Old willow

I'm back home again, on Öland, some three hundred kilometres from Lund where I slept last night. There was no photos taken when I got home since it was all dark, so I let this picture from my starting point today outside Lund represent home. I was born there so it is my second home.

During the 16 hundreds, the Danish king Kristian IV, who in those days also was ruling Skåne, since it was then part of the Danish kingdom, decided that the sides of all roads in Skåne was to be planted with willow trees, in order to stop the erosion, since Skåne is a very flat and windy place. In the dialect from Skåne a row of willows are called "Pilevall", ruffly translated 'willow wall'. Many of the "walls" are still there and are being kept as a trade mark of Skåne. They are pruned every third year, as they have been since they were planted and the pruning makes the trees grow more slowly so they get to be very old. The branches was used as feed for the animals and of course as firewood.

I'm happy to be home where I can take care of my cold and make it go away.