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With the rowanberries this year it is as with the apple and plum harvest – some have plenty, some none at all. The sayings of people on the coast say that plenty of rowanberries foretells a stormy autumn; now there are literally only single berries on the trees on the northern and north-western coasts. Such a poor rowanberry year can’t even be remembered; the rowanberries are an irreplaceable source of food for many migrating birds – and with them the tree spreads. Inland there are nice crops of rowanberries locally, for looking or for cooking.

Arne’s photo shows the five marks on the berry, like the points of a star or a pentagram, “the sign of man“: because of them the rowan has been held for a magic tree. Even today a twig of rowan is used in places to protect against witchcraft – even in some cars.