Why we love a landscape is a brain thing
Nature is good for people, to state the obvious. But did you ever wonder why a place, a landscape affects or even overwhelms you, to stay with you forever? Why do we feel like this? What is it that we find there? Above all, is there an explanation for the appreciation? Certainly. It is a […]
Portage Glacier, an Alaskan journey in time
Portage Glacier across the two miles of lake. Surrounded by towering mountains that plunge straight into the water. Nature’s splendour right in front of me. Old friends we are, meeting once in a while. Today Gibbs will paddle his way up to greet the glacier again. Portage Glacier is an Earth time travel I am […]
The Hidden Life of Trees- A reality fairy tale
The Hidden Life of Trees. A book title that suggests secrets and fairy tales. Both are here to discover, following the footsteps of the author and forester Peter Wohlleben, and Petter Elmberg who read the book and now write about it. A forest is a magical place indeed, a lot is happening out there. It’s […]
River reflections on climate change
River reflections and climate change, the actual subject matter. Framed in one single image since this picture represents what is important in life. To me, that is, hopefully to a lot of other people as well. Interdependence of systems. How we fit in. We love people, we love nature, we love things. Not […]
Iceland 2 – A festival of geology
Sparsely-populated, this North Atlantic island is one of the most volcanically active regions in the world. And if this weren’t enough, volcanism in Iceland is unusually diverse for an oceanic island. Nearly all volcano types and eruption styles known on Earth can be found here. The place is a festival of geology with a free […]
Nature as a nuisance, meaning mosquitoes and midges
Nature bites back Why we are on the mosquito’s diet is a question to which the answer is clear: the females use our blood as a source of protein for their eggs. How to withstand nature’s nuisance is rather more of a challenge, certainly less simple and unambiguous as well, because a Scandinavian summer is […]
A rust brown start of Scandinavian spring
Nature’s colors arrange for renewal at the beginning of a Scandinavian spring. The grayish green of the reindeer moss, the vivid green of the young spruces, the rust brown of grass. And the birch trees are shown as a haze of purple, stretched out along the hills. Small, tiny spruces are fighting over territory, feverishly […]
Winter’s dark months paradox: less sunlight brings longer days in Dalarna
Wintertime in the Nordic countries brings splendid bright days with ice and snow but also the dark months with limited daylight. During the so called mörketid, the dark period with the Winter Solstice as center point, the sun will be below the horizon for weeks north of the Arctic Circle. More to the south, a […]
How firm Old Tjikko relates to Japanese aesthetics
At last I know why I am so fascinated by this Old Tjikko. The tree mystery has revealed itself from the shades of distant memory, coming up with an unexpected explanation. The appearance of this tree, in combination with its natural environment, reminds me of Japan. This needs some clarification. How could a small Norway […]
The oldest spruce tree in the world
It is said that every man must do three things in life: plant a tree, have a child and build a house. Ernest Hemingway allegedly added a fourth, i.e., writing a novel. Let’s focus on the trees, commonly liked by everyone. During our childhood they are favourably disposed towards being used as elevated playground area. […]
