The angled light. A result of our location upon the earth’s surface. Light and darkness. Twilight land. Dawn land. Seasons. Days and hours, always in transition, always different – just like life. Fresh air, cold and heat. Silence. City and countryside. Open plains. Forests. Lakes. Marshes. Swamps. Moors. Valleys and mountains. Solitude and spaciousness. Clean water. Berries, mushrooms, fish, game. Food straight from nature’s pantry. Richness of tastes. Texture. Colour. Character. People, in houses and cottages. Big and small. Aging or young. With families and neighbours, friends and relatives. With the capacity to choose and create their own lives. With knowledge and dexterity. With sensory presence and curiosity. Enterprising entrepreneurs. Caring for nature and other people. Knowledge about traditions and the past, energy focused on the present but with the capacity to look forward into the future. Visionary. Insightful. With bodily presence. Combining hand and head. Magic and concrete reality. Dreams and the road to their realisation. The will to create services and products that are in balance, part of the earth’s recycling processes. Like a loan, durable in the long-term, that can bring returns – for the benefit of others, far into the future. In this world you gladly meet your fellows, neighbours, family, friends and guests. From close surroundings or from far away.
Does this sound like a paradisiacal Utopia? These are actually places that lie closer than you think. In Scandinavia, in the North, Norway, Sweden and Finland, between Helsinki and Oslo, in the countryside. Of course, we have only brought forth the positive, not mentioning any problems we might have. Of course such things also exist, but here and now we choose to shed light on the positive aspects and gifts of Nordic life. Why not come here and pay us a visit? In Nordic Delight we see the countryside as a rich arena for future development. Places and regions where people can try out their ideas and dreams. We have come together in a network of small-scale rural entrepreneurs, crossing over between different trades and areas of knowledge as well as different generations, located in a belt across the Nordic countries. We have created a meeting place for conversation, exchange, growth and competence development (Rural Academy) and a research centre for rural design and the “image vision” method. We make common efforts where we from the perspective of good hospitality develop new ways of seeing and thinking, meetings, services, products, exhibitions and activities – in short, we show our belief in the future, new vision and the ambition to nurture rather than wear out our planet and possibilities for future life on earth.