Bulbjerg, North Jutland by the North Sea

Bulbjerg, like a lump of gold in the evening sun


Bulbjerg, ab. 20 km northwest of Fjerritslev.


Photographers at the cliff


Pretty black-legged Kitti-Wake and blue sky


The Kitti-Wakes on the cliff


A miracle that the nest is not falling down


Skarreklit - the rest of a high limestone knoll


The old sea bed behind Bulbjerg


It is difficult to handle the towel in the west wind.

The 47 m high limestone cliff lies close to the North Sea with a unique view from the top. The limestone was once used as a building material, i.e. for churches. The limestone was sawed out from the foot of the cliff and carried the long way up to the top by poor fishermen and peasants.

Bulbjerg is named Denmark's only bird cliff, the closest we can get to the combination of a steep cliff and open sea. Here breed ab. 450 couple rider and a few fulmars.

Up to WWII was a bathing hotel at the top of the cliff, but it was blown to pieces by the Germans, who made Bulbjerg a part of the Atlantic Wall with cannons and observation-posts from where the German soldiers could monitor ship- and air traffic. A couple of bunkers are furnished as toilets and nature-exhibitions.

Skarreklit was a high limestone/flint knold which would not let itself cow by the strong North Sea . Skarreklit stood in sun and storm for hundreds of years until it had to give up and tipped over in the sea in a storm in 1978.

Vestkyststien Agger - Bulbjerg is a hiking and cycling route of ab. 80 km. The route continues south to the border and north to Skagen. The hiking routes can be used in their full lenght or in etapes.

Bulbjerg has grown smaller this year. About two tons has slipped into the sea. It is the change of frost and thaw which gave crevices in the limestone. The slip cannot be seen from the top of the cliff. Skov og Naturstyrelsen warns that Bulbjerg might be in danger of slipping down. People should keep a good distance.

photo 2006/2007: grethe bachmann

The Honey Bee is in Danger.

Life has gradually become an obstacle race for insects like honey bees - they live by flying from flower to flower and return to their large family with pollen and nectar which they change into honey.

Poison, slurry and gigantic corn fields do not harmonize with the bees' need for a clean environment with lots of flowers, bushes, trees and various crops. The development of the industrial agriculture has created a visible distance between the flowers in the landscape, and the population of Danish bee-families have gone from ab. 200.000 in the years around 1950 till ab. 80.000 in these years. The work of honey bees from early spring till late autumn is of crucial importance for the diversity in the nature.

The honey bees are among the most important assistants for the fertility of the flora. Also for the hundreds of plant species which are used in farming, foresting and in the gardens are the bee- pollination of crucial importance. Crops like winter rape and clover are completely dependent on the bee-pollination. Also all plants which seed, like fruit trees, berry-bushes and other similar plants. Danmarks Jordbrugsforskning (research) has estimated that the Danish honey bee- pollination only in the agriculture and in fruit and berry-cultivation represents a value of at least 1 billion kroner. The EU-commission is more concrete in its evaluation of the good deeds of the bees when it's about money. According to EU the bees' work represents ab. three billion kroner a year. (in DK) At the same time is concluded that the value of the pollination of the bees and the following fertility is 30-50 times higher than the value of the honey-production which in Denmark is ab. 60 million kroner a year.

The industrial agriculture has meant that the fields grew larger and larger. Stone-fences, earth banks and lots of hedgerows disappeared, and the distance between the small uncultivated oases for the flowers and bees grew longer and longer.



The verges and ditch-edges were once a study in a diversity of flowers which were good for the honey bees and other pollinating insects. Today are only few plant-species in those places. The heaths are attractive for the bees, but they are now in a crisis, caused by nutrient-rich precipitation. The nitrogen gives several grass species good living conditions at the expense of the heather.

The honeybee and all other pollinating insects lost terrain when 117.000 hectare fallow fields were ploughed and cultivated in 2008 - an area the size of the island Lolland simply disappeared as a habitat for bees.

