Wednesday, July 30, 2014

To pace the ground, if path be there or none

These photographs were taken on top of Saana fell on July 16th, while walking to the summit which was inside a cloud. The fog allowed 50-100 meters of visibility, so there was no danger of getting lost provided one stayed on the marked trail.

The moisture condensed on clothes, hair, and other cool surfaces, but the rocks were dry. I discussed this with my daughter, and we realized that the rocks were rather warm, because of the warm weather earlier, and thus the air was cooler than the ground. And because the rocks were dry it was easy walking, no danger of slipping on wet rocks.

Today we had +27 °C. I rode the bicycle for two hours and 35 kilometers. It wasn't bad, but I don't like weather this hot. In any case, at some point it will get cooler.

(Posting title is from the poem Most Sweet it is by William Wordsworth.)

4 comments:

Markus said...

Fine images, Juha, and they go very well with Wordsworth's poem.

Despite my usual wall of cynicism - I should read less newspapers - both your foggy landscapes and W's words spoke to me and made me listen. And I enjoyed it to the fullest.

Juha Haataja said...

Thank you, Markus, for the kind words.

One should approach life with open eyes, but too often that is forgotten.

This particular day in Lapland I was disappointed that it was clouded, and we almost didn't go up to the summit of Saana fell. But then, after two hours of walking, when we were at the summit inside a cloud, it was an experience never before encountered, something to cherish.

Markus said...

I do well remember such walks in the Alps: missing the view was more than compensated by the feeling to be in the midst of the clouds, by the ephemeral views that stayed only for seconds and quite a surreality that the well known pastures suddenly had gotten.

Juha Haataja said...

Now that I'm going through the photographs I notice things I didn't really notice while I was walking on the fells.

On the other hand, it may also be that using a camera makes one unobservant of some other things.

I thought of leaving the camera behind on some of the walks, but just couldn't do it. But there were times when I didn't use the camera, just enjoyed the walk.