In Pursuit of the Wild Lady's Slipper Orchid Visited June 10th, 2014 with the Lakeland Horticulture Society The Kallgatburg nature reserve is unique as its location straddles two different forms of bedrock; pure limestone that drains off quickly creating dry land and marlstone which is a lime rich mud that contains clay and silt that [Read the full story …]

Gardens and Artists of Southern Gotland Visited June 9th, 2014 with the Lakeland Horticulture Society KÖRSBÄRSGÄRDEN Gotland Island is home for many artists. Inspiration is found in the terrain of southern Gotland which varies from nature's limestone sculpture of the “Old Man Hoburgsbubben”, gazing out over the Baltic Sea at Husrygg Nature Reserve, conifer forests, [Read the full story …]

Husrygg Nature Reserve (on the Island of Gotland) Visited June 9th, 2014 with the Lakeland Horticulture Society Our first day on Gotland Island we would visit the southwestern tip of the island with scenic limestone bedrock and have mid-morning coffee and tea at a garden with a contemporary art sculpture park. Our lunch would be [Read the full story …]

Visited with the Lakeland Horticulture Society on June 8th, 2014. The Island of Öland, with flat plains of hard Ordovician limestone, Viking graves and 17th century wooden windmills marking the landscape, could be considered an unusual destination for a garden tour stop. It is because of the combination of forests, meadow, agriculture, and large areas [Read the full story …]

Visited with the Lakeland Horticulture Society (LHS) on June 7th, 2014. Our afternoon and last garden visit of the day was a private garden on the wooded slopes of Lake Ämmern. Our hosts, friends of George and Dorothy Feather our tour guides, have been visitors to the mountainside LHS garden at Holehird in Windermere, England's [Read the full story …]

Travel Connections Visited June 7th, 2014 with the Lakeland Horticulture Society. Our noon lunch was in the small town of Kisa at the Cafe' Columbia. Unexpectedly it provided me a chance to reflect on my Swedish heritage with a visit to the Kisa Museum of Emigration. The small collection of Swedish memorabilia on the second [Read the full story …]

Visited with the Lakeland Horticulture Society (LHS) June 7th, 2014 We left Vadstena early Saturday morning headed southeast to the seaside port city of Oskarshamn on the Baltic Sea. The intermittent rainfall that started shortly after we bordered our coach would follow our travel throughout the day. The vista of the open flat farmland of [Read the full story …]

Visited on June 6th, 2014 with the Lakeland Horticulture Society. South of Vadstena we paid an afternoon visit to the renovated home and garden of  George’s friend Sverker Kärrsgård (whom we met at Naturum Täkern) and his wife, Karin Hessland. Ten years ago they bought 24 acres (10 hectors ) of abandoned land of clay [Read the full story …]

Private Garden near Falköping Visited June 6th, 2014. We left early in the morning from Vadstena traveling south along the eastern shore of  Lake Vättern rounding the southern tip of the lake. We turned westward into the county of  Västergötland and toward the town of Falköping. Carl Linnaeus had visited the county and town in [Read the full story …]

TRAVEL REFLECTIONS It was late afternoon when we left Naturum Tåkern for our lodgings in the 14th century city of Vadstena situated on the eastern shore of the second largest lake in Sweden, Lake Vättern. With a finger shaped length of 81 miles (130 km) and a width of 19 miles (31 km), (between the [Read the full story …]