July 11

Suddenly sun and happiness. Days of depression are over.

July 10

It’s vacation time in Sweden. Almost nobody is working. The big industrials are closed. Social services like medical information, news papers and communal transportation are on a minimum level and only the most important services are still open.  And the only thing that really matters to Swedish people on vacation is the weather.

It’s a question of national interest, and national stress, how the weather is going to be in July. The forecasting starts already in May. The newspapers scream with their headlines:

It is going to be a sunny summer! Hurray!

The best weather will be in Tornedalen! 

Make sure not to be on the west coast this summer!

July will be the rainiest summer for centuries. Try to get a ticket to Greece NOW!

This summer turned out to be one of those nightmare summers. It’s cold, rainy and windy. Depression is a fact. I think some Swedes would prefer to be Greeks and rather stand the economical depression than this weather depression.

And how about my situation in this depressed country? We have been travelling 900 km south and it’s not better here than in the north. Wherever we come the cities and villages are wrapped in some sort of silence.  It’s like if Sweden was muted. The sound of laughing people is not there. The sound of children who get cold water splashed on them doesn’t exist. Nor do the music from the garden parties.

When I check Facebook to see what people are up to - they aren’t up to anything. They continue discussing politics and financial crisis and lost dogs or cats, like if they where just taking a five minute break at their job. No pictures from the beach or the hammock.

And I am ill again. Having a cold. It’s almost ironic, but mostly sad and cold.

July 03

Visiting Sweden can be an adventure, even for a Swede like myself. There is always a surprise hidden where you didn't expect it. And the surprise is never what you expected a surprise to be. Let's conclude this to the fact that you have to be open minded enought to know that you are being surprised. 

We followed Vindelälven to the metropol Björksele where my private biologist joined a running competition. It's a competition where a team run all the way from Ammarnäs, where Vindelälven begins, to Vännäsby where it joins another river called Umeälven. When he was finished for the day we went sightseeing. This is what we found: Stortallen (Big pine). Ok, let's remember that pine is basically the tree you see everywhere when you are in Västerbotten. Thus, the Stortallen must be something really surprising. Something specatcular!

The information sign told us to go 3 km on a dirt road. Then walk 1 km on a trail in the forest. We were more and more sceptical the further we got. "Can it really be that big?", we asked each other. "Can it really be worth walking here with all the mosquitos and getting out shoes wet?", we asked each other. 

Then we saw it. And it was HUGE! It was the biggest pine I have ever seen. I was really surprised.

June 30

"If your eyes could speak, what would they say?" (The book thief) This is what my eyes tell me.

The world is deeply green.
Flowers are shouting "here I am".
The birds are patrolling land and lake.
Light will never go to sleep.

June 29

It's 11 pm: the Dandelions are waiting for wind.

June 28

I like the poem “No man is an island” by John Donne.  

While I’m drinking a cup of coffee in the garden I watch the ants working on the ground. Their work contains mostly of carrying different things; seeds, tiny sticks, grains etc. They are absorbed by their work and nothing can stop them. I put my foot in their way; they walk round it. I put my finger in front of one; the ant smells it and then passes it. I drop blades of grass on them and they continue like nothing has happened.

I imagine myself walking in the forest and then suddenly have five logs falling on me. I would either die or panic. On reflection, I would first panic and then die. But the ants just continue like nothing has happened. I find this interesting.

First the practical question, why don’t they die even though the blades of grass are as heavy to them, as a log would be to me? My husband, the biologist, explain that the energy in the blade is much less than in a log. Hence, the actual weight of the blade is the important thing, not the size. 

Second, why don’t they panic? Even when I try to chase an ant with the grass, it doesn’t react. It just continues forward like nothing has happened. Are ants stupid? No, I don't think so. I ask the biologist again but he doesn’t have any explanation to this. Thus, this question might not have any practical answer. It may be existential instead. Maybe the ant doesn’t panic since panic wouldn’t change anything in the context of the ants society? One less ant doesn't matter to the ant society.

Sometimes I discover an ant-nest under a rock in the garden and when I remove the rock the ants are in total chaos. On these occasions they panic. Hence, this is my theory; the ant is part of an anthill. The ant is nothing without its anthill and the other members of the anthill.  So, I guess the ant can’t see the threat to it self as anything dangerous, since the ants focus on being a part of the anthill - not to live alone. It is a complete unselfish species.

Maybe John Donne was inspired by ants when he wrote that poem? Or are human beings like this as well? Do we fight for our community or do we fight for ourselves?

June 27

Let's see what there is to tell you today. Hum, hum, hum... my brain seems to have left the building. Why? Oh, I just finished two projects and my brain must be emptied due to all the deep analyses I have done the last days. Puh, I don't think I can manage to create anything thoughtful for some time. I'm gonna spend time in the garden instead and rebuild my brain.

Talking about the garden, do you remember the vegetables that froze to death a couple of weeks ago? I started over with the cucumbers and they are growing. There is still hope that we will have pickled cucumber this winter. The potatoes that were under the soil when it was so cold has finally appeared. Green and alive! Another project in the garden is a path made of flat rocks. The rocks were in the garden when we moved here and we have been think a lot about what to do with them. Then we decided to use them for a path. It's still not finished but in a couple of weeks it will be.

Potato plats - surviving north Swedish climate

Cucumber plant - trying to survive under an old window

Path - will last at least for a couple of years