Swedish Archipelago
Early morning brings with it a calmness. The frantic city life of the day before has drifted away. Concerns that might have filtered into worried minds at night are cast adrift as daylight creeps into one’s consciousness. Stockholm’s spires glisten against a pewter sky and their images are captured in the quiet bay long before most of us thought of opening our eyes. As our wake spread its undulating fingers to stir the waters and blur the reflections there, the city slowly begins to arise. But we are bound for the islands, the Swedish Archipelago.
Wide and narrow are the channels that weave between islands adorned with glamorous homes and tiny summer cottages. Slowly civilization begins to thin. Rounded rocky islets host a myriad of common terns and even a white-tailed eagle. All morning the sun seems to fight with the clouds with first one winning and then the other. The wind gets into the tussle too and stirs the waves a bit but it can’t stop our Zodiacs or our yellow kayaks. Finally the skies clear and bright blue scattered light dominates.
One might think a bird’s eye view would be attained from an altitude but here in the islands hundreds of eiders ply the edges of skerries and islets and their impression of this land would be quite different. To test the theory a number of us explore a protected bay, quietly slipping across the surface of the sea in inflatable kayaks rising and falling with every swell, just as the tiny ducklings ride their liquid roller coaster.
Like guillemots flapping frantically just above the waves, our Zodiacs fly across the miles and waves to the island of Bullerön, a state owned nature preserve. Granite, ground to rounded smoothness by glaciers ten thousand years ago and scored by sharp pebbles embedded in the icy foot invite investigation. Crustose lichens in subtle earth tones masked the crystalline structure. Between the rocky domes, miniscule valleys host a garden of greenery, which upon closer examination tell much about the soil that has accumulated there. Cotton grass, a sedge and sphagnum moss said “wet.” Ling heather told of a paucity of nutrients. Within their arms, the delicate pink blooms of northern bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), gave a festive air to the summer celebration that began on shore with “lax macha” and snaps and continued on board with Swedish smorgasbord.
Early morning brings with it a calmness. The frantic city life of the day before has drifted away. Concerns that might have filtered into worried minds at night are cast adrift as daylight creeps into one’s consciousness. Stockholm’s spires glisten against a pewter sky and their images are captured in the quiet bay long before most of us thought of opening our eyes. As our wake spread its undulating fingers to stir the waters and blur the reflections there, the city slowly begins to arise. But we are bound for the islands, the Swedish Archipelago.
Wide and narrow are the channels that weave between islands adorned with glamorous homes and tiny summer cottages. Slowly civilization begins to thin. Rounded rocky islets host a myriad of common terns and even a white-tailed eagle. All morning the sun seems to fight with the clouds with first one winning and then the other. The wind gets into the tussle too and stirs the waves a bit but it can’t stop our Zodiacs or our yellow kayaks. Finally the skies clear and bright blue scattered light dominates.
One might think a bird’s eye view would be attained from an altitude but here in the islands hundreds of eiders ply the edges of skerries and islets and their impression of this land would be quite different. To test the theory a number of us explore a protected bay, quietly slipping across the surface of the sea in inflatable kayaks rising and falling with every swell, just as the tiny ducklings ride their liquid roller coaster.
Like guillemots flapping frantically just above the waves, our Zodiacs fly across the miles and waves to the island of Bullerön, a state owned nature preserve. Granite, ground to rounded smoothness by glaciers ten thousand years ago and scored by sharp pebbles embedded in the icy foot invite investigation. Crustose lichens in subtle earth tones masked the crystalline structure. Between the rocky domes, miniscule valleys host a garden of greenery, which upon closer examination tell much about the soil that has accumulated there. Cotton grass, a sedge and sphagnum moss said “wet.” Ling heather told of a paucity of nutrients. Within their arms, the delicate pink blooms of northern bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), gave a festive air to the summer celebration that began on shore with “lax macha” and snaps and continued on board with Swedish smorgasbord.
