1) Skane -
The southern little bit of Sweden where the house, Gläntan,
is: my favourite landscape of all, rolling farmland interspersed with woods.
The woods are mostly pine and birch, growing in surprisingly sandy soil. The meadow
flowers include poppy, cornflower, daisy and buttercup, which, when I was a
little girl, were the flowers of my make-believe wedding bouquet. The woods
smell strongly of piney incense and the wheat fields in the sunshine smell like
bread. There are berries everywhere; right now at the end of July, the
raspberries are ubiquitous and also scent the air – I’ve never smelled so many
good things all in the same place. Blueberries are out too, and currants and
gooseberries. It’s too dry right now for mushrooms, but if it weren’t, there
would be chanterelles.
A drive in the fields around us at twilight reveals deer,
rabbits, hedgehogs, and so many frogs all over the road that you have to drive
a slalom course to avoid hitting them. There is apparently a hedgehog living
right under our deck, but I have yet to meet it. We have toads and big fat
snails, and those legless lizards as well. In the woods you can get scared by
wild boar, and sometimes the local pig farmers get a surprise when little
bumblebee-striped piglets are born, evidence of a clandestine visit to the sow
by a wild boar.
Have I mentioned that I love this place? Just around the
corner is Drakamöllan, a nature reserve of dry, heather-covered hills and pine
woods with a herd of semi-wild ponies, a flock of sheep, and sometimes Highland
cattle roaming free. On a hot sunny day
the honey scent of the heather knocks your socks off. The animals are fenced in
by electric wire, but the considerate Swedes have put steps over the fence at
strategic points, wherever the trails intersect.
2)
Swedes -
My own particular Swede, of course, who was born in Sweden
but is now a French citizen, and perfectly bilingual in Swedish/French (as well
as speaking numerous other languages, but let’s stick to these two for now). It’
a curious thing how his personality changes with the language; French Frédéric
is witty and sarcastic and can be kind of an asshole (love ya, baby!) but
Swedish Fredrik is different; he’s…Swedish. Hard to pinpoint exactly how,
precisely - more laid back, for sure, but there’s more than that. Schizophrenic,
but I loves him.
Also, where but in Sweden would the daytime radio show have
a program where the hosts are sitting in front of a pile of sex toys, and the
discussion is all about how you use them, are they any good, and please,
listeners, call in with your own thoughts and experiences.
Or in Stockholm, where a wildly popular show consists of a sing-along,
in a park, that’s filmed live every week with various local celebrities, and everyone
sings along to old-time folk ballads. Wildly popular, I reiterate – think that
show would fly in Canada?
3)
The Food –
OK, the food – let’s start with the obvious, and talk
meatballs: even the Swedes go to Ikea to eat meatballs. But don’t forget the
smoked reindeer, or the crispbread, the lingonberries and the cloudberries
(although Newfoundland has those too); there’s a zillion kinds of herring
(which you must eat with potatoes, amusingly called “potatis” in Swedish), and
the aquavit that you drink with the herring…..or the salmon: gravid lax, all
dilly and delicious. Not much can top the crayfish dinner though: a beautiful
ring of crayfish cooked with dill, eaten with crispbread, cheese, salads, beer,
and of course more aquavit.
And then there’s pear – pear-flavoured gum, pear-flavoured
drinks, pear-flavoured ice cream, pear-flavoured candies…Swedes like pear the
way they like black licorice, the only flavour I take exception to.
No paean to Swedish food would be complete without at least a brief mention of TUBE CHEESE: available in dozens of flavours, including blue cheese with pear (see?), ham, reindeer, bacon, walnut, etc. etc.:
Ok, that’ it for now – more later!
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