The little things in Nature I miss living over here in Sweden

So let's be completely honest, there is one obvious thing I miss more than anything else, especially this time of year when darkness rules over Scandinavia with the  lack of sunshine along with the warmth and light that comes with it. Cold, damp, dark and rainy is just not my cup of tea. Although it's better than living in Bergen or Stavanger Norway where sucky weather rules as king most of the year. They even have a rain festival. In fact this past Summertime Temps at both places averaged 13C or 55F according to friends at both places when we meet in Oslo for conventions. Coming from a land where life is mostly lived and enjoyed outdoors, it's tough being confined within the concrete walls of a Soviet style housing project, otherwise known as Lägenhet. Other immigrants here from Africa, India, etc feel exactly the same way. You feel like a prisoner shackled to the dictates of this cold wet climate's environment for which you can do nothing about.

Our original two story home (10 years ago) and neighbourhood was pleasant in the sense we all had backyards with gardens, nice neighbours and we specifcally had a backyard which offered a view of nothing but meadows and forest. Trust me, for a city Sweden that's rare. We also had an elaborate hiking trail system in those same woods behind our house, but unlike where I come from in Southern California, these woodlands are devoid of a lot of various critters and their sounds. Also missing are the scents and fragrances of the coastal sage scrub plant community I was use to. Cold doesn't necessarily facilitate the movement of fragrant scent compounds, even more so if they don't really exist here in the first place.

My photo from 2013 in the trail network behind Biskopsgården

John C. Avise

Side Blotched Lizard

One thing did stand out as odd my first year here in Sweden. Prior to moving here to Sweden, for 50+ years when I went hiking on any trails in Nature, one of the most common things experienced was this continuous darting back and forth across trails of all kinds of lizards. I never thought about it really until I came to Sweden and suddenly noticed there was something missing while walking through Nature trails here. Over in the United States and elsewhere (Canary Islands, Greece, etc), whenever you hike, even in forests, there are always lizards everywhere. But here this new strange quietness and silence of a Swedish boreal forest was just different. I have at times seen a single Red Squirrel, a Nuthatch or two and the occasional Hare, but even they are rare. One summer we did experience an abundance of tiny recently morphed toads from a tadpole explosion, but that was just once. They were all over the trails. The only other thing I did experience (which wasn't pleasant), were zillions of mosquitoes. Boreal Forest environments are loaded with countless lakes, ponds and millions of bogs. You can't walk anywhere without wet or mosquitoes. This place has the perfect stagnant breeding grounds for the the Mosquito. But the major difference was the lack of bird sounds in the forest, with the exception of the Eurasian Blackbird males (Swedish 'Koltrast') whose song echoes loudly in the forest in Springtime. Most common birds you see here are large ones like Jackdaws, Magpies, various Seagulls and Pigeons (common city and forest wild types). Sparrows are here, but they are relatively few and only in city. Part of the problem is that most Swedish Forests I've experienced are these large unnatural industrial forestry plantations managed by in huge Timber Companies, even small woodlands owned by private individuals are dense and often impenetrable. 

Redheaded House Finch

picture by Charles Parker

This unfortunate mobile home fire tragedy took place at Starlight Mobile Home Park in El Cajon California. This was one of the properties I was assigned to maintain as head landscaper and this exact trailer space #128 and it's garden was territory of a Red Headed male House Finch who claimed his favourite perch on top of an old Peach tree behind this mobile home. This bird is another one of those birds I really miss as far as wild song birds. Every year in the Spring just after the blooming time of year this same House Finch would claim his perch at the top of that peach tree singing his heart out for hours. What I remember most is working there in the morning doing some sort of work with the lawn, it's irrigation system (which always needed maintaince) or doing something with the citrus trees. The Springs are idyllic there with crystal clear blue skies, perfect temperature (around 70 F or 21 C). Air was fresh and alive with all manner of fragrances of all sorts abundunt in the air (particularly citrus) and work was always pleasant and soothing with this bird's repetitive song playing over and over. To give you an idea of their song, here is a 14 minute video (audio really) of the male House Finch.

