Midsummer Day

Today we had even more rain than yesterday, but there were occasions when you could be outside now and then. Some work was done, we unpacked the small pool that was bought a while ago and filled it with water. Telephony installations was also performed.

Mostly we just enjoyed the time together with the family and relaxed. In the afternoon we all went for a walk. The well-known rocks is a welcome and peaceful sight.

Olle's brother started up the fish smoking equipment, that has just been waiting to be used for many years. Herring was smoked and the taste was really good.

In the evening we enjoyed the sunset, both from outside and from the dinner table through the window.

Typical Swedish Midsummer Eve weather

Midsummer Eve has more of traditional celebration than the National day here in Sweden. It's also a day off from work, so everyone can enjoy being outside. For some reason this day most often isn't a nice/warm summerday, rather colder temperatures and some rain is the standard. And so also this year...

Some campers found their own island to celebrate midsummer on.







After breakfast we and Olle's brother took a three hour long boat trip along the coast, in a traditional wooden boat. The goal was Olle's parent's summer house on a small island. We relaxed and enjoyed the landscape, which was more comfortable the moments when the sun didn't hide behind the clouds.

When we arrived it was time for the traditional Midsummer lunch, newly-harvested potatoes ("nypotatis") and herring. A snaps (herb seasoned vodka) was optional, but the songs obligatory.

Thereafter it was time to collect flowers for the Midsummer pole, arranged together on a small meadow. We met all summer neighbors again, as well as some new ones. We can admit it felt good to be back.

Before going to bed Maria went to look at the flashes from the lighthouses. Three are in sight from the island. It is so relaxing just sitting there and watching, it is quite except for the sound of waves. Even down here the summer night is not totally dark, even if it is lighter up north.

Light-beer is our choice

Today we biked downtown and checked out a store with outdoor life equipment. We were amazed of how long time the shop assistant helped us choose among the large amount of hiking backpacks. We both need backpacks for future hiking tours, earlier years we have borrowed from friends. We also need some other equipment (tent, kitchen), but thought we had spent enough time in the store after we found the favorite backpacks. Will go back later to buy them, still some things to consider.

In the afternoon we passed "Systembolaget" for the first time in a looong while. In Sweden there is a monopoly on alcohol, and you have to go to the special store if you want some alcoholic beverage. Not that you go there that often, it's expensive, even if the range of wine is of good quality. More often you buy alcohol when going abroad, where it is much cheaper. But living up north it will be a long distance for transport of heavy beer and wine, so we might buy some at Systembolaget.

In the afternoon we had a blind test of beer with different alcohol content, to see what we like most and will buy in the future. We had the same brand and tested light-beer (in Sweden that means 2.8% alcohol), middle-beer (3.5%) and strong-beer (5.3%). Olle could clearly separate the glasses, but liked the taste of light-beer most, maybe because that's what we have been drinking most since we moved back to Sweden. No reason not to buy the cheaper light-beer was our conclusion.

Last floorball training

Maria has joined a group at her work to play "innebandy" (floorball) during Thursday lunch time. Today was the last time before the summer break, we will be back in August to (friendly) fight again. It's sort of drop-in, so we divide in two teams for the day. Maria has been playing three times now in May/June, but she still feels rusty in her play, not at all as good as she was when playing during her student semesters.
"Innebandy"/Floorball is similar to floor hockey except that you play with a light ball. It's not as rough as hockey, not much of body contact is allowed. We play the version with small goals and therefore without goalkeeper (so everyone can run on the indoor ground).

An afternoon walk

Around lunchtime it started to rain, ruining our plans of a walk. At least for a few hours, but around three o'clock we noticed some sunshine and went out.
Evidence from the earlier rain was obvious on some leaves.







We went to the the forest just to the west of us, and walked the 5.9 km running trail. Part of it was on the trail prepared for cross-country skiing during winter. One of the trails is groomed with snow machine if needed. Part of the trail went further on and took us in to quite wild-looking forest.

Around half-way we took a short rest, sitting down on some stones. Just next to us were flowering lingonberry sprigs.

A cold National Day

At lunchtime we went to Gammlia, the open-air museum, were the official National Day celebration occurred.

The weather was not warm at all; about 10 C for maximum and the rain was waiting to start any minute.






A male choir were singing summer songs.
A group were dancing traditional folk dances (photo taken before they started), and also dressed in traditional folk costumes (hard for us to tell from which region of Sweden the dresses came from, too little knowledge).



In the afternoon there was the opening for the craft exhibition "Självklart - 100 år med Västerbotten läns hemslöjdsförening" (Eng.: "Of course - 100 years with the home craft association of Västerbotten county"). All kinds of material were included. One of the most impressing arts was the carved moose antler.

The Big Food Party in Vännäs

Tonight we took the car to Vännäs, a village 20 min drive from Umeå.
Now also Olle got a look of the nice train station that Maria passed some weeks ago.
The food party that we attended reminded us of Taste of Madison;
both food and some entertaining song and dance. Unfortunately, the temperature were too low to inspire people to stay longer, otherwise we guess a lot of the inhabitants of Vännäs were downtown tonight.

Spring turns to early summer

This time of the year there is a mix of spring and early summer flowers, especially in the north where the spring comes late, but summer should be in time. Maria could not resist immortalizing them on the way to/from work.

The spirea is now like big white bushes.





We haven't noticed the white mats of Anemone nemorosa ("vitsippa"), maybe the species isn't so common in the north. Anyway, there are white stars at the edge of the wood, what we think is Artic starflower ("skogsstjärna").







