April 2024 – Patricia McLellan's Blog

2024-04-292024-04-29

A Sunday Walk from Lundsaunet to Leklemsvatnet

A sunny Sunday got us out of the house and walking in the woods. Though it was only 5 degrees centigrade when we left home, by the time we came back about three hours later it was up to 12 degrees. With sunshine all day long and almost no wind, it was the first really pleasant day this spring.

To get to the beginning of our walk we took a 25 minute drive up into the hills of Røra in Inderøy. We parked the car and headed uphill. Though we saw one family at the parking lot, and met one couple on our way back, we were alone with only the sounds of nature. Even the sounds of birds were seldom. As with many of the walks that we take, the first section was uphill, then there was a fairly even section, then downhill to the lake we were heading to. We walked back to the car on the same route this time. As it is a lengthy drive from home, when we come up into these hills we like to take a walk that is at least two to three hours.

The map at the parking place. We are at the red dot on the map, will walk south about 2.5 km to the south end of the lake called Leklemsvatnet. We walked back the same route. The information sign also gave several suggestions about different walks in the area and telling how long each walk was.

One thing I have learned to do is to always take a picture of the map at the parking spot. One may need to reference it during the walk to see if we are on the right path. There are all sorts of paths in these hills and we had a definite goal for our walk. In addition I have a map on my telephone, which I love. The advantage of a map on the phone is that it actually tells you where you are. I’ve always loved reading maps, but it is also important to actually know where you are. GPS, both in the car and on my phone, is very useful.

We are going to follow part of the Old Royal Road or King’s Road, which was used until about 1800 as the main road through our area. This section of road that has been preserved by the local history clubs is about 7 km, but we only went along part of it.

The starting point of our walk, at Lundsaunet.

The name for the farm, Lundsaunet, which is where we parked, could come from the name of the bird, “lom” / loon, though it could come from a man’s name. The farm was registered in 1559 and is still a working farm. We often walk to Finnheimen at the north end of Leklemsvatnet, but today we decided to walk to the south end of the lake where there is a dam. We are headed in the direction of Husby, but only walk about half way, about 2.5 km.

As we walk along the trail, we come across this building owned and operated by the Inderøy Museum and History Association. There are often meetings held here, but there was no activity as we walked by. They have made a lot of seating outside the building. This is the typical size house from the 1800s for those living in rural areas and not owning their own prestigious estate.

Most of our walk was through the woods. We were walking southwards, so often the sun was in our eyes. Even though I was wearing sunglasses, it wasn’t always easy to see with both bright sunshine and shade alternating on the path. The first 20 minutes or so of the walk was primarily uphill and in some places it was a bit rocky. Other places, like this section, were fairly level and covered with leaves and relatively easy walking.

The open gate and the stile for when the gate is closed.

This is a farming area and in the summer months there will be sheep out grazing. They are kept away from the cultivated fields by fencing. As it is too early in the year for the sheep to be out, the gate has been put completely to the side so that walkers have no problems following the trail. Once the sheep are out, the gate will be closed and people will be expected to climb over the stile. This saves a lot of problems as not all people are good at closing gates behind them.

Eventually we got up high enough to get a view towards Straumen. The mountains in the distance still have a bit of snow on them.

I hadn’t seen this sign before so I went to investigate it. The earth cellar was used by a farm nearby. The farm was abandoned in 1878. In the cellar they would have kept root vegetables, such as turnips and potatoes, in a damp, but above freezing place. This cellar is about 100 meters away from the farm buildings, a safe distance if there should be a fire. Note in the picture the pole with the red top which is used to mark trails so that they are visible both summer and winter.

The earth cellar, with a bit of snow still in the entrance way. This was in a very shady part of the forest.

The earth cellar, showing how it is built up with stones, then covered in earth and moss.

Eventually we began to climb again and came out into the open where the forest has been cut down relatively recently. Lots of choices on where one can go from here. We chose to continue on the trail towards Husby and climbed up the hill ahead of us.

This was the only place on the trail that we came across snow still on the trail itself. As the area is quite open, I expect the snow got blown onto the trail here and built up to a greater depth than elsewhere. Today it was in the sun, so I don’t imagine that it will last much longer.