Western Meadowlarks

Kathy Munsel/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

This next bird sound comes from the Western Meadowlark which was once a common sound in San Diego county's interior valleys, but now a rarity there as well because of commercial housing development. Probably some of the last holdout habitats would be Ramona, Lakeside and maybe Otay Mesa. I'm sure there may be other pockets of grasslands scattered around, but it's the grasslands that are of most importance to this bird. But grasslands are generally on flat or rolling hills and those are perfect for development. The photo above would have been a common perch for such a bird on a Silver Sagebrush. Later when cattlemen came, the various fence posts would replace those shrubs. Shrubs would have been considered a curse to cattle operations in favour of grasses. So once removed, the fence post would have worked just fine. When I was growing up in the early 1960s, pockets of grasslands were everywhere with the largest being the San Diego River floodplain in the middle of Santee/Lakeside California. Santee still had many range cattle back then, but the Santee bedroom district building boom was in full steam ahead in late 60s thru 70s and gradually these habitats shrunk to almost nothing as have the meadowlarks. Listening to their songs makes me think of long warm summer days. 

Fragrances of  Coastal Sage Scrub

Image: Bert Wilson - Salvia 'Celestial Blue' Sage

Image - My photo 2014

The Sage variety above is 'Celestial Blue' Sage which was named by the founder of Las Pilitas nursery, Bert Wilson, for his wife Celeste and introduced into their California native plant nursery by him. It was a seedling that came from seed he collected collected in the Las Pilitas Nursery's demonstration garden.  Celestial Blue Sage is most likely a hybrid between Salvia clevelandii 'Alpine' and Salvia pachyphylla or a three way hybrid with 'Pozo Blue' which would add Salvia leucophylla into the mix. The fragrance of all California sages are wonderful, although White Sage is a bit more pungent. The one on the right here is 'Pozo Blue' Sage. The other addition to the fragrance is the ability of many coastal sage scrub plants to attract hummingbirds, Butterflies and various native bees. This is another thing one takes for granted when hummingbirds are so common where you come from. Move somewhere like Sweden where they do not exist and you notice their absence. Same with fragrances. Although on warm days here you may smell wild roses and Elderberry flowers when in bloom, but the absence of fragrances is more common in a colder climate.

Image - My Photo 2014

My mother's place across from Pepper Drive School in El Cajon California. 'Canyon Sparkles' Manzanita, 'Pozo Blue' Sage, and Mexican Red Bird of Paradise Bush.

And Finally, Crickets & other Night Sounds

Frankly any sounds at night is another rarity for me here in Sweden. It struck me as odd that there were no night sounds here when I first came, especially crickets. Like the lizards on the trail which one takes for granted because they are so common and you are use to their presence, but then suddenly you realize their absence when they are not around. The lack of cricket sounds was also immediately noticed by me. Imagine no sounds at all on summer evenings. Not even owls or frogs. Well, maybe Mosquitoes. Click on the Youtube audio below and imagine nighttime scenarios with no sounds. Funny how one can notice the absence of things.

To be fair to Sweden, they do have the 'Koltrast' (common Blackbird) song

One pretty sound that is common here in this part of Sweden that is pleasant when walking through a tall Boreal Forest (that's not an industrial forestry plantation) in the Springtime is listening to the 'Koltrast' which is just a larger common blackbird than what I'm use to seeing in SoCal. The males are the singers and their songs echo loudly within the forest, not like when there is more open urban environment. At least they don't have 'Silent Spring' yet. Here is another Youtube link to sights and sounds of both male and female Blackbirds or Koltrasts. 

Song and calls of the Blackbird

Maybe later if I think of something more, I'll add it to the list 😉

Oranges Oranges Oranges: Citrus Barons of Yesteryear

Old Orange Grove Inc

Not long ago I was Googling on Oranges for a recipe utilizing oranges , onions and carrots and stumbled across some old historical archive photos of the Citrus Industry right there in the home town where I grew up in El Cajon California. When I grew up the Citrus Industry had already been in decline as newer and newer post WWII Housing boom gobbled up prime land which was valued as more of a money maker than those old orange groves. I had never before given a thought to all the family owned and run companies that once harvested and ran their citrus businesses with pride. Growing up there were all manner of former Mansions owned by the local Citrus Barons and they actually still exist. Most of these butt up against the foothills of Rattlesnake Mountain along Pepper Drive, though they are not as pronounced in all their glory as they once were when they were the center piece of the Farm Estate's former majesty. Though I never really knew the names of the farmers or the product line label, never the less they and the packing houses did exist. Some of the most beautiful commercial artwork I think are those old family farm crate labels which no longer exist. There are websites dedicated to displaying some of the most famous well known brands and the art which was illustrative of glory of the old agricultural empires which dominated most of Southern California almost a century ago. But below I found some labels which were endemic to El Cajon, California. Who knew ?

