Time to sleep!!

Dear All,

It is time to close down this blog for some months. As you know, all bears spend the winter sleeping and I am no exception.

It has been great to get all your encouraging comments, most of them by email, but some also directly to the blog. The house has been emptied of all things of value and the elves, trolls and other smaller and larger creatures can move in for a while.

Take care and see you next spring! Bear

Autumn

Signs

No comments !

Serious problem ! But not in Svångemåla.

According to today’s news, 2,252 Swedes have, so far this year, had to pay roughly Euro 100 for urinating in public places. Last year 3,328 were caught and 2002 the number of offenders was only approximately 900. The increase has made a lot of journalists speculate and the police to thoroughly analyse the situation.

I am not surprised at all! It is due to the ever increasing number of badgers that all house owners are trying to get rid of by marking our preserves / plots. It is amazing that our law enforcement officers do not realize this and, instead, are blaming it all on increased consumption of alcohol in public places.

As you might remember I have had some serious fights with badgers and it is only since I started to make a point of marking my space that I have seen a small, but important decline in attacks. I even ask male visitors to assist me by pointing them in the right direction when the need is there.

I am glad that the police is not coming to Svångemåla very often!

Long time,no blog....

August, the month when we have the biggest full moon of the year in Sweden, when Swedes eat crayfish, put on silly hats and drink too much. Probably to forget that the summer is slowly coming to it’s end and it will gradually get cooler and darker. Yes, yes, I know I sound a bit pessimistic and negative but I guess many of us do that at this time of the year. It is, however, also the time of the year when we can do a bit of “before and after” comparisons. Take a look at the first lime tree buds I showed you in May and compare them to the picture below. Amazing isn't it.

Neither nor....

Scary?

The deep forest in Svångemåla makes me calm down, comforts me and makes me feel safe and protected. The big trees give me strength and energy and the gentle sound of the wind blowing in them is almost like lullabies. Even the darkness is a blessing to my eyes and mind.

If you are not used to being in a deep forest you can feel a bit uncomfortable, almost scared and you start to look around you to make sure that no one is looking at you or following you. Particularly if you are used to live in a city, the forest can be a bit too mystical, almost scary.

The young boy above felt that way for a while but after we had walked down the path, seen and listened to the animals around us, examined a few interesting mushrooms and eaten some berries, he felt just as much at home as I do. It is my firm belief that all children should have a chance to experience this and start to understand the wonders that surrounds you as soon as you enter into the adventure that a deep forest is full of.

Favourites!

End of Summer?

A few yellow leaves are falling, the days are getting a bit shorter and it seems as if nature is preparing for the winter. According to the calendar it is still full summer, the temperature is still high on sunny days but again, there are clear indications that we are coming closer to the time we call autumn.

In many ways, this is a really nice time of the year so I am not complaining just noticing what is going on. Among the many positives are the many berries you can find in the deep forests, the apples that are making the branches bend dangerously low and the mushrooms that are sprouting up as soon they get some rain.

Elves

It must by now be clear to all that Svångemåla is a nature lover’s paradise. That is, however, not all that you can experience here! The more obscure elves and trolls are also everywhere for those who care to look really carefully and with open minds. Take a close look at the photo, double click on it and have a closer look! When the moon replaces the sun and the wind dies down you can even hear when they carefully wander around in the bushes, rattles a leaf or breaks a twig. The trick, if you want to see them, is to not look directly at them but to squint a bit and let your gaze wander. Some are tiny, very tiny and can hardly be seen, only felt, while others are so big that you might think you are looking at a cloud and not an elf. Both trolls and elves can change their appearance in a split second from an animal to a plant and back again before you have really noticed anything. It is exciting, scary, fun and most of all magical.

The goblins are different and needs to be treated with some care to make sure that they are not annoyed and start to bother you. Life in the forest can be difficult enough without their mischief!

New Project!

