Insects of Central Sweden - the first day

Here are some images of the little critters and other things I found in just the first full day (!) that I spent in the beautiful midsummer countryside and forest near Säffle in Sweden.  I have captioned some of them. Most were only known to me from books.  Some I recognised as having relations in New Zealand.  During the following week I felt as if I was in a magic European fairy-story and really would have stayed out all day every day, but for the fact that it was very hot and I needed to remind myself to drink and take breaks. My son took the few of me in typical crouching or searching pose.

Many insects were damaged.  There was a lot of activity and competition.
It reminded me of the tropics, but I attribute it to the long, warm, sunlit days. 

Hard to know which is the working end ... 

Ah!  There it is!

The lupins were almost over by midsummer this year,
which was unusually hot.

Chanterelle mushrooms

The lake in front of the wee house at 11.30pm

My Swedish Midsommar

On Midsummar's eve, we, and many others, went to a meeting place that had been an iron smelter. We wore beautiful crowns made of flowers and as part of the ceremony to welcome the middle of summer they opened up the gates and let the water through.
There were picnics and grasshoppers and laughter and there was music-playing and dancing and a maypole, and lots of children, and a spotted Pippi Longstocking horse, and wild strawberries and Swedish bread that you could watch being rolled out and cooked. I loved seeing that the slag glass that was left over after the iron ore had been heated to melt the iron out, had been used as a building material.  It was so beautiful and each piece was unique.
Afterwards we all wandered back to the cars and drove home to put some cream on the pavlova that was our contribution to the wonderful evening feast ...

... which was for all the neighbours and held just across the road.  Which was lucky because I may have indulged in just a teeny glass of schnapps more than was sensible so when the games began, I could just stagger slip away back across the road and watch the sun trying to go down from the wee house's little front porch.

Son tried on the crown.  He looked very becoming in it!

Here comes the water!

Everyone dancing.

The old foundry tower.  

The beautiful vitreous material (slag) that is left behind when the iron is smelted
out of the ore. 

Rolling out the knacke brod (crisp Swedish bread) which used to be
made with a hole in the middle and threaded onto long sticks like broom handles
and hauled up and stored in the warm and dry rafters. you just lowered down a stick
when you wanted bread. 

Back to the neighbour's place for the evening shared meal.

I tried a bit of everything.  My favourite was the fermented picked herrings.

Traditional Swedish cake.  Sponge, cream and strawberries.

Time for games... ! 

10.30 pm midsummer's eve

11 pm midsummer's eve.

2 am midsummer's day.

Sjoviken

 When we arrived in the heart of the country in Sweden I felt I had discovered heaven.  Now I realised why my son could leave New Zealand and live somewhere else (although obviously his wonderful partner had something to do with it too!)
The dark clouds threatened, gathered, came over, tipped it down, cleared away, and the warm sun came out and ... it was midsummer eve and I was suddenly whirled up into the most important and amazing big special celebration of the year here - Swedish Midsommar!

My lovely wee bedroom

View from the back of the house across the road to the neighbours

From the front window

View from the bathroom window!

The Clock