“Myr” is a swampy area. Though we haven’t had much rain recently, this would be a very wet area. This swamp is called “Porsmyra” because of the plant “pors” which grows here. Pors /myrica gale has a strong smell and was often used to keep moths from clothing, flies away from outside toilets and in making beer. Inderøy is full of swamps, but what was most interesting for us was seeing a pair of cranes feeding in the swamp.

Porsmyra, with two cranes located under the tallest tree. They are difficult to see as they were quite far away.

Cranes (grus grus) are the largest bird found in Inderøy. They are from 95 to 130 cm in height and can weigh between 4.5 to 6 kg. We have seen cranes several times this spring, including in the field next to our house. There seems to be more and more each year. They avoid people and quickly fly away if one gets too close to them. I have learned to recognize their trumpet-like call, so I heard them first then looked for them in the swamp.

We crossed into the neighboring municipality on our walk. Behind the sign is my walking companion, dressed in traditional green and black.

Of course, if we look back the way we came from, it shows that we have come from Inderøy municipality.

Once we had crossed into Verdal, we were in the area called Leklem, and we are headed to the south end of Leklem Lake. Note the post, with a red section and a large K, showing that we are on the King’s Road (Kongeveien).

Our goal for the walk was to get to this dam. The first time we found this place, they had emptied the lake and were rebuilding the dam. The lake is a water reserve for Verdal municipality, but otherwise the water spilled over the top of the dam and ran down this stream that we crossed.

Not all parts of the trail were equally smooth. I imagine that when it is raining, this section is also a stream. I use two walking sticks when out in rough terrain and find it very useful on sections like this, especially when going downhill.

The top of the dam. There is a spillway and water was gently running over the top of the dam.

The lake was still partly frozen, but with 12 degrees and sunshine, I don’t imagine it will stay frozen very much longer. We found a picnic bench to sit at so we took a well-deserved pause in our walking. We had used one and a half hours to get to this point, with all the stops we had taken to look at the views, to watch birds and to take photos. We used only one hour to get back to the car, but I think there was less uphill on the way back, which certainly means that we walked quicker.

I have had the walking stick on the right for several years. It was purchased in Canada by my daughter many years ago, and I have been using it for the last couple of years. The walking stick on the left was purchased this winter (online from a Norwegian business but the stick is made in Germany) so that I could have two sticks when walking in rough terrain. I like having two out in the wooded hills and on rough ground. I like this type of handle as my weight is on the palm of my hand, not on my fingers which don’t always work well.

Walking north, back to the car, we saw the views that I quite like. The best views were from a logged area, where it was very open and the new trees were still quite short. Though there is a lot of wooded area on these hills, there are also a lot of farms in Inderøy and Steinkjer.

Looking north, with Steinkjer in the background.

Looking northeast, also towards Steinkjer

We used two and a half hours on our walk today, and we were healthily tired when we got back to the car. A thermos with coffee and two cookies each helped revive us. We also changed our shoes so that tired feet felt a bit of relief.

Something we could have done better was to have taken a small backpack with bottles of water. Today was the first warm day and the longest walk we have taken this year, but a drink of water would have been good when we took a break before heading back to the car. It can also be nice to have something to put clothing in as layers get taken off as the day gets warmer. I had taken off my wind jacket about half an hour into the walk. With no wind and lots of sunshine, it wasn’t needed.

This was a most enjoyable walk. We were well away from roads with traffic. It was quiet except for our noises and voices, which is something we both appreciate. The temperature was perfect for walking, not cold, nor too hot. Next time we come to these hills we will probably take a slightly different walk, but this is one I especially enjoy. I hope you were able to get out in nature on the weekend too. Being near trees is supposed to be very good for our mental health.

2024-04-222024-04-21

Evening walk at Rostad, Inderøy

One of the nice things about April is the light evenings which allow me to get out for a walk. This week I met a girl friend at about 6 pm and we took a 50 minute walk that we have done many times before, but this was the first time in 2024.

“Rostadrunden” means that the trails go in a circle and one can walk either way.

