SWEDEN PHOTOS
 

Winter along the Kalix River near Kiruna, 200 km above the Arctic Circle

Along the Vindeln River: one of only 4 remaining unregulated rivers in Sweden

Timber floating structures, forestry museums, Sami church villages, and sunshine in September.

Kayaking along the Höga kusten (high coast), September

On the Baltic Coast in northern Sweden, the land is still rising after the last glaciation. This link offers interesting information about geological, ecological, and human history: http://www.highcoast.net/english/eng.html

Norrbyskar: an island in the Baltic where a utopian sawmill community once thrived.

Marsfjällets naturreservat

Marsfjället nature reserve is an 86,000 ha reserve formed in 1988. Its landscape is dominated by the 1587-meter Marsfjället, the highest mountain in southern Lapland. On the plateau east of Marsfjället are 10,000 acres of marsh, while the reserve also contains 18,000 acres of old growth forest. The Sami continue to herd ren (reindeer) through the reserve, and a Sami church village, Fatmomakke, lies at one end of the reserve. The Fatmomakke website contains fascinating historical information: http://www.fatmomakke.se/index1.html

The last weekend of September, Frank and I went backpacking in the reserve with IKSU frilufts, the outdoor club at Umea University. 

Painting: Ray Troll, Salmon in the Woods

Picture

Once we were fish
moving freely in the sea.
Our bodies were soft and swift
and we had no belongings.

Now that we crawled out of the sea
we are dry and full of cravings.
We wander city to city
carrying the memory of the sea
(but it's just not a memory).

Listen very carefully and you will hear
the sea in your body.
You know, our blood is seawater
and we are all seacarriers.

-Yoko Ono, Grapefruit