PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE

Easter Eggs, Wildlife Encounters and Freefall Adventures

Week 140 of the photographic documentary of my daily life

For some it was the first time off since Christmas, for us, it was the first weekend at work at our new job. The Easter holidays. We had freezing temperatures on the ground and even lower ones in the air.

However, we did enjoy some sunshine and also got excited about my parents coming to visit on Easter Monday, our last working day of the week. Tuesday is our ‘Sunday’. This week at least. Usually, we’re Mondays off.

The week started with a new skydiving course, and on Thursday, my student had progressed that far, I could leave him flying by himself, only staying close in the air in case I’d have to stabilize him again.

One of the maneuvers I gave the guy to complete in the air was a backflip. See below, he didn’t fully succeed in the task. It turned out to be a front flip, but he passed anyway.

We give students these maneuvers to perform not for us to grade them afterward from 1 to 10 but for them to show us they can be in an unstable position and get back stable again without our help. And for that reason, he passed the task.

Front flip or back flip. It’s all the same. For us. While falling at 200kph toward Earth.

The following day, I hadn’t taken any pictures except for the ones at work but when David came into the trailer after a bathroom break he mentioned something about never having seen the moon in such a color.

Guess what? Right, it didn’t take long and I was out there with my camera. Capturing the rising full moon in between the wind turbines.

Saturday was the day my family met up for Easter with all cousins, parents and the newest members of the family. Three toddlers. Only a 3-hour drive from us, we couldn’t attend the gathering as we were supposed to work.

However, the weather gods didn’t play along, as it was raining in the morning. We were on standby until noon, when the boss then canceled the rest of the day.

Too late for us to visit the family, so I went for a walk across the fields instead. Just before leaving, David spotted a few deer in the distance. Those were the ones telling me where to go. And I could get relatively close to them before they sprinted off.

Deer in this area are very shy and even though it’s common for us to see them, they escape quickly.

The night was clear and freezing. Waking up on Easter Sunday to start working at 8 am, the sun had just appeared and was shining across the frozen meadow when I went to the bathroom. It was a peaceful morning. Cold but beautiful.

Easter Monday was the first day with double-digit temperatures at our new job. While the first jump in the morning was still cold, the sun did warm up the air during the day.

Here we go, see below. I was almost smiling in freefall as we didn’t have -25 but only -18 degrees up there. Still cold, but not painfully cold anymore.

Or I simply adjusted to the temperatures by now.

My parents arrived during the afternoon on Monday and on Tuesday morning, just after finishing our breakfast in the trailer, we got visitors.

Four deer appeared out of the forest. Peacefully grazing on the meadow while it was pouring down rain, my parents enjoyed viewing the game out of the warmth of our trailer.

Before midday, we packed our bags, rain jackets and umbrella and headed out. We planned to hike into town for lunch. We withstood rain, hail and wind. A typical day in April.

But none of that made us turn around. We made it safely to the restaurant and enjoyed a hearty meal before returning in blue skies. While the forest is still rather barren, I did capture this sign of spring.

As we were back in the safety of our trailer preparing dinner, we saw some black dots in the background. And while everyone was putting down a guess on which animal it could be, some answers weren’t to be taken seriously.

Looking through the viewfinder, the game was easy to identify. ‘Only’ deer. But six of them, which brings it to a total of 20 deer today. Not too bad, I’d say...

Wednesday morning, after breakfast and after the first two rounds of deer sightings from the kitchen window, my parents left again. As we had a day off due to bad weather, I tended to my online duties. Writing, reading, and editing. Once again, I avoided successfully doing anything for the tax returns.

Instead, I went for a long walk in the afternoon, scaring off some deer in the bushes. The larks were singing high above my head and blue tits were chirping in the bushes.

As I got around the corner, just spotted a few more dots in the distance. Six deer were resting in the fields.

I was trying to capture birds with my camera. Any birds. But I don’t have an eye for them and settled down on some less-moving objects even though I struggled to capture these larch blossoms. The wind was moving the branches up and down and it wasn’t easy to get any of them in focus.

Enough for the day and I got again to a total count of 20 deer. Just another day in my new fairytale home.

This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett started this photography challenge in 2020 and many have participated ever since.

Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny / Jillian / Shell / Ivy / Lisa / Lynne

And these are the previous weekly photo essays:

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