Christmas is Coming

Most of the leaves from our fruit trees have fallen to the ground, now. And our weather has been cool, crisp and clear - perfect for raking those leaves. The earthy smell of the decomposing leaves is something I particularly enjoy. What I miss this year is a small person or two to sit on the leaves in the wheelbarrow to hold them down on the way to the compost bin.





We can also tell that winter is coming because the fruit of the season is showing signs of ripening.
Though our oranges won't be ready for a couple of months, you can see the fruit defiinitely turning color. The neighbor's persimmons have also turned a bright orange, which attracts the local bird population in large numbers. Oma even spotted a raccoon munching them the other night.

We put up a few lights for Christmas on our house yesterday. Our decorations are not very flamboyant, but show we love and appreciate this season. Oma decorated the bay window by setting up her display of small lighted Christmas trees.

Fun and Not So Much

Oma and I participated in a rainy rally for Yes on Prop 8 on November 1st. Proposition 8 was the initiative to amend the California State Constitution to say that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. People lined up along this street for miles, holding the signs, smiling and waving at passing cars. We heard that similar rallies were going on all over California. Most people in the cars that passed us seemed to be positive about what we were doing, although a few expressed other opinions. Apparently the fight isn't over. The opponents of the measure are trying to call for a redo, claiming they have a right to marry whomever they want. But we definitely made a statement in favor of traditional marriage.














We had a little roof leak from that rainy day, too. Oma heard the drips as they landed on the floor of our family room. She called for a bucket then poked a hole in the ceiling with her finger. The water gushed out - about half a gallon in all. It seems our concrete tile roof had collected some debris, which caused pooling behind it and the water came in. I got to practice the construction skills my brother-in-law, Gary, taught me many years ago, replacing some of the sheetrock in the ceiling. This is the hole I got to repair. And I really like my headlamp.

Columbus Day

In honor of Christopher Columbus, Oma and I decided to go exploring today. We walked out of the house thinking we were ready to go, but were delayed by an act of Nature. In front of our house, in the next door neighbor's yard, and across the street was a flock of wild turkeys, calmly pecking at whatever they could find in the grass and flower beds. We counted at least 25 of them. Of course we had to go back in and get the camera. The turkeys, though wild, didn't spook too easily. But they cautiously started to withdraw when they saw us. Click on the small photo to expand it. You should be able to count 24 in the picture. After snapping a few photos, we got in the car and slowly drove past them, taking a few more pictures along the way.


Our exploration took us to Apple Hill, a Sierra Nevada foothill community where there are lots of orchards. They have apples of many different varieties, as well as pears, and other fruit. Oma was interested in the different kinds of squash and pumpkins, too. We bought a few boxes of apples for making Oma's famous apple butter. We also checked out some of the crafts that are on display at the various places. One had some wood carvings that were interesting - see the bears in the picture at the top.


Oma suggested we go to Coloma, which is the site of the gold discovery back in 1848. They had an event there this weekend where people dressed in costumes from that period. They also exhibited crafts and items the people from that time would have made and used. There was a regular tent city set up. They had a blacksmith, a tinsmith, some people spinning yarn and making lace... all kinds of crafts. We should have taken more pictures. Oma even encountered a librarian she had met professionally, who was posing as a 19th century gambler woman.

A New Chapter

It has been a few weeks since Sarah, John, Sadie, Savannah and Scarlett moved back to Utah. We already miss them terribly, but we realize we have times and seasons in our lives. We'll miss Scarlett's sleep pheromones and her smiles when she's awake. Oma and I have concluded we will have more time to get ourselves organized, now that they are gone and we won't be spending time with them. But before they left we made a few more memories with them.
Shortly after we returned from Sweden, we found the apricots on our tree were ripe. So we recruited a couple of highly qualified fruit pickers to help us. Of course, even highly qualified ones can be distracted if there is a bug in the vicinity. The crop was rather limited this year, but we managed to harvest a few beautiful apricots. And then we ate them. Scarlett even liked them.

