A Visit to a quiet Peninsula............

There is a pretty hilly landscape on a little, broad peninsula east of the town Skive. It has no name expect the old district-name; Fjends herred - and now Ørum parish. The first place for our visit one of the last days in the windy and cold April was the old manor Staarup Hovedgård, which is now a center of antique furniture and artifacts from the 1700s-1900s. I had visited the main building before, this time it was the gatehouse-wing with antique Chinese furniture. I didn't buy anything, they were rather expensive. No wonder! They have been laquered and laquered "a thousand times". I saw a little red (low)  cupboard. I loved it. I would like this in my home.
In the summer period there is much more life here with a well-visited cafeteria and restaurant and many concert arrangements etc.

The peninsula is surrounded by the waters of Skive fjord and Hjarbæk fjord, both are parts and corners of Limfjorden. The landscape is hilly and pretty and marked by being a socalled herregårdslandskab, a manor-landscape, which only makes it better. You are driving through small villages and passing fine churches and you are close to a fine view from the old winding country roads everywhere. 

 

Here is also an old kloster, Ørslevkloster, where I had to do a stop for I wanted to get a photo of a chessboard ashlar on the church wall. I was told they had found one. I didn't find it, but there was no access to the south side of the church, and I later discovered that the chessboard was there of course.
Since the last time we was here there is now public access to the kloster garden with an old lime avenue leading down to a fine little water stream.

bikes outside the refugium

The garden is now being renovated and here will be a perfect place for people to visit.

The kloster itself is now a  refugium for students and artists, authors etc. who wish peace and quiet.
In my blog Church and Manor is an article about Ørslevkloster. 

yellow farm

Strandet

Two Good Friends 

Again a drive through a pretty landscape. I love it. It is such a rest for the eye and a joy for the mind. The next place was also a manor, called Strandet. Two horses walked next to each other in the field downside the manor, a big heavy horse and a very little cute one; they followed each other step by step.  I don't think a horse likes to be alone in a field. They are social like everyone else.
The whitewashed manor Strandet lies upon a hill close to Jordbro Å-river, a fine fishing river with sea trout, trout and rainbow trout. Strandet is from the 1400s, but was rebuilt after a fire. Opposite upon a hill in the meadow lies the Romanesque church Nr. Ørum. Close nearby was a harbour in the Middle Ages.

Am I boring you? Then stop reading and start something else, for the next place to visit is also a manor. Tårupgård, situated close to Hjarbæk fjord. Access to the fjord via a nature path. History about this manor is also in my blog Church and Manor. Both Staarupgård and Tårupgård were during the Middle Ages owned by the family Kaas, a family who owned a big part of North Jutland. The church lies close to the manor with steps from the yard up to the entrance - everyone had to go to service, it was  really a duty at that time. No excuses I suppose. The little son probably tried  "I have a stomach ache, daddy!". -  "WHAT? Off you go".  -  And off he went and up all the steps on his small legs to listen to the thunder sermon of the priest.

But we'll leave Tårupgård and continue along the beautiful scenery to the fishing village in the corner of Hjarbæk fjord.

    

Hjarbæk port was once the sea port of the town Viborg, when the church was rich and powerful the bishops of Viborg guarded zealously the fishing and sailing in Hjarbæk fjord. The Viborg bishop's ship lay at Hjarbæk harbour,  but also the rich aristocracy used the port at Hjarbæk in the Middle Ages.
There was furthermore a constant sailing with salt-barges to and from the island of Læsø. (you can still buy the Læsø salt in shops). The salt extraction was a very good business and the clerics in Viborg controlled both the production and the transport. 648 barrels salt were sailed to Hjarbæk each year in the late 1400s.

Today Hjarbæk is a cosy little fishing village with a lively tourist life in summer. Each year is held a VM in sailing with boats, called "slægts", the boats similar to the fishing boats from the old days.
 
Hjarbæk Fjord is an International Nature Protection Area, under Natura2000 Project, and it is both a Bird's Protection Area and EU-Habitat Area. 

 

And in the afternoon we were leaving Hjarbæk fjord and the little peninsula after a good day.

Some pretty clouds for you

A beautiful horse was running up and downhill in a very frisky manner with  some very elegant moves. And just try to look at this fine head and neck.  It's a noble horse.


photo April 2013: grethe bachmann

Læsø Sydesalt

 








 Here's a picture of the salt from Læsø(for sale in shops and supermarkets.

A Lake, a brown Forest, a Murder, a River with Trouts..........

Off we go under a blue sky.

