Tag Archives: Landscape

Munro Mountains

Munro Mountains

Go and check out https://matthiasblanke.github.io/MunroStats/

There are many Mountains in the UK and Ireland; but especially Scotland has all of the high peaks. A refined classification system categorizes all British hills based on their height and drop (also called prominence).

The Munros are the highest ones: A Munro is a Scottish Mountain with a height above 3000 feet that has a ‘distinct’ peak. Currently, there are 282 official Munro mountains, see also here. All other Scottish Peaks with a height above 3000 feet that are not considered to be a Munro are called Munro Tops.

When we visited Scotland this year (actually it was 2022, but this post has been in the pipeline since), I was quite intrigued by these mountains. But where are they? How high are they? Which one is the highest one? Which one barely passes the 3000 feet threshold?

A little googling yields this excellent MunroMap that shows where all Munros are located in Scotland. Then, there is the Hill Bagging website where you can track your own progress on your pursuit to scale them all. There is also this wonderful blog post about the distribution of Munro mountains across different regions in Scotland. And lastly, the database of British and Irish hills gives comprehensive tabular data.

This encouraged me to do a little side project: I took (parts of) the data and visualized the location of all Munros as well as further hill types, as well as their height distribution compared to their drop. On the map you can also check out their prominence. It was a nice intro into learning Vue.js and also get started with d3js, but there is lots more to learn; so maybe there will be a second post soon.

Fern and Fog

Fern and Fog

Our island has plenty to offer: A vibrant tourist season, tranquility in winter, lovely walking trails and well-developed cycling paths, magical sunsets, and water all around that causes foggy mornings and provides habitat for many marine birds. What it doesn’t offer are woodlands. Before, I would often take my bike and drive to the woods, to wander around, to get lost between the trees, and admire their age and wisdom. Woodlands are soothing; they absorb stress. So it’s about time that I start to explore the woods on the mainland – just beyond the watery boundaries of our new home.

Back for More

Back for More

A brief break
to take a breath,
a brake in life
to take a step
back, two steps
onwards,
as soon awaits the biting cold – 
so, take your skates,
roll out and trust:
yourself,
and the ice shelf,
through faded sceneries
where bare trees house
jaded starlings 
left alone
within the snow,
I am still watching, though,
behind the door,
while the world awaits outside.

Motion

Motion

Wind whistles harshly from afar,
night settles gently, au revoir
dear Portugal, dear distant star,
each day filled up my memoir
with fragments of divided beams,
with rock-formations, quite bizarre,
with ocean waves and short-lived streams
of water flowing as in dreams,
a never ending love, it seems,
another round, the earth gets drowned,
and in the distant is unbound
a nightjar calling out his sound;
sweet memories still float around.

Dry Grasses

Dry Grasses

A tempting shimmer,
often bright and sometimes dimmer,
tiny twinkles, shiny flickers,
mighty seas of jolly glimmer,
gently waving in the wind,
often aligned, yet intertwined,
thin blades on fire,
in shades refined,
ensnare the mind,
tether the eyes,
mankind inclined
to stay right here, 
witness the rustling, bustling weeds,
small beads pinned by the sun,
a moment passes, all is gone.

Whitewash

Whitewash

When lights are out
night sounds appear
and overlay the gloss
of days, thoughts cross,
until a warbler, without fear,
sings out his doubt aloud.

Photo Post: Planet

Photo Post: Planet

Whirling through the empty space,
to chase the dream to leave a trace,
we lose the reference at times
of what's important, how to pace
our lives, to live for us, not for archives.

Photo Post: Pace

Photo Post: Pace

Time flies, time creeps, time-wise time leaps – from fast to slow to fast – past months appear like years, passed weeks between the gears of tomorrow and today, we may shed tears when this time concludes.

Uña & La Raya

Uña & La Raya

While Spains landscapes are nationally varied, they can be quite monotonous on a local scale. Endless plantations of olive trees running along the rolling hills, infinite fields of sunflowers that praise the blue skies, and dry deserts that frame large and empty reservoirs. In contrast, the Serrania de Cuenca is a national park between Madrid and Valencia that offered a large diversity of biotopes in small space, around the little town of Uña: A laguna surrounded by high cliffs, hosting a rich variety of wildlife, especially birds. After starting early in the morning we had the pleasure to observe multiple new born griffon vultures, as well as a blue rock thrush, reed warblers, hoopoes, cuckoos, rock buntings, and many many more. The hike took us around four hours with plenty of pauses and was (at least for me) one of the overall highlights of our trip.