One of the things we've noticed is that our Sunday evening suppers just aren't the same as they were. For one thing, there is a lot less excitement in the kitchen without Sadie and Savannah there to help. Of course excitement in the kitchen isn't always desirable - like the excitement when Sadie dropped the egg carton...full of eggs. We actually only had to throw one away because we used the other cracked ones in the pancake batter.

About a week before they all moved, we decided to go see the redwoods north of San Francisco at Muir Woods and go to the beach. So Oma and I took a day off work and loaded up Sarah and the little girls in our van for a day trip. It was also a treat to escape the hot smoky conditions in the valley for the cooler, cleaner air on the coast. It's only about a two hour drive from here to Muir Woods. The redwoods are amazing, but Sadie and Savannah really enjoyed the carved wooden bear at the gift shop.

After seeing the redwoods and having lunch at Muir Woods, we left for Stinson Beach. The road over the coastal range to the coast is steep and winding. Being a Monday, the beach wasn't crowded at all. We waded in the surf and dug in the sand. Savannah was the only one to get totally wet, when an incoming wave caught her unaware and down she went. But heck, it's only salty water, and we picked her up quickly, so no harm done.

Wildflowers

One morning I got up early and went for a walk around the hotel grounds and a little beyond. I noticed some wildflowers in bloom and snapped these photos with my cell phone.

The resolution isn't great, but you can see the variety that is there. We noticed that our hosts in the hotel appreciated them, too, because they put a few of the flowers in vases which found their way to the dining room table as center pieces.


I took several pictures of the different colors of lupen. They were also almost three feet tall, much taller than either the California or Texas lupen (Bluebonnets) we have seen. I think I mentioned that these lupen lined the roadsides as we drove around the countryside. It turned out we just happened to be there during the season when they were in bloom.

Goodbye to Sweden

We're back home now, arrived late last night and slept in our own bed. It was a quick last few days with more adventures. On Wednesday we visited the Alfred Nobel museum and other exhibits at the Bjorkborn Manor in Karlskoga. We had driven past the signs pointing to the museum half a dozen times and talked about stopping, so we finally did. In the picture to the left you'll see Nobel himself sitting in his laboratory. It was interesting to learn about him and how the Nobel prize originated. He actually had a laboratory where the museum is, but it was only the last few years of his life that he was associated with the place. The company there is called Borfors. They produced military armaments, including large cannons and ammunition. One of he displays was a piece of steel armor plate that they test-fired armor piercing artillery projectiles through. The plate is 8 or 10 inches thick. The picture shows the back side of the plate where the projectiles exited it. We also toured the manor house, which they had furnished to look like it did in the 1890s when Nobel lived there, including some funiture that was owned by Nobel.

The museum was so interesting we stayed for a couple of hours, so it became time to eat. We went to a little cafe on the grounds, where they served sandwiches and pastries. I ordered a sandwich that had chicken in it. That was about the only thing I was sure of. We also saw an interesting looking pastry, so we asked what was in it. The young lady said it was made with rhubarb from her own garden. That made it even more interesting, so we bought one to share. It was kind of like apple crisp, only with rhubarb. It was served with a vanilla sauce and it was very tasty. The chicken sandwich was good, too. Here is a picture of the food.

We did a little shopping at the Nobel museum and a little antique store in another small town. Oma found a handmade wooden box that was probably used for bread or as a lunch box.

That evening was our last at the hotel in Storfors. The hotel was hosting a dinner for employees of a steel processing company that has its headquarters and a plant in Storfors. Because of the large number of people being fed, we were concerned that they wouldn't want to feed Oma and me. But the staff had made provisions to have a little extra in case we wanted to have dinner there. They were really good to us. We took a picture of dinner, too.

