Ponds, springs and pools were gateways to the underworld for the former inhabitants of the southern Campine region in Flanders (Mechelen, Lier…). The Nekker is a black water spirit and lives in in particular in […]
Category: Norwegian Forest Stories
Did you already hear the first notes of your dream song?
And the thirteenth month has begun. The harp of the gods has been tuned. The trees are quiet. The Twelve Silent Nights is an ‘in-between period’, the ‘time that does not exist’ in the lunar […]
Sacred Garden trees in Norway, part 2 –
In spring 2019, I was doing a bit of research about trees in Norway. I found an interesting paper by Douglas Forell Hulmes about “sacred trees of Norway and Sweden: a #friluftsliv quest”. This professor environmental education […]
‘Bergtatt’ – my new favourite Norwegian word
Bergtatt: the word itself is captivating, enchanting and encompassing the images I have from Norwegian folklore. I have not written for a long time. I had some good reasons: finishing PhD (not there yet) and […]
I came to hidden springs and ponds.
I came to hidden springs and ponds. Reading this quote from Norwegian poet Johan Sebastian Welhaven (1807 – 1873) gives me goosebumps. I came across Welhaven only recently through Mikkjel Fønhus, a renowned writer from […]
A woman in the polar night, a woman in lockdown
“In 1934, the painter Christiane Ritter leaves her comfortable life in Austria and travels to the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen to spend there a year there with her husband. She thinks it will be […]
Lucia – the night of light … and trolls?
A Finnish friend, with ties in Belgium, and with who I learn a lot about forest and nature based health practices in the last month, shared this video with me, and I like to share […]
A kiss in the shadow of a linden tree
I said goodbye to Belgium, and for the first time I do not know when I return. This blog is a sort of goodbye to the linden trees and the forests in Flanders, and a […]
Fear and Floating in a Flemish Forest
To be a guide is more than a job. It is a calling. And with callings for other ways, these seeds of wisdom I am collecting offers a path for continuously learning and growing into […]
When a Nordic forest bath becomes a fairytale
Last weekend I accompanied my Russian friend on her first forest bath. I had found another guide with ANFT that guides in Ekebergparken in Oslo. Two weeks earlier, I had asked the guide before what […]
Stories from the Wood Wide Web 