Thursday Thoughts – Hiking Stenshuvud

A spring hike is never wrong. Here I am sending some highlights from one of the most beautiful protected areas in Skåne, where I live. It is known for its biodiversity and its many pasqueflowers. My Silent Sunday was photographed there too.

The area is 300 hectares large, and consists of forest, meadows, marshland, beaches and sea.

In May it is of course a dream to walk here, but Autumn too is very beautiful. We usually visit twice a year. Milo loves it.

The paths are mostly easily walked, but maybe not for everyone.

The marshland is fascinating and can not be reached all days of the year. Spring is often OK, if the rains are moderate.

Orchids are frequent, as are all spring flowers – gently nodding to you from both sides of the path.

Some of them are secret charmers…

About three hours later, we are back at the gate. This part of the hike goes through an area with foreign trees brought here from all over the world.

So, hope you enjoyed the tour, thank you for walking with me! These few images hopefully show some of the National Park’s great diversity.

Thursday Thoughts

I had two wonderful hikes last week – one of them was my usual morning walk turned into a dreamy, yet colourful walk in the fog – and the other one an afternoon walk in a sunny haze. The first one posted on Lens-Artists, the other one here today.

I have always wanted to follow paths and roads to see where they lead to…don’t you too? This day I did. The forest road looked very inviting – and I decided today was the day to find out where it led to.
I knew I had a couple of hours to myself before sunset, but already at 3 pm it would have been too dark to find my way in the forest.

No Milo on this walk – otherwise he would have loved the many interesting stops I made. But the road did not lead to where I had expected…

It finally led down to the lake, where we use to swim in the summer. Now I wished the sun would stay until I got there – it would have been a nice finish to the day.

And I was lucky – a beautiful day came to a beautiful end. Thank you for walking with me again!

Thursday Thoughts – Hiking Gedaryggen

We went with a hiking group last weekend. We always walk alone otherwise, but were invited by a friend to join in. 20 people in the big forest. All vaccinated except me. A great day.

Normally, the beeches would have been green by the first of May – but this year has been very cold so far. Today the Maiden Fall and the Maiden Stone were the two main attractions – besides walking in the forest of course.

Do you see the eaten cones on the stump? Never in my life I have seen this many! We saw one every 5th meter. The forest must be a complete mice den…but, we did not spot a single mouse scuttling around.

Our eminent guide, Bo, is a real nature’s man – and a natural forest man. He sleeps in a hammock under the canopy several nights a month – and he asked how many of us who wanted to try it in June…and got some three – four positive to the idea!
This was really a great hike, and the resting places were beautiful. Young and old had their imagination filled with new mysteries, and climbing through the stone was an adventure. The sites have their own story about the young maiden, Elsa, hiding there and staying in the forest to escape followers during the Scania war 1675-1679. Nobody knows if there was a happy ending though…the story does not tell…
After 6 hours of hiking Gedaryggen (”The Goats Back”) we were rather tired and some had sore feet. My left foot (operated on a couple of years ago) told me this was enough for the day.

Thursday Thoughts – Hiking Vedema

I guess this was maybe the last lasting snow this year – a beautiful day for us and the dogs. Start in soft sun and finish in the cold of the evening. Put on your warmest clothes and come along!

Thursday Thoughts – Real Winter!

For a couple of days now, real winter is on visit…and I cannot say how happy I am. I will let you wander around in my neighbourhood to hopefully enjoy the white serenity. Last year we had no snow at all, and it is exactly ten years since we got this much.

Sheer Happiness! And the children are out everywhere skiing and building snowmen. So Grateful, so Thankful.

First view in the morning – my garden
Second view – the Spindle
Out walking the dogs
On our way home again

Thursday Thoughts – Younger Days

Walking, walking…One of the last colourful days, I decided to walk along an old road I used to walk in my younger days – in the 1980’s. I had a friend living at the end of the road, and I believe she still is.

One of the old farms was in ruins due to a fire some years ago. The remains looks beautiful still.

Even bird houses have them…
And Milo loved the stone fences – of course. He gets a nice treat when he is climbing up on top of something. Spoilt young man…
So, Milo and I have a lot in common… many stones climbed and so many fences defied – this was a big part of being a child in a rural landscape. No playing indoors – always outdoors in the fresh air.
No matter how much we tried – we still couldn’t conjure up the sleepy sun this day – but memories of childhood days danced like autumn leaves in the air. Golden and light as feathers. Today my grandfather was born, 117 years ago.

Lens-Artists Challenge #124 – Now and Then

Now and then – Then and now

Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
― L.M. Montgomery

Amy is our host, and she says: ”For our challenge this week we’d like you to tell us about your perspective on now vs then – it could be before and after the pandemic or any other changes you have experienced.” See her perspective on what the current changes can bring to everyday life!

