Roxen Lake, Linkoping, Sweden, 290714

August 3, 2014

Lake Roxen

is one of the beautiful attractions in the Swedish town of Linkoping, and since I’d borrowed a small folding bike, and I decided to cycle down (we'd walked to the lake previously.)

The weather was very unusually warm even for Swedish summer, but I manfully (womanfully?) pedalled my two tiny wheels, and we started with this beautiful rainbow (though I couldn’t see any rain clouds!)

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We cycled through brown grass and green:

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We came to the place where the road to the lake branched off from the highway:

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A fleecy dolphin floated overhead:

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We explored a place where there was massive earth-moving and construction going on; Barn Swallows were swooping around, taking mud for their nests. IMG_5787 Here's my cycle, and the earthmover! IMG_5786 Wildflowers bloomed everywhere: IMG_5751 IMG_5752 IMG_5759 this is wild dill: IMG_5761 Taking a rough path instead of the road, we found it very enjoyable: IMG_5753 A COMMON TORTOISESHELL sat with its wings closed: IMG_5763 So did another butterfly: IMG_5769 There were several EUROPEAN GREENFINCHES around, IMG_5772 feeding on the berries: IMG_5774 A COMMON KESTREL delighted me, high overhead: IMG_5784 Roly-poly, curly-woolly sheep grazed on the farmland: IMG_5811 Horses rubbed against each other, companionably: IMG_5814 the golden wheat was nearly ready for harvesting: IMG_5802 I could spot the lake: IMG_5806 We rode up to the water: IMG_5823 A beautifully-flowering acquatic plant welcomed us. IMG_5824 As did a sitting ARCTIC TERN IMG_5825 and several ducks: IMG_5826 The houses on the lake were picture-perfect: IMG_5829 The sun in the trees and the reeds was beautiful. IMG_5843 I was thrilled to spot a MUTE SWAN IMG_5854 IMG_5869 The swan moved in front of the resting GULLS: IMG_5880 It was quite far away, but my zoom came in handy: IMG_5870 then I sawa whole family, with parents and three cygnets: IMG_5859 IMG_5862 IMG_5860 IMG_5873

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This Swan family was one of the highlights, indeed, of my visit to Scandinavia.

Then came the sight of this

GREAT CRESTED GREBE

that I have seen before only in the lap of the Himalaya!

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We discovered even more when we came back to the area the next day…but that’s the next post!