I’m starting to get ready for our first winter in Sweden. The kitchen window needed something, and I think these stickers did the trick- they give the feeling of real plants! The autumn planter is filling in nicely and should tolerate winter temps. While the ginkgo survived transplanting, it’s not turning gold.

There are so many little streets and pathways that I’m still finding lots of interesting views of Lund. Here are a few new places.

Found a grocery store in the neighborhood that opens earlier. It’s inside a courtyard and off the beaten path, so I bet it will be less crowded. It might be worth walking/biking a bit farther.

Hedges are a big deal here in Sweden. They are everywhere. Formed from almost any plant you can think of and in a huge variety of shapes! Some are free-form, but most are trimmed and shaped to some degree. Hedges are often shaped to accommodate mailboxes, trash and recycling bins, doorways, light posts etc.

And today I spent a long while in the meditation maze hedge at Stadsparken. It’s a massive wall of thick green hedge from the back side. It doesn’t look so impressive, but inside it’s quite calming and more elaborate than it appears.

One of Hillary’s classmates tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday. So I was pondering our options.

And last night Bryant saw an actual wild hedgehog on his way home from the train station! No photo, but I’m on the hunt.

Lund’s International Citizen’s Hub offered a tour of the Botanical Gardens today. I met a nice couple from the UK and a woman from a town near Davenport, Iowa!

We learned about the history and creation of the gardens, beginning in the 1690s through various expansions which occurred mainly from 1850 to the early 1900s, when it first opened to the public.

We had a botany lesson on Dahlias (fun fact – they’re found in every color except blue, in spite of a contest with a large reward for growing a true blue hybrid) They were introduced as a potential food source, and they are edible but were soon cultivated only for the flowers.

And we learned a bit about Carl Linnaeus, who studied in Lund in 1727. The garden features an apple tree which he gave to Lund from his personal garden.

The mistletoe is deliberately grown on the branches to provide winter interest (and for good luck). This mistletoe, under the Linné Apple canopy, has been growing for around 25 years.