Tuesday, January 1, 2013

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)
 

1 comment:

LauraHinNJ said...

This looks like a beautiful place and a fun, fun time!