Uncle Henry´s Universe.

Now it won’t get any darker. Slowly but surely the days will get longer, the light stronger and hope will return.

Right now, nature around us is moving at a delightfully quiet pace. The birdsong is low-key, sporadic, only occasional beeps or chirps or some lone raven gossiping about nothing.

The trees sleep and plants rest before the next growing season, when the splendor of color and the buzz of insects will once again paint the landscape with abundant brushstrokes. A busy time. Wonderful but demanding.

It has turned, it is on its way, but there is still time for reflection. To enjoy stillness, silence and all the little wonders we have around us. Beauty painted with snow. Intricate patterns, shades of color and promises of yet undiscovered adventures.

Silflay is feeding time, or to be more precise, “to eat outdoors” in Lapine, the language the rabbits speak!

For the past few weeks, a arctic hare has been eating breakfast in our garden. We call it “our little gardener” because it takes care of our raspberries and cuts our grass. So far it hasn’t touched any vegetables, but it thinks cornflowers are really tasty!

This arctic hare is unusually fearless. We can do our gardening without disturbing it, when we make small talk with it it looks at us for a moment, as if considering a response, but instead continues to eat, it seems to have a higher priority.

My thoughts go to Watership Down, the wonderful novel that Richard Adams wrote and published in 1972. Considered by many literary experts as one of the world’s 100 best books. I read it in the seventies and loved it. The story of Hazel, Fiver and the other rabbits in a colony whose meadows, their whole world, are threatened by human progress and who set out to find a new home for the colony.

If you haven’t read the book (but you should…) you may have seen the movie. Where the theme song, Bright Eyes is sung by Art Garfunkel.

In the time we live in now, the story feels awfully topical. We are the rabbits on the run and at the same time the man who threatens all living things on the only planet we have… How and where will we find our thriving meadows.

Restaurant happy bird has opened for the season. Free buffet, no corona restrictions and perfectly timed, the snow is pouring down today.

Yesterday was the autumn equinox, now it will be shorter days and longer nights all the way to Christmas time! Isn’t that lovely, so say…

Strong wind gusts are not suitable for paragliding, took the kayak for a ride instead. The color palette is increasing every day, autumn is a fantastic season in its own way.

In the garden, most flowers have withered, but in our spice garden, there are urgent times for the insects that are still left. The bumblebees that live in the wall of our cabin still collect pollen and even some butterfly as soon as the sun appears for a while.

It has been a nice summer with lush greenery and lots of flowers. All sorts of insects, birds and animals have lived in our garden and in our outbuildings. I have been forced to round two large bumblebee nests with the lawnmower and talk gently with a gray flycatcher on top of the kitchen window.

And the taste from a good berry season will be there until next summer.

70 km of hiking trails are prepared for visitors, most birdhouses are in place, only one habitat with long-bearded lichen left to inventory and the work with mowing and haymaking has just begun. The work is going according to plan, the only thing missing now is inspiration for the blog …

I slip away for a few more days and let Greta say a few wise words instead. For those of you who are not Swedish-speaking and who missed her summer talk on the radio, it is now also available in an English-language version. Sit back, listen, and contemplate.

…I apparently fail to embed Greta, try this link instead: https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1535269

My internet service provider decided to turn off the copper wire network at the end of the month before they had completed the fiber connection … so now we are many loyal customers who are slightly irritated. (The fiber connection should be ready this autumn, but we have heard that for several years now!) After some calls to the support and some less successful solutions, I have now switched to another company. And a few seconds later – woops, a well-functioning internet via 4G.

Summer is here, great! First kayaking trip completed. If paragliding is freedom in the sky, then kayaking is freedom at sea. Both are refined nature experiences, subtle silence, and freedom to be where rarely others are. You move quietly and show up unexpectedly, which is why it is important to respect the home peace zone for both humans, animals, and breeding birds.

When we are free from our work with nature reserves, we like to visit other nature reserves … Okay, a little geeky maybe, but it is relaxing and interesting to visit other types of nature than the ones we find on a daily basis. Last time we visited Gullrosas Berg (Mountain). Gullrosa is a traditional name for a cow, and according to legend, a cow of that name should have crashed and died in the ravines that run across the mountain plateau and the reserve. Nowadays there are no grazing cows in the area, it is exclusively a nature reserve and outdoor area.

