The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/nature)
This is the first time I cross path with what Finns call a hiidenkivi (“cult stone”) and the Swedes a jättekast (“giant’s throw”), and for a little while longer my mind meanders, thinking about the ancient stories that were more than likely told about this place in ages past.
The woods around my home in Arctic Norway were few and far between, mostly small birches barely taller than your average adult. Here in Åland, I met with real woods: tall bone-white birches, spruce, thick pines, bushy walnut groves. This vibrant life was everywhere, and all the while I was searching for graves.
One day this August I picked up my phone and called Jens-Roger. “You know I told you the other week that I and my family were moving out?” “Yes, I remember.” “Well, I was thinking that before we leave for good, we should bury our daughter’s placenta. And we all really enjoy your place. Could we find a spot somewhere there?”
Looking at the footage of his run, he seemed to be chasing for fun instead of hunger, trotting with his head held high instead of moving low and fast. I wondered if he had, perhaps, already eaten. I wondered if foxes sometimes hunt for play.
I know what should be blooming, singing, or visiting any time, but I revel in the surprises. Over the summer, a frog moved into the front gardens. What a sweet marker of the returning health of this tiny bit of land! I adore hearing his frog songs at night, mixed in with the sounds of the night chorus.