What Eskil likes...

Eskil has upgraded his blog with a new blogpost about things he likes. Things already mentioned as walks in the forest. Now he mentions more things: food (a main interest, almost beating everything else!!), children (especially Jonatan 10), the dog-girl Wilma (weighing five times as much), balls... To mention a few things...

But he thinks human beings are strange: they are so controlled!!! They don't show their gladness, but controls it!! And the older they get they seem to like it even less!!?? (But is that true always?)

And another things he likes: chasing cats!!! But that doesn't the human beings round him like... Hmmm...

PS. And in the former blogpost on his blog he writes that he doesn't like the machines which have wrecked HIS wood!!! It was better earlier with the horses in the wood!! (?? But then the people worked hard!?). But, yes, I agree, they destroy the wood!!!

Absent minded…

Eskil, the dog, stood there patiently and as a big question-mark when I should put the harness or rein (“sele” in Swedish) on him, we don’t use collar on him. I put it on up-side-down and back to front (upp och ner och bakfram in Swedish) very absent-mindedly.

“But what is she doing??? Here you have to arm yourself with patience!!"

See Eskil's blog here!

English word of today "absent minded" which means "tankspridd" in Swedish.

Citat om män/quotation about men…

Citat om män av en man:

”Det finns inga fullvuxna män. Därför får kvinnor välja det barn som passar dem bäst” (Ingmar Bergman).

Eller välja bort män ur sina liv?

Skådisen Gunilla Nyroos sa om sin senaste filmroll, som mamma till en flygvärdinna som har problem med sitt egna privatliv och flyr från bearbetandet av det in i sitt yrkesliv av flackande runt i världen, att ”många kvinnor nöjer sig med en halvtrist karl av rädsla för alternativet – ensamheten!”

Ja, är det så?
-//-
Quotation about men by a man:

”There are no fully grown men. Therefore women have to choose the child which suites them best” (Ingmar Bergman).

Or choose to have no men in their lives?

A Swedish actor Gunilla Nyroos said about her last role-figure in a film where she is an submissive and alcohol-drinking mother to an air hostess which in turn can’t create a real own life and is fleeing from dealing with her problems by her roving (kringflackande in Swedish) life, that “many women are content with a half-tedious man/guy of fear for the alternative – the loneliness!”

Where I was born…

When I drove home on Tuesday I visited the agricultural school where I lived from I was born till I was almost seven years, the Forslunda gymnasium approximately 5 km outside Umeå in Västerbotten. This school is still an agricultural school. Dad was teacher at this school, and then all who worked at the schools lived at them, in official residences.

On all the other schools we lived later we had own houses. But on this school we had a flat, but this flat was fairly big, I now realise when I see the pictures and have visited the place and house again!!!

We lived in the whole bottom floor, with three bed-rooms, a living-room (a lounge), a dining room (small) and a kitchen (of course)… Thus in a flat containing five rooms. The innermost rooms weren’t possible to use in the beginning because they were too cold. But later they became isolated and warm… When the family grew…

The window nearest the outer-door (to the right of the outer-door) was the window to the kitchen. To the right of that window was the window to the dining-room. The broader window on the gable (gavel in Swedish) was one of the windows to the living-room (lounge). The balcony is the same as when we lived there!!! And it lies outside the living-room. The living-room had an open fire-place… Which we seldom used, as it was so many small children in this home??

All rooms were fairly big!! Except the dining room…

Between this house and the school (or actually the head-masters house) laid a pond, which mom was afraid we should fall in. So I guess one dreamt night-mares about this pond.
I took a picture from the headmasters house (which was the headmasters house then at least, I don’t know if it is now, don’t think so) over the pond on the house we lived in, the gable of it was turned down to the pond.

Memories are coming: Me and my one year younger brother was put in a kindergarten for music when I was five and he four, which we joined once a week I think? And they bought the GrotrianSteinweg-piano even earlier, which still exists in mom’s home, when we were very small, my oldest brother a baby and I a little more than one year. This piano was bought on dad’s wish. He took singing-lessons when he studied at the agricultural college in Uppsala. When he grew up he took lessons in violin-playing and for me this is a bit surprising, because I don’t think that was especially common then, and least where he grew up.

Mom didn’t have these opportunities in the home where she grew up, but she sang in the church-choir there for many years and with great eagerness.

