Last Sunday it was time for another walk enjoyed in the company of my mom and youngest brother. I spent most of the weekend at my mom's, which is also where I grew up. This walk brought back many memories from my childhood and I'll share some of them with you 🙂
Usually, when my mom and brother go for a walk they take the car and drive a short distance but this time I suggested we could go for a rather long walk (I would estimate it was about 7 kilometers) starting from the house.
I brought my camera but the weather wasn't the best for taking pictures, in fact, it was drizzling, and it was rather cold. 4 degrees Celsius. I had my winter jacket on for the first time this season.
Below you can see the starting point. An uphill slope just behind mom's barn. The neighbor, who is responsible for the road, had already placed these orange sticks along the road. That's for the plow truck. It's a bit challenging for me that it's already so cold, unusually cold. And yes, we had a little bit of snow last week (it melted away fast though).
So for the first part of the walk, we were just walking along the road. After 1.25 kilometers we reached this nice 'triangle'. I know very well that it's 1.25 kilometers from the house because as a child I ran this distance a lot. Here I turned around, so the total distance was 2.5 kilometers. That was called a Cooper. Back then I never knew why but I was curious now so I googled it.
The cooper test which was designed by Kenneth H. Cooper in 1968 for US military use is a physical fitness test. In its original form, the point of the test is to run as far as possible within 12 minutes. Source
Apparently, there's also a 1.5-mile version of it and I guess that's where the version I'm familiar with comes from since 1.5 miles roughly is 2.5 kilometers. I don't know, maybe it's considered fairly good if you can run 2.5 kilometers in 12 minutes (at least for a child). It makes sense because I remember the target was always to complete every kilometer under 5 minutes. (That was also my target when I later ran 10 kilometers so in that perspective 2.5 kilometers in 12 minutes doesn't sound very fast...).
But let's get back to the walk. There's a trail called Silverleden, which means The Silver Trail that we were partially following. (The names come from the old silver mines, which we didn't pass on this walk (another time 🙂).
We stopped briefly to have a look (on the outside) at the LM Ericsson Museum (the museum is only open in Summer). LM Ericsson was the founder of the Swedish telecommunications industry. (You might have heard of the company Ericsson). Kind of funny that this guy was from the small village where I grew up.
After this, we started to walk more in the forest.
I have always liked this old underground storehouse.
Passing by a woodland lake.
An old barn, that's not in use (close by there's also a house but no one is living there).
It was wet outside. We had our rubber boots on.
Some nice colors, but as I already wrote, not the best day for beautiful Autumn colors.
This shelter is mostly used for elk hunting.
Emerging from the forest.
Here I was also running a lot growing up. I didn't only run Coopers, this was part of a 7-kilometer loop. (I was a bit older then, my early teenage years).
Here we are on our way back, as you can see, it's muddy in the fields.
I really value the opportunity I have now to see my youngest brother regularly. (Of course also my mom but at least I talk to her quite a lot when I live far away). My autistic brother doesn't talk on the phone so there's no way to keep in touch unless you see him in person. He has a very special place in my heart and I haven't been so close to him in like 20 years. I'll miss him a lot when I leave in about a month.
Thanks for reading 🌸
Wishing you a lovely day 💚
Jag bara säger dt att Sverige är ett vackert land! Jag har också en triangel jag går till mitt i skogen som du!
Vad fint 🙂
I think there are so many places like this that you people visit over there but we don't have them here, lol
You had an amazing walk
The pictures are lovely
Thank you for this kind comment 🌸 I'm sure you have many beautiful places where you live as well, just different 🙂
Nice you had a good walk with your family, the colors of nature warm and beautiful even if the weather was actually cold brr 4C is cold for me
Thanks for joining the Wednesday Walk :)
Yes still getting used to the cold temperatures, brr! Snow is expected next weekend...
we are having a few warm days now but then the temps dive I just heard that we to could see some snow next week
I see. Time to prepare!
indeed, will need to get my winter gear out
This was a nice read. Happy to hear about you further connecting with your younger brother :<)
You actually reminded me of the fact that, in my first year of high school, being a small boy ( I really started growing at the age of 14 and older ), not playing any sports and wearing big non-sport-shoes, I beat all other 100 or so first years in the Cooper test - running circles around our school. I remember making it to 10 rounds, the number 2 ( a taller, sporty guy ) made it to about 9.75 rounds. I think one round was 275 meters, so my total distance was 2.75km (13.75km/h ).
I then discovered that I have a pretty good natural fitness.
Trying to keep it that way, even though I don't run ( much ) these days.
Big hug from a rainy and super green Portugal! 💚
Ah, you are also familiar with the Cooper test 🙂 You seem to have done it in the original way though. For some reason, in school, we only did it in the 2.5 kilometers version.
Nicely done for not playing any sports and wearing big non-sport-shoes, haha.
I was into sports until I started high school, approximately. By then I had started smoking and wasn't really interested in healthy habits anymore. (Luckily this changed in my 20s but I was still smoking until my early 30s).
🤗
Now I think of it, I played sports but not 'officially'. I basically played outdoors, almost daily, especially loads of soccer and all kinds of old fashioned outdoor children's games. Only at the age of 14, I started going to a sports club to play badminton. A couple of years later also table tennis/ ping-pong. And in Uni tennis, squash, basketball and, briefly, boxing haha.
I only smoked from the age of 17 to 19 and very little and perhaps 10 times afterwards. I started drinking a bit at the age of 14 though and more intensely around 17, heavily at age 18 ( Uni ).
Haha, you seem to have been very much into sports after all. But I understand, I also wasn't so organized with it, in the sense that I didn't compete or play in an official team or anything. Except air rifle shooting. I was competing in that sport from the age of seven up until 12 or 13 I think. But that's another kind of sport I guess...I really enjoyed it though.
Yeah. I also started drinking at the age of 14 and I have had many years of partying rather hard. I guess I wanted to balance it with also working out quite hard. But back then it 'worked', I was so full of energy and felt invincible. Different times, for sure. I guess I was young, haha.
I also enjoyed the walk very much. It was hard not to get caught up in the magic of these beautiful places. With a few Coopers the cold would have become a better host! It will always be important to be reunited with the places where we grew up, where our dreams also flourished.
Thank you so much dear @mamrita for sharing your beautiful travel experience and your excellent photographic work. Please don't forget to give a big hug to your dear brother for me!
I didn't even think of that, that is so true! 🙂
Thank you very much for this kind comment 🙏🏽
The colors are wonderful.