I hadn't been out in the countryside for fourteen days, this time and this tour was on Saturday 6th of April in Mid Jutland,  one of the last days of this winter. I'm sure. The last two days from the 15th of April , have been higher in temperatures after a very cold period. It is so strange that it changes from below zero till 18 degrees celsius. Strange. But don't go back to the cold, please! Let's get some spring.....
 

6th of April - here you see - no snow, but brown shades.

On the 6th of April was still a thin layer of ice on the lakes and a little snow on the nortside of the hills. But the ice and the snow must now be quite gone  here on the 16th of April. Fortunately. Not just for us humans, but also for the birds. They have been waiting. These days happens an amazing bird migration on the wellknown places. The birds of prey have been awaiting a warm wind for their flight.

The winter has been too long for all of us. So they say everywhere, in the newspapers, in the street, among friends. We long so much for summer. Some go south and come home, still waiting for summer. People go out into their gardens doing a little work, but the soil is still too frozen....

Spring comes and summer comes every year. No matter how beautiful a winter landscape can be, then we'll not keep it all year. We'll forget the snow and the ice until next time. So is it.

On the 6th of april :
The sky was a perfect porcelaine blue when we left that day. The clouds were thick as whipped cream. We drove across the new bridge crossing the Gudenaa -valley to Bølling lake,

Bølling lake- a little layer of thin ice.

Bølling lake

 - this place might be fine in the summer period, There are many paths around the lake.

Bølling Sø
Naturstyrelsen (Nature management) established a lake here in 2005, surrounded by fields, meadows, pastures and thicket. These areas are protected in order to create a pretty and varied landscape for the benefit of both humans and nature. The new lake was established in a large hollow in the landscape where the rests of the original lake was, until it was drained in the 1870s. Here is now a rich plant- and animal life - and it is an extremely interesting place when it comes to archaeology.  Here were once found two bog mummies, the wellknown Tollundman and the Elling girl, (Silkeborg Museum) and another interesting find were two small amber figures which might have been toys for a child.(National Museum). There are still on-going excavations in the district.  The prehistoric story about this place is a very long one, which shall not be told here, but if you are someone, who is interested in European /Danish prehistoric time, then you can find some material on the site:  www. naturstyrelsen.dk.  Here is also an English site.


Klode M­øll­e
The next place on our little tour in the country was Klode Mølle. In order to take a walk in the forest. Did you ever see a completely brown forest? Here it was. But the forest lake was nice and blue with a little ice. The tour through the forest ended in mud. We had forced a small brook with a homemade fragile bridge. Yes, it was necessary to use the bridge. Although the water was not deep, the bottom was deep. I would not end up as a bog mummy . So we forced the bridge. But later we had to go back anyway. Ice and mud and deep holes. Better luck next time.

Klode Mølle, the forest lake

Klode Mølle, the forest

Klode Mølle (water mill) was founded 1­596­ and abandoned in 1­872. Nearby was the old Engesvang church which was desolated during the Black Death and later broken down. The brook in the forest comes from Bølling lake. There are many historic letters from the 1400s and up. The name Klode possibly means j­ord­kno­ld (= lump of earth). Klosterlund Museum. The little house upon the hill in the forest is a museum for the peat industry and for the prehistoric Klosterlund settlement.

Klosterlund Museum

The Murder in Klode Mølle: 
A sailorman Niels Pedersen came from the north of Jutland on his way to Flensborg and went into the mill and guest house Klode Mølle to await a lift to Holstein. In the night he assaulted the miller and his wife. She  recovered later from her bad wounds, but her husband, the miller Niels Jørgensen, was killed on the spot. The murderer took flight towards the town Herning, where he asked for the road to Tønder in southern part of Jutland. People told that his right arm was filled with blood. Four men from the district went southwest towards Tønder to find him, and when they arrived in the small town Sønder Omme, they met a man who told them that the murderer was in town, but he escaped, and the men followed him south, until they after a long pursuit reached the town Husum, where they captured the Niels Pedersen and brought him back to the High Thing in Viborg. He confessed to the murder and had his conviction. He was judged to have his right hand cut off, then his head, and then have his body put upon the wheel, his head and hand put upon a pole above his body. During the trial was discovered that Niels Pedersen had committed another murder in one of his travels. He had strangled a man with his cravat, because he had threatened to report him, since he had avoided to sign up as soldier. In his confession Niels Pedersen admitted that he also wanted to kill the miller's wife because he wanted to get hold of the money and values he might find. The murdered miller Niels Jørgensen was buried at Kragelund cemetary, where was found a big, flat sandstone on the north side of the church in the 1800s, but it crumbled away soon after the discovery.

a view to the lake from the forest path.

the bridge across the brook,  yes there was a deep hole!