Cloudberry flowers and common cottongrass shone white on the marshes. Atmospheric, hope for good berry season this year.

The varied forest and beautiful views made the visit pleasant. A nice reserve that we would love to visit again. We walked the “tough” trail with a little steeper section, the family trail may be next time.

In conclusion, I would like to tell you that we were ringing this year’s new golden eagle kids this week. In one of the nests, which I could not see into but had only heard one kid, there turned out to be two. Both in good health. Lovely! Three kids ringed total.

In a blossoming sea and with a sky of birdsong, our work continues to clear hiking trails in the nature reserves.

It’s a crappy job, but someone has to do it…

Wood anemone, common hepatica and alternate-leaved golden-saxifrage will be our floor throughout the day’s work in Gultberget nature reserve.

Common wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, with fresh sour taste, covers the ground between coarse spruces and has also found a sanctuary in the crevice between two tree trunks.

During December – February the moose bulls lose their horns, when the snow disappears in the spring you can find really nice ones if you are lucky. Large and heavy horns are usually not too far apart but can still be difficult to find.

I try to let go the horns now, as there have been quite a few over the years … Really try! But suddenly there is an extra nice horn … and I just cannot help it. Heavy to carry but home it should!

Proud as a schoolboy, the treasure is later shown to my wife, who, with ill-concealed sarcasm, asks what I intend to do with the horn … And damn, I have never come up with any good answer!

Because of the prevalent corona pandemic in the world, humanitarian work and healthcare professionals have suddenly become heroes and are now receiving the attention and status that they reasonably should have enjoyed each day before.

Currently, the International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is closed like so much else due to covid-19, but when it reopens, I recommend a visit. You will find it in Geneva, Switzerland. There are thoughtful and interesting exhibits about the work that is going on unabated around the world. I think it can provide some perspective about what we are experiencing now that the pandemic changes everything, even in rich and secure democracies in the West, which most of us who live there are completely unaccustomed to.

The Red Cross is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and employees worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to guarantee respect for all people, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. The movement consists of several different organizations that are legally independent of each other but are united within the movement through common basic principles, goals, symbols, statutes and governing organizations.

One organization is the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) a neutral, impartial and independent organization founded in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland, by Henry Dunant and Gustave Moynier. Its mission is to assist people affected by wars, conflicts or other violent situations with protection and humanitarian efforts.

Another organization is the International Red Cross-Red Crescent Federation (IFRC) founded in 1919 and today coordinates activities between the 189 national associations within the movement. At the international level, the Federation, in close cooperation with the national associations, conducts and organizes aid missions in large-scale crises. The International Federation Secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.

National Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies are found in almost every country in the world. They work according to the principles of international humanitarian law and the charter of the international movement. In many countries, they are linked to the respective national health care systems by providing emergency care.

A museum well worth a visit, as well as so many other attractions in Geneva. A city I would love to return to when the opportunity to travel freely within Europe has returned.

When I did my military duty as a young man, I was given the opportunity to undergo medical training. This meant that during the coming years I worked as an orderly in hospitals with emergency care, in the district with home health care and in elderly care. An extremely rewarding time that enriched me in many ways, not financially in the first place but in terms of experience.

In the seventies, it was quite uncommon for a man to work in healthcare, (doctor except, of course) it was a typical women’s profession! Therefore, we were welcomed by our female colleagues who hoped that our attendance would automatically raise their low wages somewhat. Maybe even manage to change working conditions for the better …

I had a 35 km route to the hospital and often worked what we in Sweden call – shared tours. Work in the morning then 4 hours off (without pay) and then work in the evening. Four hours to kill every day, boring in the long run, there is always a lot you would like to have done at home instead.

A lot has happened since the seventies! Richard Nixon is no longer the president of the United States, we have become twice as many people in the world and Waterloo is not played as often on the radio as when ABBA won the Eurovision Contest … but health care professions in Sweden is still drawn with shared tours and in terms of wages, there is still much to be desired.

Applause, concerts and other events that pay tribute to the medical staff are of course genuinely nice, but when the pandemic is over, let us hope that it also be noted on the staff’s working conditions and wages.