Here Comes the Sun!

Finally the sun has arrived, if only for a short while! We went out on our bikes to see if there was anything interesting out, and sure enough it was a rewarding trip!

What beautiful light!

The sun through the trees

Some macro shots of dew on leaves, I love the way the blue sky is reflected in the droplets. It seems so peaceful, and reminds me of those beautiful summer days.

Severdighet -- A sight worth seeing

This symbol means that there is something of interest in the near vicinity. Usually traditional buildings, tourist sites, natural beauty, etc. This one I found near the Stavkirke, or Stave church. The Stavkirke was built around 1250, long before Christianity came to Norway. There are dragon heads all around steeples of the Stavkirke, and when Christianity came to Norway, they simply added crosses to the building to make it a Christian church.

Here you can see both the dragon's head and the crosses; taken last winter.

Close-up of a dragon head

The graveyard around the Stavkirke, with the hills in the background, is not an angle most tourists get pictures of when they visit the Stavkirke. I think most people want to get as close as possible, and forget to take a step back to take in the whole picture--I know I have done that!

Going for a Stroll

This is a road often taken, judging by all the potholes! But the beauty for me lies in the bare trees on the right, with the still-green trees on the left. The red leaves bordering the road just make it perfect, tempting you to go for a stroll (if it's not raining, of course). This was again a cloudy day, it had stopped raining just long enough for me to get this shot. This week there is supposed to be some sun, though! Let's hope for that!

UPDATE! There is some sun!

This is the most sun we've seen in almost 2 weeks! You can even see a hint of blue sky at the upper left corner, and just north of us are clear skies, so we may get even more sun today!

A Gray Day

The weather was horrible today, it rained almost all day, was foggy and cold. So, lacking the beautiful sun, I decided to create my own contrasting colors with a new color-select setting on my camera. I choose a color within my shot, and the rest of the colors within the shot are gray. In these two first pictures I chose the dark red leaves from our apple tree, which is now bare. The contrast against the green of the grass is pretty, but I think the images are more interesting with the red against the gray.

In this last shot I chose the yellow tree in our yard, I'm not sure what type of tree it is though. It was hard to capture the yellow very well, but you get an idea. The whole tree is colored the same as the bottom of the tree is in the picture. I was disappointed that the pine tree beside it did not turn out as gray as I had hoped, but at least I got out and took some pictures on this icky day!

A full-color shot for comparison.

Bygdetun Beauty

Some more beauty from the Bygdetun, this time in full fall colors. The house on the right is a typical house of the era, with a grass roof. More information on grass roofs can be found here.  Inside is small and dark, with very low ceilings. The building on the right was most likely used for livestock or for storage, you can see it is much shorter than the house.

I love the single sunflower hiding on the left, as well as the red windows contrasting with the green of the grass. The sky got washed out, but it was not very blue that day anyway. I am planning on going back here after we get some snow, to get a similar shot.

Snow on the Mountains

It snowed on the mountains last night, so it won't be long before winter arrives here as well! It's freezing every night now, and our apple tree has lost all it's leaves. The past few days have been sad and grey, hopefully we'll have a few more days of sun before the snow falls.

I like the fog-clouds in this picture, how they flutter by before floating up to join the clouds. There is a river that runs parallel to the mountain, so we see these fog-clouds quite often.

I also enjoy the contrast between the seasons; fall in the foreground, winter in the background. It really shows how quickly the seasons change here in Norway.