Already well into my second week in Sweden, so what is sticking mainly in my head? The lack of fences is a major observation. On the farms where there are cattle, sheep or horses, there are fences, but generally the crops swirl in and around islands of rock and forest. The forest is everywhere and only small clearings with grass for feed for stock probably planted, not sure. There are plastic spools of silage stacked or scattered around the farmlands. Otherwise there is a grain crop growing, just setting heads. We think it is rye, but not sure. The forest is thick in places, with pine - Tall & Great Pines, one having longer needles and growing taller than the other - yeah, I know very hazy details, and birch trees filling in the spaces. the ground is covered in moss and the huge boulders, granite I think, also covered with moss and lichen. there are a lot more boulders than I thought. anyway, the forests are managed by owners, who start with thinning out the smaller ones, then again maybe later, eventually taking out the large pines, then maybe the birch, then letting that small section regrow again. Anders said that back in the Iron Age and up until maybe the 1800's the land was pretty well cleared, so the forests have all been allowed to grow back. so you see small areas totally cleared, but totally surrounded by forests in different stages of regrowth. the overall impressions are that the forests are winning.
anyway, in amongst the forests and the fields there are the houses. All gingerbread houses, with sheds and stables all painted in the red-brown with white trim. now fences and patches of lawn in amongst the wildflowers that are probably past their peak now, but still beautiful. yellow and purple, white and yellow scattered amongst the grass. A typical cottage garden, but just growing wild. all so beautiful.
The area west of Stockholm is very beautiful and picture postcard everywhere.
