The National Day of Sweden

June 6^th is The National Day of Sweden. Gustav Vasa was elected to be King in 1523 and Sweden became an independent state. Since 2005 it´s a national holiday. It´s very common to get together with friends and family for a picnic in the park or a barbeque.

Swedish National Anthem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moNRALTX4iA&feature=related

Technically the day is almost over in Sweden since California is ten hours behind..

The pictures in today’s post is typical Swedish things and pictures from my photogallery of my favorite places in Sweden, hard to choose I have so many :) Like California the landscape in Sweden is very different from the North to the South. 

Swedish Dala Horse, "Dala Häst". Often seen as a symbol of Sweden.
 AND it´s made in Dalarna, the region in the middle of Sweden where I was born.

Typical Swedish landscape in springtime.

Traditional Swedish Cinnamon Bun, Kanel Bulle.
If I had to choose one pastry that I enjoy baking the most: this is it!
It smells wonderful and they are delicious.

In Sweden we have "Allemansrätten" which is a law that gives everyone access to most of the land, nature and parks without any fees. Swedish people love the outdoors. Taking care of the environment and  nature is an important subject in school. Everybody enjoys the nature and  It´s also everybodys buisiness to make sure Sweden stays clean.

Icelandic Horse, Draumur från Lillla Strängshemmet.

Kopparmärra, statue in Central Gothenburg. It´s a staue of King Karl IX. The name of the statue is a joke since he wasn´t riding a mare, he always rode a stallion. Nowadays the statue is a wellknown meeting place for people. If I´m in Gothenburg this is where I usually meet my friends. In my twenties I worked at Café Cappuccino just behind the statue.

Timber and forestry is one of Swedens major export industries and  birch trees are  typical scenes in the landscape.

Kinnekulle, protected National Forest Area.

Sweden have MANY lakes of different sizes.

Nolhaga Park in Alingsås, Southern Sweden.

My Icelandic Horse, Pjakkur Från Mysinen sleeping on a lush, green meadow.

Kinnekulle

Lake Mjörn, recreational area in Alingsås, Southern Sweden.

Lake Mjörn

Pjakkur, Icelandic Horse.

Marstrand popular island in Bohuslän.

View from Marstrand over the mainland.

Swedish summer :)

Riding my greenbroke young horse at Lagmansholms Herrgård last summer.

Green

After the rain

It rained yesterday, today the sun has slowly won over the cloudy sky. It´s turned out to be a beautiful day, not too cold and not too hot – just perfect J

I took the dogs for a long walk in the woods this morning, to our pond and down to the creek. Everything was so green and lush after the rain. I wish I´d bring my real camera. At least I had my IPhone but it´s definitely not the same thing. When shall I learn my lesson to always bring the camera?  I´m very motivated to take pictures now since I sold some AND I have a new camera AND I simply love capturing those magical moments when times stops.

Next time!

Time to "do nothing" with your horse



Pictures of lost horse shoes nailed on a tree on The Western States Trail.

I haven´t been riding Trigger for about a month due to my pregnancy and for at least two more months riding wasn´t exactly what I consider RIDING, more like being a passenger and only in a very slow pace. Some might think that I spent less time with my horse but on the contrary I spent a lot more time with my horse. We´ve been going for long walks exploring the National Forest and our neighborhood. We´ve crossed creeks and all kinds of obstacles that came our way. We´ve been chased by dogs and had close ups with bears. Some days, like today we´ve been doing nothing together. I have gradually stopped training other horses for now and therefor Trigger had a lot of attention lately. I´m looking forward to see how this will affect riding him in a few months. We always had a lot of fun on the trails, but I firmly believe that our relationship is on another level now. The rest is doing him good in another way, he´s gaining more weight and looks more like a horse every day J

Trigger will always be my friend and I would never consider selling him, however I´m still looking for “My Tevis Horse”. Triggers qualities are on other areas. 

I enjoy looking for a new horse and I am hoping that I will find the right one before the end of august. Because that´s when I would like to start training. Philip and Wrangle are already making lots of progress and it´s hard to just watch! I want to join them really bad…I am happy that they have a lot of fun together. They seem like a good match.

I´m reading “The Tao of Equus” by Linda Kohanov. It´s a very interesting book. She is also writing about “doing nothing” with your horse to solve many problems that we humans have with our relations with horses due to our stressful everyday life. In the beginning of the book she´s riding her green broke Arab Mare and the mare is kind of feisty one day. Her trainer tells her to “Take a deep breath. Keep your body fully in the present and your mind in the recent future. Don´t let the past get in your way.(page 19)”  I thought that was very accurate explanation of where you want to be while riding your horse. I can´t wait to read the rest of the book…and her next which I have next to my bed.

The power of thoughts

When I was a little girl I watched McClouds Daughters on TV after school, about the Australian family of Cowgirl/Ranchers. They had Alpacas and I got very interested in Alpacas after watching the show for a couple of years. They are interesting animals, camels. They come from South America and I don´t know anyone in Sweden who has Alpacas. Having Alpacas of my own seemed to be only a childhood dream. I never thought I would leave Sweden, that wasn´t part of my plan but here I am living in California. People have Alpacas here! We have acreage J

http://www.aia.org.pe/aia.html?32

I would love to have a little herd and make wonderful scarves and clothing of their magnificent wool. I really like knitting and it would be the perfect little “business” to have without even leaving home. In March I started manifesting that I would like to start producing my Alpaca products on a small scale in September this year, after our baby Girl is born.

Guess what? Today when I was at the feed store buying hay someone asked me if I wanted some Alpacas that needed to be rehomed. I told him that I would LOVE to have some Alpacas and explained what I wanted to do with the wool. Apparently he knew other people that also wanted to rehome their Alpacas. As soon as we´re finished with our little fencing project (progressing well) I will have my herd of Alpacas J