An up-to-date picture from Maria's bikepath to work. Now for some months the green is next to you, and there is not any view of the lake or the car road much longer. Some peaceful minutes, often for yourself.







One interesting thing here within Umeå is the tree areas left behind look like forests, not arranged parks. It's hard (for us) to remember if this is a phenomena of northern Sweden or something all over the country. The following photos are taken just next to the student apartments, but could be from a dark forest as well. Marsh Labour tea ("skvattram") and (European) blueberry are in bloom.

And just when you have started to take in all spring flowers in full bloom, the early summer flowers start to appear here in town.
Isn't it a little bit early for Woodland geranium ("midsommarblomster") ?
And the Cow parsley ("hundkäx") is turning white as well.


(With reservations from being wrong in some species, we are not experts.)

Sävar

A trip to the village of Sävar was on today's schedule. Sävar is situated about 20 km north east of Umeå and is mostly known to be the place where the last fight against the Russians took place 200 years ago when Sweden lost Finland. We might go back later in August for the celebration of the 200 year period of peace. We didn't see much of any 19th century theme at today's market, but we strolled around anyway in the village and among the stands.

It was peaceful to walk next to the Sävar river, but we felt that the water was too cold to swim in (some youngsters didn't agree). A canoe trip later in the summer might be nice, though.

Brännboll World Cup

Today was the first day we tried on the shorts so far this year (the temperature rose to about 25 C). We decided to watch the Brännboll World Cup at the Mariehems meadows. Brännboll is very similar to baseball we guess, but with less complicated score system/statistics. We were there a couple of hours, then lunch at home before we returned for the finals. As can be seen in one of the pictures, some of the teams were more in it for the fun than to try to win.

Never ending evening

Grill party tonight with the choir Olle joined a couple of months ago. After the dinner everybody gathered around the fire place and songs in four part harmonies were sung until it was too cold to stay (lovely to listen, Maria thought).
To stay until it gets dark doesn't work too well here in the northern part of Sweden during the summer. Because of the clear skies, it never really gets dark, not even in the middle of the night (the photo is from 1 am). So using that rule, you will stay up all night long.

The fun has an end

This morning not all were awake for breakfast at standard time (7:30 am). Anyway, Maria's sister was up in time to help putting the breakfast on the table, like all other mornings (some people are early birds).
Today we had a more complete cleaning of the interior of the ship, before we started sailing.
We sailed some hours before lunch and ended with a man-over-board exercise, were our knowledge about how to haul the sails were tested.
In the afternoon the sailing trip ended with group photo and hugs.

After that, it was time for a car trip back to Småland, followed by train traveling to the north. On the train Maria felt untidy, even if the reason was more being out in the wind for a long time, than actually being dirty. There was a lot of time during the evening/night/morning to read and try to get some hours of sleep. Since Maria caught a late train, she had to change to a bus ride in Sundsvall (slow last hours of the trip).

A sunny day on the waves

Sailing south all the day and in the outer parts of the coast line with the wind coming from the side, meant not much to do with the sails (just smaller adaptations). Enjoying the open sea in different ways were one kind of entertainment we had. We also had a practical lecture in how to do the most useful knots.

Out on the open sea with a lot of waves, we had lunch up on deck. You do what you can to avoid getting sea sick, even if some brave persons took care of the dishes under deck afterward.
Sun all day meant that many of us were pretty red in the faces in the evening. Quite windy though, so you needed to wear clothes (i. e., no bikinis).

In the evening we enjoyed our last dinner together, including wine (we had ended the sailing for the day). Afterward most of the crew went for a beer (or two) in a local pub. Thanks to us the dance floor filled up during the night. Not so early to bed, it will be some tired faces tomorrow I guess.

Culture night and grill party

Today it was time for the culture event of the year in Umeå, the so called Culture Night. Olle went downtown around 9:15 in the morning to catch the boat tour to the construction site for the new railroad bridge over the Umeå river, only to find the tour totally full. Instead I biked along the river upstreams for the first time. When I came back to the city, the first events was about to begin. I listened to a cover band playing Bon Jovi tunes, but they weren't really that good. After that I decided to give the boat tour another shot, since I was quite close to the the dock I could as well try it before I went home. Luckily, I took the last spot this time.

During the late afternoon it rained quite a bit. Around eight I went to a grill party, the first one for me this season. I didn't know that many people, but it was fun anyway. Closer to midnight the air was colder than the moisture in the grass, which led to mist drifting around. Almost like a fairy tale.

Seven sails forward

It must have been impressing to see the big ship leaving the harbor powered only by the wind in the sails. It was good to have an experienced crew, who could organize us. This is a beautiful part of sailing.

A day with some sun and some rain in between. Like the other days not so warm (~15C). This day brought a little bit more wind, since we were not just among a lot of islands but also on some open sea.

As the other days we had morning coffee, lunch and afternoon coffee with newly-baked cake (or buns) during the day, followed by dinner in the evening. Regarding the food way we had a luxury weekend, eating much more good food then in a normal week. It's good that you had to work hard in between the meals, to consume all the calories.

Tonight we arrived to the night harbor a little earlier, which gave us time for other activities. We launched the small boat for another kind of sailing, where you directly notice the effects of turning in different wind directions. Agreeing about how to handle the small boat was not something the sisters did all the time, but we're still friends afterward at least.

The evening ended with storytelling with the whole crew crowded in the smaller captain cabin.