Midsommar

Happy summer solstice to everyone! Here in Sweden, Midsommar is the kickoff to summer. The festivities start on Friday, Midsummer's Eve. While not officially a holiday (except for those with government related jobs), pretty much everyone takes the day off. Despite very stressful times at work with layoffs, reorganization, and such, my husband was able to take the day off too. (One of his colleagues made the mistake of taking the week off, and may have been cut because of it. Nobody dares to take a real vacation this summer even though it is customary that people take at least a month off during the summer.)

Our daughter went with my husband's mother to celebrate with some of her friends on a farm. She had a great time, and we had the luxury of not having to do anything. I went grocery shopping and attempted to tidy up around the house. The pantry and freezer are restocked, but the house is still a disaster.

It rained less on Saturday, so between showers we did some gardening. I trimmed the dead stuff off the cottoneaster bushes and pulled four wheelbarrels full of weeds. It has rained so much recently that it was not that difficult to pull ragweed and thistles, which usually sit pretty tight. I also got a whole bunch of stinging nettles, and a ton the vine-type weed that sticks to everything (I don't know what it's called). I used gloves and wore long sleeves, but my arms are still tingling from being nettled. It's like when your foot wakes up after falling asleep, except it lasts for days. Then it starts to itch a little. For me it usually takes about a week to get over nettle stings. For my husband, it takes about 5 minutes.

Between spurts of gardening, we ate the traditional Midsommar food together with my mother in law. For lunch we had: pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with dill, sour cream, and chives, veggies with dip, meatballs (for those of us who aren't into herring), hard boiled eggs, bread and cheese. For dinner, we finally assembled the propane grill I baught last year, and we grilled some marinated pork and ate that together with leftover veggies and potatoes. Dessert was the much anticipated strawberries with whipped cream, and I also made lemon bars since I don't like strawberries.

Today we're off to visit friends in Denmark.