I have been away at a conference this week in Skanor, a small seaside village in Sweden.  It’s been a busy few days and having never been to any of the Nordic nations before, I was keen to grab a few moments here and there to soak up a bit of the pure Skanor experience.

There was seafood (herrings, roe, salmon, trout, scallops), bread (glorious bread), local jams (including scrumptious raspberry), cheese (for breakfast – yay!) and schnapps (‘local’, lemon and bitter – all lethal to the same degree).  There were games on the beach, meetings not on the beach, much laughing and cheering   and quite a bit of follow up work to do as a result!

A little research also tells me that the locals have a penchant for geese and Gåsaloppet (goose race) is a much-feted annual event traditionally held on midsummer at noon where residents form teams of six and race through the streets of old Skanor on home-made skis! (Click here if you want to check this out for yourself.)

So each morning we would take a short, sun-kissed and ski-less stroll through the village to our meeting venue and it was on Day 2 that I noticed a rather curious nod to the local fauna…

And then I looked down…