Facts/pictures about your country

[papajohnny]

That thing looks so pagan/heathenish/whatever, it's beyond awesome.

 

[Tiiti]

It was awesome, must have been quite a big male moose.

For a moment I thought I could take and bring it home, but I don't have such a big pot.

 

[Eurynome]

Fantastic.

You're not saying you just found it there, or did you? Looks like it's been a while since it was last connected to the rest of the moose. And big for sure. How heavy was it?

 

[Tiiti]

I just found it, it was near our orienteer line. Quite near of city and urban area, they are building new houses there.
I'm not sure about a weight, maybe 4 kilos? Bigger than usually.

We found one smaller near my father house when we were kids, almost 20 years ago. We get it in to the our hut, and there it still was two years ago:

I have no idea how only the skulls were there (in both times), there were not any other bones.

 

[papajohnny]

I'm wild guessing that heads/skulls, since they're heavy and don't really have any meat on them, aren't dragged around much by other animals and the antlers, being pretty big, wide and robust keep them on surface, so to speak - get caught among the roots etc. so they don't get in the ground easily (as opposed to leg bones, for example).

 

[Karhu]

Happy Kekri / Jakoaika / Samhain / All Hallows Eve / Día de los Muertos / What ever you like

From todays' orienteering

That's a hip bone, guessing a moose.

 

[Karhu]

The second pic is a deer skull, or do you have elk up there? I forget. But a big buck for sure. The squirrels and/or mice have been chewing on the antlers I see.

 

[Tiiti]

Yes, we have elks. In that area, where the second photo was taken, we have lot's of both: deers and elks.
Moose's hip bone? OMG, an amateur thought was obvious moose's skull, there is eye holes and everything. Well, when I look that, it would had to been a very wide face in that moose.

Edit: so is that a lumbar area at my face and are those "horns" moose's legs?

 

[Karhu]

so is that a lumbar area at my face and are those "horns" moose's legs?

Here's a side view of the hips. Just googled "moose hips" , best pic I could find asap, not sure why it's "Africa Hunting"

 

[Eurynome]

Speaking of wildlife, check out Valtteri Mulkahainen's bear pics. Plenty more gorgeous stuff on his site, but the dancing cubs are cuteness overload.

 

[Karhu]

Aw, just a bunch of young punks trying to get tough

 

[Tuuletar]

A snowless winter doesn't inspire me to photograph, so instead here are some pics that I took earlier in autumn:

Next ones aren't exactly from my country, but couple of weeks ago I was at class trip in London and I liked these "weird" trees as well:

Necessary shots from the aeroplane (first flight in my life anyway, heh):

Coast of Holland (I think) in sunrise:

 

[xptrinity]

Traditional Ribnovo wedding. Ribnovo is a village in the mountains in southern Bulgaria. The population is of Bulgarian Muslims (which is different than Turks) - descendants of the Bulgarians who lived in those mountains and who were forcefully converted by the Turks in the XVI-XVII century. Usually most of the young people live in the cities, but come back to the village for the wedding season, which is now. A Ribnovo wedding is a three-day affair, which involves dressing up, dancing, inspection of the dowry and various rituals. You can find some more info on the internet, if you're interested.
Those are the photos of a friend who works in one of the big daily newspapers.
Oddly enough, some of the younger women are a lot more strict in their Muslim dress, than the older women - you can say so by the way the wear their headscarves. I do find this a bit disturbing, because traditionally the Muslims in Bulgaria, be it Bulgarians or Turks, have been pretty laid back when it comes to traditions. They are known to drink alcohol, sometimes eat pork and don't force their women to wear burkas and even headscarves are optional. So I don't know what to make of this.

 

[Luoto]

Oulu on March 8, 2014. The fact we may have an actual wintry spell in spring (takatalvi) at this time of year is truly amazing.

 

[Karhu]

tuuletar, you would do just fine if you lived here in Minnesota.
I need to get some time to upload some photos to share as well, mostly during deer season but I like to take pix of moss and cool nature stuff too.

 

[Luoto]

Widespread and tremendous halo phenomenon today, basically all of western Finland saw the rare Wegener arc. These images by Marko Mikkilä also include the extremely rare subhelic arc, observed only once in about 20 years in high altitude clouds.

 

[tuonelan]

I wonder if rare atmospheric phenomena like that might become more common as the climate continues to change? One of the researchers I used to work with at Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics wrote a lot about shifts in atmospheric layers and cloud formations shifting as heat and CO2 levels built up.

Pretty though. And what's more metal than a beautiful natural display being a harbinger of coming doom?

 

[papajohnny]

It'll slowly turn into an inverted pentagram, IMHO.

Great stuff. Never seen a halo, I believe.

 

[Luoto]

Well it occurred within a strong northern breeze, so at least it was kinda black metal

Great stuff. Never seen a halo, I believe.

I'd say winter is the best time of year to see one over there.

 

[papajohnny]

Well it occurred within a strong northern breeze, so at least it was kinda black metal


I'd say winter is the best time of year to see one over there.

Probably. A clear winter day. I like those. Especially if there is snow crunching under my feet.
It's not that I haven't seen one. I probably did, I just can't remember, which speaks about how impressive it was, if there ever was one. This thing I wouldn't forget if I'd ever seen it, though.

However, I do remember, quite vividly, some halos around the moon.