Just in time

The moose hunting season gets under way here today. So I was safe on the day earlier in the week when I took these Autumn photos at Husby, Ormsta, Fors, Berga, Stav and Nedersta. From today, it is not safe to just wander around on the forests as I often do. Oh and if you look closely, you can see a hunting blind in the top photo.

A rural setting

Summer at Ormsta. A favorite place of mine. This is where the road ends. Unless you are on foot or riding a bike like I usually am. And when people ask, where have you been today, and I answer Ormsta no one seems to know where that is.

Off the beaten track

Ormsta. A bit off the beaten track. I could easily see myself living here. The road actually ends here. If you want to continue past the tiny hamlet you will have to do that by foot or bicycle, which is what I often do when I'm in the area.

Ploughed Field

A ploughed field at the tiny hamlet Ormsta in rural Haninge. Decided to try a stacked landscape photo of the ploughed field and the farm buildings. This is six photos shot handheld at f/.8. Shot with the Canon 70-200mm lens.

Tied Cottage and Hay Bales

Tied cottage, (drängstuga), at Skattegården, one of the properties at the tiny hamlet Ormsta in Haninge. A bit off the beaten track so there's usually no one here other than the people living in the area, I met two of them out walking their dog. The road ends here so if were to travel by car to Ormsta this is where you turn around. If you are on foot, or bike, like me, you can continue on the old gravel path that will take you to Husby where there's a popular golf course.

No Predator

Another day, another story about the wolf. I'm pretty fed up about the whole thing by now, but that doesn't help. A hunter in the forest here at Ormsta got scared when the wolf came too close. He had to call in his friends and the four of them then walked away from the area with the wolf following them closely. There's a Facebook group listing all wolf observations and a lot of people seems really scared of the animal. One local politician has said publicly that she wants the wolf to be put down. So far it has killed a few lambs and one cat. I have told my cat to be careful when she's out and about but she didn't seem too worried. The wolf in question is equipped with a GPS device and every 72 hours it sends info back to Norway. Some people now say that there's in fact two wolfs running around eager to kill and eat their babies, but I'm not convinced about that yet. But I did see a report over the weekend that the wolf had been spotted near a farm with cattle and that it had closed in on the cows.

Ormsta By

Ormsta is a tiny hamlet, (by in Swedish), with eight households in a rural part of Haninge. The land is today owned by the Swedish Church and the farm land is used by a few of the local farmers. This photo shows what is known as Östra gården". If you speak Swedish you can read an interesting article about Ormsta at haninge.org. I took the photo from a "holme", where in that article the author suggests that the first house was built by the first settler, a man who could have been called Orm. That was back in the Viking Age.

Into the forest we go

I took the bike down to the tiny hamlet that is Ormsta yesterday. The road will only take you that far, and if you want to continue on the very old dirt road you will have to do so either on foot, horse, or bicycle, and I'm pretty sure you know how I get around. Halfway down the dirt road I jumped off the bike and went for a walk in the forest that you can see on the second photo. The first photo shows the pattern I found on a birch tree where someone or something had peeled away the bark.

Ormsta Village

A few of the old farms at Ormsta in a rural part of Haninge. Östergården and Ormsta Skattegården. If you understand the local lingo you can read a few facts about Ormsta at Haninge.org. The land around here is owned by the church and the farmland is used by the farmer at Hammarby Gård, Rolf Norlin. It was a beautiful day when I took these photos. I climbed up a hunting blind at Holmen from where I had a good view over the forest and fields. It is moose hunting season so I didn't dare walk into the forest but I could hear a lot of shooting while I ate my lunch.

The Road Less Travelled

After shooting that photo of the swing hidden in all the autumn at the Ormsta village I continued to where the road ends. From there the road looks like this, it us used only by the farmer, the locals and the odd cyclist equipped with a camera.

The Swing

Lucky kid who can use that swing. Growing up in the tiny village of Ormsta must be great. A beautiful rural setting in the middle of nowhere. Ask anyone in Haninge and chances are no one can tell you were to find this place. Just three or four houses. No traffic at all if you don't count the farmers wehicels. In fact, the gravel road ends here, and you can only continue on foot or bike and if you do you will travel on the road less travelled and I will show you that tomorrow.