All in all - the honey bee, the bumblebee, the butterflies and other pollinating insects are in danger. Some species have already disappeared never to return. Fewer pollinating insects will effect us more than we imagine right now - also in our daily economy. Fewer vegetables, berries, fruit will empty our pockets! So it's best for all of us, if there are more uncultivated places for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Source: Natur og Miljø, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Nr. 1, Jan Skriver, Honningbien.

photo March 2010: stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan Foto

The Honey Bee is in Danger

Life has gradually become an obstacle race for insects like honey bees - they live by flying from flower to flower and return to their large family with pollen and nectar which they change into honey.

Poison, slurry and gigantic corn fields do not harmonize with the bees' need for a clean environment with lots of flowers, bushes, trees and various crops. The development of the industrial agriculture has created a visible distance between the flowers in the landscape, and the population of Danish bee-families have gone from ab. 200.000 in the years around 1950 till ab. 80.000 in these years. The work of honey bees from early spring till late autumn is of crucial importance for the diversity in the nature.

The honey bees are among the most important assistants for the fertility of the flora. Also for the hundreds of plant species which are used in farming, foresting and in the gardens are the bee- pollination of crucial importance. Crops like winter rape and clover are completely dependent on the bee-pollination. Also all plants which seed, like fruit trees, berry-bushes and other similar plants. Danmarks Jordbrugsforskning (research) has estimated that the Danish honey bee- pollination only in the agriculture and in fruit and berry-cultivation represents a value of at least 1 billion kroner. The EU-commission is more concrete in its evaluation of the good deeds of the bees when it's about money. According to EU the bees' work represents ab. three billion kroner a year. (in DK) At the same time is concluded that the value of the pollination of the bees and the following fertility is 30-50 times higher than the value of the honey-production which in Denmark is ab. 60 million kroner a year.

The industrial agriculture has meant that the fields grew larger and larger. Stone-fences, earth banks and lots of hedgerows disappeared, and the distance between the small uncultivated oases for the flowers and bees grew longer and longer.



The verges and ditch-edges were once a study in a diversity of flowers which were good for the honey bees and other pollinating insects. Today are only few plant-species in those places. The heaths are attractive for the bees, but they are now in a crisis, caused by nutrient-rich precipitation. The nitrogen gives several grass species good living conditions at the expense of the heather.

The honeybee and all other pollinating insects lost terrain when 117.000 hectare fallow fields were ploughed and cultivated in 2008 - an area the size of the island Lolland simply disappeared as a habitat for bees.

All in all - the honey bee, the bumblebee, the butterflies and other pollinating insects are in danger. Some species have already disappeared never to return. Fewer pollinating insects will effect us more than we imagine right now - also in our daily economy. Fewer vegetables, berries, fruit will empty our pockets! So it's best for all of us, if there are more uncultivated places for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Source: Natur og Miljø, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Nr. 1, Jan Skriver, Honningbien.

photo March 2010: stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan Foto

The Glass Museum in Ebeltoft, East Jutland

On the Ebeltoft Glasmuseum you can experience an acknowledged collection of modern international glass art. Besides are 6-9 special exhibitions each year , and most of the year the glassblowers are working in the workshop.



Peter Bremer, inspired by the icebergs at Antarctis and Greenland

The Glass Museum in Ebeltoft is Denmark's only museum of glass art. It is situated in the city Ebeltoft. It was established in 1986 by the artist-couple Finn Lynggård and Tchai Munch in Ebeltofts earlier custom house, which was built in 1921 by architect Hack Kampmann and Christian Kampmann. An extension was inaugurated in 2006, designed by 3XN and finansed by various fonds and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Municipality of Ebeltoft. The collection has above 1500 works from all over the world, which are either gifts or loans to the museum.




Glasmuseet Ebeltoft's large collection of modern glass art was founded by the help of more than 600 known glass artists from all over the world. These artists have all generously either given or loaned works to the collection, which today includes more than 1500 works. The collection of works by glass artists are from these countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Great Britain, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lituania, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Belarus, Rumænia, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Schwitzerland, Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Venezuela, Jugoslavia.



The purpose of the glass museum is to show the latest development in modern glass art, which means that if a glass artist creates a work, which is better or more different from the already loaned works in the collection of the museum, then he/she is welcome to exchange it or supplement the new work. This means that the museum will always be able to show up-to-date works and new flows inside glass art. The admission to the collection is decided with an invitation from the glass museum. The criterium is that the participants are professionals, (their main occupation must be class art).




