My excursions (part 1)

Hello world!

It's been a while since I last wrote something here...

I've been out on a few walk-abouts lately since I discovered a book, given to me by the community called "Utflyksmål i Östergötland" (swe. Outings in Östergötland).

The guide has 60 destinations in the surrondings of Linköping, the city where I live and they all have one thing in common; beutiful nature. I intend to visit them all, eventually, and thought that I could use this blog as documentation.

1. Stjärnorpsravinen

The first place I visited with 2 friends last week-end and is called "Stjärnorpsravinen" (The Stjärnorp ravine). It is a brook ravine an looks like a small canyon with large ferns. It was quite muddy so we should have brought my Wellington Boots... The nature was very special and interesting. A lot of thees lies across the creek and we had a lot of fun crossing them on several places. On the picture is my friend Stefan standing on one of the "tree bridges". At the end of the ravine where the brook enters Lake Roxen lies an old ruined mansion, the door to the tower was unfortuneately closed but the view must be amazing from ut there. We found some Chanterelles on our way back home that we ate on scones with Philadephia cheese, it was a very nice day!

2. Granåsen

The day after that, the weather was just too good for studying so I grabbed my bike and went for a nice long trip where I visited three new destinations. The fist one is situated south of Lambohov and is called Granåsen (the Spruce ridge). The sun doesn't shine through the leafes to the ground that much so the vegetaions on the floor of the forrest is pretty sparse. According to the guide book, it's very nice here during spring when the windflowers are blooming.

The mileau is differentiated with small fields and a few patches of water. I saw a bush-cricket on one field sitting in the autnum sun.

I also found a strange object lying on the ground. Take a guess. The right answer is presented last on this log.

3. Gismestad

The next goal of my trip was situated 6 km outside Linköping and is acessed over a barbed wire. Once you've cross a tree plantation, the forrest is beutiful. I saw an moose and according to my guide-book, there are also some wild hogs rooming in these parts. The forrest is left alone pretty much as it is with dead wood and trees that fell during the hurricane Erwin (in Sweden it is called "Gudrun") 2005.

4. Ågården i Fettjestad

A pasture with magnificent oaks near Gammakil. I met some cows who followed me until they realized that I didn't have any food for them. I also found some beautiful red stone at an old quarry and saw a slope with a lot of Heather (ljung). I also mangage to take a picture of myself (and to hurt my leg in the process). After a snack, I went back to Linköping in the sunset.

Answer to the strange object:

A (gigant) Puffball!