Common Snowdrop / Almindelig Vintergæk

Galanthus nivalis


Snowdrop, (Danish Vintergæk), was named the Morning Star among winter flowers. It arrives early, trickeling up through the snow already in February or even before if the winter is mild. But it is a flower of the cold winter months, it has gone before spring takes a serious hold.

Snowdrop is a low bulp-plant, ab. 10-20 cm high. The yellow-green shoots are the first showing above the soil. In the shoot are both two leaves and one flower. The white bell-shaped flowers last about one month, but there might be flowers from February till April dependent on the course of winter and the placement of the bulbs in the garden.

Snowdrop thrives best in moist, nutrient-rich humus, where it comes back year after year. If the bulbs are in the lawn, it is important that they are allowed to die down, before the lawn is mowed the first time or else the bulb cannot gather enough nourishment till next year. The fastest way to grow new snowdrops is to have a lump of bulbs from friends or family. It is easy to move the lump with flowers, if they are moved in a whole lump and plant in the same depth. Or of course buy bulbs and put them in the soil in 5-10 cm's depth during autumn.



Snowdrop is propagated from seed or sidebulbs. That's why a group of snowdrops grow bigger each year. After they have ceased to flower they can be increased in numbers when dividing the bulbs carefully, and since they do not endure drying they have to be plant the same day. If sidebulbs are placed in the garden in various places it takes two years before they are big enough to flower. A snowdrop can also be propagated by the seeds, it takes ab. 4 years before there is a bulb able to set flowers. The seed-propagating is done by nature itself, but if snowdrops emerge in strange places, then it might be the ants or mice who move seeds and bulbs.

There are ab. 14 various snowdrops. The most common sorts are all Galanthus nivalis. They look alike but have various green markings upon the white flower-head. A few are different like Galanthus nivalis Plenus with filled flowers, Galanthus nivalis ssp Reginaeolgae, which flowers in autumn. The last mentioned looks like the common snowdrop but has shorter petals, and the flowerbells have a green horseshoe-shaped marking.

Very different are Maximus with larger flowers, Lutescus with yellow markings on the petals and Pictur with green spots upon outer and inner petals. These relatives come especially from Turkey. Most of them are delicate towards hard winters.

Snowdrop is closely connected to a Danish tradition about writing gækkebreve. A snowdrop, fresh or dried, is put together with a finely cut letter. The sender writes his/her name with dots and adds a small verse, and then it's up to the receiver to guess from whom the letter comes. If this is not solved the receiver has to give the sender an Easter egg.

Snowdrops kan be put indoors for earlier flowering -  dig up a lump when the shoot is traceable, plant it in a pot and place it as cool as possible. As soon as the flowers have withered they can be plant in the garden again.

For the fun of it can coloured ink be added to the water in a vase with snowdrops, and in a few hours the petals will be red, green or blue etc. In a vase or pot with full-blown snowdrops their heads will close if they are put in a cool place.

It is important to let the green leaves stay on the withered flowers. The green gathers nourishment for the next years' blooming. This goes for both snowdrops and other bulb-plants.

The plant was also used in folk medicine. It contains an active substance called galanthamine, which can be helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, though it is not a cure.

It is useful as a bee-plant because of its early flowering and it gives much nectare but only a little pollen.

The generic name tagalanthus from the Greek gala (milk) and anthos (flower), was given to the genus by Carl Linnaeus in 1735. He described Galanthus nivalis in his Species Plantarum published in 1753. The epithet "nivalis" means "of the snow", referring either to the snow-like flower or the plant's early flowering. The common name snowdrop first appeared in the 1633 edition of John Gerard's Great Herbal . Other British traditional common names include February Fairmaids, Dingle-Dangle, Candlemas bells, Mary's tapers and in parts of Yorkshire Snow Pierces (like the French name perce-neige).

Source: Anemette Olesen, Idényt.


photo Forsthaven: grethe bachmann

Whooper Swans singing a Swan Song in March

I don't think I have seen so many swans in one flock before. I guess there were about 500, it is common that they gather in large flocks of 500-1000 swans in winter. They were singing their special song,and  they were really singing loudly  - as if they were all joining the Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhäuser.  Suddenly they got agitated over something and their voices rose to inferno and chaos. I'm not sure the farmer-family on the other side of the road has a good night's sleep if the swans stay there for some days, singing  their swan song each night !!

