These are my home-made coldframes, built with salvaged 1930s windows and old boards. They have been delighting me with how nicely they warm up and how quickly my little seedlings germinate in there. I wish I had 10 more.....I sort of couldn't stop buying seeds this spring and planting a few in pots to see what would come up....now I have a sprawling greenhouse in my front yard (which of course isn't MY front yard but the family's I work for--hope they don't mind!) and I am excited to transplant these babies into the garden once the temperature is finally warm enough!! The days have been beautiful....and long. The sun is up sometime in the 3 am hour, and it doesn't really get dark-dark until nearly 11! Still, the nightly temps can be too close to freezing to plant the garen yet. The Swedish lifestyle is one of extremes. In the winter everyone suffers from the lack of sunlight, but now we are all recharging and getting overdoses. My hands are a nice brown already, and I’m even beating Erik in the "who's darker?" game.
So the garden has been delightfully consuming much of my free time lately. What would I do without plants to watch grow?! It is one of the best things in life, truly. Erik and I have rented a small community garden plot (about a 15x15 meter space) and so far there's not too much going on. We've added some compost and horse manure to the soil (I helped myself to the free fertilizer lying in one of a million horse pastures around here), and we have tiny spinach plants coming up, chives, oregano, rhubarb, rosemary, and mint. Unfortunately you can't make too much of a meal out of those ingredients, but we're enjoying the herbs in our omelettes, and RHUBARB is my new favorite food. This little-known plant in the Southern US is a thriver in cold climates like Sweden, and I have made several rhubarb pies, muffins, and this delightful thing called "rhubarb crème" which is basically cooked down rhubarb with sugar and a bit of water, and it is a delicious jam-like sauce you can eat in yogurt or as a dessert with hot milk! yum! anyway....a quick list of plants that will go into the ground in a couple weeks: kale, collards, squash, winter squash, tomatoes (under a plastic tunnel), beets, spicy greens, basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, cucumbers, cabbage, swiss chard, pumpkins, corn, eggplant...tehe....I’m not sure we have space for all this, but it's just a few plants of each. I have decided I need to be a small farmer of some sort one day. Well, I’ve had that thought 1,000 times already, but this time I’m sure. It suits me; the dirty pants and rubber boots, observing and anticipating growth, seeing change, eating real food, being in charge and using my own creativity and ideas....and I think if I ever have a job one day where I have to work inside on pretty days I would go ballistic. That’s that.
Well, there is too much news to report!! I should've written a post every week and reported the progression of spring here because it has been phenomenal. First, here is a picture from April:
We had snow until mid-April, and I thought spring would never get here. But then it melted and every day there came a few more leaves on the trees, more birds twittering their songs....then came the tiny flowers which cover the forest floor. First blue and purple, and then white. SOO beautiful. If anyone wants to visit me in Sweden, book a ticket for the first week in May. Daffodils came, then tulips galore, and loads of small wildflowers in people's yards which nobody mows down. Now the apple trees are blooming whitish-pink blossoms and when I bike anywhere the smells of blooming trees and flowers is a sweet delight.
Other than loving the weather, I have been learning to play the fiddle from a very nice fiddle maker in town, and this is an instrument I’ve been yearning to learn for years, and though it's difficult and all the amazing players today started when they were 3.5 years old, I am plugging away. Speaking of fiddles.......last weekend I had the great blessing of attending the Silkeborg Dance Weekend in Denmark!! It was 3 days of contras, squares, Scottish country dancing, and having a great time laughing with the fun-loving Danes. Those people know how to give a hearty laugh! I was the only one of 150 dancers under 50, and that fact plus my ashevillian contra style made me a bit of a small celebrity all weekend. It was fun, I have to say. They either thought I was that crazy American dancer or really fun. Mostly fun, I think. I met some amazing people, who within 5 minutes of chatting offered for me to stay with them in their home if I should ever some back to Denmark, and I got 75 invitations to the next dance weekend in November. :) :) I got to chat with Lissa Schneckenburger, one of my all time favorite fiddle players from Vermont, who helped us groove all weekend with her amazing talent. I talked and danced a lot with Frank, a dancer from Brasstown, NC (SMALL WORLD) who I have danced with 100 times at Warren Wilson and who moved to Denmark 3 days ago. (Coincidentally after the LEAF festival...funny:) It was refreshing to dance with a familiar face, and as he put it, "you now have an uncle in Scandinavia." I met Victor, an older man with suspenders and a beard and easily mistakable for a Danish farmer, who turns out to be one of those American transplants to Scandinavia. He's been living in Denmark with his Danish wife (who makes all her own clothes....beautiful) for 38 years but he was born in Manhattan and he talked my ears off in a thick new york accent and offered everyone american chocolate chip cookies all weekend that he had baked. He said after we danced together....in a cute, shy, but new yorker way, " I ....I like the way you move." :) :) CUTE! It felt funny to be away from Erik for 3 days (his mormor turned 90 and he was home for the party) and it was a delightful reunion at midnight when my bus finally pulled into the station in Uppsala (after a long car trip and flight). I saw him standing there looking cold by his bike, trying to see me through the bus windows. First his face was a black stare and then opened up into a big gaping smile/erik face when he saw me. what a wonderful feeling to be back with the one you love.
I ran a half marathon the weekend before in Stockholm, beating my predicted time and enjoying the racing life again in a nice and noncompetitive atmosphere. These fun weekends have been nice, especially because during the week I get to thinking and worrying about my future, and it's good to just live and enjoy life. I have decided to leave my au pair family and make it on my own here. I hope to find a job teaching english (or serving coffee or worse...I cannot be picky), and I think I have found a place to live...in a house with 5 other Americans (from the South at that!) who are coming to work for a university ministry in Sweden called Campus Crusade for Christ, or "Agape" here. (the word "crusade" doesn't help the message much unsurprisingly) The best part about this house we're renting from an Egyptian woman who hasn't redecorated since the late 80s, is the garden which has in it something I’ve been wanting so badly here.....a simple glass greenhouse!! for growing hot-loving veggies in the summer and cold loving greens in the winter. yay. and they have 3 old variety apples trees, a plum, cherry, and pear tree, and currents, raspberries, and rhubarb of course! ;)
well, i'll sign off here. I hope everyone reading this at home or abroad is doing well and enjoying the spring!