So music has always existed, but never professionally until my studies…

During our living here dad visited an eye-doctor and she (??) took a lot of money; and dad said that I should become an eye-doctor when I got grown up. I never did. Didn’t live up to all expectations… But in a way the pressure hasn’t been of that kind either… But probably another sort of pressure, not expressed… I can’t really describe it…

At this school there was a well-known stallion-breeding (hingstuppfödning in Swedish) of a Swedish breed, nordsvenskar, a carthorse (arbetshäst in Swedish), lighter than the Ardennes carthorse, some are even clever trotters (duktiga travare in Swedish)!

So we grew up with beautiful and “wild” horses with a lot of temperament and own will running in the enclosed pasture lands round the house, which there was then. Now there are school-houses there. This horse-breeding is even mentioned in the National encyclopaedia (NE)!

I was a bit afraid of them, had a lot of respect for them… I have a couple of memories connected to them… And I still have a lot of respect for horses, despite I later have been riding fairly a lot and even driving horses a little. Or because I have done that!???

Dad came home from work and poured out his frustration and anger… His patience was very short!!?? He had difficulties to have someone above him?? To have someone bossing him? (In fact the therapist I had in the Gestalt-group said she was that sort of person too! She had to be her own she said).

But when dad retired he said he was satisfied with working, he didn’t miss his work at all, opposite to the feelings mom felt when she retired from her work (but she had been home many years with us, sacrificing herself!!?? We were a burden and nuisance? With our existence and needs? “Some of us” enormous needs!!? Too big? Unnaturally big? One of us got a quite big crisis at the age ten, I don’t say who, hmmm…).

Mom was very insecure and lacked confidence in herself, entirely, despite she too had an education; she was the first in her family with such a long education as she had… But such feelings come from other things, has other roots?? No successes in the world of any kind can cure that? And she was extremely anxious we should fall in the pond, and anxious for a lot of other things. So I wonder if she forwarded this insecurity further on top of other things that made us (me) insecure?? We were over-protected in a way? And in another way not?

Some pictures are taken from inside the car. And it rained more or less when we visited this school, which you also can see.

See map: The first two are the house we lived in (number 7 on the map). The third (number 21 on the map) a house where the staff under the headmaster and teachers lived. The fourth the headmaster's house (number 19 on the map). The fifth from the headmaster's house over the pond to the house where we lived. The sixth and last from the economy-buildings as we call them here... :-)

Where house number 5 lies there was a summer cow-house, and where all the houses 8-11 including the parking-lot (number 12) were enclosed pasture lands where horses ran... The history of this school you find at this page (only in Swedish). Already 1859 initiative was taken for an agricultural school in this area. 75 years ago the school was moved to the place where it still located. In fact I didn't know anything of what stood on this page!!!

Perches and Foppa-tofflor...

I am writing and listening to a CD I bought with music by Ralph Lundsten; "Bewitched" ("Trolltagen" in Swedish), which is ballet-music to a ballet in the Storforsen in the Luleå river I think, on the flat rocks in the Storforsen ("the Big Rapid" in English?).

Picture on perches. I really ate many perches!!! :-)

And a photo on the shoes that are very popular here in Sweden!! Named after the Swedish hockey-player Peter "Foppa" Forsberg.

More from the travelling diary…

Two days in Morjärv and Överkalix...

Yesterday morning I took my walking-poles (ski-poles) and went for a walk in the wood just above the houses in the village Forsbyn, in woods owned by their grandparents (paternal) and now by the three brothers since their parents are dead (my aunt and her husband). After me Sofie and Joel came running, Joel still in his pajamas!!! They should follow me on my walk. Joel in his pajamas too!! (he likes that pajamas!? Is walking almost till lunch in it, hmmm…). :-)

The evening before their uncle (now living in Umeå working as teacher in handicraft instruction) which is spending parts of his vacation in Forsbyn (fishing for instance) spoke about wild animals, such as elks (mooses) and bears in the woods here. The longer we came into the wood the children started to fantasize about bears. Think if we met a bear.

Suddenly when I had thought of turning around and walking home Sofie saw a big dark thing in the distance; was it a stone, or the roots of a tree or – a bear???

