Days 15 and 16: Midsummer in Dalarna continues

We have been keeping so busy, everyone needed to sleep in and have a couple of slow mornings. Yesterday, after breakfast we went to a local waterfall, Hallvetesfallet. It was a cold day, a high of just 53F. 

The waterfall was easy to get to and had good views. The boys took the Mavic up, but didn’t get many shots because of SD card issues. We followed a path along the canyon edge and found a second, much smaller waterfall. It was really pretty. As we walked past it back to the car there was an alarming rock slide. A good-size rock and some smaller ones fell quickly and frighteningly. Even though we were kind of close to them, the rocks stopped rolling before reaching us.

We were all fine luckily! 

On the drive home we stopped to pick daisies for flower crowns for the next Maypole. 

Midsummer is an important holiday in Sweden. I saw many more cars and people out than on previous days.

In the evening we had a traditional Swedish Midsummer dinner, complete with vegan substitutes. We had a vegan version of pickled herring, with shiitakes, served with boiled potatoes and vegan cream. The pickled shiitakes had dill and juniper, just like the traditional fish. It was actually quite delicious. We also had vegan meatballs. The sun came out just as we started eating and everyone cheered. The sun is so warm here, when it actually shines, and it felt great.

After dinner we finished our crowns and went to another Maypole celebration. The pole is one of the larger ones in the area. It has paper flowers instead of real ones. A long time ago, a German wife was in charge of the Maypole. They raised it on May 1st, as was traditional in Germany. However, May is too early for flowers, so they had to use paper ones. The pole raising is now on Midsummer, but they have kept the paper flower tradition. The pole requires lots of strong people to raise, so Edon and Ezi both got to help. Then, Martin and his sister led everyone in singing and dancing around the pole. It was super fun.

After breakfast today we walked to the local community center for kids games to celebrate Midsummer. On the way we saw horses and their new babies. We, even Edon, got to pet a couple of them. It was so great. At the community center, the kids shot an archery target, tried to ring a pole with horseshoes, fished for candy, and did a boot throwing game. We are pretty sure Ezi had the best archery score, as he got two bullseyes! Our friends had delicious strawberry cake before we headed home.

The kids all helped chop down some weedy bushes from the property in the afternoon. We also played Kubb. It was a game we had seen folks in Norway playing at all the parks. The house we are staying in had a set with instructions in English. It was really fun and we hope to get a set when we get back to the US.

Martin’s dad and stepmom had a wedding anniversary dinner tonight at Brändgården. We were allowed to attend. It was very lovely and we were so happy to be there. Afterwards Heidi, Martin’s sister, and I had a disco dance dishwashing party with the kids with the disco ball Heidi’s son got at the little rummage sale this morning at the community center. Then, we all watched Sweden lose to Germany in the final seconds of the World Cup match. A bit of a bummer ending of an otherwise wonderful couple of days!