Yes that is what the research station is called - makes me laugh anyway. Hooray today the sun is shining and the rain has gone away. Maybe it will start to feel like summer now. We have had a nice few days catching up with old friends Henrik and Ingrid and getting to know the new people who are doing Hugh's course. Apparently there is a ghost in the old house in the photo that used to be a hunting lodge, so we scared each other with cross-cultural ghost stories. Luckily it is light till about 1 am so although we had to walk to our little cottage which is surrounded by the woods, I was reassured by Hugh that ghosts need the dark to properly thrive and haunt people.
We had a lovely meal with Ingrid and Henrik who have visited us twice in Brisbane and started to plan the midsummer festival for Friday the 21st June. As many of you know I like to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes as part of what my daughter calls my "pagan cult" so I am gleaning material for festival proceedure. I was fascinated by the remnant pagan festivals that the Swedes celebrate and learnt a lot for my cult. So now as I walk among the woods I am looking for the 7 flowers that I will need to decorate my wreath and particularly for the purple midsummer flower which is apparently the essential element.
Now the weather is better I am looking forward to exploring the lake and the area around Grimso which is in the centre of Sweden basically, 200kms west of Stockholm. Apparently there is a nice castle for me nearby, and some churches and old villages so I should be pretty happy. Today I might drive to Lindesberg the nearest town to start stocking up on Schnapps which is apparently the key ingredient to the Midsummer party along with herring of course. I think I might skip that part! Swedish is a bit tricky for me but hopefullly I shall learn a few words to add colour to the blog.
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