Midsummer.
This photo I’ve borrowed from Nordiska museet (The Nordic Museum).
I’ve never understood why we now days celebrate midsummer, why are we celebrating that we no turn towards darker and colder days again, especially since our summers are as short and usually chilly as they are. But old traditions die hard as we say here 🙂 Back in the days this was a time to celebrate fertility for livestock, fields and humans. Today it’s mostly a time to have fun, eat a lot of food, usually get nasty drunk and there will be a lot of kids born in nine months from now 🙂
It was foggy up on the mountain this morning.
This morning lots of people will go outside, no matter what kind of weather we’re having, to collect lots of flowers and birch twigs. Those will later on be used to dress the Midsummer pole. Some of it will also be used to make wreaths to wear on our heads. Around 1 pm people then will start to dance around the pole to songs like “The little frogs”, The priests little crow and other traditional songs sung both now and at Christmas when they all dance around the Yule Spruce. After the dancing most people will return home to start eating.
It looks like it will be a good cherry year.
We Swedes don’t have that much variation when it comes to holiday food. You will always find pickled herring at any holiday table here (we tend to have a smorgasbord on holidays), You’ll also find meatballs, prince sausages, salmon in many variations and a few different salads. Then of course there’s always one seasonal thing too, like ham at Christmas and lots of eggs at Easter 🙂 If You could get a look at our tables You would very quickly see that Swedes eat anything that is pickled, we must have over hundred variations of pickled herring for instance. personally I just can’t eat it so I have prince sausages and meatballs instead 🙂
Sometimes I’m surprised that the Roe deer isn’t extinct 🙂 I had to shout out loud to get this ones attention 🙂 I didn’t want to scare it by just walking by but I’m not even sure it would have noticed us if we had passed it on the road 🙂
Can You see what flowers are most dominant now 🙂
Tonight however is one of the most magical nights there is and lots of the beings are out and about. I don’t think our trolls become stone or burst when being hit by sunlight, that would be rather difficult since we actually have sunlight here from time to time and the sun now is up for over 18 hours and our trolls are much like us humans with farms of their own and really can’t cope by just being up while the sun is away during summer. The mountain trolls however is different, big, shrewd and a bit evil as well but they live far from here 🙂
So I wouldn’t be worried if I met a troll while being out walking tonight, I’m not even sure if I would recognise one since they usually keep their tails hidden but I could of course try to see their ears, which are slightly pointy. I would however stay away from many others like fairies, nasty little things that loves to spread diseases and death to especially children. The Lantern Man would have problems luring me out on the bog since it is so bright outside all day now 🙂 For the ones having an Ash tree on their property it might be a good thing to sacrifice something for the tree, like water if the summer is dry or fertilizers now when summer is wet. That’s a good way to keep the Ash tree lady away from the home, she isn’t nice to have around otherwise.
This is the last photo from this morning, the rest will be a mix of older ones.
If You are unmarried and wants to know who Your future spouse will be You can get to know that this night. Just go out and pick seven or nine flowers (depending on which tradition one follows) and climb seven or nine fences and (be quiet all the time untill you fall asleep) put those flowers under Your pillow during the night and You will dream about the coming one. While You are out and about at night You might as well collect as much dew as You possibly can since it has healing powers that You might need during our long and dark winters.
One way to collect a lot of dew is to take the wreath You made earlier today, drag it in the wet grass, drie the wreath and save it for that Christmas bath. Put the wreath in the bathtub and then join it for a long nice bath, that will help You staying healthy through the rest of the winter. The midsummer dew could also help when baking or brewing beer 🙂 this was also the night to collect as much medicinal plants as one could, they would be extra potent if picked this coming night.
These are from the Edixa. I was trying the “new” tele-photo lens and it was a bit tricky to use because I had to wait adjusting the aperture until I was happy with the photo. As son as I adjusted the aperture it was very hard to see through the lens at all 🙂
I would dare to say that today also would be a very good day to plant a Care Tree. A Care Tree is tightly connected to the well-being and fortune to the property one lives at. Different beings can take a home in that tree ( like our gnomes, grumpy old long bearded but very small beings, or Wight’s or guardian spirits) and as long as one doesn’t disturb it, like taking even a single leaf or injure it in any way no harm will come to the home on that property. If, however, one would injure that tree in any way the property and family living there is doomed. I have two Care Trees in my garden, two different Rowans 🙂
I really get a feeling of old times when watching these Edixa photos. I guess both the old camera and to use a film instead of a digital camera brings out that old-time look in the photos.