But they are beautiful birds, and it was a great experience to watch such a big flock. Soon they will fly eastwards to their breeding places in Scandinavia and Russia, some of them will fly all the way to Sibiria and to the Pacific coast. It is so amazing.   

I did not use a wide angle lens - I did not have space enough for a photo of the whole flock, which spread over a large area.

 

 














The Whooper Swan (Source: DOF, Dansk Ornitologisk forening, Fugle og Natur) 
The whooper swan is of same size as the mute swan, but easy to recognize with its yellow beak, which has no black knot like the mute swan. It keeps its neck more straight and higher than the mute swan, and it has a strong and very sonorous voice, sounding almost like a trumpeting - contrarily to the mute swan, which usually is silent, except from the rhytmic singing sound from the wings during flight. 

The whooper swan is a common guest in Denmark in the winter season and is often seen in large flocks in fields or in the the outskirts of flocks of mute swans in lowwatered areas.

The whooper swan breeds in forest moors and lowwatered lakes in a large nothern region from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and in a broad belt in Russia and Sibiria till the Pacific coast. The whooper swan has expanded with breeding pairs south to Skåne and also eastern Germany. In Denmark a single pair has tried to breed in North Jutland. In 2007 three breeding pairs were registered in Denmark, two pairs in  West Himmerland in some small moors, and one pair in Bølling Sø (lake) at Silkeborg. One pair in Himmerland had eight chicks.

Denmark is together with Germany the most important overwintering area for the whooper swan in Europe. It also overwinters in large numbers in Great Britain and Ireland, but is seen in most European countries in the winter season, except in Spain, Portugal and Italy. The whooper swan stays mostly in Denmark during mild winters, but migrates southwards in hard winters.

The food of the whooper swan is water plants, grass and winter crops like wheat and rape. 

Thrre swans came flying and landed by the flock.
They had been out on a little study trip I suppose! 







photo 1 March 2014, a field near the village Løve: grethe bachmann

Looking for the Wolf..........

It was a dark, gloomy day in February, just after Valentine's Day. If you were up in a jetplane you would not be able to see the earth down there under a thick wet cloud, covering most of the country. What to do? It was tour-day and it was certainly not photo-weather.
There had been much talk lately about the wolf coming back to Denmark after 200 years. A wolf in North Jutland, another one near Ringkøbing and a  third wolf, seen in Mid Jutland. I was enthusiastic about getting a photo of this fine animal. The place where it was seen was not far away. So we went out looking for the wolf. There was not much traffic in the territory, no other wolf-watchers!!  I looked across the fields and ahead of the roads while we were driving until my eyes hurt. The only living creature was a little black cat, hunting in a snowy field. A little tiger..........  

 

 










The first Wolf.
In September 2012 a group of birdwatchers were looking for the white-tailed eagle in a nature reserve in Thy, when they suddenly observed a big dog - or was it a wolf? -  in a desolate place in the reserve. Kim Frost from Nykøbing (Mors) took a series of photos which seemed convincing. He was sure it was a wolf. Others were of the opinion that it might as well be a big German shepherd, but everyone awaited eagerly more information about the alleged wolf. And the sensation really happened. The famous animal was found dead in the Hanstholm reserve in November, and the examination and DNA-test proved that it was a wolf  - and that it came from the German wolf population. This was really a Danish sensation. The wolf had come back to Denmark after 199 years! The last wild Danish wolf was shot in 1813.

photo of wolf in Thy



The second Wolf. 














In December 2012 was seen a new wolf in West Jutland by a group of hunters and a police patrol, but they could do nothing but observe the situation, since the wolf is protected. The new observation was just one among many. Several local people reported to have seen a wolf and a lady took a photo from her kitchen window.

photo of second wolf 

 
























How the Wolf comes to Denmark. 
A zoologist, Mogens Trolle, describes why we now begin to see wolves in the Danish nature. The nature of the young wolves make them spread. When they grow up they leave their parents fo find an area where they can make their own territory. Some wolves walk a very long way, up to 1.500 kilometer - and young wolves come to Denmark to find a good place to settle, which is not occupied beforehand. The wolves have spread  west in Germany and live closer and closer to Denmark. During only two generations the wolves have adapted the socalled cultural landscape and replaced their food of red deer with roe deer. The German wolves can easily live in the Danish farm landscape with its multitude of roe deer..
 