Old Orange Grove Inc

Old Orange Grove Inc

El Cajon Orange Association

Back in the 1980s, there was an explosion of sorts in the building boom industry that was gobbling up as much farmland as possible  in just about every corner of western Riverside County in California. Incredibly, there were literally tons of older styled homes, Barns and other agricultural outbuildings which were simply bulldozed. What blew me away during that time period was the fact that there was so much of the building material that was still good and I managed to make deals with some developers for salvaging some buildings. Later I built structures on my own property from those same materials and even sold some of the materials as salvage, but that's another story. But when rummaging through some of the things to be cleared out before dismantling the structures, I often ran across some of these same commercial Produce Crate Labels in unopened or partially opened boxes. 

One such experience was of a former family owned farm southwest of Indio CA and directly east of La Quinta CA. I stumbled across it by accident as I noticed several cares and trucks whose drivers were out disassembling Farm equipment for themselves. No one had any permission what so ever. Typical! I found the Farm's office building where business records and other personal artifacts were stored. Stuff was strewn all over the place. The Farmer had specifically specialized in growing Tomatoes and their decorative dark blue background artwork label was Louie Tomatoes. There were many old family photos mixed in with the labels from the 1950s and 60s. They were apparently a Filipino-American family who immigrated and started farming. As I looked of the family photos of happier times, I kept on reflecting the whole time I was walking around the abandoned Farm just how hard working they must have been and the pride of produced they farmed. Of course that is the way things were back then. What I remember most about Farm Families back then was their hard working ethic and desire to produce the best quality. Producing the best which had their family name stamped on the box was their whole reputation. This doesn't seem to be  the case anymore with this world's obsession with artificial synthetic biology run be an Industrial Agricultural Society.

MotorCoach Country Club - La Quinta CA

 The former family farm is now a giant of a Country Club which caters to the expensive top of the line Recreational Vehicles, the costs for which run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The place is now called  Motorcoach Country Club . They just don't let anybody in these places, you got to actually be a *cough-cough* real life Somebody! Most of the former farms went this way as selling the land was more lucrative than the hard work and sweat to keep the farm alive and pay the ever increasing taxes. Sadly I wondered about the kids that the Louie family raised and why they didn't want to keep up the legacy. Oh well, maybe they moved on to more professional careers. Still much of the old Agricultural era of Southern California is long since dead, with the exception of the industrial farms in the desert where most people have no wish to  ever to visit and young people who grow up there want nothing more than to move away from it all. Still, the discovery of those older El Cajon Farm produce crate labels brought back some fond memories of a quieter time of family oriented lifestyle in an area I grew up in, something newer generations will never ever again experience or be able to imagine and ponder about, because our times have degenerated so far away from those ideals. Now a child's closest family member and/or friend is nothing more than some expensive electronic gadgetry.  

After WW II, the land was more valuable for bedroom districts and other commercial urban sprawl. Many of the War Veterans & other Military Servicemen (my Dad included) didn't want to go back to Iowa where harsh winters and other sorry hard working conditions were in stark contrast to an area where beautiful temperatures averaging between 70 & 80 Fahrenheit are year round. So all the agriculture had to go. There were a few holdouts, but by 1980 they were all pretty much gone as another building boom took over with the election of another economy friendly President and wiped out what was left of quieter days. Now there are only reminders of those days through iconic packing labels found at consignment antique sheds. Maybe some are in Museums. Some of these must even be real collectibles by now. Well anyway, it was nice to finally see what was once the area where I grew up. Never heard of those citrus families or the Coop Packing Houses of Bostonia in El Cajon, CA. Maybe one day things will be different, but under the present system of things, don't count on it. Just for fun and interest, here is a website below which contains all manner of original Agricultural crate label artwork and other prints of memorabilia for looking and sale. Enjoy!

art credit Karen Winters

Springtime Citrus Groves along Hwy 126 
in Ventura County CA.

Exhibited at the Santa Paula Museum of 
Art in Santa Paula, California

Art Credit: Brian Mark Taylor

A rural scene of the Central California 
Farming Community

A SLICE IN TIME: "Beautiful Historic Art from a Bygone Era"

Other Reading References 

‘Farm-to-School’ initiative puts fresh produce in classes


http://www.beginningfarmers.org/paid-internship-opportunity-with-old-grove-orange-redlands-ca/


http://www.inlandorange.org/