As I was contemplating what major differences there are in my own life now, compared to a few years ago, some things stand out very clearly to me. I will try letting the images tell most of the story, as you change between Then and now, Now and then in my series. ( A new possibility with the block editor – but you have to go to my site to see it. I found out it doesn’t show in the reader …) Somehow I wish it was just as easy to mend things that are broken…

Due to climate change, our winters here in Sweden are very different from those we had only a couple of years ago. These two images are from November 2017 and November 2020.

Two of my best loved hiking trails have been destroyed. The forest is down. Colourful grasses are now taking over, and soon the old stumps will be totally hidden in the new vegetation.

Traveling is no longer an option, due to Covid19 and the pandemic. But, also in order to save the world from more air pollution. Instead of exploring exciting new places abroad, this autumn we built my much longed for glasshouse, where we greatly enjoy a quiet lunch every day.

Ever since I was a child, the forest has been my second home. I usually walk for hours every day, often in the company of my mother and my dogs (in this photo, Mille and Totti). In Spring we always pick wood anemonies and have ”fika” with coffee and cakes in the warm sunshine. Mille left us 2014 and my mother, this unruly year, 2020.

And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees
and changing leaves.

― Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse)

Changes are obvious to us all this year… and now we are looking forward to seeing Your perspective! Don’t forget to include a link to Amy’s post and use the Lens-Artists tag so that everyone can find you in the WP Reader. Next week, Tina will be our host for Challenge #125 on November 28th. Be sure to visit her site.

Lastly – Thank you for sending us so many delightful walks through neighbourhoods all over the world! It has been an adventurous week, a glorious and expressive week. As always – We are grateful that you want to share your world so generously.

Thinking of you who are celebraing Thanksgiving, and to all of us – Take care, stay warm, loving and safe.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #100 – Long and Winding Road

Life gives us many challenges and between those challenges we have to learn to choose happiness. Happiness lies in little things of our lives like kindness, gratitude, learning new things, caring for all living beings on this planet. Life can become a beautiful journey with little effort. Purvi Raniga

The long and winding road is ours to walk – and in this quote lies what we all know in our hearts, and what we now have been given some extra time to contemplate and practice.

 

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.  – J. R. R. Tolkien

We are, maybe for the first time, in such uncertainty and bewilderment for what lies ahead of us. We are without guidance, without previous knowledge or much scientific evidence concerning this new Corona virus… but we will learn. We have to.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.  – Edward Abbey

In our daily talks, my grandmother used to say about Life: ”Who said it was going to be easy?” Being a child the meaning of that sentence was not easily understood. As I grew up though, I gradually found out how much truth there was in her words.

Trying times bring out the worst and the best in people. Despite this unruly world, I want to focus on positive things like inventiveness, creativity and kindness – the fact is, today I generally see more good people and helping hands than ever. Our individualistic life has in that respect taken a more responsible, humanistic turn.

When within yourself you find the road, the right road will open.   – Dejan Stojanovic

Pilgrims know that the road, the long and winding… is the message, the goal in itself. I believe that is what my grandmother meant to tell me. Her words were so well put, as a question instead of a statement.

Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost. Erol Ozan

So, I am a pilgrim, I guess we all are.

In 1989, I went hiking with my dog, in Lapland, Sweden. I met a young man from the Netherlands, Wim, who had come here searching for solitude and contemplation. We walked the path you see in the above photo, and decided to meet up again a week later as we were walking different trails the following week.

And so we did. To my surprise he told me that he had left the trail and got lost for two days. That year we had a lot of snow even in the last week of June, so he was unable to find the road marks. Smiling his funny little smile, he told me how grateful he was for having lost his way – because he had found new beautiful paths and his very own way back. More self confident, more relying on his own abilities. ”I can do this.”

There is a bend in the road. I don’t know what lies around that bend, but I hope for the best.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Mankind has always been curious, adventurous – but there is a balance to be kept, in order not to lose too much for the win in the end. Finding that balance is a delicate matter in its own.

At the end of every road you meet yourself.   – S. N. Behrman

With a dedicated heart, I am sure you can. And with this final quote, I will leave you walking your own long and winding road, while I continue mine.

The trials on the road to world harmony are no greater than the courage of those who accept the challenge.  – Carl Lewis

 

This week, Tina asks us to share our images and thoughts about the long and winding road. See Tina’s powerful post here.  We always appreciate your support and enjoy seeing your responses to our challenges. Be sure to link to Tina’s original post and to include the Lens-Artists tag.

Finally, we are excited to announce that next week the Lens-Artists team will be bringing you a very special event. Cee of Ceenphotography has graciously agreed to lead us on our next challenge. All four members of the Lens-Artists team will join Cee next Saturday at noon EST in response to her challenge subject. We look forward to seeing where she leads us, and hope you’ll join the fun as well.