Summer morning filled with foxes

This is an excellent story about a fox that I met last summer.
It promised to be a sunny warm summer day so I headed out early to the sea to find my foxes. I had visited this place the night before and saw a cute fox all snuggled up in a perfect circle, the evening light was perfect and the fox seemed to be asleep. After some desperate tries getting close to her she saw me and sadly disappeared. So as I said I was hoping to see her again the next morning. This time the luck was on my side. I can't be sure if it was the same fox but in that same exact place there was a young fox lurking in the tall grass. I was on an open ground and didn't have anywhere to hide to but one juniper tree some 5 meters from me. So I immediately hunched down and hid myself behind the bush and I stood up. The juniper was a little bit taller than me and it had two branches at the top. I wish that the fox had a camera as well because I think I might have been quite funny - just my head and my camouflaged camera visible through the bush :D. I think the fox thought I was funny or maybe she figured I could be eatable since at one point she saw me and turned to inspect this little closer. The next few seconds happened so quickly that I didn't have the time to change some settings on my camera so I do apologise for some pics that are blurry. Thankfully the closest pic of her is sharp :D She only stood a few meters from me and stared at the bush. I was laughing inside because she looked so funny staring at that strange bush :) So there we stood for 2 seconds, suddenly she made a big jump to the left and stood still again. She could see me clearly now since the bush was not in the way anymore. It felt like this was the first time she had ever seen a human being before, she was so curious and didn't want to leave for some time :) but I guess the insticts kicked in at some point and she ran to the woods. With a BIG smile on my face I stood there mezmerized by what had just happened and continued my trip to the sea which was some 30 meters away. Guess what, there was another fox eating sea wrack. I think it's a he because I have seen him before and his right eye is badly scarred. Enjoy the pics!!!


Some images are available to buy as a print or a card. Please see them all here.

Easter madness!

Just wanted to let you know that for a limited time only you can purchase my prints and get them delivered to you for FREE! The magic code is eastermadness09
It will end April 13 23:55 EST so hurry!
Have a look at my gallery, I have recently added some new pics.

I miss you!

Today is the anniversary of the birth of my dog Jossu. He would have been 17 today. He made it to the old age of 14 and a half which is more than most dogs live. I had to let him go 2,5 years ago and it still hurts but I don't want to make this a sad story because this is the day when he was born and the day that changed my life.
I remember the day when I turned 11, we went out for a drive, I didn't know where we were going. We pulled up to this house and went inside. There were two poodles, one black, the other white and little black puppies. They were soooo cute :) As it turned out I got a dog for my birthday! I was so happy and my puppy was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I remember when we drove home I had him inside my jacket to keep him warm, he was so tiny, little over 1,5 months old. I was so happy to receive such a surprise!

We named him Jossu, short from Joosep which is a common male name in Estonia. Jossu was very clever and learned many tricks very quickly.

The things he knew how to do:
* bark with a loud voice
* bark with a silent voice
* jump through the hoop and over fences
* of course sit, stand up, lay down
* give a paw (he was a lefty)
* give the other paw if he had already given the first one
* bring things, for example I gave him the newspaper and told him to give it to my grandpa who could have been at the other end of our garden
* give me a kiss on the cheek
* look for things
* and of course look cute :)

He was a very lucky dog because he had 4 homes and everyone loved him so much. In the winter we lived in the city but for the summer we went to Saaremaa and he got to enjoy life in the nature for 3 months every year. He loved those walks in the forest and made everyone smile.
Jossu was the sweetest dog ever, he never complained and loved all of us deeply.

I have so many photos of him and I didn't really want to choose so I decided not to upload them all here but to make a webpage just for Jossu with all of his pics. Well not all but still 39 pics.
Please visit Jossu's webpage to see them.
Thank you so much for looking!

April fools day trip

Ouch! My legs are so sore :S I walked 8 kilometers yesterday. It would be no problem to do that except the surface I walked on was just awful. Me and my friend decided to go to a bog. It's a big nature reserve with lots of bogs and forests in between. I had never been there, he had. But we decided to go to the upper corner of the reserve so it was a new country for both of us. We don't have any snow here at the city anymore but there was lots of it in the forest. I couldn't make up my mind whether I should bring a pair of wellies with me or not. And because of a bad decision I suffered :( There was so much snow and water that at first we got stuck with the car, luckily I had said just few minutes before that I am not pushing the car out :) so I was sent to the wheel and we managed to get the car out. Then we started walking, me and my winter boots that don't like water. As I said there was lots of water and snow and after some time it was starting to feel damp inside my boots, after damp came wet...so it was a bit uncomfortable trip for me. But I liked it anyway because the nature was great, the sun was shining, birds singing and good company as well.

I have to tell you in advance that we didn't see any animals and that made us a little sad since it was a photo trip but we saw lots of interesting footprints. We are definitely going back there because there were so many elk footprints and also very fresh footprints that I think belong to a wolf because of the way he had stepped onto his own prints. After a few kilometers we saw a female grouse, sadly no pics because she was in a bushy area. The road led to a small bridge with a frozen river and after that started a weird country for us. This kind of hilly countryside with no trees is not common at all in Estonia but there it was right in front of us and it was big. The view from the top was amazing and we imagined what it would look like in the summer. There was quite a big wind on top of the hills but luckily the one thing that I had done correctly that day was my clothing, it didn't feel cold at all.

After the vast strange country begun the pine tree forests. The hills became bigger and more steep so it was a bit difficult for us to climb up a hill and descend another with the camera gear and try not to slip on the wet snow. The forest was beautiful, my kind of forest. I wouldn't mind living there...as long as someone would bring me food :) I think I couldn't survive on berries LOL.
There were two small lakes and camping area next to one. The map showed another 4 kilometers to the bog and the first tower but I was starting to feel bad about my wet feet and also little bit tired so we turned around and headed back. It will be a much more easier trip when the snow will melt. On our way back we saw one eagle high in the sky and also a common crane couple. They are back already!

The only thing that still bugs me a bit are the elk footprints in the snow. Because the snow had melted even more when we headed back it was obvious that this elk had crossed the road just recently. And it was enormous! I have never seen such big elk footprints. Where are the pics you say? Well, I hope you understand if I tell you that at that point I was already very tired and I had my telephoto lens in front of my camera and the wide angle in my backpack. I would have wasted valuable energy to change the lenses...so sorry about that.
I don't remember the last time I was this tired. It's natural that when you get tired you stop and recharge but since I had the wet feet syndrome I wanted to get back to the car ASAP. My friend asked me if I was on an autopilot and he was right LOL. When we finally reached the car I felt like I couldn't step another step if I had to. It is so strange to me because last year I went hiking in the mountains (not hills like here) of Norway and I did a 20 km trip all by myself. Of course I felt tired after that but not like yesterday. A voice in my head tells me to get up from the computer and exercise more :)
Enjoy the photos!

I just had to post this :) Looks like a bird doesn't it? Well...... it's a tree.