Summer is vacation time for so many of us, and for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been travelling around in Sweden visiting friends and relatives. Most of the time was spent in various small, small places, rather off the beaten path.
This little lake is located in Dalarna – one of the Swedish provinces. It was surrounded by a number of little red houses with white trims – the archetypical Swedish “stuga” (cabin/house). The fence in the foreground is quite common in Sweden.
I was sitting on this lovely bench, overlooking the lake and working on my travel-knitting project – the lace-shawl in gold-coloured Glacier Ice I mentioned a little while ago. It was the perfect travelling project, as the pattern is simple enough to be easily memorized, and yet varied enough to keep my interest.
The cottage in the background is several hundred years old (although I happen to be sitting in front of the newest addition, which is not nearly that old), and contained a lovely fireplace and a cast-iron wood stove, which must be lovely in the winter.
There were also gnarly apple trees, old barns and lots of woodpiles (half the barn is full of wood, which must be wonderful for the chilly winter-months).
We also went blueberry picking. Dalarna was very low on blueberries according to local sources, but when we were in Närke (another Swedish province) it seemed to be quite the blueberry year. There were lots and lots of blueberries growing right by the paths in the forests, so we didn’t even have to look very far away at all.
We went blueberry picking twice. The kids helped too, although most of the blueberries went straight into their mouths. 
But that’s the best part, right?
We had a wonderful time in Sweden, and now we’re back home, and it’s time to get back to work. I have lots of knitting and pattern work to do in the next few weeks. Once I get through the unpacking phase, I’m hoping to go out to our cottage here in the Ottawa Valley, so the kids can spend the remainder of the heatwave in the lake, and I can get a lot of knitting done.
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