December 13, Lucia

At December 13 every year we have a kind of light festival in Sweden. It is some, mostly girls, with candles in their hair going to schools, offices and nursery homes singing Christmas carols and serving special Christmas buns, ginger bread, warm wine or coffee.

We are some kayaking folks that have a tradition to go kayaking in a small river that day. Last year we were about 12 persons but this year only four. It was a cold Sunday but sunny and calm. The river is called Flian and is the outlet from the lake Hornborgarsjön that is famous for it's many birds.

The start is at Herrtorps Qvarn (a water mill) and paddling up the current to the lake were we take lunch. Thereafter we go back down the current and that only take half the time.

Unfortunately one of us tipped with his kayak and got very wet and cold so he gave up and let the remaining three continue. We missed you Dag! On the way we saw quite a few birds but the most exciting was a kingfisher (Alcedo Attis, kungsfiskare) with it's beautiful metallic blue back.

I was freezing my toes quite a lot when we got back to our cars at Herrtorps Quarn and didn't make any roll this time. Besides the water was rather murky so it was not very nice to do one.

Cold and frosty day. The back of Magnus

The upper part of the river is a bit more open

Lunch break at Horborgarsjön

Peter in his fishing kayak

A view over the shallow lake Hornborgarsjön, known for it's rich bird life.