Lapland, July 2012

 

To celebrate my mother’s 80^th birthday, I suggested we go to Lapland. My mother, who was born in Lapland, is very fit, for any age, and was game when I presented the idea, and my sister, niece, and cousin Bertil joined too. What started out as a plan for a leisurely stay in a mountain lodge, turned into a challenging hike. We settled on Låktatjåkko Mountain Lodge, which is located 195 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, (an 18 hour train-ride from Stockholm). Låktatjåkko is Sweden’s highest located mountain station, 1228 meters above sea level. The only way to reach the lodge in the summer is by foot or by helicopter.

The hike to the lodge is a mere 9 kilometers, no stretch for a fit 80 year old, but what we had failed to realize was that 9 kilometers going uphill is a challenge for most people of any age. In addition, although our visit was in early July— generally the best time of the summer in the north since you can still see the midnight sun, and enjoy mild weather—this spring had been exceptionally cold, so part of the trail was still covered in snow.

Despite the challenges, we all enjoyed the hike with exquisite views of Torne Träsk, one of Sweden’s largest lakes, and of the surrounding snow-covered mountains.  At the lodge, we rested for a day and enjoyed lovely three-course meals, with local specialties including cloud-berries and reindeer meat for the meat-eaters.

Lapland Slide Show

I collected some of my photos into a slide show: The happy hikers are my cousin Bertil, my niece Karin, my sister Anna, me and my mother, Barbro, who we are all so proud of and inspired by since she was able to enjoy a strenuous hike to celebrate turning eighty.





Click here for link to Lapland slide show (for iPhone)

Åvike, summer 2012

Almost every summer of my life, I’ve spent time in Åvike, a small community on the northern coast of Sweden, where my extended family has summered for decades ever since my grandfather started to bring his family to Åvike for summer vacations in the 1930s.

These days, I often long for my seemingly endless childhood summers, swimming in the sea and hiking in the woods, with time punctuated not by clocks but by nature itself: wildflowers blooming in succession, and berries ripening in predictable order: wild-strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and, the back-to-school berries, lingon.

But, despite my persistent search, the endless summers are long gone, and even the natural environment is not static. In the last few years, bears have made a comeback to the area for the first time in over 100 years. A new logging road offers easy access to formerly remote bogs nestled in the forest, and a recent violent storm has forever changed many familiar views.

Last summer, on walks with my mother, sister, nephew and my cousins, I photographed the new and the familiar: a fresh bear-paw track, ripe cloud-berries, rare orchids, a rusty old car covered in lichen, and my relatives on their iPhones during a coffee break—fika—in the woods. The first couple of photos in the slide show  below are of my niece, Karin, and I hiking around Stockholm.

Click here for link to Åvike slide show (for iPhone)