Naturskyddsföreningen


Naturskyddsföreningen is the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, and KTH Relocation had arranged for 4 recent guided events focusing "on bird watching and birds singing (as they are very active at this time of the year) and on the lovely flowering of the early summer."

We missed the  bird watching in the forest events (one because it began at 5:30am, and the evening version because we were in Italy), but went to the other two.  Mark will post on Italy, but all I can say is that it was certainly a culture shock!  We both do love it there, but Sweden is certainly easier.

The first was a trip to Fjäderholmarna (the closest island in the Archipelgo) and was very exciting because we finally got to take a boat to get there.  It turned out to be a very cold day so no sunbathing on the cliffs for us, but we still had a good time as it was nesting season (photos of goose and gull nests).


Today they rented a bus to take us to Tullgarns Slott / Royal Castle Tullgarn (about an hour away, and really hard to get to without a car).  It was a beautiful sunny day and we spent two hours exploring the palace park and learning about the native wildflowers and trees and birds.  There were quite a variety of landscapes ranging from formal avenues to wildflower meadows to a landscape garden to an Italian garden to an outdoor theatre and a birding area on the bay.  It was all incredibly beautiful.  We also learned that lilacs are not native here, although they certainly thrive.  This is a KTH lilac area that we walk by every day as it is between the apartment and the department.  We were shocked when we realized what the barren plant when we arrived had turned into!











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gamla Stan and Sodermalm

Image
Another beautiful day, so we walked through two areas that we hadn't been to yet.  Gamla Stan is Stockholm's Old Town while Sodermalm is bohemian (according to Lonely Planet) and has lovely views back over the water.  More ice even though it was close to 60 degrees.  And way more tourists than we see in our neighborhood. View from Evert Taubes Terrass, Riddarholmen Stortorget (Gamla Stan main square) House of Nobility Panorama from Sodermalm footpath Prastgatan in Gamla Stan
Read more

Birthday!

Image
Yesterday was a milestone birthday, at least for those of us who are fans of the Beatles.  We started with caviar and blinis, along with a great Vouvray sparkling wine.  We'd never seen a sparkler like it before in the US and Mark was skeptical of my choice, but it was delicious.  The next course was rack of venison and potatoes, with a nebbiolo.  We ended with the chocolate dessert we had picked up from Mr. Cake (right now we can't bake as the apartment is not well-equipped), and finished up the bottle of the sparkler.   Caviar seems really popular here.  There is quite a selection at just our local ICA grocery store, both cheap (which is what we had last night, although it was plenty tasty) and expensive (in a locked case).    And one can buy blini packs easily, which we did from a fancy fish purveyor. The alcohol buying situation seems worse than in Pennsylvania, which we didn't think was possible.  There are state stores and they hav...
Read more

Halls (City and Food)

Image
Mark and I unfortunately have been sick since the dissertation party, me last week and then Mark this week.  Thankfully it wasn't Covid (at least according to each of our home tests), but with sneezing and low fevers we still stayed home for 3 days each.  Sadly in the small window when I had recovered and Mark hadn't yet gotten sick, I was able to book the only dinner reservation for weeks at a very nearby Michelin 1 star. Then I had to promptly cancel. By Thursday we were both okay so were able to take advantage of a tour of Stockholms Stadhus  (the City Hall) arranged by KTH Relocation.  It is quite a bizarre but amazing building from the inside, and a dominant feature of the skyline from the outside (see my photos from last week's expedition to Gamla Stan and Sodermalm).   Besides being a working building it is well known for hosting the Nobel Prize banquet.  After dinner in the Blue Hall (with the arcade) there is dancing in the Golden Hall with it...
Read more