The collection is represented in alternative thematized exhibitions with selected works. After a period individual works are exchanged with others, which still fits the chosen theme. In this way it is possible to show a larger number of works from the collection. On some occassions the whole exhibition-area will be used for special exhibitions, but the museum has in view that works from the colletion can be experienced all year.


In the workshop.


In the Giftshop

See list : The Artists



photo Ebeltoft Glass Museum 2005/2009: grethe bachmann

March Landscape in Rain

A lonely cyclist in the rain.


Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colours appear.

After a long period with snow and ice came a day with rain. Maybe it would have been better to see the sun but it will come back for good next week. King Winter has finally withdrawn. He's tired now. The mild rain is very welcome.


The mild temperature made steam rise from the thin ice on a small lake.


Colours grow soft in the rain.


Large flocks of mute swans and whooper swans were in the countryside. They have survived the tough winter season and now love to graze in the fields.


A farm in the mists

The island Alrø. is 7 km long and 5 km broad and has been inhabited since Stone Age. The legend says that the island got its name in the Viking Period, where the Viking chief Hjarne lived at Hjarnø. He married the girl Alrune and gave her Alrø ("Alrune's ø"). Their son Lave was given the island Endelave. These islands are situated in Horsens fjord. Acces to the island Alrø is via an embankment, to Hjarnø and Endelave via ferry.

At a farm Møllegården is now established a restaurant, and in the farthest part of the island, close to a ferry for cyclists, is the cosy Café Alrø. Near the church is an antique shop, named Marens Hus. The island has 161 inhabitants.


One of the smallest churches in the district is Alrø church with a beautiful view across Horsens fjord. It looks like a church from the Romanesque period, although it was built in the late Middle Ages, probably ab. 1400.


He was not happy to see us. He was the protector of three wives of course!


He did not like the camera. He hissed and puffed his feathers, he looked really dangerous!


He went back to his wives, and they had a long talk about the danger they had avoided because of his courage.

The goose is an old domestic animal. From Egyptian frescoes appears that the Egyptians ab. 4000 years ago knew about force-feeding geese to develop foie gras. In archaeological excavations in Egypt are found bones from very large domestic geese. Those geese - dated to the period from 600 years B.C. till 200 years A.C., were larger than the largest present race, the Toulouse-geese.

Åkær.

Åkær is a manor, which was known from the beginning of the 1300s. It was conveyed to the bishop in Århus ab. 1400. After the reformation it was transferred to the Crown. From 1548 it was the main estate in a vasalry of Hads herred, and in 1660 it was changed into Åkær amt. (district) The farm was in the 1600s marked by decay and was replaced by the present pretty half-timbered building, which until a few years ago was also in decay. In a compulsory sale it was sold to the present owner Johan Koed-Jørgensen. He carried through a thorough renovation of the buildings, and he cleared forests and meadows, which caused critics from nature protection people. The manor is closed to the public.

The hedgerows which are so beautiful all over the country - especially in spring when they are in bloom - are at Åkær being clean-cut in the top like villa-hedges. All the hedges along the fields look very odd and not pretty. That's a shame.

Photo Odder-Alrø area 20 March 2010:grethe bachmann

The Bride's Lake/Brudesø

Brudesø , Mid Jutland

Small lakes and ponds were sacred places in the rituals of ancient people. All legends and songs are gone forever - but some findings from the Late Stone Age are considerable sources to the life and religion of ancient tribes. It was important to communicate with the spirits of the water, and in this communication sacrifices played a necessary role.

Besides animal bones and ceramics from Stone Age there are also more macabre findings in moors, which were once a lake. In Sigersdal in Nordsjælland was found the skeleton of a young girl with a rope around her neck. A geologist estimated that she had been brought out into the water, where she was just about able to touch bottom. She had been lead to her death with a rope around her neck and was killed on the same spot , in which she was found. Nearby was found another skeleton of a young girl, she was probably also sacrificed to the gods.

