A blog from the bog

Yesterday we spent a wonderful day with Henrik and Ingrid who pulled out all the stops and showed us the historical, cultural and natural wonders of their local area. We started by visiting the old mining community of Pershyttan which has preserved mines, buildings and the old water wheel with its beam drive that powered the entire site. I was fascinated by the way of life of the miners. In winter the miners used the frozen lakes and snow to transport ore and charcoal, and in spring they mainly spent time ploughing the fields and putting the animals out to pasture. Summer was the real time for mining, and traditionally the entire household worked the mines. In autumn charcoal was produced in order to fire the furnace. It seems like a lot of hard work and I bet they were cold and hungry a lot of the time.

We were lucky with the weather and were able to eat lunch outside in the sunshine before visiting the town of Nora and seeing an interesting art exhibition by Swedish and Finnish artists. For some 600 years Finland was part of Sweden and the exhibition reflected the two countries’ close links. Then we drove to a small but fascinating bog called Lejakärret. We are not sure that bog is the best translation as it could mean fen, marsh or swamp but we settled for bog because it rhymes with blog!

The site is famous for its orchids because there is limestone (rare in Sweden) and orchids covered the bog like a carpet. It was really spectacular and we saw at least five different species of flowering orchid. Fortunately Henrik had bought the field guide so were able to identify them quite easily. My favourite was probably the purple Epipactis atrorubens but it was hard to photograph due to its drooping head. The photo is of Epipactis palustris which was also very beautiful and present in great numbers. The common English name is Marsh helleborine and the Swedish name is Kärrknipprot. Rather cute I think.

Tired but happy we went back to Ingrid and Henrik’s house for dinner which was delicious and caught up with their children, who are of course much taller than I remembered. Their daughter Matilda leaves for Australia this week on a rotary exchange programme for a year. No doubt it will be a wonderful experience and I admire her for being able to leave her comfort zone at her age. On the way home we finally got see a moose by the side of the road. We were beginning to doubt their existence!