The forest is a green ocean. Like planks from stranded wrecks,
among backwashes of blueberries and waves of ferns, dead trees lie. Swedish seasons are associated to colors in a clear way. If during wintertime is white being the obvious protagonist, in autumn reds and yellows take over the stage as main characters. Green - an intense, exploding, permeating green - is instead the color of full summer, and therefore the July’s one.
Not more than two and a half months have gone since I first saw these little ferns, Gymnocarpium dryopteris, unfolding their leaves like petals of flowers, with such a tender green to be almost impossible to catch on picture; like wings of just hatched butterflies which are filling with air, lying in thousands under the protective watch of pines and birches, drawing a living carpet that seemed to swarm though it was completely still, or, at least, barely stirred by a puff of forest breeze. Now, twelve weeks later – a time which in other species might mean a gestation, not a whole life - here they are giving up, shrinking, turning brown, standing in colors from the blanket of moss that grew after them, and under them; it being still green indeed, as if it is sucking their hue from below, and the life force with it. Autumn comes soon in the North, and by what a mountain of trivialities I could muddy this space on such a subject, that I'll leave to you to imagine; and I refrain from doing so. I end posting the images from my journey to Skåne in May, with this three from Stenshuvud Park. This National Park, the southernmost of Sweden, preserves a promontory characterized by a peculiarly lush vegetation, which sometimes assumes the appearance of a Mediterranean environment, at least according to the provided documentation. As a Mediterranean by birth, I have to confess that quite a remarkable amount of imagination it's needed to make such a claim... Nevertheless, it is true that forest and underwood are here different than any other place I have ever known in Sweden, because of the species and how they are combined, even visually. In particular, I was struck by a stretch of flooded forest, an Alder wood where the partially uncovered roots, are creating small islets from which the trunks raise to the sky. Sedges and ferns complete a picture of great beauty. A relatively small area, no more than a couple of hundred meters, but that was enough to tie me up for two splendid early mornings of May.
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All site contents are: © Vitantonio Dell'Orto, all rights reserved worldwide. The Chronicles of Särna, and other stories from the North.
I live in Sweden, in Särna (Dalarna). The Chronicles are a photo diary about the nature (but not just) here around and from all the Scandinavian areas where my photo job takes me.
My book: "My Sweden - Tales from an Italian photographer in the North" is available in the bookstores and by the publisher.
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