In a legend a bride and groom were killed by driving their horse carriage out into a lake, which after this was called 'Brudesø' (Bride's Lake) , a story known from other places and countries. Why this lake in the lake district in the middle of Jutland has achieved the name 'Brudesø' is not known - whether young girls were sacrificed here as brides of the water spirit - or if a young couple commited suicide in a Romeo and Juliet tragedy - only imagination can tell.

photo Brudesø, Addit 2008: grethe bachmann

Winter Aconite /Eranthis

Eranthis hyemalis

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) is one of the earliest bulbs to bloom in spring. This plant in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), native to Asia Minor and Europe, has small flowers that resemble tiny buttercups. The solitary, yellow cup-shaped flowers are surrounded by bright green bracts that look like a collar around the blossom. Eranthis is growing on forest floors and using the sunshine available below the canopy of trees before the leaves come out; the leaves die off when the shade from tree canopies becomes dense, or, in dry areas, when summer drought reduces water availability. They are popular ornamental plants grown for their winter or early spring flowering.

All parts of the plants are poisonous, though the very acrid taste makes poisoning a low risk.If you have small children or pets that are likely to dig in the garden you may not want winter aconite in your yard as the entire plant, but especially the tuber, is quite poisonous and may cause nausea, vomiting, colic attacks and visual disturbances.

This ground-hugging plant works well in rock gardens, flower beds and woodland gardens. The flowers first appear in the sunniest spots, just before the first snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) begin to bloom. They can look charming together planted in the border or naturalized in the lawn. Winter aconite is good for naturalizing under trees and large shrubs. They combine nicely with hellebores and echo the flower color of Forsythia and witch hazel (Hamamelis). Because of their small size, they are best planted in groups.

When growing in conditions it likes, winter aconite reproduces easily and spreads readily to form large colonies – almost to the point of being invasive. Lift clumps while still green to keep under control, if desired, or when overcrowded. To propagate, divide the clumps after flowering or collect seeds to sow in the fall.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Medea tried to kill Theseus by poisoning him by putting aconite in his wine, in that culture thought to be the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the Underworld. Hercules dragged Cerberus up from the Underworld, while the dog turned his face away from the light, barking and depositing saliva along the path. The saliva hardened in the soil and produced its lethal poison in the plants that grew from the soil. Because it was formed and grew on hard stones, farmers called it 'aconite' (from the Greek akone, meaning 'whetstone').


Photo Forsthaven 2009/2010: grethe bachmann

Kalø Castle Ruin and Mols Bjerge , 13. March 2010

Kalø Castle ruin in winter. A fortificated castle lay here about 700 years ago. King Erik Menved built three fortificated castles in 1314 as a protection against the rebellious Jutland peasants. This first Kalø was broken down not long after the building. Christoffer II had to sign a coronation charter in 1320 in Viborg, before he became king, which meant that he had to break down king Erik Menved's castles. The rest of the large castle plan, known from the excavations of the National Museum, are ascribed to Valdemar Atterdag. In 1518 Gustav Eriksson Vasa was imprisoned here, but he escaped back home to Sweden in 1519. Kalø fell into decay, and in 1672 the castle was broken down and almost every usable stone was sailed to Copenhagen, where Frederik III's son, Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve built a palace , the present Charlottenborg.
Kalø ruin at the castle island and a large area of the neighbourhood is listed.


The medieval pavement leading to the island and Kalø is a good footpath , also when the surrounding area is in a bad state caused by snow and ice.


From Kalø was that day a view across a sheet of ice. No birds.


Mols is a lovely place to take a drive. So many places at Mols have a great view over a hilly landscape with farms and houses. Here is a view across the bay to the city Århus (in the middle Studstrupværket).



”Stabelhøje” a little north of the village Agri in Mols Bjerge are some of the prettiest hills from Bronze Age in Denmark. The place is worth a visit each season. Here the hills seen from the "shadow-side" with a pretty little timber framed farm at the foot of the hills.


A drive down among the hills and a view to the bay (Knebelvig) - in the middle of the photo to the left is the Poskær Stenhus.


Poskær Stenhus looks a little gloomy on a grey afternoon. It is Denmark's largest round dolmen, and it is from ab. 3.300 B.C.


Opposite the dolmen Poskær Stenhus is a small tree upon a hill. It has been the same size for many years, but it has survived in spite of wind and weather. Survival of the fittest.


There was still much ice by the village Knebel and the fishing harbour. Some swans stayed there. It has been a tough winter for the swans and many other birds this year.

Kalø and Mols 13. March 2010: grethe bachmann