Going through the photos from last summer, these are from visiting my parents. This is where I grew up, in the countryside on the South-East Coast of Sweden, in Smaland, where the woods are green and the houses are mostly red with white trimmings. This is where my parents still live today, in the house on the farm where I grew up.
2 years since they last saw mormor, when she came visiting us in Yuma.
This was still early in the summer, when it was still pretty chilly and it had been raining a lot. It was green and lush and lots of flowers everywhere. Later in the summer, it wasn't that green anymore, it dried up pretty fast, as you have to water a lot to keep it this green, and with their own well, water is sparse in a hot dry summer as 2014 turned out to be!
The little black gate that I still remember how it clicked when shut closed..
The building in the background, used to be surrounded with wood that was cut for the wood heating oven for the house. Later in the summers, we had to throw all the wood into the "wood barn" for the winter. and it was more or less filled to the ceilings!! The wood heating oven, which also was switched to heat for hot water in the house, is still in use today...! A bit different than my kids are used to!
This is the door to the stables. It was a long time ago, when I was in Cassie's age, when I was in and out that door evenings and weekends. We had two horses at the same time and I was a so called horse girl while growing up, my favorite times were on a horse back riding out on the little paths in the woods for hours. Most of the time my parents had no idea where I was actually riding, even if I took off one way, it sometimes turned into a longer trip, taking shortcuts and changing my mind depending on weather and road conditions. Not thinking back, it's scary to think that they wouldn't have had a clue of where to look most of the time in case something would have happened! This was obviously looong before cellphones were even thought of for most people...But, it was different times then, and luckily never anything happened really at least not what I can remember...
We had milk cows in the front part and stables where the girls are standing.
I have the exact same pictures of Cassie sitting on the doorstep to the barn when she was little, waiting for the kittens to come out from their hiding spots. Cassie was probably only about 1 1/2 years old then, and Isabella is obviously already 4 here, but still cute to get a picture of my daughters on the same spot.
I couldn't find the actual picture right now, but here it is in a calender I made for my mom..
Cassie 11 years later at the same barn door!
Walking around the different big barns and buildings, the kids found all kind of old machines, tractors and other stuff that aren't in use much today. Some old, some new though.
My dad's office, not the favorite place in the house for the kids. Never ending walls of antlers..
Hunting was part of living on the country side..
Cassie on the steps where my mom used to stand and whistle for us to come in for dinner when we were out and about..
The house from the back of the garden.
On both of these sides of this path we used to have endless rows of strawberries and potatoes..
lots of weed hacking and strawberry picking for us kids..
No more potatoes to be seen, all planted with grass today.
The old favorite tree in the garden was still there..here Isabella is trying to save as many of the flowers as possible before my dad and Ben are running them over with the mower..
Lots of flowers to pick from the lawn...
Ben thought it was pretty fun..
But very loud!!
Soon he had lost interest, and it was really loud, so he helped Isabella pick more flowers for mormor instead, she was inside with Cassie getting lunch ready.
Mormor and the kids!