During the summer months, we can often get points for going to certain parts of this trail, but it is too early in the season yet for that. But it was a nice sunny evening, though there was a very cold wind blowing. The temperature was about +5 degrees centigrade, but there was a big difference between being in the sun or being in the shade. There is public parking near these signs, which holds five or six cars. We each drove a car as this location is halfway between where we live and we come from opposite directions.

The property at Rostad was originally a wealthy family’s farm. The house has been well-preserved and is often used for meetings. The farm continues to be used as a farm. However, for about the last one hundred years, a residential school has existed on the property. Over the decades the type of school has changed and who has run the school has changed. The first school was an orphanage which started in 1902. The property is currently run by the CRUX Foundation. CRUX Rostad is an institution for teens aged 13-19 who need a place to live when their parents are not able to function. The institution has 12 residential places. The children live in other newer buildings on the estate.

At the parking spot there is information about Rostad. A former prime minister of Norway, Ole Richter, grew up here and later represented Norway during its union time with Sweden. He inherited the farm but had no descendants so at his death the estate was sold. Ebba Astrup became the first director of the orphanage that opened in 1902 and she worked there until 1918. In 1927, she gave money to start the Rostad Foundation. It is still run by a foundation.

The mausoleum where Ole Richter is buried.

There are not many mausoleums in Norway, but on this property there is one. Ole Richter was buried here after his death in 1888, along with his wife who had died a few years before.

The gate posts on the road up from the fjord

Though today this estate is easily reached by paved road, in the 19th century, access to the estate would have been from the fjord. There is a gravel, tractor road that we followed down the hill. The gate posts in the picture would have been the formal entrance to the main building. We decided to take the walk in the counter-clockwise direction, so we started by going downhill, about 500 meters towards the fjord. It was very windy on the water, so we avoided going right down to the fjord.

A lot of the walk goes through the woods. It goes up and down quite a bit, but there are no very steep sections. Most of it was quite dry, though the streams had plenty of water in them. The trees are quite bare still and the ground is covered with the leaves that came down in the fall. It is evening, so there are small patches of sunshine, but at times the woods are quite dark. It stays light until about 9 pm now.

There was only one section that was muddy, so here there is obviously water that drains off the hillside that is not put through a pipe. It was a very short section and very easy to get around.

The white anemone is an early flower that comes out on the forest floor before the leaves come out on the deciduous trees and take away the sunshine. These were the first ones that I had seen this year, so it must be a spot that is both sheltered and sunny. Note that the moss seems to be growing quite well here as well.

There is a stream that runs through the property. Where it comes out at the fjord, there is quite a drop and it has been used to power a grain mill in the past. It doesn’t look like a very large stream here, but it is nice to have a bridge to cross it. At this point the trail divides and if one wanted to walk to Undersåker (approximately 2 km to the east by the trail), one could take off on a trail that goes off to the right from here. We are coming from the foreground, will cross the bridge and head off to the left. You can see directional signs, but there are also a lot of information signs on this part of the trail, primarily about dwellings in the past.

Farm field at Rostad, looking toward Trondheimfjord

As we came out of the woods, we looked across a farm field to see the fjord in the distance. This is a working farm with grains and grasses being grown.

It didn’t take us long from here to get back to our cars. It was lovely to get out. For me it is also a social time with a girl friend. I enjoy springtime, with sunny days and nature just starting to turn green again. The air can be cold still, but with no leaves on the deciduous trees, one can see more in the distance. I hope you can enjoy a walk today too.

2024-04-17

Regular Walks

Most weeks I walk once or twice up to a local dairy farm, Åsvang, to buy fresh milk in bottles. And by “up” I mean a 25 minute walk uphill, and a little more than one and a half kilometers. According to Google Maps we live at 32 meters above sea level and the farm is 129 meters above sea level, meaning that there is an altitude difference of 97 meters. It is good exercise.

When one does the same walk many times, it may seem a bit repetitive, but as the seasons change, it is interesting to see what changes have happened since the last walk. Especially in spring, there can be quite a few changes, just in a week. We’ve recently had plenty of rain and the walk today was sunny, so nature is coming to life again after winter.

Where just a few weeks ago, these first yellow flowers were hard to find, they are now coming out in large clumps and quickly spreading along the sunny road banks. All pictures in this blog were taken on 2024.04.16.