Time for some really exciting news from Svångemåla! My neighbour has developed a plan or project to firmly put our village on the map by making it a small tourist paradise. He intends to develop some of the jungle like meadows into grassing areas for domestic animals, prepare hiking paths, places for barbecues and other facilities that will attract nature lovers while at the same time making sure that the original ambiance and beauty of the area are not lost. Local, regional and even international organisations and possible stakeholders have been consulted and application, permits and other forms are being filled in and submitted. The largest local area newspaper, Barometern, has reported on the project in a vary favourable way and we are now keeping our fingers crossed that those who got the final word will be equally positive.

The main objective of this initiative is to open up a truly wonderful part of Sweden to all who are interested in the typical fauna and flora of Småland and thereby increase their knowledge and understanding of it.

Svångemåla News will of course keep you all up to date about the progress of the project.

Lagom!

Swedes are known for being a bit dull and not too clever. The Swedish chef in the Muppet show was a good indication of how many think of us regarding the latter. We are also known for being, generally speaking, modest and careful with words. If an American find something to be “fabulous, marvellous, outstanding” we would say that it is “OK”. When my mother had prepared a really superb dinner my father’s comments would be: “not too bad”.

We even have a word that you cannot directly translate into any other language and that is “lagom” which means “not too much and not too little” or “just right”. A margarine that you can find all over Europe is called “Lätt och Lagom” which means “easy (when talking about weight) and not too much and not too little”. Since it is so difficult to translate the name, it actually keeps it Swedish name in many other countries, adding a bit to it’s exotic, foreign touch.

Along the same lines, we also have a kind of milk that is called “mellan mjölk” which directly translated means “in between milk” since it has more fat that than skim milk but less than full milk. “Lagom” in other words! A good friend even has “news from the country of the “mellan mjölk” in the subject line of her mails.

There are, however, areas in which we more or less always go to the extremes and one such area is the weather.

First of all, it is, like in many or even most other countries a favourite topic of conversation and you will always hear incredible stories about how much or little rain a place has had during the last day, week or month, how hard the wind was, how severe the storm was, and so on and so forth. Just the other day my neighbour and I discussed how much it had rained and had serious problems agreeing on the number of mm we had received.

We also tend to exaggerate when we talk about the berries or mushrooms we find in the forests. The blue berries are either “enormously big or incredible sweet” and the mushrooms “cover the ground where ever you look”.

Conclusion; we in Svångemåla as well as all other Swedes, are just as complicated and full of contradictions as you might think when you watch an Ingemar Bergman movie!

Big cats in Svångemåla?

No, I have not gone mad and this is an exception that will not be repeated soon but I got a special request from a friend to share some pictures of “cats” that I have met, so here they are. I spotted some cats in Svångemåla a few years ago but they were rather fat, domestic ones and not like the lions, leopards and cheetahs I saw in Africa. There are indications that one or maybe two lynxes have been roaming around not far from Svångemåla but if this is true or not I do not know.

Flirting?

As all males know, the opposite sex is not always easy to understand. Their mimic and words can be very difficult if not impossible to interpret and if we get it wrong we are considered ignorant, arrogant, or simply stupid. The consequences are sometimes really outrageous and hard to understand and we males have to be careful not to get it all wrong. Knowing this, I am now very concerned that I might not know what is going on in the head of Dear Mrs Deer. A severe storm hit Svångemåla today and the power was cut for some time but when I went out to have a look at the situation, I saw Mrs Deer walking around not far from my door. I went inside to get my camera, took a few pictures but did not notice that she actually twinkled at me before she jumped into the high grass. This must be a first; a deer flirting with a bear! I take it as a good sign and hope she will come even closer the next time.

Glad midsommar ! Happy midsummer!