Mogens Trolle does not expect that we shall see pack of wolves in the Danish landscape in the nearest future. Firstly the lone wolf will arrive, but if a male and female meet in Denmark or join close to the border, they will go north together, and then we can get our first wolf couple in Denmark. When they get wolf cubs, it is actually a pack, but a pack of wolves will not walk up here from Germany - the wolves will gradually arrive as individuals, and there is an increasing chance that they then form a family, says Mogens Trolle.

 
















The third Wolf.
Last week  ab. 10 february a lady saw a wolf running across the road in front of her car in a forest near Bryrup in Mid Jutland. She was not in doubt that it was a wolf.

So -  it was this third wolf we were looking for on this bleak Saturday, driving through the land where the lone wolf was seen, through the dark forests and passing still snow-covered fields. At a place at Torup Lake we saw some tracks which might be wolf tracks but they were not good enough as a proof. Actually the tracks were in a path which goes into a piece of land we know from the summer period, and where almost no one comes in a snowy, frosty winter like this. But the track was not a solid proof.

We did not see the lone wolf. Maybe he saw us.

I would really be happy if I could get a fine photo of a wild wolf, living in nature. The only photo I have is this miserable one from a park at Djursland.   









photo Mid Jutland 16 February 2013: grethe bachmann
photo wolf: 8 March 2008 Djursland.

Sources: Mogens Trolle, wikipedia, Naturstyrelsen, Midtjyllands Avis, local people.

Addition (photo of the third wolf):

 The third wolf  
photo from robotcamera: 

In the days after it showed that the wolf (or maybe there is more than one wolf at Harrild hede) - is too fond of sheep, and there is a problem now which has to be solved. A sheepfarmer has lost 19 sheep - and there is no compensation-rules in Denmark in a situation like this. It has not yet been proved if it is the wolf or dogs gone amok. But it is probably the wolf.
 

A Blue Winter's Day at Kaløvig

                                                                                                         

Kaløvig with the castle ruin in the background, enlarge the photo)

Kalø castle ruin is one of my most visited places -  there is a special atmosphere on that small island. Kalø castle was built by the warrior king Erik Menved in the 1300s as a fortification against the rebellious peasant armies in Jutland. He fought them down without mercy, and those who survived the battle were executed - and their heads and other body parts were hung up on poles along the roads. The road system is the same here today - I haven't seen any ghosts although you might think it was a haunted place!!  But it might be otherwise around midnight, uhuuuuh..........


























The fields are covered in snow, the forest is dark brown, the landscape is swept in a shade of blue. The snow , the blue water, the low sun create a scenery in blue. It is obvious that we are living on the blue planete today. A painter would take his blue brush and start his own blue period like Picasso and other painters did, but I just enjoyed this beautiful blue day with a  high blue sky, a blue sea and some generous glow from a low sun. The days grow longer now, soon we can really feel that it is going the right way. But children don't think it's going the right way, they want snow and ice, they want to go out with their sleigh or their ice skates - we grown-ups are so boring because we keep talking about spring. We have been kids once, many years ago, but we have forgotten -  almost forgotten -  the golden lovely days where we went out with our sleigh, driving down the hill in a blazing speed.

a small parking place opposite the island.

Mr. and Mrs. Duck

 

Two whooper swans (finding food on the bottom).

 








The landscape along the bottom of Kaløvig is listed and very pictoresque. A tongue of land with a medieval stone road leads out to Kalø castle ruin, which lies upon a small island with steep hills and banks at the coast. Several good paths make it easy to walk in the area. If you are interested in plants then it is one of the finest places in Denmark with rests of a garden flora from the Middle Ages. The plants were introduced from southern  Europe and cultivated in the gardens at the ruin - they were later feral. The flora includes especially medical plants, but also plants for dyeing, poisonous plants, kitchen herbs and textile plants. Especially significant are Anthriscus caucalis (burr chervil/gærdekørvel) and Cyproglossum officinale (dog's tongue/lægehundetunge) upon the southern cliffs of the ruin. Besides appear Nepeta ( catmint,catnip/ katteurt), Lithosperum officinale (Common cromwell / lægestenfrø) and Viola odorata (wood violet(/ martsviol); Malva neglecta (common mallow/ rundbladet katost) and Conium maculatum (Hemlock/skarntyde). The seeds from several of the plants can keep the germination capacity for many years. Hyoscyamus niger (black henbane/ bulmeurt)  can can fx sprout after having stayed in the earth for several hundred years - and if there is a slide in the bank the henbane sometimes appears. It is forbidden to dig up the plants but seeds might be gathered. The Nepeta (catmint) only grows in ten locations in Denmark and always in old settlements.