View from Åsvang, looking west, 2024.04.16

As one looks over the fields, some of them are just starting to turn green. The snow has disappeared, but it will be a while before the trees have leaves on them. If you look carefully, you can just see the tops of the two towers of Skarnsund Bridge.

I love it when the new growth is starting to be more visible. Even the deer are starting to find enough grass in the fields to eat. There is still a lot of dry grass from the last year, but the new growth will soon be tall enough that one won’t see last year’s growth which becomes fertilizer for the new growth.

Though the fields are still mostly brown with dried grass, some of the fields have been plowed, often in the fall before the winter came. The road bank to the right of the road is just starting to show the promise of green grass. In the distance can be seen an island, Ytterøy, which means the outer island. We live in Inderøy, the inner island, which is actually a peninsula.

Along the road to Vangshylla, 2024.04.16

In the ditch, where there is still plenty of dampness from the heavy rains a few days ago, the leaves of flowering plants are showing that it won’t be long before there will be more flowers to be seen.

In a previous blog I mentioned people cutting down trees for firewood. Here’s an area that has been attacked by such a person. There is a field to the left, but in the center of the picture quite a few trees have been cut down this spring, making the hillside look bare. The small branches are left to rot, which is fine, but it doesn’t look very good.

For many, spring is a problem with pollen. The birch tree is one that can cause quite a bit of problem, both for myself and many others. Already, the trees are putting out their pollen producing catkins, but it will be a month before the leaves come out on birches. There is a sharp difference in color between deciduous trees, like the birch, and the evergreens, either pine or spruce, which you can see in the background of this picture.

Willow trees put out their flowers long before the leaves come out. The pussy willows on this tree are just starting to come out and will soon be shedding their pollen. Checking today’s pollen warning shows “moderate” for willows, or salix.

Trees are always hard to photograph close-up, in my opinion. What I see with my eye, is not always what appears in the photograph. Eyes are really much better devices than cameras in many ways, even older eyes. This year there have been a lot of spruce shoots from the ends of branches lying on the ground as if there has been too little food and animals have been eating the shoots. The new growth has not really started but at the very ends, there are signs of new growth just coming. The spruce trees did not bloom last year, and there are very few cones left for the squirrels to munch on, so I hope the trees bloom this year.

I am always eager to see what is coming up in my garden. Once the sprouts are showing from the bulbs, growth can happen amazingly quickly. Here are both tulips and daffodils coming up and there is also a peony plant that will emerge as well. The tulips don’t do very well anymore as the deer tend to eat them. But the daffodils do well as the deer don’t eat them.

Our house is called “Fjellheim” and we translate that as “Cliff Cottage”, though a more direct translation would be “mountain home”. The above plant is a wild orchid that comes up every year. When we first moved to the house, it was growing in a ditch, as it needs lots of water. I carefully moved it one year so that it didn’t get destroyed by people digging in the ditch and I managed to find a place where it thrives. It comes up early, and already the flower stem is starting to show in the middle. This one will have a dark purple flower.

The lilac bush’s buds are starting to open out in the sunshine. We still have frost at night, but the daytime temperatures can be up to about 10 degrees. This bush gets lots of sunshine and will be one of the first ones on our lot to put out its leaves and flowers.

Crocuses are the first bulbs to bloom and these ones are enjoying the sunshine under the lilac bush. These come up in a bed where we have been putting snow when clearing the driveway in the winter, so there are always a lot of stones in the bed. Eventually the largest of them will be put back on the driveway, though that is a tedious job.

These were some of the delights of nature this week. But the joy of this time of year is how things change quickly. The earliest flowers disappear, the leaves come out on the trees, and new flowering plants emerge. I hope you can get outdoors and enjoy the nature that is around you.

2024-04-102024-04-10

Air Pollution

When one lives in a rural area in Norway, one sees people cutting down trees for firewood. It is almost the end of the heating season, but many people still have wood stoves for heating their homes. Those who cut down trees themselves are often out at this time of year to get the wood necessary for the next heating season. Personally I am very glad that we have cut out burning wood inside our house. We’ve removed one old wood stove from our living room. No more bad air there.

