Ah, the traditional midsummer meal!

First things first.  It’s time to set the table.  Way back in 1974 I chose a daisy motif china for my wedding dishes.  I must confess I have lots of dishes, and don’t use these much anymore, but I thought they were perfect for the Midsummer celebration.

The table looked quite festive decked out in blue and yellow, the Swedish colors.

The little Swedish candelabra and wild flowers made a perfect centerpiece.

But let’s talk about the food!  Of course it starts with Swedish meatballs, browned in butter and oil.  I figured four pounds of meat for nine people should be enough!

Swedish dilled potatoes are the best!  

We had pickled salmon and pickled herring.  Luckily we live at the coast and the local fish markets make it fresh here

My mom brought a cucumber salad and the meal was rounded out with white and rye bread, butter and two types of cheese, lingonberries and a cream sauce for the meatballs.  

Next time – dessert!

Disclaimer:  I didn’t get photos of my meatballs and potatoes, so I borrowed the images here from Google Images.

Swedish Decoration

Besides the maypole, there were a few other Swedish traditions that I observed for our Midsummer celebration.  The first it to have birch branches decorating the front of your home.  Alas, we have no birch in our woods, but I hit on a great idea.  I went to the local nursery and bought two birch trees!  They got to do the honors for the holiday, and afterwards we planted them near the cabin.  I figure I’ll buy two trees a year, use them for decorations, then plant them in the woods.  In, say, 80 years, we should have a whole birch forest!

Of course we flew the Swedish flag along with our American flag.  Pennants like this are very popular in Sweden.

And speaking of flags, the Swedes often decorate with small flags.  This is a souvenir from our trip last summer.

And check out this adorable candle holder.  These little gals are dressed in their Swedish national costumes.  So cute!

I got up at the crack of dawn on the morning of the party and went out to pick wild flowers for my bouquets.  There aren’t as many blooming here as there are in Sweden, but it was fun nonetheless.  This is one of six bouquets.

This candle stick is very special.  It’s a replica of one made in the 1500′s in the province of Dalarna, the prettiest part of Sweden and the area Anna Lena came from.

Swedish Cabin

It’s always nice to have a little piece of Sweden nearby.  For me, it’s this cabin in the woods–a gift from my parents.

It represents the little stuga in the woods where the young Swedish women would spent their summers.  You see, in the summer the cows were taken into the forest to forage.  That meant that the fields near the farm could grow up and hay could be cut for the long winters.  Each Swedish farm had grazing rights in the surrounding forest, and each farmer built a small cabin like this,  They were usually grouped together for camaraderie and protection.  The girls would have to milk the cows and make cheese and butter all summer long.  Today these little cabins are summer cottages!

Just like Swedish log cabins, I wanted mine to be built of square logs.

And I love the doors in Sweden! Our builder Steve built this one for me.

Sweden at midsummer means wild flowers–lots of wild flowers.

From my trip to Sweden last year I brought home this candle holder.

And this door stop.

There’s a special Swedish style sofa/bed.  I didn’t know how I was going to get one of those home from Sweden.  Amazingly, this was in the Pottery Barn catalog!

Enjoying a moment with my mom.

Shhhh.  In an effort to keep the trolls out, we’ve given them their own house!

The roof is tall and pointy like that so they can stand up inside with their hats on.  Bad manners–wearing a hat in the house, but don’t tell a troll I said so!

The Maypole!

There’s a little part of me that lives in Sweden all the time.  When I can’t be there in person, though, I try to bring Sweden here to me!  For the first time we celebrated Midsummer in Long Beach.  My family was here to celebrate with me and even though the weather wasn’t the best, we had a wonderful time.  I thought I’d share some of the midsummer traditions with you!

First, we needed a maypole.  I kept assuring Bob it would be a simple thing–cut a tree, stick a couple of supports in the ground and you’re good to go.  Bob must really love me because he uncomplainingly tackled this task!

He got to use his chain saw!

Of course he also had to use a post hole digger.

Then he cut down a big alder tree and brought me all the branches.  In Sweden it would have been a birch tree, but, alas, no birch here.  I made yards and yards of garland.

Bob helped me attach it to the pole.

I used wild Scotch Broom for the wreaths.

Cole says it passes inspection.

With Swedish music playing, we raise the maypole!

Can we do it?

Almost there!

Now it’s in place and time to dance around the pole–which we did, but there are no photos because EVERYONE was dancing!

I love this view of the maypole from the cabin in the woods.

Our final customer drives away………..

Sunday was the last day of business at Anna Lena’s, the quilt shop I’ve had for the last eleven years. As many of you know, I’d been planning my retirement for the last five years. I wanted it to coincide with my 55th birthday. Well, that was a couple of months ago, but close enough! We’d been doing the countdown on our reader board for the last ten days.

It’s been bittersweet, closing the shop. Of course I’m looking forward to retirement (such as it may be, since I’ve got my finger in lots more pies!), and it’s always a milestone when you reach a goal, but it’s also the end of an era. I didn’t want the vibe to be a sad one, so we greeted customers all day with sparkling cider and asked them to help “celebrate” our last day.

Even so, there were a few who weren’t ready to let go!

My sister and nephew were still in town, and they stopped by, too. I pressed Cole into service carrying empty bolt boards. I remember when he was just a toddler and how he loved to go through the swinging doors by the quilting machine! 

But, about those doors closing……….
When I think about doors, I think about the wonderful doors in Sweden. I fell in love with the doors there, and when we built our log cabin in the woods, I wanted a Swedish door on it. What’s a Swedish door, you might ask? Well, here are some examples from my trip last summer. Most of them have this cool herring-bone design. 

Even some of the garages have them!

Some are even fancier and have fancy paint jobs!

And one of the castles we visited had a herringbone door-in-a-door!

Here’s one that’s opening for me now!

But what is that old saying? ”When one door closes a window opens.” Here are some beautiful Swedish windows.

This one is taken from inside a building that used to be on Anna Lena’s farm in Dalarna. Now the whole building is at the outdoor museum, Skansen, in Stockholm. It was pretty cool that they let us go inside, ’cause it’s not usually open to the public. 

Perhaps I’ve gotten off subject here, but I’m expecting lots of new doors and windows in my life. Thanks for taking the journey with me! 

I’m Karen Snyder and I approve this message!