And so much to see and learn......

For instance what is there to find in our own garden. Since we moved in here late october, we had absolutely no idea what kind of plants and other stuff there was to find. Now, in our first spring here, we are going to find out. And it sure has been an exploration. Just to give you an idea of what we found in late may, her are a few pictures.

Lots of Forest anemonies (vitsippor)

we're not sure what these are.... but beautiful

The blossom in the Bird Cherry tree (hägg) 

Lilly's of the valley, thousands of them

these small primroses start out like this.....

....and turn into this at the end

This Soring Pasque Flower (mosippa)
is threatened with extinction

Of course all these discoveries must be taken care of, just like the "gras". Ron started to try to mow the lawn so to speak. But he soon found out that the lawn is more like made of moss then gras. This sure does't make it any easier, especially if you can only do it with an oldfashioned handmower. That's the only safe way, since we don't now what more we can find in our lawn, thinking about rocks and stones. But with a little help from Sven, he came a long way.

Combined forces

One very important thing Ron also made was a fireplace. It is that place where sit down to relax, grill a little, brew a little campcoffee or just sit with a can of beer and let our minds linger.

family hobby...carving

Sven is learning quite a lot these days, and certainly not only in school. The kids found a fishing rod in the little gardenshed. Since Sven already had one, given by his friend Tristan when they were visiting us the year before, they decided to go out to the lake and try to fish. Not so very much later Annalena came home very excited, Sven caught a fish, we need a photocamera. So down we went  with the camera, and indeed....... he caught a fish

Very  proud of himself, as he should be, but didn't really know what to do now. So I told him he had to kill them, maybe stunn it first by hitting it on the head. Since that posed a bit of a problem,  the fish being very slippery, he just took a knife and cut of the head. Without even blinking with his eyes.
A couple of days later, when the weather was a little better, Sven and Elsa went to lake and tried again.  Soon, 5 minutes to be exact, Elsa came to get us. We had to come and watch, he already had caught two fish. when we arrived, he was just putting new bate on, he threw the line, and ........ yet another fish was caught. So in 10 minutes he caught 3 fish.

bait

throw

caught

3 times in a row

 Of course, just like Ron, he had to learn how to clean a fish. Since this is no real meal for a human, we decided these fish would make a nice catmeal. Once again I showed how you should clean a fish and then, under my watchfull eye, Sven tried it himself. And like his dad, he was a quick learner. In no time he cleaned both fish and then served them to our cats, Kareltje and Eddie, who absolutely didn't refuse at all!!!

 And last but not least we had a wonderful family day in Leksand, but I leave it to Ron to tell you about this. So here are his words..........as also to be read in his own blogg The Trying Woodsman

And as an icing on the cake I want to tell about an event we visited last sunday; the medieval fair in Leksand.

What can I say about it..... It was sunday, wonderfully sunny, temperatures around 20, so..... crowded!
But what an absolutely wonderfull daytrip it was! We have been to a number of similar fairs in Holland with castles, knights in shining armour, fully equipped footsoldiers, canons, the whole circus. Did we expect that here too? No not really, since the middleages here were different from mainland Europe. We also knew that Swedish fairs and markets are not as elaborate as Dutch ones, but afterwards I can say that many a Dutch fair could learn a thing or two from this one!
There were knights, but not in fullplated, shining armour, which makes sence, considering Swedish wintercircumstances. They mix badly with metal and human skin. The knights here wore more wool and leather. The focus of the fair lay with crafts! And that what I was looking and hoping for. The kids had their knights, horses and a few orcs to interact with, the Mss. could feast her eyes on a lot of jewelry, both medieval and gothic/fantasybased and I saw lots of leather, woodworking and even hidepreparation and flinktknapping!

A visual impression;

There were a number of blacksmiths present and I am amazed with what they made, given their tools. I had hoped to be able to find a strikersteel to go with my flint, but did not find any. There weren't that many usable items anyway. Apart from a few vikingcloakpins and some cutlerysets, the vast majority was focussed on decorational items or items for indoor use, like candleholders and such.

I really loved this ingenious, yet basic lathe. A footpedal connected to an axle in the middle and going up to the tops of the sticks. The man treaded down, making the axle spin and the sticks on the sides pulled to rope back up again, causing the axle to spin in the other direction. Treading down again etc.... cutting the wood with each downward tread.

rrrrtttttt....rrrttttt...rrrtttt.....

This women was working a beaverpelt, flesh and membrane still attached! It was hard work, but this pelt would make a fantastic hat or mittens! Other women had other skins and pelts in various stages of working. You can see and feel those if you wanted to, but most bystanders commented with an "eeewww"-like respons....

At the end of the day I found this guy, tucked away between other, larger stand. You can see his entire stand in this picture. Unfortunately I could not spend much time there. Those who have spend a day with kids on a fair in warm weather know why. He had a lot of beautifully knapped blades, arrowheads and other objects and as he was talking to another bystander, he showed how he did it in an almost casual way.

"You take this piece of stone and a piece of antler and then *peck* you knock a piece of....."

As said there were many stands selling leatheritems, ranging from necklacestrands, to pouches, boots, shoes, underarourgarments... the whole range. Some were basic and simple, some were..... a bit more elaborate! 

But there was one item that stole my heart!!!

There were also numerous stands selling woolitems, such as medieval clothing, garments, sheepskin and even backpacks. Unfortunately these stands tended to be quit crowded.....

All in all I was very pleasantly surprised with this fair. For me the sheer volume of craftsmanship and the high standard of it, was very welcome. In size it was a quit large fair with dozens of stands and people in appropriate clothing. But one of the things that surprised me most, was the level of  thinking that had gone into it all. There were a good number of foodstands, all with more or less appropriate food, prepared in a non-modernfashion, meaning open fire. The food we had was certainly good! The only downside was the lack of possibilities to acquire drinks, which on a warm, sunny day like this, would have made a lot of difference. I also noted the absence of certain things we often ran into on similar fairs; modern conveniences. meaning no stands with modern types of food or beverages, no electrically powered icecreamstands (there was one, keeping its cream cooled with iceblocks!) and next to no plastics to be seen anywhere! There was one stand selling some plastic weapons, but even these had a sort of wooden look to them. Even the cutlery you got on the foodstands was cardboard for cups and plates and wood for knives and forks!!!

And there was no litter to be found anywhere!!!

What did I get out of this day? One satisfied wife, 3 satisfied kids, with one being happy she chose this instead of her children's birthdayparty one satisfied me, being glad we went out and enjoyed a sunday as I think we should.

The loot for this day? A large leather hairpin from beautifully worked leather and bonepin, 3 thick leather bracelets for the kids, with their names stamped into them and for me another item I have been looking for for quit some time..... A woolfelt hat!

Ron signing off.....

And just because I like this view, I'll share it with you as well

Signing off, saying Good Night