I have read quite a bit in recent years about climate change and what we have done right and what still has to be done. I’d like to quote Bjørn H. Samset who writes in The Climate Book (published by Allen Lane in 2022):

“If you light a bonfire and look towards the sky, you will see a rising column of smoke. Spreading upwards and outwards, it twirls and thins until it fades to invisibility. But it’s not gone. Smoke particles – one example of what we call aerosols – can remain airborne for days, and in that time they can travel both far afield and high up in the atmosphere. And while there, they have a strong effect on both the weather and the climate.” (page 57)

Picture taken in Straumen, Inderøy, on 2024.04.03 at 18:55. Smoke stack from a wood-chip burning, central heating system at the busiest intersection in Straumen, our local municipal center.

If I am out walking, I can smell when my neighbors are heating their homes with a wood fire. A lot of the electricity in Norway is made with hydro power and some is made with wind. Neither of these types of energy production pollutes the air, though there may be other disadvantages. In this blog, I’m wanting to mainly focus on air pollution. With the rise of electricity prices in the last year or so, heating homes with wood has again became popular, as people are trying to reduce the cost of heating their homes. Their electricity bill might be lower, but is burning wood a good alternative to using electricity produced by water or air power? Electricity can be used for heating, either using space heaters or a heat pump.

If we look at historical methods of creating energy, burning wood is one of the oldest methods. Open fires inside homes for cooking food was still common in the 19th century. Baking ovens were used, but meat was usually cooked in large fireplaces over an open fire (i.e. roasted). In countries like England, wood became a scarce resource as trees were cut down and not replaced. The discovery of coal made possible the transition to burning coal instead of wood. But coal also pollutes the air when burned and was one of the causes of very bad air in London, England during the 19th century.

When I was small we had a furnace in our house that burned coal in a closed stove in the basement and sent heated air throughout the house. There was a storage space for coal inside the basement. Coal is very dirty to handle and there was an automatic feeder to get the coal into the furnace. This was replaced, probably in about 1966, with a natural gas furnace.

The house I grew up in was built in the 1920s and at that time, the City of Vancouver was piping natural gas to new housing as a cleaner alternative to coal or sawdust. As far back as I can remember, we had a gas stove and oven in the kitchen when I was a child. There was a constant flame, a pilot light, which then lit the burner that one wanted to use. As I think about this now, I am surprised that people accepted an open flame in the kitchen. Though gas is a cleaner burning fuel than either wood or coal, it is still a fossil fuel that creates air pollution.

I have always had a sniffy nose and though I now think of it as primarily a reaction to pollen. As I have been writing this, I have been wondering how much my physical development as a child was affected by the burning of “dirty” fuels in my home. When I was about 10 years old, I suffered a lot from constant coughing. Was it indoor air pollution, or pollen from the fruit trees in our yard?

Looking at Our World in Data, they separate air pollution in two categories, indoor and outdoor. Let’s look at some of the information that they have on these two categories.

Indoor Air Pollution

“Indoor air pollution is caused by burning solid fuel sources – such as firewood, crop waste, and dung – for cooking and heating. Burning such fuels, particularly in poor households, results in air pollution that leads to respiratory diseases, which can result in premature death. The WHO calls indoor air pollution “the world’s largest single environmental health risk.” (from OWID)

Note that indoor air pollution primarily comes from cooking and heating, and its severity would depend on what was actually being burned and how good the ventilation was. There is a distinction between solid fuels, such as dung, wood, charcoal, and coal, and non-solid fuels, such as kerosene, methanol, natural gas and electricity. Access to clean cooking fuels, such as electricity, improve as a family’s income improves and as the standards within a country improve. I see this also in my childhood, where heating was first coal, then natural gas, and cooking was natural gas, then electricity. The change came about as my parents were able to afford a better standard of living in the 1960s than in the early 1950s.

Looking at the charts available at Our World in Data, Europe and North America come out with the least indoor pollution as here there is better access to clean cooking and heating fuels. If you find looking at charts interesting, I suggest you go browse their website.

