The Morses first saw Dali’s work at an exhibition in 1941 just before they got married and

The Morses first saw Dali’s work at an exhibition in 1941, just before they got married, and were intrigued by his subject matter. Two years later they bought the picture that was to start their collection and made an appointment to see the artist in New York, a meeting that was to lead to a lifelong friendship. They gradually built up a large collection of Dali’s paintings, books, films and costume designs at their home in Ohio, but the collection soon became to large for their house.Concerned that they would not be able to keep the collection together after their deaths, the couple were eventually offered a building in St Petersburg and a foundation was established to preserve the works on behalf of the people of Florida. The museum is on the waterfront at 1000 Third Street South (001 727 823 3767; ), and opens 9.30am-5.30pm from Monday to Saturday (until 8pm on Thursday) and 12-5.30pm on Sunday; admission $13 (£8). And, above all, the sight of my first bear in the wild.SURVIVAL KITGETTING THEREThere are no direct flights to Ostersund from the UK apart from skiing charters in the winter, but there are regular SAS connections from Stockholm (0870 60 727 727; ). The realisation of how little I know about the world – and the resolution to look more closely in future. Medieval history wrapped inside an apparently humdrum piece of wood.

The intense taste of unfamiliar berries picked from the bush. From a distance, you can sometimes study them for three or four hours at a time.”On the way back down Lennart stopped at a fallen pine, which to my untutored eye was nothing more than a dead tree “Look at it closely,” he said The trunk was mostly smooth, but a section had been damaged. The shock of experiencing two separate climates only a few hundred metres apart. Alarmingly, he produced an axe from his rucksack and sliced off a rough bit “Smell it”, he suggested.

The pine was pungent and fresh, like furniture polish, and clearly alive “This wood will be good for 100 or 200 years. The tree has manufactured its own tar to preserve it.” It was a lesson that medieval man had put to good use. “Forest-dwellers deliberately damaged some of the trees so the natural tar would toughen the wood and make it useful for house-building.”If it’s true that we learn something new every day, some days contain more lessons than others This was one. He had paid the local “bear tax” of £650 for his licence to kill – although he said he enjoyed watching the beasts as much as shooting them. Before we could get a proper argument going someone screamed: “There’s one! I CAN SEE IT! Over there in the clearing!” We edged as close as we dared to the edge of the cliff to get the best view.And sure enough, there it was. From nearly half a mile away I could clearly make out the head, torso, legs and tail of what was undeniably a brown bear. It had emerged from the tree-cover into an expanse of open scrubland, paying close attention to an indiscernible object on the ground – very possibly an ants’ nest.