Uncle Henry´s Universe.

After the holidays, the working week has been varied. Have had time for a flat tire on our company car, have marked boundaries for some nature reserves and received a new toilet for Lisselåsen Nature Reserve.

I have also managed to be two days on course to get permission to use the brushcutter. (A tool I have been working with most of the professional life.)

The picture shows the teacher and two other students, all followers of the soft values, such as toddlers, puppies and crushed birch saplings!

Yesterday was the handover of the new nature reserve Björnhultet. Fredrik Wilde, the man who created it, proudly displays his creation for the trustee Johanna Malmgren. The poor man, who is coming to perform all the heavy work, is behind the camera.

The month of May, when spring normally turns into early summer.

Yesterday I tried to drive to the nature reserve Abborrtjärnsberg, to plan the week’s work. 10 cm of fresh snow went well with the help of four-wheel drive, but when snow depth suddenly became 45 cm, it got worse! With the help of four-wheel drive, low range and differential lock, I managed to finally get out of there. The work must probably wait a week or so…

Summer is still far away!

Golden Saxifrage. Chrysosplenium alternifolium – L

A wonderful spring flower that many hikers do not seem to notice. Unassuming and sheer. Love acid soils by the sides of streams, wet rocks and wet ground in woods, usually in shade. Found in North America and Europe, including Britain, from Scandanavia south to C. France, east to C. Asia and the Himalayas.

(Gultberget, april 2012.)

Ginbergsängen is the southernmost reserve that I care. 82 hectares of swamp forest on an isthmus at the river Klarälven. Lots of dead wood, which benefits both insects and woodpeckers, but often causes extra work for maintenance of trails. This year had a rough birch fallen and damaged the railing of a bridge.

Always nice to have jobs that give clear results, sometimes challenging, often heavy, but nearly always in very inspiring surroundings. I am spoiled! I spend almost all working hours in the finest forests we have in the county.

Birdsong is deafening in the reserve right now, and for some weeks to come. Make sure you visit it before the mosquitoes wake up. Welcome!

165 hectares of wilderness! A pearl among the nature reserves that I care, always exciting to visit. Here I have traced both the wolf, lynx and bear over the years. Beaver is easy to see along Jolen, the creek that crosses the reserve. A friend also had a fantastic meeting with otters, during a night fishing trip, last year.

The reserve is known as one of the area’s best venues for capercaillie. An amazing spectacle that I wish that everyone would experience once in their lives. Just bring your sleeping bag, lie down under a tree and wait for dawn.

Here is also a good place to listen to different kinds of owls. I myself have heard the pygmy owl, boreal owl, tawny owl, Nothern Hawk owl, Ural owl and last year I heard for the first time in my life, a Great Grey Owl. A dull and distinctive sound.

When I was abused by a Ural owl in the reservation, must be told at another time. Be careful out there!

Welcome!

It was such a beautiful morning that I took some time off, can´t work every day. Seize the day and have fun doing it! …. As Fred says!

Our meadow needs to be cleared of leaves and twigs before the summer, it becomes easier to use the scythe, then. There are a lot of work but well worth the effort. Furthermore, you can listen for newly arrived birds and that is always nice.

Found a new copy of leathery grapefern , Botrychium multifidum. Cool! It seem to thrive fantastic on our meadow, also seems to spread. Botrychium multifidum is protected, NT on the Red List and I am extremely proud that we have it in the meadow.

Now blooms a very modest flower, the Alpine Pennycress, Thlaspi caerulescens. We have it everywhere on the farm. The local name is “turd blossom” … Truly a misleading name. Look closely at it and enjoy, it’s a little beauty!

Now is also Lisselåsen Nature Reserve ready for visitors. Even here, there were colorful “spring flowers”. When I´m cleaned the parking I got several sacks …

Last year, someone had dropped a meter-long broken plastic moose … Amazing!

At last, the snow has melted from the nature reserves on the lower altitude, so I can start this seasons job with maintenance. Hiking trails will be cleared of branches and fallen trees. Debris should be removed and recreational devices be reviewed.

This morning’s bitter 10 degrees below zero meant that blue anemones crouched with cold.

Frost on spruce needles.

Lush greenery and dead wood. Gultberget is an exciting nature reserve founded in 1999. It is easily accessible, only 12 km north of Torsby and signposted from the European highway 45 in Fensbol.

Now it is ready for visitors, welcome!

I took an evening stroll, listened to the first robin singing, first warning Wren, met the spring’s first viper. The darker variety that is most common in the mountains here. Photographed with my iPhone, worked okay, the low temperature did the snake slow. Otherwise I would never have dared to get that close.

Took some friends out this weekend, to show the fascination with eagle inventory, but I’m not sure if they understand me… Mumbled something about April 1 joke!