Outdoor Air Pollution

According to Our World in Data, outdoor air pollution is one of the world’s largest health and environmental problems. Outdoor air pollution is a risk factor for several of the world’s leading causes of death, including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases, such as asthma. Is the rise of asthma in European and North American countries attributable to worsening outdoor air pollution? I don’t know the answer, but I imagine there is a connection.

Some of the sources of outdoor air pollution can be:

industrial plants that put pollutants in the air
burning solid fuels to make electricity
vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel
wild fires which put a lot of small particles in the air

Many air pollutants contribute to the small particles that float in the air. As we age, our exposure to these types of pollutants accumulate and can affect our health. At the moment I live in an area with relatively low air pollution, so that most of the year I enjoy sleeping with a window open so that I get fresh air while I’m sleeping.

However, there are three types of outdoor air pollution that still affect me.

Wood smoke, or the burning of dry grass or refuse. Both of these can be common in a rural area in Norway. In winter, there are people heating their homes with wood fires. In spring, dry grass or garden refuse may be burnt so that it disappears. In summer, there is the burning of charcoal in grills, by people who think that this is a great way to prepare food outdoors.
Gases from animal manure, particularly as it is being spread on the fields near me. The older technique was spraying the manure in the air so that it spread over a wide area. This technique was terribly polluting and created bad air for several days, until the field was either plowed or it rained heavily. Fortunately, farmers here have learned new techniques with new equipment, whereby the liquid manure is forced into the ground rather than up in the air. Now there is much less of a smell of manure which I’m sure also means that there is less pollution from it.
Pollen, from flowers and trees, can also affect me. I don’t react to everything and how much pollen there is in the air will vary from day to day. Some years can be quite bad and other years I am affected a lot less. Many people have it a lot worse than myself. However I have stopped drying clothes outdoors so that I don’t get pollen on my clothes. Filters on ventilation systems can also improve air quality indoors.

Conclusion

I grew up in a house built about 1926 so the standards that were relevant at that time, have hopefully been improved by 2024. In fact, I have read that Vancouver is no longer allowing natural gas installations in new housing. Heating with coal and cooking with gas should be replaced with cleaner fuels.

I live in a house which was built in 1963 and we have improved it since then. There is more insulation now and better windows with three layers of glass so that we use much less electricity to heat the house now than we did even 10 years ago. We also use electricity to cook, using an induction stove top which uses electricity much more efficiently than older styles of cook tops.

Even though I live in an area with little air pollution, either indoors or outdoors, I can still have problems. How much of my problem is a result of pollution in my childhood I will never know, but I do think it is a possibility. However, every individual has to adapt their living conditions to their own sensitivity to air pollution. Parents also have a responsibility for giving their children a good environment to grow up in. For myself, living in a rural area helps, and getting rid of local polluting devices, such as a wood stove and a diesel car, have improved my living conditions.

2024-04-08

Spring 2024 walking season has started

I have been quite lazy this winter, doing very little walking outdoors except when going specific places, like the dairy farm or the egg farm. But today, the temperature was finally a bit more comfortable, at 12 degrees centigrade, so my husband and I put on walking trousers, hiking shoes and went for our first walk in the woods.

We have a favorite location that takes us along some gravel roads and a path in the woods. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Bear Cliff (Bjørnbrøttet), where there is a book to write one’s name in and a small shelter to take a short pause. I have written blogs about this walk previously. You might like to contrast today’s walk with the one in 2023 when the weather was quite different.

The view from Bear Cliff taken at 16:31, looking towards the island of Ytterøy with Levanger in the background.

As you can see from the picture, it was cloudy and there had been rain showers earlier in the day. We did not have any rain while we were walking and we were out for about an hour. But shortly after we were home again, there was another short rain shower.

As this was the first time for this walk in 2024, it was interesting to see if there were any changes, either in nature, or to the cabins we walked by. There were a couple of trees that had been blown over, some that had been cut down. There seemed to be more open spaces as if cabin owners wanted more sunshine or a better view. At this time of year I am always looking to see what flowers are out. The two earliest ones here in Inderøy are coltsfoot (which is yellow) and anemone hepatica (which is blue).

Coltsfoot /hestehov) or tussilago farfara. The flowers come out from the rhizome first before any leaves appear. The leaves are very large but disappear during the summer. These flowers like the sunshine and appear first in sheltered, sunny spots and along the roadsides.

