From Sweden’s second largest island, Öland, we went to Sweden’s largest island, Gotland!

That meant a three and a half hour ferry boat ride.

The main city in Gotland in Visby, an ancient walled city.

Once we figured out how to get into the city, we were fine.  However, we didn’t know that cars weren’t allowed inside the city!

It’s not that fun dragging bags over cobblestones, but it CAN be done!  And once we found our room, it was nice to be able to walk the cobbled streets without worrying about traffic.

Some of the streets were rather steep, but the views were amazing.

Buildings were a combination of wooden structures…

…and those that had been stuccoed.

But one of the most amazing features of the city was the ruins of St. Karin’s Church, which towered over everything else.

Gotland is famous for its sheep.  If you don’t want cars on your street, you could just put up a concrete barrier, but a stone sheep is so much cuter!  These were everywhere!

After a late dinner on our first night, we were walking back to our hotel just as the sun was setting.  I’m just a point-and-shoot photographer, so I was delighted to get this photo!

Our second day on Gotland found us outside the city walls, exploring the countryside.  We stopped at the church in Bro.  There was a great sign that gave the following information, “The first church was built on this site in about 1200.  Only the tower remains of this structure together with a large number of building stones, incorporated into the present nave.

“The high Gothic doorway of the nave has interesting figure sculptures.

“Several 5th century picture stones are incorporated in the south wall.

 

“In the interior there are medieval and 18th century mural paintings.

 

“The Romanesque font is from about 1200.”

I thought the door and lock were pretty cool, too.

We stopped at a pretty little lake.

There was a cottage there about the same size as the Swedish cottage in our woods.  I’ve been telling Bob I’d love to have a sunporch on our house.  He isn’t convinced we need one (who said anything about “need?”).  Perhaps we should put a sunporch on the cottage instead!

This cottage even had a deck!

There were wildflower everywhere!

The color of these poppies was so intense!

And these pink flowers were like a groundcover.

Imagine my excitement when we discovered Bunge, open air museum!

It was on the north end of the island.

It showcased farmsteads from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

There was a variety of architectural styles…

…including some half-timbered houses.

Here’s a charming little building.

And another.

I loved this window detail.

This is a barn with a shaggy thatched roof.

A typical fence from the area.

I’m always fascinated to see how people eeked out a living.

Here’s a mill.

People were so clever–using a hollow log for a bee hive…

…or a birdhouse!

There were several kinds of windmills.

An early “A” frame!

This one had really thick walls and was 16 sided!

Bob liked looking at the mechanics of things!

I watched a great demo on how flax was processed into linen.

Extremely interesting were some Stora Hammars Stones from the Viking Age!  They depict battles, sacrifices, etc.

It was a great outing!

 

We left Malmo and traveled north along Sweden’s east coast.  The views were beautiful.

There were lots of orchards and fields of grain.  Along the edges of many of the fields there were wild poppies blooming.  What a joy to see!

Our destination was Öland, the second largest island in Sweden.  It’s 85 miles long and 9 miles wide.

Öland is famous for its windmills, mostly built in the same style.

There used to be over 2000 of them!

Now there are only 333.

The remaining windmills are protected and preserved.

This one, considered a “Dutch” windmill, is for sale!  There are only 3 Dutch windmills on the island.

The most notable thing after the windmills is the stone fences.

They are everywhere.  I love looking at them, but I think of all the work that went into clearing fields of stones and I’m overwhelmed!

We stayed in the seaside village of Borgholm.  The architecture there was very special.

There has been a bathhouse on this site since the early 1800′s–although it’s had to be rebuilt a few times after damaging storms.

I loved this flag display at the Strand Hotel.

Nearby is the ruins of Borgholm Castle.

The first castle was built on this site in the 1100′s.

Through the centuries it was damaged in wars and rebuilt several times.

It was finally abandoned in 1709.  That’s more than 300 years ago!

It’s hard to believe there’s anything left!  I guess those castle builders knew their stuff!

After leaving the castle, it was time for “ficka”–a Swedish coffee break!  Luckily, there are wonderful little Kaffestugan everywhere.

Isn’t the blue and white china charming?

In this one, all the tables were decorated with wild flowers.

They were so cheerful.

😉

I love open air museums, and Öland has a great one called Himmelsberga, which is an eighteenth and nineteenth century farming village.

