Since it was such a fantastic day today weather-wise in Sweden, I took myself out to the forest behind where I live. Part way through my walk I realised that some of the stuff I was seeing I would love to try and recreate in Vue, so I started taking photos on my phone.

http://blog.richard-potter.co.uk/2012/05/free-reference-photos-swedish-woodlands-in-spring/

Collection of 36 reference photos is available in a Zip file halfway down the page.

Also, I recently did a tutorial on texturing on the same site, in three parts.  Its not vue specific, but you might also find it helpful.

http://blog.richard-potter.co.uk/2012/04/texturing-tutorial-my-method-part-1/

http://blog.richard-potter.co.uk/2012/04/texturing-tutorial-my-method-part-2/

http://blog.richard-potter.co.uk/2012/04/texturing-tutorial-my-method-part-3/

Hope you enjoy!

Looks like the vitsippor are coming up in the first picture?  Do you still have blåsippor in Sweden?  I've heard they are almost extinct.  We still had them when I left Stockholm in 1963.  I still miss both as well as the lovely gullvivor we had around our sommarstuga i Vendelsö.

I've always wondered how someone with a British/American sounding name ended up in Göteborg!?

the simple answer to that Mari-Anne is my girlfriend is Swedish :D  The more complex answer involves economic depression in UK, loss of our jobs, lack of really excellent countryside that you can just tramp around in etc etc etc.

Vitsippor are up in force, gullvivor are also abound.   We saw a ton of blåsippor around the coast on a different walk the other day which was nice (by ton I mean about 100).

Where did you move to Mari-Anne? and do you miss it?

It's a long story so I won't bore you, but basically, my reason was the same as yours (except he's now my husband of 47 years).

I moved to the West Coast - SF area, Oregon & near Canadian border in Washington, and finally, ended up in Whitefish, Montana - quite near Glacier National Park.

I still feel very Swedish and miss a lot of things I grew up with, but I love the US so I'm not homesick.

oooh nice! so youll still have awesome foresty bits to explore!   

Ill try and find you a blåsippor and put another picture set up for you.

do you miss the food? I just discovered (after 3 and a half years!) kalles kaviar, and have been eating tube after tube of the stuff :D

Nähh, nix on missing the food.  My brother in Sundsvall always tries to tempt me with surströmming, sill, Janson's Frestelse, etc. but those dishes don't do a thing for me.  When it comes to köttbullar, I can always go to Seattle & IKEA to get my fix, including lingonsylt.

But if you're talking Marabou Mjölkchoklad, that's another thing.  That I do miss.  No American chocolate can top that!

haha, never got into marabou, its cadburys all the way!   Think thats probably one of the things that you love about the place you came from!

Sustromming is something i want to try, despite the fact i know im going to hate it, love sill, but rotten sill, might be a step too far!

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Sustromming is something i want to try, despite the fact i know im going to hate it, love sill, but rotten sill, might be a step too far!

If you do enough Skål's along with it, you might be able to stomach it......;)

haha, thats something I can promise to do!