....If I was sent to a remote island, allowed to bring only one thing, I would bring with me my old eiderdown duvet. Light, soft, warm during the winder, cool through a summer night, when my naked body feel its texture shivers are creeping down my spine. Ever since I was a tiny little girl an eiderdown duvet has been my best friend.
....Sometimes a small feather or some down find their way through the fabric. I pick it up with my thumb and index finger and in the softness I can feel the small eiderduck babies, I can follow the busy life of the eiders when they strive to give enough warmth to their newborns.
....Seagulls down have the same soft feathers and downs as the eiders, but they are much easier to photograph. And they are beautful out here with the huge ocean as their background. In Lofoten we visit a small seamen's hut one day, and the nature screen in front of us let us follow the lives of small seagull babies, looking like soft grey feather balls, still without wings. Time stops and I become a flying seagull.
Taking a break in my flying I read about the eiderduck kingdom on the small island Lånan outside Vega:
Lånan is no longer inhabited while the winter storms are raging their worst. The last inhabitants moved from the island at the end of the seventies. Nevertheless every year when spring arrives the eider keepers returning to look after the ducks. They prepare nests and protect the eider ducks from danger during the breeding season. As a reward the ducks return year after year and provide their keepers with valuable eiderdown, eggs and lasting memories of nature experienced.
....The down has to be collected, cleaned of egg shell and laid out to dry. Afterwards it must be shaken out, sieved on the harp, and then given a final thorough cleaning before it is transformed into the world's best eiderdown duvets.
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Photos: taken from the veranda of friends hut in Lofoten.
Information about eiderdown from www.lanan.no
Note: It is possible to come to Lånan and stay there a few weeks in spring helping with the gathering and preparations of eiderdowns. You find more information at www.lanan.no
