Late this winter I was so lucky to take a dream of a trip to Norway and Scotland, including visits to several beautiful forests.

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Trees and trolls, in a gorgeous forest up at the top of Fløyen Mountain above Bergen, Norway, February 28, 2023

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A Hurtigruten Cruise up the Norwegian coast, way beyond even the Arctic Circle!

Bergen to Kirkenes, Norway, Early March 2023

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Then on to Scotland!

A woodland walk up Kinnoull Hill, Perth, Scotland.

Beautiful lichens in a mature forest of Beech, Pine, Oak… many species I don’t know; and a spectacular view, as far as the Cairngorms, from the top.

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Still in Perth, Scotland, we visited the Scone Palace grounds where there is an amazing ‘Pinetum‘— gorgeous old trees in a plantation established in the early 1800s by the botanist David Douglas — who our Douglas Fir is named for! At 13 years old he began travelling around the world, from his home here in Perth Scotland, collecting seeds of notable conifers from around the world, which he brought back to Perth, establishing this plantation of international exotic trees.

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Then on to Edinburgh, and a side trip to Roslin.

Such a storied place, even especially personal stories from my own ancestors, as my great-great grandmother, on whose birthday I was born, left this place in the early 1800s to emigrate to Canada. A poem of hers has come down to us, in which she speaks of her sorrow at leaving Roslin Glen, the beautiful woodland valley of the river Esk, that she so loved. I have spent many hours walking the forested paths here, communing with the Oaks & Beeches, Yews, Hazel, Ivy and others I don’t know the name of …and soaking up the magic and mystery of the chapel—Rosslyn Chapel of Dan Brown’s ‘DaVinci Code’ fame.