Karup Aa
And then we came to Karup Aa at a place called Skygge, where this legendary river begins its existence. This would be a fine place to visit in summer. The water stream is fast here, the river has many fine bends, and there is probably a lot to see on a summer's day. The salmon is in peace for me, but I like just to see it standing there against the stream down in the deep water. Karup Aa is known as a very fine fishing river.

Karup Aa has its outlet in Skive fjord. A stretch between Karup and Hagebro was listed in 1964, and the whole stretch from Karup till the town Skive is now EU-habitat area. The place where the river begins, Skygge, is northwest of Engesvang, so we are not far away from Bølling lake and Klode mølle. I love to see this river with all its fine bends, it is so great to see a river, which has not been changed into a canal, but this would never happen to the legendary water stream. And it is legendary among anglers. Any angler who knows this river gets starry eyes when he babbles on about his happy fishing days at Karup Aa - and his stay at the equal legendary Hagebro kro with stuffed record-salmons in glass boxes and lots of pictures upon the walls of happy anglers brandishing their finest catch. My father became blissful,whenever he was talking about his childhood's river, Karup Aa.

I don't know if you can see the "Høl". That's where the trout has its hiding place.

Høl  are the deep places in water streams which alternates between low places called stryg. On my photo there is a høl, but it goes down under the brink (which you cannot see) to the left, where it has begun eroding the earth below the country road. They will probably fix the eroding in order to secure the road, but they will not damage the river.  A høl is a perfect hiding place for a trout.

there is still a little snow on the brink. 

   

the river continues on the other side of the road with a heath behind. A fine place to visit in the summer...

1400s frescoes. It must be a bird with two baby-birds, don't you think?

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On our way home we visited a church with some fine and also funny frescoes. The sky was beginning to grow thick of something. Snow or rain. I would love to see some rain soon. I like to take a walk in the rain.
I always remember the scene with  Gene Kelly in "Singin in the Rain?" One of the fine scenes in film history.

See you later in the countryside. I hope it will be on a spring day.


photo Silkeborg district 6 April 2013: grethe bachmann

Harrild Hede, The Jutland Heath in August

The heath is a special place on a day with no humans to see far and wide except us two people and no sound from traffic or anything. It's so quiet. Like Björk sings: "It's oh, so quiet". Except for the humming little bees!

But I can imagine how it must have been to wander on the large heath from house to house, where the distances were far, to overnight by a heath-farmer and his wife or sleep out in the open air with the starry sky above. Many people lived like that , they had to in order to earn a living. They used the heather twigs for brooms and other things and they sold some heather peat, but they also sold woolen things like homeknit woolen socks, perfect and warm for the winter season, easy to bring with them and easy to sell, and this was tbe first beginning of the wool-fabrication in the middle of Jutland with the energetic  town Herning as a center of the wool-industry. But this is not about the wool - this is about the Jutland heath. And the heath has a special place in a Jutlander's heart.

Holtum Aa River.

Here at Holtum Aa river by Harrild a Danish movie was made in the early forties about some vagabonds, one of the most popular comedies in Danish film-history. The hero, who was one of our most beloved actors, was singing a lovely and happy summer song, which is still being played in the radio. And it is odd that he was walking here on this place singing this song.
Well, look at the photo, I stood there for some time imagining something - and the photo shows surprisingly perfect what I mean. Couldn't you just imagine Hamlet's Ophelia coming floating along upon the twining waterplants with the pretty white flowers? If you are a romantic soul I'm sure you could imagine just that !

John Millais, Ophelia (Tate Gallery)

Queen Gertrud about Ophelia's death:
"..............when down she fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and mermaidlike awhile they bore her up. ......................but long it could not be till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death".   

Harrild Hede lies between the towns Ikast and Brande, just west of the Jutland  Ridge ( den Jyske Højderyg) in one of the largest wastelands of Mid Jutland. Here is an opportunity to experience open heath and grass heath, which alternates between plantation and clean, fast-flowing water-streams. Here is also a special fauna, since this nature gives good conditions for wild deer and some rare birds. In the southern part of the land are rests of prehistoric fields, some north-south turned, low, parallel earth banks, each with a distance between 20-25 meters.