Midsummer, the maybe most popular of all holidays in Sweden, is here. In the northern parts of Sweden the sun will never set and even as far south as in Svångemåla, it never gets really dark. The whole of Sweden is getting ready to celebrate by eating herring, drinking snaps, sing silly songs and dance around the midsummer pole. The latter is actually a phallus symbol and this, as well as some of the dances where, for examples, the dancers pretend to be frogs are, particularly to foreigners, a bit strange. I know this for sure after having tried to explain it all to a group of students from twelve different countries on a campus in Vermont many years ago. They also seemed a bit doubtful when they were told that they could find out about their wife / husband to be by picking seven different flowers, put them under your cushion and, voila, he / she will show up in your dream! If they only know the power of midsummer!

In Svångemåla the fragrance of jasmine is getting stronger and stronger, the white peony is in full bloom, and the hop-bine has reached the top of the pole or about four and a half meter. Even more exciting is the news that Fred and Frida Fox have been successful in bringing two really cute babies to the village. I almost laugh out loud when they showed off their jump and dance show in front of the car last evening. Let us only hope that their happiness is not dependent on other parents’ offspring. :(

Glad midsommar!

Comments

Dear All,

Thanks for the many emails you have sent me regarding my blog. I was not aware that you had difficulties posting comments directly on the blog but I have now removed the requirement to be logged in and you can even post anonymous comments. Please do! It is always nice to hear from you.

Dear Mrs Deer is here!

My dear Mrs Deer has finally showed up. She has probably been busy reproducing but nice weather and plenty of good food brought her out. I am sure she has a baby or two but the grass is just too high for me to see them. Hopefully she will parade them a bit later as she usually does.

Baby boom in Svångemåla!

Those of you who have read my blog know that a woodpecker "visited" me some weeks ago. It was not the kind of visit you look forward to but I forgot all grudges today when I saw and heard her little baby, sticking out his head calling for more, much more food. He was obviously very hungry and I could hear him calling his mother all the way from our house. There are many baby birds flying around now and I am happy that they have so many mosquitoes to eat. J Pity the mosquitoes are trying to eat me but maybe it is all part of the natural circle?

Lucky!

Sometimes you have to be lucky when taking photos! Today I was taking pictures of our rhododendron when suddenly a butterfly came into the pictures. No skills, just pure luck! But you have to agree, it is a special picture!

Mosquitos

I know they would come. They come every year and you just have to take the right actions to survive. They are the most deadly animals on earth and hated by all but the birds. I am of course talking about the mosquitoes. There are two factors that determines if it is going to be a bad or really bad mosquito year – the temperature and the precipitation. This has been a fairly dry year and it is not particularly hot either so it is, so far, only a bad mosquito year. It is still enough of them to make the birds stuffed after only a few rounds with an open mouth and me crazy after fifteen minutes of cutting the grass. I have, however, bought a new anorak that is made of a soft mosquito net. Perfect if you do not enjoy either constantly beating yourself when trying to kill the small creatures or scratching yourself until you bleed when you have been bitten in the most incredible places. There are a number of different ointments that make you smell like some sort of walking chemistry laboratory but most of them are not particularly effective. In other parts of Sweden I have heard that they use urine on the skin to keep them away. I have not tried that yet. I have, however, used the same strategy as male dogs, rhinos and many other animals do to keep the badger away and, knock wood, it seems to have realized that it is messing with a bear and should be a bit careful. I have not declared victory just yet since I have not seen any white flags and the summer is far from over.

Talking about the small helicopters... a wise man once said that if you think that you are too small to have an impact, you have never spent a night in a tent with a mosquito!

Dear Mews,

Dear Mews, Who ever and where ever you are, thanks for your comments on my pictures. You made my day and to give something back, here are two pictures I have taken today. Unfortunately I am not sure about the English names but the red one is some form of poppy. If you know the name of the second one, please let me know. I lover flowers but have serious problems remember their names.

The flowers are also to two close friends who are struggling a bit in South Africa and Florida. I think of you and hope to hear from you soon.

BBBB !

