The Death of a Badger

Posted on 4. April 2016 by Hanna

The badger is the largest predator in Denmark and can reach the age of 7 to 8 years.
We found this lovely badger dead on the railway tracks 3 days ago. Probably hit by the train in the early morning.
The badger is rather slow and noisy when looking for food, so it rarely captures healthy mammals and birds, but likes to take carrion.
It often find food within a range of 300-400 meters from the grave. The badger is a real troglodyte, who lives more than half his life down in the grave.
The badger gives birth to 2-3 cubs and raise them in the den. The cups are born in March, but they are not allowed to come out of the grave before May when they learn to seek feed together with their mother.

Sad end of a beautiful walk.

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Skovbrug og grævlingegrave

Flyvestation Værløse

Posted on 2. April 201622. August 2025 by Hanna

This area is a former military airbase now in use for recreational purposes.
Biking, birdwatching, training on the field course. The imagination is only limited within the given context.

Take a look at the fantastic birds Samuel spotted on his excursion to the former airbase:

eiwawar

“I 2004 besluttede man i forbindelse med forsvarsforliget, at Flyvestation Værløse skulle nedlægges og afhændes. Naturstyrelsen overtog 1. oktober 2013 det åbne naturareal med tilhørende bygninger fra Forsvaret. Centralt på arealet er den store åbne slette med den 3 km lange og 50 meter brede startbane. Arealet rummer endvidere en del arealer, der er overdrev. Området afgrænses mod vest af Bringe Mose, der ligeledes er naturbeskyttet.

Store dele af Naturstyrelsens område blev åbnet for offentlighedens adgang i efteråret 2012. Fra Forsvarets brug som flyvestation er der på arealet adskillige forurenede områder. Det medfører, at der er flere områder, der er hegnet fra og ikke offentligt tilgængelige.”. Naturstyrelsen

Shelter From The Rain

Posted on 31. March 2016 by Hanna

When have you last sought shelter from the rain under a tree in the forest?
Standing there when raindrops are falling on withered leaves and the scent of rain fills and enriches the air you breathe.
I did that a few days ago when the sun and rain in turn were stars on a beautiful March day.

Gribskov
“I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me – I am happy.”
By Hamlin Garland, McClure’s, February 1899

A DELIGHTFUL WALK

Posted on 28. March 2016 by Hanna

Sometimes ‘smultronställer’¹ shows themselves in nature quite unexpected and Søllerød Naturpark never fails to make my spirit fly high and to remember certain moments.

Woodlands and fields lie above the golf course on Rygaard Overdrev. I love the hilly area. The nature park is a continuation of Rude Skov and invites for a walk.

We often went by public transport in the past, when we wanted to explore an area.
It gives you the opportunity to begin the walk in one place and end up in another.
One sunny day not long ago I took Bus 150 towards Kokkedal Station and got off at Gammel Holte. I continued down Gamle Holte Gade and turned left just before Gammel Holte Vej.

Sometimes the path reminded me of Cumbria, of pictures I have seen from the moor in England.
Soon the path disappeared in a little lake and though I was wearing Goretex I went round and not through the new lake in order to keep warm and dry. Soon I was in the forest, Rude Skov and after a nice walk past Løje Sø I ended my walk at Holte Train Station.

Once again I had an overwhelming feeling of a longer hike. That’s what a walk can do for me when I plan the walk in the right way.

You should try it your self should you get the chance.

E47 and E55, Helsingørmotorvejen

Gamle Holte Gade, Rudersdal

Søllerød Naturpark

‘Cumbria’ Søllerød Naturpark

Søllerød Naturpark

Rude Skov, Rudersdal

Løje Sø, Rude Skov, Rudersdal

¹
A smultronställe is a Swedish term for a place that is an undervalued gem. A place to feel comfortable, and hard for others to find. Often a place with a personal and emotional value. Literally smultronställe means a place of wild strawberries.

Søllerød Naturpark

Happy Day To All Of You

Posted on 27. March 2016 by Hanna

Mod Eremitageslottet

Survivors

Posted on 24. March 201624. March 2016 by Hanna

When all the other trees are bare,
Why do those last few oak leaves cling up there
under the cold blue sky?
Don’t they know when to die?

And to think: after the long freeze,
when warmth revives and fills these empty trees
with the green stuff of spring,
they’ll still be lingering,

brown, withered, and grotesquely curled,
with their dry whispers from another world.
Leaves, cling where you grew!
Maybe I’ll hang on too.

Survivors by Richard Moore

Oak leaves

Rådvad

Det kinesiske lysthus i Brede

Rådvad

Påskeklokke i Brede Park

Rådvad

JEG HAR FORLAGT EN ELEFANT OG EN BIOGRAFBILLET

A glacial landscape in Denmark

Posted on 21. March 201621. March 2016 by Hanna

This is a walk not a climb. Though only 82 meter above sea level the Danish mountain, Højbjerg is a beautiful place
From the top of Højbjerg you have a lovely view over the fields and treetops.
The Ice Age landscape was formed 15,000 – 12,000 B.C.
Two glaciers created a wonderful rolling scenery of hills and valleys, lakes and marshes. A great amount of melting ice created kettle holes, and the current lake Løjesø, was formed among many lakes.

Vejen op til Højbjerg, Rudersdal

Udsigt fra Højbjerg, Rudersdal

Kig til Højbjerg; Rudersdal

Løje sø, Rudersdal

Løje Sø, Rudersdal

Vejen op til Højbjerg, Rudersdal

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Rude Skov

Rush Hour

Posted on 19. March 2016 by Hanna

Are you going on 🐻 holiday? Watch up for the rush hour.

Grå Gæs, Anser anser

Where Raven Cry

Posted on 16. March 2016 by Hanna

I walk in a different light.
Boots stuck in mud and water holes.
While ravens and buzzards crying over me.
I walk between mounds and beautiful vistas.
I walk between old oaks.
They look like they have been here forever.
The light is generous and joy bubbles for suddenly a large crane flock flies over me while trumpeters their message:
Spring is here.

Jægersborg Dyrehave

Consequences of War and the Sanctuary

Posted on 13. March 201614. March 2016 by Hanna

British pilots are on a secret mission 30 September 1944 in Denmark. One of the planes crash because it hits two tall trees.
The tailplane is ripped apart on the Mosquito Jager, and the two young pilots are killed in the crash.

In 1945 people raise a memorial stone in a forest glade at the crash site.

I’ve walked past the glade a few times before, and again today on a spring day.
An elaborately crafted flower is placed here last year in memory of a beloved missing brother.

Early one morning two years ago I passed Hvidekilde in Gribskov.
I had the forest to myself. It isn’t unusual, but the silence was deafening that morning in late November.
The frost lay in the grass and on the meadow horses were looking for food.

By the fireplace stood a man. His outings lay around him. He was in the process of breaking up.
I was about seven meters away, but he saw right through me. Believe me!
That is very uncomfortable being ignored when you are so close to another human being in a deserted place.
That is why, I look directly at him, saying good morning. He answer my greeting with a short murmur, and I went quietly on.

We have experienced it a few times, people in the forest with a different kind of behaviour, which we assume could be people with war trauma.

Former soldiers who seek sanctuary in nature. It is straight forward, because that’s where they got their training.

Now The Danish Defence has arranged for veterans, a kind of halfway houses in the nature.