The details always fascinate me.

I wonder how old this gate post is, and who took the time to do some decorative carving on it?

The corners of this little building are made from tree trunks.

In this part of Sweden, it’s common to see thatched roofs.

Of course they made good use of all those stones!

Another stone fence. Notice the mill wheels propped up along it.

Here’s a stone water trough.

What else would you make your picnic table from!?!

I love how no one mows down the daisies.

This house had a sweet little fenced garden….

…with a thatched roof bee hive!

Now you know how pole beans got their name!

The interiors were as interesting as the exteriors.

I’m in love with these stoves called kakelugn.

At one time they were very prevalent in Sweden.

They are amazingly efficient—a small fire is built in the fire box then the smoke is routed like a serpentine, helping heat the tiles.  The tiles then radiate heat into the room.

Sweden has great painted furniture.  Notice the painted wainscoting, too.

A painted clock from the seventeenth century.

A fancier clock from the eighteenth century.

Here’s a fabulous painted door.  The walls are stenciled.

Stenciling was very popular.

Someone added a hand painted decorative border to this wall.

Here’s a more elaborate stenciled design.  Before wall paper was readily available, stenciling was the way to go!

I guess it was too much trouble to do partial designs, so this stenciling quits before the corner!

Spatter painting was also popular.

This was probably a bride’s chest.

Wouldn’t you love to know what treasures were packed inside when a young woman got married?

 

 

 

Bob and I just returned from two wonderful weeks in Sweden and two in Scotland.  Sweden is my favorite place in the whole world, and there’s no such thing as too many trips to Sweden.  This was number 14 for me!  Scotland was a first for both of us.  Of course I took lots of pictures, so let me begin by sharing my love of Sweden with you!

We started our trip in the third largest city in Sweden, Malmö.

The city center was beautiful, with lots of these towers of flowers!

Thanks to some tips from Maia at SemiSwede we found our way to the park….

…along the canal….

…and to some beautiful gardens.

I loved this windmill…

…and this sculpture was quite intriguing!

This building, called the Twisted Torso, is one of the most famous sites in Malmö.

I don’t usually go into McDonald’s when I’m traveling abroad, but one day we needed a bathroom, so decided to share a Coke and take advantage of McDonald’s facilities.  Now I want to know why we don’t have pastries like this in our McDonald’s!?!

Of course I love the quaint streets…

…and the shopping was fabulous!

My favorites are the design stores.

There were plenty to choose from.

Sweden and strawberries are synonymous in the summer!

I also love the handcrafts, like the Dala horses.

Ah, the colors of Sweden!

It was so great to be back!

 

Shortly before Christmas, I learned about this book.

It’s a gorgeous coffee table book filled with photos of Swedish and Norwegian folk dress.

There are no US distributors so I ordered a copy from Sweden.

It came last week and was worth the wait!

I love anything old, folksy or traditional.

This was all of that!

Can you imagine that this was everyday wear at one time?

The photos are taken by the author, Laila Duran.

I found some additional ones from the town of Boda here.

Each town, or parish, has their own unique costume.  One of the prettiest costumes comes from Dala-Floda.  The mens is shown below.

This is my relative, Berit, in blue.  She is from Floda, too!

And this is me in my Nås dress. I’m ready to dance around the Maypole in Sweden in 2008.  This dress was given me by my Swedish relatives in 1984, and I really treasure it.

Everyone in Nås would have worn the same costume.

At the midsummer celebration in Nås there were a lot of people in their folk dress. This woman is wearing a man’s jacket.

It was especially fun seeing the children in their traditional clothes.  The apron can be red or white.

Isn’t she adorable?

My sister took most of these photos.

She said she felt like a stalker!

But the kids were too cute to resist.

I love tradition!

I was delighted to find a new blog recently.  It’s called Semiswede – Sort of about Sweden, sort of not! It’s written by Maia, an American living in Sweden.  I had a ball reading all the posts.  There was one about Swedish cheesecake that really intrigued me.  Here’s what her beautiful photo looks like.

Of course, I had to try it!  So yesterday, I bought the ingredients—mostly eggs, milk and cottage cheese—and made one!

