When summer treats you kindly in the Arctic, there is no better place to be. Summers are short up in the north, however, so you’ll need to be lucky to catch them.

The midnight sky in northern Sweden, end of July

We were very lucky this year, and were offered countless beautiful summer days up in the north. Some of the most memorable ones were offered when surveying our field sites on mount Nuolja, close to Abisko, which we got to experience in the best possible light.

The author, enjoying an evening on mount Nuolja after a long day of satisfactory fieldwork

Such an opportunity for summer weather needs to be taken with both hands, so we decided to spend the night on the mountain, greatly reducing the time effort needed to hike up and down.

Pyrola minor, one of the countless botanical beauties this summer brought

That decision resulted in two unforgettable fieldwork days, in which we managed to get so many plots done, while still enjoying one of the most crucial reasons why we were there in the first place: the Swedish mountains are just so beautiful!

The trail to the top of mount Nuolja, one of the stars of this summer’s fieldwork

When I am writing this, September is already in full swing again, bringing another great fieldwork season to an end. The outdoor life is mostly behind us, and lab and computer work is again on the horizon. But with fieldwork days like these in our memories, how can I lack the necessary energy to tackle that?

An alpine meadow (with a.o. Taraxacum officinale, Bistorta vivipare, Anthoxanthum odoratum and a leaf of Trollius europaeus) in the evening sun

As usual: more soon!