Yesterday I met up with Ella, the wife of a colleague of Hugh's and we went off castle searching in Orebro, a large town about 50 kms away. We visited an old village with lots of 17th century buildings - many of them had grass growing on top of their roofs - very quaint but they must have been rather short in those days as the ceilings were low and the rooms rather small. One of the houses belonged to a famous Swedish cook called Cajsa Warg- kind of an early Mrs Beeton I suppose.
The castle was of the classic kind - four towers surrounded by a moat and a nice little internal courtyard. We went on a funny guided tour of the inside of the castle and learnt all about the famous castle ghost and the prisoner who kept on escaping from the dungeons. There were some beautiful portraits of fairly ugly moustachioed kings, chubby ladies and sweet princesses playing with dogs. The castle is a popular place for weddings.
Ella and Grzegorz (they are Polish) live in a lovely house surrounded by meadows and woods. We had a nice girl time talking about herbs and flowers. Ella collects plants from the woods and dries them and makes all sorts of different teas with various health benefits. I have been steadily drinking some nice herbal tea infusions that I bought in Lausanne but I don't think it is quite the same thing!
Today I am afraid to say it was a bit rainy and miserable and I fear for the midsummer festival tomorrow. I met up with Ingrid for lunch in a nice pub in her town and joined the vast queues of people buying Schnapps and strawberries afterwards. Apparently Midsummer is the most important festival of the year in Sweden. Lindesberg seems like a pretty town, overlooking a lake and I look forward to exploring it more when the weather is better.
The other photo is of our little cottage and our trusty VW polo. It is quite relaxing driving in Sweden after Italy as the roads are wide, there is not much traffic and peolple don't speed so much. So I am quite enjoying motoring around even on the dirt roads around Grimso. We are off now to have dinner and watch a DVD so bye for now.
2 comments:
Happy Summer Solstice to YOU Karen!! XX
We are gearing up for the winter solstice festivities tomorrow but it won't be the same without you :( Our colours are orange and black - seeing you are away I chose colours I have in my wardrobe for a change:)
Enjoy - hope the rain keeps off !!!
Well I'm pleased you are continuing our great tradition and the colour scheme is pretty random anyway so have fun! Love Karen
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