Not just a walk in the park

Even though I can already feel the fall in the air, it doesn't mean that it is getting cold and dark here up north quite yet. Yesterday turned up with blue skies and temperatures around 20C (70F), so I grabbed my camera and a small plastic bucket and went for the hills.

In Norway we have the freedom to roam, which means that we are allowed to access any uncultivated land on the countryside. This access also includes wild berry and mushroom foraging.

Hazelnuts that are not yet ripe, lingonberries that will be ready to be picked in a few days,
and tasty blueberries I brought with me home. 

I live in a neighborhood with several large apartment buildings mixed in between villas, duplexes and quadruplexes. And just behind this neighborhood there are large hills covered with forests.

A small creek just behind one of the large apartment buildings in my neighborhood. 

It has been a very dry summer, and one thing was completely missing in the forest: Mushrooms! At this time of years they are usually all over the place, but I didn't see a single one of them.

Instead of mushrooms I found this bench in a very unlikely location;
a spot where the sun never shines, and with no view.
What a sad place to put a bench! 

Even though several thousand people live close to this forest, the only other person I met was an old man on his daily hike.

I love how he walked in his steady pace, resting his arms on his back.
I might walk faster than him for a short while, but I'm convinced he would have
outlasted me and could have continued in that pace from here to eternity. 

The highlight of my walk was when I took a tiny, little path off of the main path and suddenly had this view in front of me.

Far down there you can see my house. 

When I got home my hands looked like this:

Blueberry hands! 

If I were to predict the future by reading my palms, I would say that I will soon meet a sweet blueberry pie!