The blue anemone, sometimes called liverwort, (hepatica nobilis / blåveis) is a bit hard to see, but they are also very common in Inderøy and one of the signs of spring. They will eventually cover large areas as the days warm up. They are quite small and are often found under trees.

You’ll have to look closely in the photo to see the hepatica / blåveis, but it is in several parts of the photo.

Getting out in the fresh air is important. Getting walking exercise helps keep us in good shape. I was surprised that I was in such good shape as I did not labor up any of the hills. So that is a good sign. I also feel that it is important for our eyes to look far in the distance and not always to be looking at a screen or things close to us, for example, knitting projects.

Looking south-west towards Trondheim, through Norviksund, with Mosvik on the right and Ytterøy on the left. There are rain clouds in the distance but they didn’t get to us until after we were inside again. Looking at the small island on the right, we see that it was relatively low tide.

We live in an area with quite a variation in tides. When this picture was taken (at 16:46), the tide was still going out and low tide was at 18:40 and at 6 cm above the base level. At high tide, later this evening, the water level will be at about 324 cm, so the water level will be more than 3 meters higher than at low tide.

As we came up our own driveway, I looked to see if there was anything flowering yet. I have lots of bulbs, but the ground has been frozen until the last few days. Crocuses are just starting to show some color and only need a few days of sunshine to come out in full bloom.

Not wild flowers, but planted in my garden. Crocuses are the first flowers that bloom in my garden. These need a bit more sunshine before opening out.

I hope you too are able to get out for longer walks out in nature, now that we are in April. Enjoy the nature you have around you.

2024-04-03

Skjærvøya

It’s been Easter week in Norway and there are many days where everything is closed down, including Thursday, Friday, Sunday (Easter Day) and Monday. Many people take most of the week off and I’ve been enjoying having my son at home for the week. We were invited to visit a family that have a holiday cabin on this remote island. Wednesday was the only day we would be able to make a day trip there, that is, get out to the island and back to the mainland on the same day. The weather forecast was good for the end of March so we made arrangements to go visit our friends.

We started from home about 10 am and we had a two-hour drive to where we would get the ferry out to the island. We had an extra half an hour so we could take breaks along the way. The first break, after about 50 minutes, was to change drivers, stretch our legs and drink a cup of coffee. The second break was more interesting and we grabbed a little something to eat as well as taking some photos of the waterfall, Nordmelandfossen, on the Luna River.

Nordmelandfossen, on the Luna River, in the municipality of Osen.

One of the first wild flowers to bloom is colt’s foot (*hestehov*) and this was the first one I had seen this year. Otherwise there wasn’t much growing yet. Shady areas still had snow.

It wasn’t that warm, even though the sun was shining. There is still snow on the rocks that are mostly in the shade. There were still frozen sections on the river, and small chunks of ice floating downhill. We didn’t stop long as we still had a few kilometers to drive before parking the car for the day and taking a passenger ferry out to the island of Skjærvøya.

MS Osen, operated by the transport company AtB, at the quay in Sandviksberget, in Osen Municipality. This was the passenger ferry that we took, both out to the island and back again later in the day (in the dark).

I love taking ferries and it has been quite a while since I have taken one. This is a small passenger-only ferry which can hold up to 48 passengers, though there were not that many on it when we took it. It was warm enough to stand outside the whole time as long as one was in the lee of the boat itself. The trip out to the island takes about 20 minutes, depending on whether there are other stops on the way.

The engine was powerful once we were out of the harbor and there was a fascinating stern wave to look at and photograph.

Looking back to where we had come from, Sandviksberget, on the mainland. There is a small community here which also has a school. The rural municipality of Osen has about 900 residents.

These islands are very rocky and this little bit was extra rocky. I wondered if the waves had moved some of the large rocks during storms. This is the end of March, so there are no leaves on deciduous trees and most things have not started to grow at all. So what will be green later in the summer, is still a winter brown.

Here the ferry is coming into Ramsøya to pick up one passenger. There seems to be a farm here and about 8 houses or cabins. There aren’t many trees on these islands that are quite open to the storms from the North Sea.