It has happened again! Bad Boy Badger Bo has returned and made my lawn look like a newly planted potato field again. Argh!!!!!!! There must be one thousand and more places that at better hunting grounds for worms and other goodies than my lawn. The fight is on. I have already put up a strobe with motion detector but if that is not enough I will definitely go some steps further. A canon? A bit difficult to get in Svångemåla. Boiling water? A picture of myself? I am angry and never ever underestimate an angry bear! One of the problems is that I never know when he/she decides to attack and I cannot sit in the kitchen and look for him/her all night long, day after day if he/she does not show up. Traps are commonly used but I have also been told that they are not very efficient. It is a serious problem and a solution must be found. Right now all visitors risk their ankles going from the guesthouse to my entrance and that is not acceptable. My brain is full of ideas but which one am I going to pursue? Any suggestions?

Breaking News!!!!

This time of the year is very exciting in Svångemåla! A lot of flowers and plants are just sprouting out of the ground and right now Lily of the Valley, chive, and peonies are incredible. The fragrance of the lilies can be felt even when sitting in a car and the peonies are shining like traffic lights in the middle of all the shades of green. Wonderful!

The great news is, however, that Mrs and Mr Crane today let me see their two small “babies”. It is the first time I have ever seen crane chickens so close to our house and I am not so sad that Fred the Fox is not around just now. It might even be a direct result of FF’s disappearance from the scene. Unfortunately they were a bit too far away even for a 300 mm lens but maybe I will get a chance to get closer to them before they leave Svångemåla.

Not much else is going on. The flowerpots are ready for the plants that will be bought next week, the grass is cut and, judging from the noise coming from the nest, the wagtails have a got a number of off springs that are desperate to get fed.

Boring? Not at all, this is what life in Svångemåla is all about. When and if I need more excitement, I can always go to Alsjöholm and enjoy looking at the newly painted church, travel a bit further and buy a pizza in Påryd or even all the way to Nybro where the razzmatazz really starts!

Golf

Svångemåla has unfortunately no golf course but all its inhabitants play golf. This makes it a truly unique village. One of the main reasons for this exceptional interest in the noble game is its closeness to no less than four golf courses. Two are within 25 minutes drive and the other two are not more than a further 10 minutes away. Two of the courses are also in the deep forests with plenty of water and deep rough while the other two are closer to the sea and have more of a seaside feel to them.

I have had the great pleasure to play three times since coming back to Svångemåla and it has been a real joy every time. It is hard to explain to those who have never tried the game but the mixture of physical activity, social interaction and nature experience makes it the probably most rewarding of all hobbies or sports than I can think of. It is also one of the few sports that you can enjoy regardless of your playing partners abilities. The last game was a three ball with two old friends and the banter started already on the first tee and the joking never stopped until we drove away from the parking lot. A nice lunch before the game and a cup of coffee after did not make the day less enjoying.

(Svångemåla’s total population is currently three adults.)

Nordic Walking

The Nordic Walking craze has hit Svångemåla! In less than two weeks three Nordic Walkers have been spotted and heard! The noise some make when rushing through the forest on a gravel road is very impressing. Almost like the rally cars that used to pass some years ago. This might be the reason why Fred the fox and Martin the moose have not been seen. They are both very shy and when someone comes into their domain, they usually retreat deeper into the woods. It can, of course, also be my own presence that have scared them away but I do not think so since at least Fred got used to hear and see me and was sometimes even at bit curious about what was going on and came closer when he heard me. Come to think of it, maybe it is a Frida and Martina?

Spring is a wonderful time of the year. To my mind, the best of all seasons. It is the time of renewal, re-birth, hope, and freshness. Nature is waking up after its winter sleep and we all have big hopes and ideas about what everything that grows will look like, smell, taste and feel. You can watch the play from a distance and admire the many shades of green or you can bend down or go closer and watch how small, budding leaves in a few days time grow and grow and eventually become the sun collectors that will give the trees the strength and energy to climb a bit higher, give us shade, whisper secrets in the wind and send energy to our tired souls and bodies. The power of big trees is one of the insight you can learn more about in the book “The Celestine Prophesy” and I strongly believe it is true that you can get energy from big trees and even help to heal both your body and soul.

