Gathering food

Here’s one prior to my camera stopping working…..

August is the time that the berry collecting season gets underway,

beginning with Clouberry (Hjortron in Swedish).  Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) is a member of the same family as Blackberry, but grows close to the ground and only bears one fruit.  But not all plants bear fruit as some are male and some are female.

The fruit is orange/yellow in colour and has a distinctive smell which travels for some distance when the fruit are ripe.

This is a typical area where Cloudberry grows.

Once home, the Cloudberries are cleaned and divided up into small bags for use during the long winter.

The Blueberries will be gathered next and shortly after the Cow Berry/Lingon.

We are also harvesting our potatoes now after our first frost last week.  The first ones we harvested were at the cabin

There was a surprisingly good crop from ten plants, which were set in June.

We store the food in a cold store in the cellar.

We found this while out collecting

So thanks to Jonas we now know that this is “gul parasollmossa (Splachnum luteum) which is Norrbottens landskapsmossa”…..Thanks Jonas :>)

And now for the news……!!

I have been unhappy in my job for some considerable time now and previously in my life in similar circumstances a new opportunity of employments has always presented itself  but not (as I thought) this time.

However, during this period of discontent I started travelling to Swedish Lapland, and as a result the opportunity to buy my cabin presented itself

During a snowy three week stay at my cabin in May 2008 a couple appeared late one afternoon walking their dog (the only people I had ever met there) and came to introduce themselves.  Anki spoke some English but Ingvar did not and at that time I spoke virtually no Swedish!  Somehow we managed to communicate and I was invited to their cabin  for coffee and some food.  We have become very good friends and I often refer to them as my Swedish mamma and pappa.  During several subsequent trips I have become good friends with there family with whom I get on very well and they all make me very welcomed.

Over the last five months my friendship with their daughter Teres has developed into a relationship and as someone who loves to be out in the forest and the nature we are ideally suited .

So I have come to realise that it was not a new opportunity for employment that was presenting itself to me, but the opportunity to begin a new life in a place where I love to be and with people I love to be with!!

For that reason I have over the past few weeks been executing a plan which has culminated in me today giving my employer my letter of resignation from my job.  My last day of employment will be Friday 29th January and on Tuesday 2nd February I leave the United Kingdom to begin a new life with Teres, Simon, Sebastian, Emma and the rest of the family in Swedish Lapland!!

My home, car and furniture have been sold and the belongings I will not take with me have either been sold, given away or dumped.  I am paying to ship only 200kgs of my belongings to Sweden (thanks Rick) as this continued journey of discovery and learning of bushcraft and wilderness living skills teaches me that many of the things I valued in the past really aren’t that important!

To all my friends you will be more than welcomed to share a place around my fire anytime.

I will be posting here over the next month when I can and I will be continuing this site once I am living in Lapland.

My first post

I have just returned from a two week trip to my cabin in Swedish Lapland, where I have been practicing and developing my skills.

Here is a picture of my cabin, showing the cabin, sauna house and boat house.

I also have the fishing rights to the lake.