(448K)
1536 x 1024
|
Here's a candid shot of Linn with her parents back at their apartment in Kista.
|
(489K)
1536 x 1024
|
This is the view from the upstairs balcony at the country house in Smѐܒland. There's actually a rainbow in the sky that I was trying to get a shot of, but it's hard to make out here. You can see Berit's (Linn's mom's) garden, and the cherry tree, which didn't have any cherries this year.
|
(573K)
1536 x 1024
|
This is the kitchen in the country house. Those are the lingonberries on the table, waiting to be made into delicious jam. By me. And Linn helped.
And, yes, that ball of light in the backyard is a faerie, and not simply the flash from the camera being reflected in the window.
|
(527K)
1536 x 1024
|
Linn is trying to decide to finish cleaning the lingonberries, or to go back to her big pile of comic books.
|
(391K)
1536 x 1024
|
Lingonberry jam a-cookin'!
|
(579K)
1536 x 1024
|
We rode bikes down the road to the small local restaurant, which is owned by the people who also own this farm. I took the picture to tease Linn, who is deathly afraid of peacocks.
|
(751K)
1536 x 1024
|
At the restaurant we spent some times talking to the chickens outside.
|
(392K)
1536 x 1024
|
This is a shot of the lake we swam in last summer. It's the view from the restaurant. Very pretty even on a cloudy day.
|
(702K)
1536 x 1024
|
We had to play on the seesaw for awhile outside the restaurant.
|
(585K)
1536 x 1024
|
Those are the bikes we rode. The one on the left is "grandma's old bike", which was mine while we were there. It had a squeaky wheel. But at least I didn't LOCK it and forget the key...
|
(558K)
1536 x 1024
|
Linn got shocked on an electric fence trying to get at these blackberries. They were worth it: sweet like candy.
|
(601K)
1024 x 1536
|
I'm coming back from Berit's garden with vegetables for our dinner.
|
(378K)
1536 x 1024
|
There was a big old auction house around the bay. A beloved local tradition was for people to gather there and buy old junk. I was too embarrassed to go take a picture of this moose head in the middle of an auction, but I reeeeally wanted one... so I asked Oscar to do it. And he did, very valiantly.
|
(408K)
1024 x 1536
|
Oscar in the kitchen at the country house.
|
(431K)
1536 x 1024
|
Big Strong Man rowed us out to the spot where we sat fishing for hours and hours...
|
(409K)
1536 x 1024
|
...not catching anything...
|
(400K)
1024 x 1536
|
...and still not catching anything. Finally we gave up and made to head back home...
|
(402K)
1536 x 1024
|
...when, what's THIS? Tavie caught a fish!!!
|
(471K)
1536 x 1024
|
We left the fish at the dock. We meant to eat it, but we ran out of time. Also, without Linn's parents there, none of us knew how to clean a fish.
|
(554K)
1536 x 1024
|
The stand of birches near Diana Barry's house. (Not really Diana Barry's house.)
|
(553K)
1536 x 1024
|
"Don't take a picture of those! Those are Scottish!"
"Yeah, but they're really cool looking!"
|
(590K)
1536 x 1024
|
By the time we got to Smѐܒland, they'd cut most of the hay down out of the fields. But there were still some left uncut, all nice and golden.
This was our last day in the country, and we had just eaten dinner at the local restaurant. We wanted to ride our bikes home, but we had to walk them because SOMEBODY locked her bike and forgot the key. I wanted to coast down the big hill anyway, so I rode ahead and then waited in this grassy ditch for Linn and Oscar to catch up.
|
(393K)
1536 x 1024
|
The walk home was hurried because we had to catch a bus, and Oscar wanted to catch some track-and-field competition on tv before we did.
|
(379K)
1536 x 1024
|
This was the last shot I got of Smѐܒland. We rode by this view several times on our bikes and I was really taken with it because it reminded me of Oz. (As in Wonderful Land Of, not the werewolf.)
|