On the back-road again

Back in October I showed you three photos from Ormsta in a post I called Taking the Backroad. Yesterday I decided to do a repeat of those three scenes as I was out on a sunny early summer bike ride in the area. And here they are: The typical Swedish farm house. The panorama view over Ormsta. And the old Viking road. I'm quite pleased with all three photos. The only difference from last year is that I didn't meet any horse-back riders this time, so I turned around and took a photo of the road with one of the red houses in the background.

Taking the Backroad

I took a bike ride the other day hoping to shoot a few rural scenes and as I passed the farm at Ormsta I met these two horseback riders on the old gravel road towards Husby (where they have their horses). To the left with the big smile Rikke Strøyberg (she's originally from Denmark), riding on Venice. Next to her Céline Kristiansson on Vendela. The farm buildings and the fields here are used by Rolf from the Hammarby Farm.

Spring vs. Autumn

A few times every year I will go for a bike ride through Ormsta. One of many rural areas in Haninge. It's an interesting place with an old farm in a beautiful setting. I have previously met a The Elk Hunter here. Back in April I went on a photo shoot in the forest here with an interesting result. The land around Ormsta is used by the farmer Rolf Norlin, whom you might have meet here before. This diptych was made from two photos. To the left, part of a shot I took back in the spring of 2007. You can see the original photo in this post. And to the right how it looked a few days ago on a gloomy autumn day.

An Unexpected Encounter

On my way through a forest a few days ago I suddenly heard someone playing the flute. I stopped and followed the sound, and after a minute or so I saw this woman standing by the trees. This is Gudrun, she lives nearby in Västerhaninge. She is a pensioner, and is often out in the forest either looking for lingonberries, or playing the flute. And she has notations with her. When she's not playing the flute she sings in a local choir. As I sometimes do I mentioned a few people I have photographed before, including the beautiful priest Sara, and the painter Karen and Gudrun knew both of them. Oh, and another reason for playing in the forest is that her neighbours work night, and she doesn't want to disturb them with her music early in the day.

The Elk Hunter

It's elk hunting season. I met one of Sweden's 270 000 elk hunters just two days ago. He was standing at his designated spot at Ormsta in Västeraninge. Meet Rolf. Born and raised in Stockholm he moved to Vendelsö in Haninge back in 1974, where he works as a carpenter. His big hobby over the last 15 years has been hunting. Most of the time he hunts for deer and hare, but he has also shot two elks over that period. The first one, not far from where we met. It was a very special feeling he told me. I was told to wait close to where an elk had been spotted earlier, and was very surprised when it came back to that same opening in the forest. The elk is a majestic animal, known here as the King of the forest, so it wasnt easy for Rolf to shoot it. This year his team can shoot one fully-grown adult elk and as many calves as they can find in their hunting area, which is around 500 hectares of open fields and forests. As we talked we could see and hear the hunting dogs coming out of the forest. Here are some facts. Across Sweden there are some 350,000 elks, and every year one third of these will be culled. You can read more about hunting in Sweden here. We talked for about ten minutes or so, I then took my photos and continued down the gravel road towards Österhaninge.


This is my 96th photo for the 100 Strangers project. You can see the rest of my strangers in my Set.

A 360 rural panorama

Do you like big open rural landscapes? I do. This is a 360 (or 375) panorama I took yesterday. From Ormsta in Österhaninge. It took 26 photos (portrait style). What you see is the Ormsta farm and also a bunch of golfers down at Husby . If you look real hard you can also find the leaning church tower. There's a rune stone and a few old cars in the forest. The road here is only used by the local farmer and maybe a flickr member or two.


Best at the original size. And don't worry I have scaled it down quite a bit.

Welcome to Ormsta

Bigger photo.

Welcome to Ormsta. A rural area in Haninge. With three old farms, Östragården, Mellangården och Skattegården. On a hot spring day I took a bike ride through this agricultural landscape on the old Husby Road (dates back to Viking times). The farmer here since 1984 is Rolf Norlin. He also runs Hammarby Gård at Åva (close to Tyresta National Park) and Kalvsvik in Österhaninge.