The two pictures show a lime tree leave just outside my kitchen window that we planted some few years ago and the other a more exotic tree called “handkerchief tree” I saw today in Kalmar about 30 km from Svångemåla. It is originally from China and is one of the strangest trees I have ever seen. It looks like it is covered with handkerchiefs or small ghosts flying around in the leaves.

Apples to be

Smelling a rat !?

Dead rats smell. A lot. All who have lived in an old house know what I am talking about. The smell does not last for very long but I have heard storied about house owners who have removed floors and walls just to get rid of the dead creature. I was, therefore, a bit concerned when I started to feel a sweet, unpleasant smell in the back entrance of the house. It was not very strong and an open door now and then took care of the smell for a while but it was back in the morning and slowly, slowly I started to realize that I had to do something about it. It is not the best way to greet people and if the cold and damp weather continues, it might take a long time before the poor animal has mummified completely.

Since I had not vacuumed since I came back, I decided to start my general cleaning up by doing so. It is not one of my favourite household tasks but since a few dead flies and dust had gathered during the time I spent in Vienna, it had to be done. I started in the back entrance and I immediately found the dead rat. It turned out to be an eight-meter rubber covered measuring band I bought just before I left Vienna. The rubber gives away a strange smell and I now know why Zgonc (a hardware store in Austria) smells a bit foul!

Conclusion, it might be boring but vacuuming might solve more problems than you can imagine.

Ghost

Friday evening and a sudden knock on the door makes me jump up from the sofa to see who is coming to visit me. I am very surprised since it is almost nine and there are not many who come to visit you at that time of the day in Svångemåla. And sure enough, no one was waiting for me to open. Spooky. And then I heard the knock again! Hm. What is going on? I took some steps to look at the other side of the house but no, I could not see anyone. Is someone making fun of me or what is going on? Then one more knock and I am now sure a ghost is running around my house. I walk slowly back towards the door when the “ghost” suddenly appears in the form of a beautiful black, white and red woodpecker. I am relived that it was only a bird that had scared me but at the same time I started to wonder what it had tried to catch on my house. A worm, a beetle, or what? I will probably never know but I am a bit concerned that I have a guest that might not go away that easily. Many have fought hard battles to scare away woodpeckers and there are many stories about humans going mad before the bird leaves. To be continued…. maybe.

Culture chock

What does it mean or do to you to move from a big city in one country to a VERY small village in another? I have not really thought of it before since I consider both places, Vienna and Svangemåla, to be “home” but today it hit me that it is a bit like a culture chock. At first you feel like you are on a holiday and you enjoy every new aspect of the new situation and location. At the same time, and since I know both places so well, this feeling disappears after just a few days and you are “back” and the first feeling of almost euphoria is definitely gone. Old memories come back and remind you of both the good times and the bad times. You get involved and engaged in the lives and events that are the daily lives of those who live in the place you have just come to and forget about “the other place”. It is particularly difficult if you move from a situation where you have broadband to one where you hardly have any “band” at all. The flow of information and communication is, when I move from Vienna to Svångemåla, suddenly reduced to a trickle of telephone conversations, short SMS, emails and glimpses of the most important web-pages. The radio and the TV are there but the one-way communication they provide cannot at all replace what a broadband connection can do for you.

All in all, it takes a lot of mental energy to get settled in and in the meantime you forget what you normally remember, like a good friend’s operation, and you get a bit disorganized since you are trying to do too many things without proper planning and thought out strategy. This is normal for any culture chock and I know that I am soon back to “normal”. In two weeks or so, my life and work will be as well organized as they used to be and nothing will be forgotten or cause any frustration. J

And it has started to rain. It is needed but it also means that I am stuck indoors and cannot enjoy what Svangemåla is all about, the nature.