It’s very much like a custard, but the cottage cheese gives it a unique texture and chewiness.  As I was rinsing the strawberries, I realized that the adorable little colander I was using was a Swedish purchase!

It was still pretty warm when I cut into it, but it had set up nicely.  I think it should be spooned out into a bowl (now that I looked at Maia’s photo again) but I cut wedges.  Bob agreed that it was very tasty.

I’ll definitely make this again!

 

Greetings from Quilt Market in Houston!  Today was Schoolhouse–15 – 30 minute sessions all day long introducing new products that are going to premiering at Market.  Well, when I saw a title called Quilts in Sweden you know I had to go! Turns out that’s the title of a new book by Kaffe Fassett.

Much to my delight, the quilts were photographed at Skansen, the open air museum in Stockholm.  Historic buildings have been brought from all over Sweden to this museum–including one from Anna Lena’s farm!  These photos are washed out because I was taking pictures projected on a screen, but I thought they were worth sharing with you.

I love this quilt on the outside of a typical Swedish log cabin–square logs and Falu red paint.  This paint, which is prevalent all over Sweden, is a by-product of the copper mining.

I recognize this as the inside of the main house at the Delsbo farmhouse.

I love this balcony shot!

This photo was taken inside a manor house at the museum.  Don’t you love the geometric design of the quilt and the geometric design of the floor!?

Beautiful painted wall–and beautiful quilt.

Kaffe said they topped off their day with tea at the Tea Room!  Perfect!

Last weekend, we celebrated a Swedish Midsummer here at home.  I would rather have been in Sweden, but this was the next best thing.

I was up early to get started….

The front porch was decorated with flowers, birch branches and Dala horses.

It all starts with the midsummer pole.

We had fox gloves and rhododendron blossoms adorning it this year.  Melissa and Matt helped!

And, for the first time, we had a rooster on top!  In Sweden the rooster is another symbol for the renewal.

Time for the ceremonious raising of the pole.

As you can see, our small one only requires two (strong) men.

Cole helped lock it in place.

The rhodies were a nice addition.

And speaking of nice, we had a really nice day.  Even my mom, who doesn’t usually enjoy nature, was comfortable sitting outside.

Dad was here, too.

And Melissa…

…and Matt.

Of course Sally was here, and so was Ray, but he was taking pictures and didn’t end up IN any pictures!

Cole was here.

We all danced around the maypole, even my dad!  That left no one to take pictures, but that was okay.  Dancing is always more fun than taking pictures.

Then we spent a little time in the cabin.

All seemed quiet around the troll house!

I have two new chairs on the porch.  They were made by Josh Blewett, who also made the stairs in the cabin.

I found a good supply of wild daisies to pick for decorating.

And Melinda shared some flowers from her garden.

Mom, Melissa and Matt enjoying the sofa.

Then Melissa and Matt had to check out the loft.

Here’s one of the weavings my Swedish cousin, Berit, has made for me.

And the corner cupboard I bought in Sweden in 2008.

This wonderful embroidery is new-to-me.  It talks about the red cottage with it’s weeping birch tree and remembering your childhood days.

This candlestick is a copy of one from the 16th century and it has a LOT of symbolism.  Rooster – Watchfulness; Three candles – the Holy Trinity; Two jagged arches – Christ’s Crown of Thorns; Ten holes – the Ten Commandments; Heart – Love; Twelve leaves – the twelve Apostles.  Whew!  You can see another beautiful weaving of Berit’s under it.

In Sweden the lupine is always blooming profusely during midsummer.  The best we could do were these wild foxgloves at the edge of our woods.

Inside I pulled out some of my Swedish souvenirs. The three dolls in the middle are dressed in parish costumes.  The blue one is from Transtrand where Melissa’s grandpa’s family came from.  The boy and the girl in the red dress are dressed in Nås clothes.  Nås is the town Anna Lena came from.

These adorable candle holding girls I bought in Sigtuna, Sweden–the oldest city in Sweden.

Of course midsummer isn’t just about a maypole, it’s also about FOOD!  My sister, Sally, loves dishes and has, shall we say, several sets.  She brought her blue and yellow ones, which were perfect because they are the colors of the Swedish flag.

There are two styles of plates.

And lots of adorable serving pieces.

Our meal consisted of hard bread.  One of my favorite Swedish finds is this Dala horse server.

