An Art Work A Day

Today I was off with new hiking buddy. That is so nice because then I have an extra option for companionship when I get the urge to conquer another path or another mountain top. Today's top was not that high but still a nice one with a nice view. The trip all in all took 2 hours.

Along the route I keep letting my eyes feast on shapes and patterns in nature on a smaller scale in addition to the mroe spectacular things like boulders and views. Here a kind of mushroom on a tree stump.

Today we decided to hike towards the top outside of the marked paths. That gave us quite a bit of extra exercise.

So in the end we were happy to find the red and blue ribbons and markings for the last leg.

Nearly getting up and as usual I feel better the higher I get.

This tree sculpture made by nature is one of the landmarks saying we are getting near the top.

And here is the mailbox at the top welcoming us. So the ritual can be done - first writing the signatures in the book and then taking photos of me on the top. hehehe.

We had a nice view in most directions from the top and enjoyed looking at nearby tops and discussing which would be hard and which easy to conquer.

Then it was time to go down again.

The last leg went across a lovely blooming swamp by a lake

Today I joined a socalled O-Run. I am a new beginner so I should have taken the N-route but me wanting more of a challenge registered on a C-route. By accident I got a A-route map so in the end me a total beginner did a class 4 instead of a class 6 run. Very proud to tell you that I did find all the 10 posts even though I think I spent 60 minutes finding 2 of them nr 3 and 4. hehehe and used more than twice the time the routined ones used. The route master said it was impressive :-) and of course I take such words to my heart.

Unfortunately I got my feet entangled into a long branch and fell heavily on my knees, and that slowed me even more down.

This is what the International Orienteering Fedreation says for those of you that has not been in contact with the sport before:

Foot orienteering is an endurance sport which involves a huge mental element. There is no marked route - the orienteer must navigate with map and compass while running.

Foot orienteering became a recognized Olympic sport in 1977.

Equipment:

RACING SUIT: A lightweight, stretchy suit protects from undergrowth whilst allowing maximum freedom of movement even if it gets soaking wet.

SHOES: Light, strong shoes with non-slip soles allow sure grip on all types of ground - including mud and bare rock.

MAP: The map provided by the organiser shows the course with the control points which must be visited. The map is designed to give detailed information on the terrain - hills, ground surface, and features such as boulders or cliffs.

COMPASS: There is a wide variety of sophisticated compasses to choose from. Basically they can be divided into two main categories: base plate and thumb compasses.

CONTROL CARD: To prove that they have visited all control points in the right order, the orienteers have to punch their control card at each control using an electronic device.

This day too I misjudget distances and ended up exploring quite abit of extra paths and areas hehehe but that is not a bit problem since my main purpose is to be active.

Today it was the annual community trip to The Rundkoll Tower. This was an old fire warning tower built in 1939. The trip is said to take approximately 1.5h. We used a bit more than one hour up and that is including 20 stops for the socalled nature trail which is posts along the route with questions. This makes it so much fun especially for the younger ones.

This is the start of the route.

As you can see we brough along 4 legged friends as well.

Since the top is 406 meters above sealevel most of those 3.5 km was pretty steep uphill.

On our way up we met some who had already been there. This 88 year old gentleman has done this yearly trip every year and my friend and I decided we woudl be happy to be as fit as he when we became 66 years old. He and elderly people like him are such an inspiration. My friend is a journalist so he will probably also be in the newspaper in a week.

The kids especially loved trying to find the answers to the quesitons on each post. They run the last 1o meters as soon as they saw a new one.As we came higher we could start to enjoy the wonderful view.

The colours were nearly autumnlike in their variation.

And then we arrived at the tower. I must admit I only walked up the first floor before returning down. The structure is not very stable for those with less than a perfect balance.

As you can see, I enjoyed the view very much.

Small pockets along the way still had some leftover snow from winter.

This afternoon I also took a forest/hill walk for 2 hours. Nature really tempts me to come out and enjoy it.

Tomorrow another trip is planned. Come back for more.

Late Monday I arrived back from Tallin, Estland. Unfortunately my photos is on my work computer which is at present being cleaned from about 2000 viruses. I cross fingers that I do not need to reformate it and thus lose everything on it.

I have just got some new inks and brush pens. I think I will love using them.


Forest landscape in ink,
ink on watercolour paper
21x30cm
$75

p&p worldwide with International Priority mail is FREE

I do not yet get to paint as much as I believed I would this week but sometimes LOL I end up painting something I did not expect to paint. This is a soundbox my son is working on for our car. Inside of this box there are several channels where the air can go. When just putting a tiny pc speaker inside we can hear a tremndous difference. I can not imagine the sound when he puts in huuuuuge bass elements etc. LOL it will really be something for Mum to cruise in hehehe.

Most of this box will be covered with fabric both inside and on the outside.

Well, anyway, the elements have some red parts and he also wants to buy some red lights. th result was that quite a few hours was spent painting shapes somewhat flamelike. I did not want the biker kind of flames, more like organic shapes so that is why I have posted first a painting of red flames and now a painting of blue flames on black. My son obviously wanted to see some demos of how it could look done in acrylics so here are the painting of blue flames and below is the box.

Flames

acrylics on canvas board 30x40cm

$100 p&p worldwide included

Sorry about the parts of the Easel showing. This one was painted as an inspiraiton from my son and our discussion on a project he has been working on. I'll post images of it another day here in the blog.