Väder och växtlighet

Det har varit mycket torrt i Svångemåla den här våren. Den lilla bäcken är nästan helt uttorkad och det ser allmänt torrt ut men i natt kom det lite regn. Det kändes riktigt i luften att den tvättades ren och blev som ny igen. Innan regnet kom var det stora skillnader mellan natt och dag temperaturen (från minus 3 till plus 20 C) men molnen har gjort att det blir kallare på dagarna och varmare på nätterna. De kalla nätterna har gjort att växtligheten inte riktigt exploderat utan kommer lite i taget, så som vi alla vill att våren skall vara.

Räven har fortfarande inte synts till men två harar har skuttat omkring på vägen och visat upp sig. Olika hackande fåglar bygger bo i de döda asparna och deras morse-signalerande hörs vida omkring när de kommer igång.

Granbarkborren har angripit några granar på andra sidan vägen och ägaren har huggit ner dem för att förhindra att ännu fler träd drabbas men tyvärr kan man redan se att det är minst två till som börjat dö. De nerhuggna har skapat en fin öppning ut mot öster som gör att vi får lite mer sol än vad vi haft tidigare tidigt på dagarna.

Birds :)

It is five a clock in the morning and the Bear is sleeping when the noise starts. At first it is only a few, rather weak and almost pleasant bibs but they are increasingly getting many more and much louder and eventually, they sound like a starting jumbo jet and it is not possible to sleep any longer. What is going on in Svångemåla? Construction work? Rock concert? No, birds! And more birds! Happy birds, mating birds, fighting birds, small birds, a bit bigger birds, birds in all colours and everywhere. At five a clock in the morning “silent spring” is just something to dream about. I turn on the radio and listen to some sleepy music that covers the wave of noise coming from the flying animals on amphetamine that have invaded my kingdom. It works and I go back to sleep for a couple of more hours. It is not only the birds that create havoc in Svångemåla. Badgers have decided to convert my lawn into a potato field or something similar. They are poking holes everywhere and, unlike golfers, they do not put back the divots. Seriously bad. My dear mother once accused me of practising my golf swing a bit too recklessly when the badgers visited some years ago and I would have loved to show her again that I, as most of the time, was completely innocent. Hopefully a stroboscope with a built in motion detector will keep them away or I have to come up with a more drastic solution.

Äntligen svar på frågorna!

Nyanländ till Svångemåla kan jag konstatera att: tranan går som vanligt och letar mat på maden, sädesärlorna är i full fart, grävligen har försökt hitta något att äta i den snustorra backen upp mot boden, räven har inte synts till ännu och stormen Per tog toppen av björken vid brasan. Det mesta är sig med andra ord ganska likt vilket är skönt. Nu gäller det att få lite plantor i marken även om humlen sprutar upp ur marken. Det är dock stor skillnad mellan den svenska och den österrikiska. Den senare är nämnligeninte mer än några cm hög medan den svenska redan nått mer än en meter över marken.

Nog för idag. Mer spännande nyheter kommer snart så stay tuned!!!

Vårgrönska?

Det verkar bli fint väder i såväl Wien som Svångemåla den närmaste tiden och det känns skönt.Det är aldrig roligt när det regnar och är småruskigt när man är på landet även om det kanske behövs lite nederbörd för att grönskan skall bli riktigt skir och fin.

Det fungerar

Great! It works. Not much to report from Svangemala since I am still in Vienna :) but that will change in a few days time. Until then, take care!

Ok, time to start blogging!

Yea, nu skall det bloggas från den djupa skogen i Småland. Har räven kommit ut ur grytet? Är älgen på språng? Tranorna kvar? Frågorna är många och svaren få så here we go...