The hard bread is a brand from Dalarna–my “home” province.  My grandma always told me Dalarna was the prettiest part of Sweden!

We had a variety of cheeses to go on the bread.

And, of course, pickled herring, served in a special herring boat.

It wouldn’t be midsummer without meatballs and lingonberries.  I made 150 meatballs for 9 people!

We had new potatoes with fresh dill.

Pickled beets.

And cucumber salad.

And, of course, we had TWO desserts.  I made a Princess Cake.  It’s my third one.  This year I wanted to do something different, so made a long loaf rather than the traditional round cake.

And we had to have a Strawberry Torte.

It was so much fun to be with family and sharing a bit of our Swedish tradition.  Maybe next summer I’ll be in Sweden, wearing my Nås dress and dancing around the may pole.

 

 

Of course, if I had my way, I’d have been in Sweden for midsummer.  But, not this year.  So, we had a midsummer celebration here in Long Beach.

First, the Swedish cabin in our woods needed some attention.

We’d been using a ladder to get up to the loft, but I wanted stairs that were carved out of one log like I’d seen at farm museums in Sweden.

Josh Blewett, a local chain saw artist, did these for me.

It took a lot of “oomph” to lift it up.

And then it needed some tweaking.

They had to take it down…….

….and put it back up a couple of times.

In the end, it was a perfect fit.

I took the inaugural climb, and Josh joined me in the loft.

Last summer in Sweden I bought a wind vane that’s based on an historic design.  Note: It’s always good to buy heavy items made of metal to put in your suitcase–especially early in your trip.

John Bahner made a beautiful mounting bracket for it–even duplicating the heart that’s on the vane–and got it done in time for the weekend festivities.

The setting around the cabin is so beautiful this time of year.

I love the delicate ground cover called miner’s lettuce.

It even manages to find its way into the crotch of the trees.

The log by the troll house had a nice crop of mushrooms.

I think the trolls may be cultivating them.

On the morning of the midsummer celebration, Bob had the maypole in place and ready to go.

I spent the morning making garland.  I wish I had birch leaves, but alder had to do.  Bob and my cousin Susan help me bring everything to the maypole.

Cole supervises as I wrap.

The onlookers–my mom, my brother, my uncle, my dad, my uncle and my cousin.  Quite the family affair!

The decorated maypole.

The three guys get ready to lift.

Can they do it?

Higher……

….and higher……

Yeah!  It’s finally in place.

Locked in.

By afternoon, we had sunshine and blue skies–perfect for picture taking.

Midsummer means lots of flowers for decorations.  These are on the cabin.

I especially love the wild fox gloves.

This is probably my favorite bouquet.  These flowers grow wild behind my studio.

A little something for the living room.

It’s traditional to decorate the entrance to your home with birch trees.  Since none grow around here, I bought two at the nursery.  Now I’ll plant them by the cabin.  I figure if I do this every year, I should have a whole birch forest in about 80 years!

My collection of Swedish horses came out for the occasion.

Dinner’s nearly ready and Sally is pouring water.  We had the traditional meal–meatballs, dilled new potatoes, pickled herring, rye bread, lingonberry sauce and cucumber salad.

And two desserts–strawberry whipped cream roll and princess cake.

Later in the day we relaxed in the cabin.

The weather was perfect for being out.

Before the day was done, we had to have our picture take in the lupine.

The lupine in Sweden grows wildly and abundantly.  I’m trying to get the lupine established in this area of our yard, but I have a long way to go.

So you can see what I mean, here’s a picture taken two years ago in Sweden.  Can Cole really have grown so much in just two years!?!

Glad midsommar!

I have many happy memories of strawberries on my trips to Sweden.  I’ve eaten strawberry whipped cream cake at relatives houses, on midsummer day, even in a fabod.  This year was no different.

Berit is a wonderful cook, and you never pass up an invitation to eat with her and Gunnar!

May made a wonderful dessert with strawberries and meringue.

When we were in Upsalla, Sven-Eric took us to a farm stand with fresh picked berries.

As you can see, we weren’t the only ones with a strawberry craving.

Anna served them lightly sugared with ice cream.

Another of Berit’s creations.

And I have to end with this plate of strawberry scones made by my friend Melinda recently for Redwork!  Check out her vintage spoon!