lens-Artists challenge. This week Tina Shell challenged us with the topic “All Wet”. I’m quite late with my response.

I met these wet cranes last fall when I was heading home. Suddenly there were hundreds of them in the fields all wet from the constant rain.

Take care!

 

flowers, nature, photo-of-the-day, photography, seasons, travel, world

Throwback Thursday: plenty of snow

 

10 years ago, overnight we got a lot of snow. About half a meter in just a couple of hours. For years we didn’t get that much of snow. Since then, we got some snow, but not that much and not in that short amount of time. When I’m remembering correctly, there were even years without any snow. In a past post, I wrote a bit more about the environmental conditions for my region. You can find it here.

The landscape looks very nice when covered with (freshly fallen) snow, but on the streets, the snow is very dangerous. I makes the streets slippery, so you can fall down easily and the stopping distance of vehicles becomes much longer.

Take care!