Happy New Year 2012!

Still alive and kicking, just busy as hell! :)

Wishing you all the best possible New Year's celebration (without firecrackers and a hangover) and a wonderful 2012! And lots of gorgeous photos to all my photoblogging friends!

Frosty trees at the Vršič pass

Two weekends ago I hiked from the Erjavčeva hut to the top of the Vršič pass and back. The moisture and cold temperatures caused frost to form on everything and it didn't melt even after several hours of sunny weather. The sight was magical!

Escaping the fog again

Looking at my photos I see that central Slovenia has been covered with a layer of fog for three weeks! A bit of fog is fine and I love fog photos, but it gets old after a week. And with the days being so short now (sunset at 4.20 pm) it's hard to organize one's day to include an escape to higher altitudes.

I did escape the fog on Sunday. Kamniški vrh hill again, of course. It's close, it's high enough, it has beautiful views, and the 700-meter climb makes for some nice exercise.





















And two days later the fog still persists. This is seriously depressing especially if you work the whole day and finish right when the night falls. :(

Fall colors around Kamnik II.

Finally, some sun! After work I packed my gear into a brand new camera backpack and headed out. On foot. First I climbed the Zaprice hill to take a few photos of Kamnik in the late afternoon sun.












The sun was already very low when I walked towards the Stari grad hill and took a few more photos of the colorful trees.

Fall colors around Kamnik

This year's fall colors arrived late. There was the Indian summer that we had, and then in mid-October, the temperatures plummeted to around zero and turned rain into snow. Snow on trees that were still green and hadn't even turned colors yet! Now the colors appeared in a matter of days and the leaves are already falling off. I was waiting for some nice sunny weather, but it has been foggy and cloudy, so I had to forget about nice vivid foliage in the sun.

I climbed the Stari grad hill above Kamnik twice this week. Here are a few photos from the top when the sun even managed to peak from behind the clouds for five seconds:




I stopped several times on the way to the top the second time:














It was getting dark and I was on my way back down when I saw these two horses:


I am still hoping to get some more fall photos this year! :)

Above the clouds

The weather has been depressing this week. A fog layer that covered the valleys was thick and humid and dark, and I wanted to see some sun! So on November 1 I packed my camera bag after work at 3 p.m. and rushed to the foot of Mt. Kamniški vrh. The days have been getting shorter and the sunset is at 4.45 already, so I didn't have much time. I broke the cloud cover at about 900 meters above sea level and was actually able to take some fall photos - finally! The foliage is still not fully autumnal, but it was nice to see at least some yellow and orange and red leaves. The sun was low above the horizon and the whole grassy slope glowed red as I was making my way up.



















Going down a mountain in the dark is something I'm used to. But going down a mountain in the dark AND the fog is terrible - everything is blurry, you can't focus your eyes, and the whole thing is harder on your brain than it is on your legs. :)