funny car

back home on narrow roads........

photo 19. January 2013 Kaløvig: grethe bachmann

Significant Winters

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.

Christina Rossetti.
(A Christmas Carol)




1310–1330, many severe winters and cold, wet summers in Europe – the first clear manifestation of the unpredictable weather of the Little Ice Age that lasted for several centuries (from about 1300 to 1900). The persistently cold, wet weather caused great hardship, was primarily responsible for the Great Famine of 1315-1317, and strongly contributed to the weakened immunity and malnutrition leading up to the Black Death (1348–1350).

 1600-1602, extremely cold winters in Switzerland and Baltic region after eruption of Huaynaputine in Peru in 1600.
1607-1608, in North America, ice persisted on Lake Superior until June. Londoners held their first frost fair on the frozen-over River Thames.
1622, in Turkey, the Golden Horn and southern section of Bosphorus froze over.
1683-1684, "The Great Frost", when the Thames, hosting one of many River Thames frost fairs, was frozen all the way up to the London Bridge and remained frozen for about two months. Ice was about 27 cm (11 in) thick in London and about 120 cm (47 in) thick in Somerset. The sea froze up to 2 miles (3.2 km) out around the coast of the southern North Sea, causing severe problems for shipping and preventing use of many harbors.
1690s, extremely cold, snowy, severe winters. Ice surrounded Iceland for miles in every direction.

                                                                                                                                                     

1739-1740, one of the most severe winters in the UK on record. The Thames remained frozen-over for about 8 weeks. The Irish Famine of 1740–1741 claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people
1779-1780, Scotland's coldest winter on record, and ice surrounded Iceland in every direction (like in the 1690s). In the USA, a record five-week cold spell bottomed out at −20 °F (−29 °C) at Hartford, Connecticut, and −16 °F (−27 °C) in New York City. Hudson River and New York's harbor froze over.
1783-1786, the Thames partially froze, and snow remained on the ground for months. In February 1784, the North Carolina was frozen in Chesapeake Bay.
1794-1795, severe winter, with the coldest January in the UK and lowest temperature ever recorded in London: −21 °C (−6 °F) on 25 January. The cold began on Christmas Eve and lasted until late March, with a few temporary warm-ups. The Severn and Thames froze, and frost fairs started up again. The French army tried to invade the Netherlands over its frozen rivers, while the Dutch fleet was stuck in its harbor. The winter had Easterlies (from Siberia) as its dominant feature.

1813-1814, severe cold, last freeze-over of Thames, and last frost fair. (Removal of old London Bridge and changes to river's banks made freeze-overs less likely.)
1816 was the Year Without a Summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The unusual coolness of the winter of 1815–1816 and of the following summer was primarily due to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, in April 1815. There were secondary effects from an unknown eruption or eruptions around 1810, and several smaller eruptions around the world between 1812 and 1814. The cumulative effects were worldwide, but were especially strong in the Eastern USA, Atlantic Canada, and Northern Europe. Frost formed in May in New England, killing many newly-planted crops, and the summer never recovered. Snow fell in New York and Maine in June, and ice formed in lakes and rivers in July and August. In the UK, snow drifts remained on hills until late July, and the Thames froze in September. Agricultural crops failed and livestock died in much of the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in food shortages and the worst famine of the 19th century.
1883-1888, colder temperatures worldwide, including an unbroken string of abnormally cold and brutal winters in the Upper Midwest, related to the explosion of Krakatoa in August 1883. There was snow recorded in the UK as early as October and as late as July during this time period.
1887-1888, there were record cold temperatures in the Upper Midwest, heavy snowfalls worldwide, and amazing storms, including the Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888 (in the Midwest in January), and the Great Blizzard of 1888 (in the Eastern US and Canada in March).


















