Bäckalund

The name of the village is Svångemåla but the plot or estate is called Bäckalund which can be translated to "The Grove at the Stream". It got its name from a very small stream that runs as our border towards our neighbor's land. It is dry most of the year even when we got normal amounts of rain and 2018 it was dry almost the whole year. This year, however, it is filled with water and you can hear a very tiny water fall on a day without any wind.

Water

As some of you might remember most of Sweden suffered from a severe drought last year. I put some pictures of a nearby dam (Björnasjö)  on the blogg and also some pics of how brown our lawn was. It has not rained a lot since but the water levels are back to normal and if the weather this year is more normal we hope and think that the vegetation will recover.

Above: The channel that links the two parts of Svångemåla lake.

To the left and below: The dam at Björnasjö that was almost empty in December last year. See my earlier post below on the blogg.

 To the far right you can see a small boat that was on dry land just some months ago. Compare it to the second last picture from 3rd December 2018.

Spring time !

The Blue Anemone is a sure sign of spring in Svångemåla. The drought killed the plants in some parts of Sweden but we are lucky to still have a few on  our plot. 

 The Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is not a bird that I associate with spring but this one enjoyed the sun and looked very healthy. I am surprised by its very blue head. 

 The Common Brimstone is one of the earliest butterflies you see and together with the many blue flowers that are common this time of the year, they make for nice pictures :)

 A Middle spotted woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius) started to let all other know that he is present and will not tolerate any competition!

 It was a sunny day and not only the  Common brimstone was out enjoying the weather. This Camberwell Beauty landed just in front of me on the gravel. 

Various willow bushes are seen as indicators of spring in Sweden.

The end of 2018

Dark, foggy and hardly any colors. The end of the year is near and it is time to leave Svångemåla for the last time this year. The Field is still beautiful but I like it far more when it is full of flowers and birds.

 It was cold when we arrived on the last day of November and frost formed interesting and pretty patterns and formations.

Large parts of Svångemåla are protected as a Biosphere reserve which means that trees that fall down cannot be removed. Looks a bit untidy but the insects and birds love it!

This time of the year everything is wet, wet, wet.

Strong winds blew some weeks ago and took down a large tree that hit our neighbor's barn.  Luckily no one was injured.

Climate change ?

This summer was one of the driest and warmest I can remember. The ground water level sank and several households with their own wells had problems. A large dam not far from Svångemåla is the water reservoar for Kalmar ( a town of about 40,000 inhabitants,  30 k away from Svångemåla ) as well as a fishing lake and a place to go swimming. Due to the dry weather it now looks like this. Hardly any water left, the fish might even die if the winter gets really cold and all the water freeze. If you have read this blog very carefully and got an exceptional memory you might remember this story : http://svangemalanews.blogspot.com/2012/08/airplane-crash.html?m=0  

The landscape now looks very strange and although it is beautiful and dramatic in some ways, it scares me that this is what most lakes might look like in the future.

Note the boat to the far right of the picture!

Pigs :((

The wild pigs are coming back :(   After some months of relative peace, the wild pigs have started to move around and disrupt Svångemåla again. Our neighbors have had a few of them in their garden and a really big one has almost cut off the gravel road to Svångemåla. Something must be done to stop them or they will take over!

Örarevet November 2018

Örarevet is, as most of you know, one of my favorite places. I have already shown several pictures from the small nature reserve and regardless of when I go there I always find new, interesting and beautiful things and scenes to take pictures of. At the bottom of the post is a text in Swedish (from Wikipedia) that gives you some facts. As always, click on the picture to enlarge it!

Örarevet är ett naturreservat i Söderåkra socken i Torsås kommun i Kalmar län.

Området är skyddat sedan 1973 och omfattar 165 hektar, varav 122 är vattenområde. Örarevet är en två kilometer lång rullstensås. Till denna hör ett trettiotal låga holmar och skär, uppbyggda av lösa moränavlagringar.

Örarevet ligger på en gammal samhällighet tillhörig Gunnarstorps by. Revet utgörs av en rullstensås som sträcker sig som en lång udde söderut i Kalmarsund. På själva revet finns flera fornlämningar och spår av gammal bebyggelse. Innanför revet ligger en moränskärgård var rika fågelliv och ovanliga vegetation har motiverat bildandet av naturreservatet.

Den sydligaste delen av Örarevet kallas Stuvenäsören, och därutanför ligger Örahuvudet som en separat ö. Miljön här påminner om den på Gotland med vindpinade tallar strandvallar av klappersten. En liten fiskarstuga ligger ute på Stuvenäsrören och en på Örahuvudet. På Stuvenäsrören finns även rester av skansar från 1600-talet.

Autumn

Autumn is not my favorite time of the year. It gets dark early and the sun comes up late. Not many birds are around but the colors are just amazing!