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Baltic Summer

 

 

In the summertime, Swedes love to decamp to simple living on the Baltic archipelago. There are some 33,000 islands and skerries in the vast archipelago. 

These photographs were taken on Sandhamn, where on the southern shore, a twenty minute walk from the village on a path through a forest, there is a sheltered beach surrounded by bluffs of smooth boulders.

There are no concession stands, only sand, rocks, a fringe of evergreens, a big sky, and a very blue, very cold sea. Only the hardiest youths play in the frigid water, and Swedes have perfected the art of draping themselves on sun-warmed boulders, soaking up radiant heat, storing it up against the dark northern winter.

Following their example, we set up our picnic in a dip between two boulders, and all afternoon happy kids popped up in front of us as they explored the rocky surround.

Love of nature is deep in the Swedish psyche, and I was struck by how even very young children paused during their play to gaze out appreciatively on the sweeping expanse of sky and sea. 

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