In Europe, the winters of early 1947, February 1956, 1962–1963, 1981–1982 and 2009-2010 were abnormally cold. The UK winter of 1946–1947 started out relatively normal, but became one of the snowiest UK winters to date, with nearly continuous snowfall from late January until March.
1976-1977, one of the coldest winters in the US in decades.
1985, Arctic outbreak in US resulting from shift in polar vortex, with many cold temperature records broken.



















2002-2003 was an unusually cold winter in the Northern and Eastern USA.
2010-2011, persistent bitter cold in the entire eastern half of the USA from December onward, with few or no mid-winter warm-ups, and with cool conditions continuing into spring. La Nina and negative Arctic Oscilalation were strong factors. Heavy and persistent precipitation contributed to almost constant snow cover in the Northeastern US which finally receded in early May.
2011-2012, one of the warmest winters. Christmas Day 2011 was the warmest Christmas in Ireland, as observed by the Armagh Observatory.


So, let's see how Christmas Day will be in 2012..............
Merry Christmas
Grethe

photo: grethe bachmann & stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk  

Randers Fjord and a little Ferry on a December day.

 

Now is the season where the buzzard is sitting along the road in the top of a tree waiting for a prey to catch. The fields are not entirely covered with snow on the road from Århus and to Randers, but from Randers and all the way north the whole Jutland peninsula is covered with a thick layer of snow. I talked to my cousin this morning who lives close to Skagen, and she could not get out of her front door because of snow. 

Vilhelm Kyhn, painting

Now is also the seaon where you'll have to  examine the traffic service before taking a drive, and the season  for visiting some museums in the local area! There's no time for this in the summer season where Nature calls. 

It was a very cold day and it was good to sit inside a warm car enjoying a short panorama trip. There is only 38 km from Århus to Randers, it takes no time. 

Randers Art Museum had an exhibition I wanted to see before the finish in January, of a painter from the Danish golden age, Vilhelm Kyhn, who often described the Danish landscape in his paintings. He lived  before the time of the Skagen painters.  

The town Randers is known for its Christmas decorations in the streets, but I'm sure they have been forced to use the "saving ax" this year. Finansial crisis? It was not at all as pretty as it used to be. Some sweet Jule-children were singing Christmas songs on the town square.

We continued the trip along the northern coast of Randers fjord. Along the fjord lies a long piece of flat land, raised ancient seabed with cultivated and grazed fields, the soil is very fertile and many four- winged farms lie almost wall to wall along the fjord, especially at the village Vestrup. Some meadows are preserved, they have large bird migrations, especially in autumn. In the outernest section near Mellerup is a birds' sanctuary with a rich bird life.

The little ferry sailing between the villages Mellerup and Voer is one of the smallest ferry routes in Denmark. The 470 m long sailing across the fjord takes four minutes. There is place for three-four cars, depending on the size, and for 29 passengers. It is also one of the oldest ferry routes in Denmark's history, it can be traced back to 1610, where the tour was carried out by a barge (also called a kåg) - and it was being rowed across the fjord. The barge carried both passengers, cattle and horse waggons. The ferry traffic between Mellerup and Voer has a complicated history, but it got a royal license in 1740 (Kgl Priviligeret- see the image)

 





I have just found out today that a café opens in the ferry house from Easter. That sounds good. While we stayed there the other day, we took our usual thermo-coffee and a pecan-Danish in the car. I really must remember to put on some warmer boots. And thick socks, My feets were freezing after having stayed down by the water.  



Notice the ice-crystals in my photos. They were so beautiful in the sun. 



When the ferry was sailing over the first time, a dog stood on the deck, no one else, and the dog did not come back with the ferry. Maybe it was visiting someone! The little sweet ferry called "Ragna" took another trip a little later with a red car. Suddenly a big freight ship, loaded with wood, turned up, it seemed so big in the narrow fjord. The name indicated that it came from Estonia.

The ferry traffic in summer is more heavy, especially in good weather, when people from the northside of the fjord take the ferry to get over to the southside to a special good bathing beach near Voer. And since there now is a café in the ferry house in the summer season, there'll be more lively here - in this picturesque little spot at Randers fjord.




See you soon! Before Christmas! 
photo: 8 december 2012: grethe bachmann