Nature in all its forms
- Alexis
- Aug 15, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 14
Note : post published August 15th 2022
In Sweden nature belongs to everyone and everyone belongs in nature.
Discovering Scandinavia
Lending a hand to a family in exchange for lodging and meals is a great way to discover a country and its culture especially when you have the time 😎
It's the principle of help exchange which is better explained here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HelpX
4 star hotel and infinite supermarket
But for me it primarily means encounters :
👨👩👦👦 First, meeting this German family more Scandinavian than Scandinavia itself
🐕 Then, their dog and four cats with whom I quickly became close
🧙♂️ Next, a retired nuclear engineer too keen on discovering alternative energy and who thought I could assist
🦌 Finally, a moose, three roe deer, two slowworms, a tick and a few mosquitoes
After these fantastic encounters comes the work, this famous "helping hand" that starts in the garden and allows you to eat to your heart's content.
Philosophizing with green beans
Finding and harvesting beans isn't just a means of sustenance but also a beautiful life lesson that I'd summarize with these few teachings :
Step back and change your perspective to find the bean
Understand the bean and put yourself in its place
Be patient in your quest for the bean
Apply mosquito repellent
Learn to live with different beans
Lift each leaf and tirelessly search for the hidden bean
I'll let you draw parallels (however flimsy they may be) with life, people and everything else.
I can already hear some saying I've gone too far and I'll remind them that it takes a while to pick these little green things hiding in a green background so understand there's time to wander off.
On the road to self-sufficiency
Vi gillar att veta var vår mat kommer ifrån - H.D.
How can one disagree ?
Yet, achieving this goal seems so simple :
Giant vegetable garden for fruits and veggies like zucchinis, potatoes, strawberries or pumpkins
Chicken coop with roosters and hens for meat and eggs (obviously)
Shooting deer, wild boar, moose, and other careless creatures venturing too close to the garden (we're not talking about photography here, apologies to animal lovers)
Fishing in the house's lake for fish, crayfish and maybe even eels with a bit of luck (again, sorry to animal lovers)
Foraging in the woods to make homemade wine from blueberries or mushroom omelettes
100% the garden to the plate
Who gives receives
Nature has so much to offer that it's hard to imagine anything better than a kayaking excursion and wild camping to get an idea.
It's perfect because that's precisely what the family proposed a few days after my arrival !
So, if we're diving into clichés, might as well go all in and in pictures. It's something like this :
Did you know ?
In Sweden it's possible to camp anywhere even on someone's property as long as a sufficient distance is maintained from dwellings : in summary nature belongs to everyone.
To infinity and beyond 🚀
Bonus
To cultivate one's garden
🎶 Les Valeurs, Darmon - Bon Entendeur
Comentários