The Church did try to make this a Christian holiday, that was what they did. They used an old pagan tradition and made it Christian. Here however they failed miserably 🙂 I doubt that anyone who isn’t Christian actually knows that our midsummer also is John the Baptist’s day, to be honest I don’t think many christians know that either 🙂
It is easier to get better photos with the old Hasselblad camera though. Using old cameras is both impractical and expensive but so much more fun 🙂
I didn’t use a tripod for any of these photos and many of them shows the world in a slightly odd angle 🙂
It is time for a short walk again, it doesn’t look like it will rain for a while now so we better get out there while we can 🙂
Have a great Midsummer’s eve!
A good end to the working week.
My biggest pumpkin. It’s like two baseballs now.
Finally, a day that worked without any problems! Ok, we were only three people in a department that needs at least six people to work properly but anyway 🙂 We did get one extra after a while so things went smoothly since nothing broke down 🙂 So the work day were actually quite nice and it did help a lot that we in the painting department only work half day on Fridays 🙂
We’re having a second wave with butterflies now but none of them wanted to show the beautiful side of their wings.
I had to pay for three months on the old-fashioned telephone now when I stopped the subscription even though they knew I only had to pay for one month. They always do like that and then they send a giro so I can take out that extra money in the bank, minus their huge fee. I always get so angry when they do like that! But now days it turns out that I also can pay with that giro in any store! The fee in the store is much, much less than that what the bank takes so one would be an idiot not to do it and since I’m not an idiot I paid with it when I was in the grocery store on my way home today 🙂
Still, I think it is wrong that companies can do like that and I think it is even more wrong that banks can take any fee they like whenever they like to do so. But they can because here in Sweden we have what they call an oligopoly when it comes to banks. We have just a few huge banks so there’s no competition between them at all. They have more or less the same fees on everything, actually almost everything is just the same between them. They don’t have to start illegal cartels and discuss behind our backs, they just see what the other banks are doing and do te same themselves. Since there are no alternatives we’re stuck with them I’m afraid.
This and next photo, Himalayan balsam. A terrible weed that grows everywhere here. Beautiful though.
We had thunder here earlier but we managed to take a short walk before it started. We also met my neighbors who has been away on vacation while their bathroom was renovated. They rent the cottage from the castle and thought everything would be ok now when they came home, the renovation started more than two weeks ago so it really should be no problems. But to their big surprise it shows that they still have no toilet or shower! Well that have the hole in the ground where the toilet should be standing and as I said to them, just try to aim really good and there should be nor problems using it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I do feel sorry for them, it’s not easy living without a toilet. But I also said that they should see the opportunities in this, this could be the perfect time to start fertilizing their vegetable garden 🙂 🙂 🙂 Yes I could behave like that because I fed their cats while they were away 🙂
I now understand why I hear the Shrikes all day long in my garden, they nest in my care tree, the Rowan 🙂 For those of You that don’t know what a care tree is, it’s an old tradition going way back since the pagan days. A care tree is usually an Ash tree and sometimes a Rowan (further north in this country) and it is planted the day the house is built (or in many cases when a new owner comes along or if the old tree happens to die. The tree is planted for the spirits of ancestors or for a wight. The tree must after that never be harmed in any way or the ancestors spirits or the Wight will punish the person very hard.
Passionfruit hybrid.
Clematis integrifolia.
Rudbeckia something.
If there already grows an Ash tree on the property it most likely is the home of the Ash lady (or Ash wife), a nasty being that hates humans. But she does stay calm as long as one sacrifice water to the tree every spring. She will also punish or kill any person that harms the tree. But unlike the ancestors spirits or the Wight she dies when the tree does, the other can just move to another tree if they have to.
Illiana remota.
This bush actually grows in my neighbors garden but is forced towards mine by the hedge. It’s now called Dasiphora fruticosa (used to be Potentilla fruticosa).
It’s time for a pot of tea and something to eat. I had a short nap when the thunder passed but I feel it wouldn’t be wrong to have another short one 🙂 But with my luck I’ll most likely sleep all evening and wake up in the middle of the night not being able to fall asleep again 🙂
Nicotiana sylvestris.
Maximilians sunflower.
Where the old pond used to be.
The cottage by the Crane Lake, life goes on. 
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