More time in the Forest

Today was sunny again but cooler and very windy. In fact it was so windy the first job of the day was staking up all our peonies.  Those heavy peony buds were pulling down  the long stalks and the first blooms have appeared, giving plenty of "sail" area for the wind to grab!
Then we went into town to meet Rose and out into the forest. I chose the walk today so we were back near the beach Smitingen where one of the summer's orienteering exercises is set up. The name of this annual challenge is "Find Härnösand" and part of the idea is to help people find things they didn't know were there, on both a large and a small scale. The checkpoint we found here was just behind Jan and Rose in the picture. The checkpoint was located behind two massive boulders left behind by the glaciers and now thoroughly covered with mosses, plants and small trees.You see them partly in this picture, sloping upwards and away on the right.
Such things have some sort of presence in the forest, and it's very easy to see where the ideas of trolls and similar creatures come from.
Actually the whole forest has some sort of presence, and for me the older, wilder and more natural it is, the more that presence can be felt. Hence the relatively new idea (in Europe) of forest bathing, borrowed from the Japanese (shinrin yoku), and in these strange times even virtual forest bathing!
After our walk Rose invited us back for dinner, lovely salad and then a healthy pudding (well, the strawberry bit was healthy anyway.)
The whole day rounded off with a virtual celebration of BrambleBlossom's birthday, G&T's via WhatsApp!