On Thursday we packed up and drove back to Karlstad to drop off the rental car and get on the train back to Stockholm. We had to top off the gas tank before we turned in the car, so we stopped at a Shell station. It was like a gas station/convenience store we have in the US. They even served hot dogs, so we had lunch there. When we got on the train we could tell immediately it would be more crowded than the trip to Karlstad the previous week. It got worse. About an hour into the three hour trip we were bumped out of our seats by some people who had them reserved. We asked the conductor if other cars had seats. He initially said no, but came back and told us the next car had some. We were glad, especially Oma, because she was still sore from her fall and really couldn't stand for two hours.
After we arrived in Stockholm we started out on foot for the hotel. We hadn't been there before, but the directions we had received indicated it was within walking distance of the central train station. It was actually half a kilometer away and all up hill. We had all our luggage with us, which was the laptop, a duffle bag, Oma's small bag for incidentals, two large wheeled suitcases pulled by me, and a medium suitcase pulled by Oma. We walked by an interesting fountain, so we stopped and rested and took a few pictures. We walked on and had the hotel in sight, but Oma was having a hard time. Just then a couple of young ladies from Australia caught up to us. They saw Oma was struggling and brought her suitcase the rest of the way. Coincidentally, they were staying at the same hotel in the room next to ours.
The next day was Midsommers Dag, the summer solstice celebration, which is a national holiday in Sweden. And many businesses and restaurants close early on the day before. So we had a little difficulty finding an open restaurant for supper. In the morning, we called the daughter of Sven and Vagna Luthman and asked about the LDS activities for the day. Sven had told us the two Stockholm stakes traditionally had a big picnic at a park south of the city. He suggested we might want to attend. Their daughter, Veronica, and her husband, Anders Karlsson, offered to pick us up at the hotel, take us to the park with them and their children, and feed us. How could we refuse? We didn't. We enjoyed the time with them and got to meet several other members. And along with the hamburgers, I got to sample the pickled herring. They had a traditional Swedish Midsommer celebration where they decorate a pole with greenery and wild flowers and make wreaths with wild flowers for the young girls to wear. The girl on the right is Eba Karlsson and the one on the left is her cousin. They also danced and sang traditional songs, but I missed that part.

After the festivities, the Karlsson’s drove us to the nearest train station. They were headed in a different direction that evening, so they couldn’t take us back downtown. So, we bought our tickets and headed downtown on the commuter train. Oma had wanted to see the old town in Stockholm, so we rode the subway there and began walking around. At first we thought we would just be window-shopping because of the Midsommer closings. But there were quite a few shops and restaurants open. We ate some dessert, did some shopping, then had dinner. That was followed by another travel adventure, because the map I bought showed an outdated bus route that went by our hotel. We took that bus number, but it went a totally different direction. Two bus changes later we got back to the hotel.

Saturday was the big travel day - about 23 hours from the time we left the hotel until we arrived at home. We're tired but glad we had the opportunity to make the trip. We were helped along the way by many wonderful people. We saw a few parts the beautiful country of my ancestors and learned a little about their culture and history.

Visiting Undenäs

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 was the day to visit Undenäs, the area from where the Anderson line in my family tree lived before immigrating to the United States. In an earlier post I mentioned Sven Luthman, who took us on a tour of these areas. Anyway, we met him at the Laxå Burger King shortly after 10 AM. Sven insisted on driving us in his car, so we didn’t argue. I was tired of driving and he had a nicer car – a late model Volvo station wagon. He was prepared with all sorts of reference material, including a book with Swedish place names, a book of very detailed maps, and a two-volume Swedish-English/English-Swedish dictionary. We brought our laptop with my Personal Ancestral File on it and a few maps we had acquired.
The first stop we made was Kungsbacken, the birthplace of Maria Larsdotter, the grandmother of Andreas John Anderson, my Great-grandmother Clark’s father. That makes her my great-great-great-great grandmother. Anyway, we found the community on the eastern side of the lake called Undenäs. It is just a collection of houses with no stores, church, or school. There was a small signpost giving a few stories in Swedish and German explaining how the community got its name.
We stopped and talked with a couple and an older man, Sven explaining we were there to find out about where my ancestors lived. The man had some records of the homes in the area and by extension the people who lived there. He suggested we all go to a nearby community, Tivedentorp, where there was a little restaurant where we could sit and talk. He gathered up his papers and off we went. He was very generous, buying us some pastries and tea and we sat down together. We didn't find any direct connections with my ancestors, but it was still interesting to see the area where they lived.