Skov og Naturstyrelsen ( Forest and Nature Management)  takes care of the heath by removing unwanted tree-growth and by mowing and burn lesser areas at a time, by which the heather - which usually has got a longevity of ab. 25 years -  will be renewed.  The fringes along the water streams are being grazed in order not to leap into forest and to create good conditions for insects and flowers. The forest cultivation is given up in the future upon the unfit localitites, which then are allowed to become heath or fringe. In the cultivated forest the management will try to establish a network of belts, consisting of stable tree-species like oak, forest fir and larch. The purpose is to create a larger variation.

The image is a painting by Johan Fr. Vermehren from 1855: En jysk fårehyrde på heden (A Jutland shepherd on the heath. The painting is at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. 

Harrild Hede holds several animals and plants, which are typically found in places like in these heaths and their connected moist lands. Plants are besides heather typically bell-heather, rosemary heather, cranberry, crowberry, lingbonberry and blueberry. The heather produces nectare which attracts the bees, and a honey from the heather (Danish: lynghonning) is a fine and expensive honey.

Red-backed shrike (adult and young)

Here breeds Eurasian teal, Wood sandpiper, Common snipe, Nightjar, Eurasian wryneck, Black woodpecker, Great-grey shrike and Redbacked shrike, Wood lark and Whinchat etc. Many other birds are seen like the White-tailed eagle, the Golden eagle, Cranes, Eurasian hobby, Red-footed falcon - several owls like the Eurasian eagle-owl, the Long-eared owl, and the Tawny owl etc. Last year and in 2010 a Short-toed Snake eagle stayed in the area for a period. In the forested areas is a big flock of roe deer and red deer, especially seen in the morning and evening hours. There are of course also many reptiles and  amphibians. And insects, ab. 30 dragonfly-species and 45 butterfly-species.

beehives

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According to this list of flora and fauna I should really have lots of photos of  birds and animals in this post, but I wasn't there in the morning or in the evening hours. There were no butterflies here today - which is a mystery.  Maybe next year. But I did meet millions of bees, they were humming and summing and working, they were fetching honey for the many beehives which stood along the edge of the forest eveywhere, and I saw them fetching water too. The bees are divided into many job-categories. Did you know that? I didn't. Not in this particular way. Those little bees (please enlarge the photos)  were the water fetchers. They use the water to cool the beehive, not to drink it.

A water fetcher

nurse and housekeeper

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Other bee-jobs: builder, packing pollen, honey-fetcher, guard, blowing-bee, scout, housekeeper, nursing kids
 

  A significant part of Harrild Hede was listed in 1954 in order to keep and take care of this fragile piece of nature, but this land is just a rest of the large heath which covered most of the Jutland peninsula about 100-200 years ago. In the 1700s the heath covered 1/2 of Jutland.   Today the large, widespread heath has almost disappeared, but not without a trace. There are marked traces in place names and farms and in the language and traditions - and the heath has also left rich traces in art and litterature. Some of  the most wellknown and loved Jutland poets are the heath-romantic writer and pioneer, Steen Steensen Blicher, and the environmentalist and preservation activist, Jeppe Aajær, who fought a fierce fight to save the Jutland heath from cultivation, and the smallholders' poet, Johan Skjoldborg, who wrote about  the smallholders and their conditions on the heath -  and finally H.C. Andersen, who wrote the wonderful Jutland national song.

What the heather was used for:
Bronze Age hills were often built upon heather-peat.  Up till about 100-200 years ago the heather was used by the heath-farmer for sheep and cattle fodder, it was used for fuel and thatching roofs, in early times even for building the house, it was good as a bed.straw in the alcove, as backfilling on sandy heath roads, and what was left and not used by the farmer at home was sold in the nearest town on the market - or the heath-farmer went from door to door in the large heath, staying out for weeks, selling brooms and other things made by heather and crossberry twigs, and selling some heather peat for peoples' stoves. The green heather was used for dyeing wool browngreen - and with alum the wool was dyed lemon yellow.

Harrild Hede is one of Denmark's most important bird habitats and also an Ef-habitat area. 3 hiking paths are marked in the area - and there are fishing places at Holtum Aa river. Brochures and information for free at the Tourist Bureaus and at the libraries -  and at the entrance to Harrild Hede itself.  Smoking is forbidden in the area due of fire hazard.

Are you ready for a walk? The path is longer than you think.....

I tried to catch a dragonfly - do you see a dragonfly in the clouds ?

...but then came a helicopter. What a dragonfly!!

photo August 2012 Harrild Hede, Jutland: grethe bachmann