When I was in the United States this summer–weird to think I’ve been back for over a month now!– I made an effort to go out and see nature. This for two reasons:

• Nature is pretty.
• Animals are cool.

I got to see plenty of the former, but not as much of the latter, despite all my obsessing over bears and cougars (critters we do not get in my tiny country).

After spending several hours trudging through pretty American forests and mountains, I realized is that it’s kind of weird to obsess over long nature hikes while abroad, but completely neglect the very lovely nature in my own country. Once home, I invited my mother, my mother invited a friend, and the friend invited a friend, and last Friday morning–early, early Friday morning–we took off for the Veluwe, a gorgeous nature area in the east of the country. I was expecting to see some deer, and keeping my fingers crossed for wild boar.

Literally thirty seconds after exiting the car–we were still sorting out our bags–we heard grunting. Things picked up from there.

All in all, in a walk of under an hour, we spotted boar on three or four different occasions, plus two deer, something small that was likely a rabbit, and tons of bird of prey.

ALERT. There is a BABY BOAR.



(The tail here cracks me up.)
The Veluwe is particularly known for its heathland. In fact, my sister plans to visit the Veluwe tomorrow with her fiancé–so her first question when she found out we’d gone: “Is the heather blooming?”

… affirmative.

It’s far too easy to forget how lovely your own home can be.