Midsommar 2011 in Småland

Well, get ready for a whole bunch of photographs, I took them all with my iPhone (3GS) yesterday.

We were invited to celebrate THE VERY TRADITIONAL SWEDISH MUST MUST MUST CELEBRATE - HOLIDAY 

m i d s o m m a r 

with our friends Malyn and Philip and the 2 sons A. & N. 

They live on a lovely farm just outside of a lovely little village called "Tolg". 

I took following photo of their house in August 2009.

When we got there late afternoon, everything was prepared. 

Look at that...

The table setting was really lovely, with real wild strawberries treaded on real blades of grass. 

Midsommar is all about spending time with family and friends, AND good FOOD!
As a starter we had potatoes, salmon and herring.
Yummie...
AND typically swedish.
A MUST at MIDSOMMAR!

This is the lady of the house...

Here we have the man of the house...
He and one of the boys opened up a bottle of their home brewed beer (it tasted really good, even for someone like me who doesn't usually like beer)

...and the others had either normal beer, white wine or this...
Elderberry juice - with taste of wild strawberries, again...
A MUST HAVE AT MIDSOMMAR!

In the background we listened to a couple of typical swedish MUST-LISTEN TO (OR SING)

midsommar/festival - songs...

I guess it is a good idea to get one of those Cd's for ourselves at home, just in case ;-)

Then, (the boys had already fired up the BBQ-coles when we got there) it was time to put the meat on the GRILL!

AND Malyn, the lady of the house, surprised us with another MUST HAVE - MUST DO MIDSOMMAR TRADITION!


Remember when I wrote in my last post "midsommar vacation" that I (or in that case WE) wouldn't be wearing a chaplet from daisies on my head???!!!


WELL, sometimes you just gotta go with the flow, right! ;-))

The nice thing was that we all got to wear those pretty chaplets, even the two young men!
They wore them with pride, as you can see...

Handsome Handsome Handsome! :)

The hosts wore them with pride too, look how they shine!

Then, after a visit to the horses, with some pieces of crisp bread (knäckebröd) in our hands, it was time for DINNER!
Oh it tasted "så gott"! :)) All of it!

Ice cold Schnapps was served for the brave ones during the meal, right in those colorful and (in my opinion huge) shot glasses.
Another MUST HAVE - MUST DO midsommar tradition! :)

Time flew by while we ate, talked and laughed and before we even knew it it was already time for coffee and STRAWBERRY CAKE  - the ultimate MUST HAVE midsommar - ingredient!
I watched Malyn work on finishing the strawberry cake (part of it was already made the evening before).
I could see that she had years of experience putting "that thing" together. :)

I assure you, that cake tasted as good as it looked...

"Michi" hurry uuuuup, one picture is enough! Coffee is ready and we wanna get started with that caaaaaake!! :)))

Y U M M I I I I EEEEEEEEE!

Even though we had to go home again way too soon (our puppy dogs were home alone) it was still a real treat, the hosts, the food, the "ambience" and all the good laughs we had.
A big "thank you" to the host-family !!! ♥




Last but not least I post a photo of "Bessy"... she didn't get meat and didn't get cake, but she did get pet and scratched a lot. And she got "levergodis", I had some of Cleo's in my pocket (dog biscuits).
AND the boys, A. & N., took her for a walk!
I am positive that she had a fun midsommerafton (midsummer-evening) as well :))

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