Not many tourists find their way up here, so we had the place to ourselves. Me watching the baltic sea and painting while my daughter walked around looking for stones and crystals among the granite rocks
Finding stones
The diary
I washed my hands and walked back out in the sunlight, back to the table in front of the smokehouse, where she sat... looking at me with my diary open in her hands... "That is some stories there, Frits" She said
You’ve aged the castle said
Walking up there one early spring afternoon, the crows circling and wind chilling the whole idea of trying to get into the Royal school of Architecture by painting watercolors here
The old chapel
Back many centuries ago the herrings were plenty here, and people would come from afar to fish, buy and sell, celebrate and all the things nobody talked about, but in the small chapel, that was build out here - and is still here.
Waiting for my daughter
Some days I wait, as if phones didn't exist, and I couldn't check Facebook and Twitter, just wait, sit and watch the places, take out my watercolors and pass the time
Places of memories
"We swim here, we locals swim here", she said as we walked down to the small place between the rocks... Many years later I paint here
Not another smokery
Hiking and looking for motives I stumble across another smokery, and wish I hadn't
Leaving the old houses be
It used to be a place for gunpowder, I was told. It is still there, even though the old guns are long gone. Now it serves more peaceful purposes, but build so well, and in a way that it can adapt to changing realities
Houses smoking fish
Walking out of the small town and heading on along the trail I looked back, smokeries reminded me how much a house can tell you about the life of people there
Refuel
Hot in the small fishing village, I put my backpack down, They were selling ice cream here
The legend of holy woman turned to stone
They were in danger, too much danger to be handled, but she found a way out, the story goes, she turned both herself and her sixteen children into stone
Hiking towards the lighthouse
The lights still turns, but nobody is guided by them anymore
Hiking between coastal rocks
I had reached the ancient rocks, they felt solid, and even older than both the sand and the limestones I'd passed on my way
Walking past traditional art
The tiny houses on the wooden sticks looked faded in the sun, but faded in ways, as wood do, that kind of make it even more beautiful
The huge empty harbor
Walking along the huge harbor, there were so few boats it seemed like a party that never happened
Painting watercolors in the rain
The first drops of water soon hit the paper, I tried to lean forward, covering it as much as I could, while continuing to paint, but soon gave up and just let the rain join in as it liked to
Bridge by the sea
First I walked over it, then I stopped, liked the solid feel of the small bridge, way to solid for the short distance it had to span
Places for watching birds
The first drops of rain hit as I approached a bird watching tower all made in wood. It looked empty and I could need a cup of coffee. I climbed the stairs and found a need sheltered little space, where I could put down the backpack and make myself a cup of coffee on my stove, watching the birds and waiting for the rain to pass.
Tiny fisherman’s house
Not many details, just what is needed when off the boat, the small house looks like it can handle a lot of wind. I take out my brushes, watercolor and paper
When coincidence makes architecture
There is a quiet feel to it, the mix of granite stones, wood and simple metal sheet roofs - Even bits from boats thrown in, a bench, and holders for the yarn and tools used on the sea.
Smokeries in a fishing village
The harbor is far out on the end of a long bridge. In the village, that is not much more than a line of houses, many of them formed mainly by their huge traditional fish smoking chimneys
Looking for a place to sleep
The sand here is beautiful but so incredible fine it seems to get in anywhere... in the stove, the camera, the phone, the watercolors.
The wide beach
The beach is empty and small riddles of sand forms around a few stones in the wind. The beach is famous. "The finest sand in the world" the locals claim.
Trees meeting the sea
For years they have been looking at each other. And for every year the sea moved a bit closer
Following a stream to a watermill
From the beach I couldn't see much, but following the stream up I soon faced an old watermill
Frits Ahlefeldt: Watercolors & Drawn Stories 