Summer break 2006

Technically I am still on holiday since the last four days of our vacation have been set aside to be with two old friends from the UK, Billie and Jamie, but I am at home today working, whilst the others are still there, and here are some images of the moif family...

Undergrowth. I just like the look of these plants. They were scattered about the summer house with that utter disregard for beauty that so characterises mother nature. The tree's and grass are a typical Danish scene. Denmark is a land of flat soggy meadows and fields abound with birch and fir tree's and small expensive houses.

The Beach at Blokhus: It goes on for kilometre after kilometre and on a sunny summers day can be full of tourists and their paraphenalia... wait a few weeks until after the industrial holiday period is over though and its practically deserted. If one follows the coast all the way northwards one comes to the very tip of Jutland where the North Sea meets the Baltic and the two collide. Its possible to stand on the sand bar with each sea at either hand.

This is a local feature of Blokhus. Originally it was a marker for boats at sea to identify where they were. The west coast of Denmark is one long monotony and the structure was built for navigation purposes back in the old days. It was dismantled by the Germans during the war and has only recently been rebuilt as a symbol of the town. I thought it looked a bit like a landed space craft... A lot of the west coast of Denmark was heavily fortified by the Germans during the Second World War and I expected to see some bunkers at Blokhus but there was only the very tip of one lonely bunker, all but entirely buried by the sand and not even worth taking a picture of. Having anticipated lots of decayed concrete, I was a bit disapointed

Me and Freja, on the beach, showing off our pale skin and blinded ourselves in the glare.

Mette and Freja, on the beach, showing off a few 'curves'.

Mette.

The love of my life...

Trying to get Freja to look at the camera for a family portrait... The only time she actually looked up, I have my finger in the lens and my FIL is lurking in the back ground.

As you can see, the Snoos fell and cut her nose. I love this image though.

Trendy lil fire starter....

The third day, the heavens opened and it poured with rain. This was practically the only bad day we had, despite the rain and storms which lashed the rest of Denmark, Blokhus, aloof in its isolation, was largely a haven of warmth and comfort. Note the flag pole. Such things are common in Denmark, especially in summer house area's where every single garden has a flag pole with either a wimple or a flag flying if some one is home.

Freja see's her first kite and tries to figure out what the devil it is! Later a kite cart came by and provided further cause for confusion. My MIL and I laughed at the thought of the poor rider having to walk all the way back along Blokhus beach.

An angel! Actually this is my brother in law's GF who always reminds me of Claudia Black. For some reason I didn't take a single picture of my BIL. I had this vague idea that I needed to conserve the memory card on the camera so I took far fewer pictures than I'd anticipated though by setting the resolution lower I could have taken several hundred more pictures than I did.

The Snoos on the road. This is the road that the summer house was on, you can't see it, but the whole region surrounding Blokhus, and where we were is full of expensive small houses which stand empty most of the year.

A weird Swiss vehicle I saw. It was a brand new, off road & caravan type thing. I have no idea what it is.

The effects of the wind and weather in Northern Jutland. The wind is a constant feature at Blokhus and I imagine it gets very bad during the winter. This tree seemd to have been completely overwhelmed and yet it stood in the lee of the house.

Sandcastles. I built about sixty sandcastles whilst playng with Freja. Every time I made one, she would waddle over and destroy it and it became a race against time. In the end I started making them further and further apart until finally I was racing back and forth.

Mormor (Maternal grand mother) also had a go, but Pip was less inclined towards destruction at that point. By and large, Freja is very close to her grandmother, far more than the rest of us it seemed, and she was getting so much attention that she was starting to get a bit whiny towards the end.

Sunset 1. Sunset 2. Sunset 3. These are images of the evening sky that Mette took. You can see how the waves were in the last image, even with a slight wind, they were big enough to knock me over. I went into the sea on three seperate days and apart from the first day, which was the calmest and hottest day, the sea was terrible in its strength. The under tow was enough to keep me close the edge though Mette and I did venture out to a sand bar on one occaision where we could stand in the sea up to our waists and face waves that lifted us right up of the sand. It was fun, but a bit scary.

edited to add: Billie & Jamie at Blokhus.