On a shelf by the water below a 10 meter steep drop, we saw something as we passed by with the boat. Maneuvering closer we saw two goats settling down for an evening rest. For a human this cliff shelf is only accessible by boat or climbing down attached to a rope. Truly amazing climbers with their small feet.
Make sure your foothold is good, ha de Gött!
Like a family of little yellow gnomes, popping out of the decaying oak tree root.
Safely hidden in the fading autumn green leafs, reaching out for the eluding sun.
With yellow hats and casual collars, curiously sniffing the fresh chilly evening air.
Mycel safely connected to the root, signaling celebration their biodiversity flair.
I have not been able to find out what the name is these are, but they are beautiful still. Ha de Gött!
Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) or Sloe berries. In Swedish “Slånbär”. A bush with long sharp thorns that creates a thicket more or less impenetrable. It’s eatable but rather tart and astringent unless it has been subject to a few frosty nights.
Retract your thorns, ha de Gött!
Sometimes Forestry Ulle dress in civilian clothes and walk the city streets like a normal person. Last Friday was such an occasion. The city was Göteborg a two hour drive from the meadows of home.
You see “Stora Hamnkanalen” or “Main Harbor Canal” in the photo. City hall with the German Church behind on the right side. If some of my Dutch readers feel at home you’re probably not mistaken. City planners and engineers was hired to build the city and gave it the nickname “Little Amsterdam”. Later during the industrial revolution many British entrepreneurs found their luck here, so the nickname changed to “Little London” and that remains still today.
The city was founded in 1621 by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf. With its strategic position as a wedge to the west and the North Sea between Norway and Denmark, it was built as a fortress. Surrounded by high walls and canals in a marshland with the river Göta Älv on one side. From there ships could unload goods to smaller boats that then was rowed in to the Hamnkanal.
You can often hear my catch phrase “ha de gött” in Göteborg when people leave a shop or a tram. Stay tuned for more pictures, ha de Gött!
Sometimes all the poetry is in the picture. Ha de Gött!
I finally got around to go out to the lighthouse with the boat. The weather was fairly calm so it was okay to go in my small boat. Unfortunately I was loosing light but I still got some nice pictures. Below is a picture of the same lighthouse in storm.
The lighthouse is called “Väcker” from the small island where it’s placed. It was built in 1939 to guide ships in an area with many dangerous shallow rocks and strong winds. Several waterways intersect here. In the past goods and fishing ships depended on this for navigation but today it’s more of a landmark, or sea mark.
Light up someones day, ha de Gött!
I know, like me, many of you don’t like spiders. But I have to show you this beautiful Cross Spider (Araneus diadematus). She had spun a one by one meter web on the veranda window and just sat there waiting for a fly or a wasp. It is called “Korsspindel” in Swedish and it simply translates to Cross Spider even without my creative translation. There is a proverb in Sweden “a loved child has many names”. I guess the English speaking world love this spider. Cross spider, European garden spider, Diadem spider, Orangie, Crowned orb weaver and sometimes pumpkin spider.
Found all over Europe and North America. It is an orb-weaver spider, meaning it spins orb shaped webs. The male live a dangerous life. The female sometimes eat the male before, during or after courting. Don’t know if that is some kind of scoring system! Bad DNA I’ll eat you up, good DNA, I want more of you.
It is a common misconception that it is poisonous and dangerous to humans. Like many spiders it has a venom to paralyze its pray but it is much milder than a wasp. So harmless to humans.
So let the world and the spiders keep spinning, ha de Gött!
If you look close a whole new world appears. Ha de Gött!
Don’t know why but this toxic fungus (Amanita regalis) is called “King of Sweden Amanita” or the “Royal Fly Agaric”. Probably named by someone who dislike monarchy, specially the Swedish! In Swedish it is called “Brun Flugsvamp” translates in Haddock style to “Brown Fly Mushroom”. It is common in Scandinavia and since the Swedish kings historically been messing around with the neighbors, the name makes perfect sense.
It contains several toxins with very unpleasant effects (according to Wikipedia, not from personal experience) and even death. There is a wide spread myth that the Vikings used it as a drug for parties and before battle. There is however no evidence of this and if you think about it, why on earth would they use drugs when they invented beer!
To quote the Swedish king, “now we turn leaves”, ha de Gött!
In the garden by the pond we have a variant of a clematis with small yellow flowers in the summer. Now in the late summer sum they turn into small hairballs. Makes me think of Chewbacca the Wookie from Star Wars.
May the force be with you, ha de Gött!
UlleHaddock 