It was high tide when we went out to Skjærvøya, but there were a lot of markers sticking up from the water. I presume that these mark rocks that are dangerous to navigation. They would be lighted at night.

Skjærvøya is really two islands joined by a concrete wall that one can walk or drive over. The only vehicles are small electric cars, motorcycles, tractors or all-terrain vehicles. There seem to be several small farms on each island and I did see some sheep out grazing. All the housing is primarily on the south and south-east sides of the islands, protected from the worst of the storm winds. There are still a few people that live her year-round, but there is no longer a school or a store here.

Ytre (outer) Skjærvøya is on the right, in the middle of the picture, and has a tall mast on its highest point. Indre (inner) Skjærvøya is on the left and has two lumps. They are joined by a concrete wall, which provides a sheltered bay for boats.

On the mainland, there are wind farms producing electricity, however that has been a lot of disagreement on whether the owners of the windmills had a right to build on the land that is used for reindeer grazing.

The quay on the outer island with the boat that we came on.

We were met at the ferry by our friends and we had a 25 minute walk to their cabin. The above picture is taken from the concrete wall that connects the two islands. Our destination is a cabin on the inner island. Most of our walk was on the sheltered side of the island and was quite pleasant. Though there was a little uphill section, most of the walk was reasonably flat and on a road.

Photo taken by Simon Gulstad from the mast on the outer island. From here you can see the concrete wall between the islands. We walked across the wall, around to the left in the picture and around to the other side of the rocky hill on the far island.

These islands are quite isolated, especially in bad weather, so the numbers of people living there full-time has decreased over the decades. However, from Easter week and through the summer, Norwegians enjoying coming to out-of-the-way places to get away from the cities and towns. Note the houses in the pictures, which look like they were built in the 1950s. In the past, when fishermen rowed out to the fishing areas, one wanted to be as close as possible and therefore many families lived on these rather remote islands. Today fish farming has become very common in the Norwegian fjords and employ quite a few people.

A local fish farm accessed from Inner Skjærvøya. The mainland is in the background.

Our friends’ cabin, nestled among the rocks. Photo courtesy of Alasdair McLellan, who was also on this day trip.

When one looks at the houses that were built 50 to 100 years ago, they were always nestled so that they were sheltered from the worst of the wind. Having a view over the water was less important than staying protected. This cabin was built about 15 years ago. It was sunny and about +10 degrees centigrade, so we kept our coats on and sat outside for at least an hour or more before going inside to eat. The small building on the left was used by a nine-year old as a place to make things and hide away from the adults. At the back of the house is an annex with more sleeping places. Upstairs is basically a lot of sleeping places, often as bunk beds. They could probably sleep 15 people there without problems.

The cabin has modern conveniences, including electricity, running water, a hot water tank, shower, and small laundry machine. Life is kept simple and the idea is to relax and enjoy just being with the people who are there with you.

I have always liked walking around on rocky coastline like this, though on this trip I noticed that I’m not as young as I used to be. The rocks were dry and easy to move around on, but my balance isn’t as good as it used to be and I had to be much more careful than I would have been 10 years ago. Where I live now, there isn’t this sort of rock to walk on much, so I’m out of practice.

As the sun was setting, suddenly the Coastal Express Ship from Hurtigruten came into sight in the distance. Richard With was sailing north through an inside channel, giving its passengers an interesting view of the coast of Trøndelag. It was actually quite far away, but the sun was shining on the ship, so it showed up quite well. Usually I have been on the mainland to see the ship pass by on its northward journey. Those traveling south travel at night and do not take the inside route, but would head straight to Trondheim.

The Hurtigruten’s *Richard With* sailing north. Photo courtesy of Alasdair McLellan.

I enjoyed my visit to the island of Inner Skjærvøya. Being on the island was relaxing. We enjoy being with the people we visited. We got a bit of a walk each way to the ferry and we were fed a very nice meal while we were there. The ferry ride back to the mainland was in the dark, so not nearly as interesting as the outward trip. I did not enjoy the two hour drive each way to the ferry, so it will probably not be a trip that we take very often. As I get older, I do not enjoy driving on windy, bumpy roads any more. The experience of being on a different island was very rewarding.