at the lake & in the woods

i love the shades of pink in late summer evenings' light at the cottage. this evening here, the lake was surprisingly calm.














on my last visit at the cottage, this mallard brought her ducklings to visit us.







she stood on the rock whilst the young ones fooled around in the long grass.







after a while mama mallard called the ducklings who dutyfully followed her.







but yesterday evening, as i was going to take some more pics of the pink moments, the mallards had come back for the night.







didn't have my tripod along...sadly mama mallard seems to have lost a duckling.







they didn't seem to mind me getting quite close (3 meters)







not sure if it's only due to the fact that i've started looking at clouds...but sometimes there are strange formations.







from the water to the woods, or, actually, a small swampy pond up on a hill not too far from the cottage.







swampy areas have cloudberries, tiny one here. i guess i'm supposed to say they are delicious, but have yet to learn to like them. it's not that the taste is somehow off or outright bad, there is a sort of tartness to it that i just don't enjoy. but don't let me stop you from trying if you ever get a chance.







i do like this place, but...in the winter there usually is just way too much snow, in the summer you won't believe the amount of bugs, and autumn just might be even worse for bugs because the moose flies. little over a week ago when i went there (semi-hiking with mom) it had just rained (fresh, cool air), there was a slight wind (no mosquitoes) and most importantly, no moose flies yet!







eew! i just don't like moose flies! but these lingonberries are looking good, few more weeks and they'll be ripe to be picked







wild raspberries are abundant! hmm, little did i know, these are not just wild raspberries, but arctic raspberries...







mom's been picking them like crazy, there are still places you can pick a handful after handful, and have a handy snack along a hike.







and blueberries, there's plenty of them, too. whether you choose to call these wild blueberries or bilberries, to me, they are the true blueberries.







another tasty snack...







this, however, is not a blueberry, but a northern bilberry. who knew berries could be so confusing!?







though, there is nothing confusing about these, wild strawberries