Despite I said that I wasn’t afraid at all that we should meet a bear they became more and more scared. And I was even less afraid because these children were speaking like Chip and Dale (Piff and Puff in Swedish), with no interruption and in the mouths of each others the whole walk!! All bears must have heard this and run far away (big bears afraid of small, eager children speaking)!! :-) We walked till we saw that it WAS a stone - actually.

We came home safely!! Phew!! :-)

Out there in the wood the children suddenly saw a very small frog, which looked like the chocolate-frogs in Harry Potter!! They had to investigate it of course!

We spent the rest of the day in the village Överkalix and a small village outside Överkalix (approximately 30 km south from the Arctic circle), where one of my uncles live and where the other uncle has a summer-house.

The summer-house lies near a lake and Sofie and her father took one of the boats and rowed out on the lake and fished. They got some perches (abborrar).

So back home in Forsbyn we grilled these perches and ate them with thin unleavened bread (tunnbröd), a typical bread in the north of Sweden. All this delicious I think!!

A photo over Överkalix from the north and on the Kalix river in Forsbyn. My oldest uncle's wife is a fantastic baker!! So I added a photo of the coffee-table, with the dangerous dragon Joel got when we were to IKEA!!! :-)

And we finished the day in Forsbyn before we drove back to the town Luleå with fixing one of the walls to the woodshed (vedbod) in the cow-house (barn).

I didn't have connection with the net and couldn't use my cell-phone the two days we were there "in the north"!

The day started with rain, as this morning also did. But now he sun has come!!

Visit to IKEA...

We visited IKEA in Haparanda yesterday - a rainy day. Suitable for such a visit. Before we went there a lunch (we really needed energy for our shopping). Sofie, 11 years, helped with her specialty - sliced carrots.

In the middle of the store the restaurant laid (then one was a bit hungry!!). And there you could park your carriage with what you had picked in it!! It looked a bit fun, so I couldn't resist taking photos of it. All carriages properly parked there!!!

And I took a photo of the carriage with what I had purchased!! (I was quite satisfied with my shopping!). :-)

In the car after our shopping we voted for if we should drive over the river, Torne älv, to Finland. The majority wanted and thus won!! Then it started to rain even more, which you can see on the car-windows.

And I managed to take photos from the car. Pictures from the toll (if someone should wonder what the motive was on one of the photos, a photo with a lot of rain on the car windows).

The last photo is taken near a place called Kamlunge, when we were almost back to my aunts home.

So - I have been in Finland this summer!! :-)

Kulturhuset i Luleå/the Culture-house in Luleå...

About this house (only in Swedish though) here and here. The house is called "Lady in red".

We cycled down to the town and house.

At the countryside in Norrbotten...

Two lazy-bones?

A new trial to post this blogpost, which looked odd:

Two lazy-bones (latmaskar in Swedish)!!! While others are working hard!!?? :-)

The small boy totally concentrated, not hearing or seeing anything!!?? :-) But he is so cute! And my youngest sister has served us with food, so she hasn't been so lazy honestly... He is left-handed! I had to ask him if he is, because I thought I saw it, but wasn't sure. :-)

I look forward to when this painting-work is finished!!!

Addition July 19: the work isn't finished yet... There are a lot of windows on this house, and it took much more time to paint them compared to painting the walls. I have painted five of the big windows and two small, including two doors and the porch-step. There are six big left and six small!!! Phew!

Now I have taken a break to go home, to pay bills, getting my hair cut, water my potted plants...

Have been painting ...

Have been painting for more than four hours. This was really a work!! And it looks as I have to paint some parts once again, paint a second layer. But it stands on the paint-can the paint has to dry to the next day!!! So I have to wait till tomorrow. To paint one window takes three days at least!! If I counted right now?? Think if one could take down two windows each time and make place in the garage for painting them there??

When I came in now for afternoon-coffee there was a small dog which wanted to play!!! He is four and a half years but still wants to play! Fun! He isn’t too big for that! Oh, I would like to hug him and hug him, but that he doesn’t allow one, there goes his boundary!! He is a he you know!! “Don’t come here!!” But playing is ok! Very ok!

There have been a couple of rain-showers in the midst of painting. I wonder if I dare to grind the next window, with the electric grind-machine?? But I would like to, so I can start even earlier tomorrow with that window and the under-painting of that window; oil the wood-white parts, puttying the glass and do the under-painting.

Pause in writing.

Have grinded two more windows and round them…

Pause again in the writing.

A walk with the small dog Eskil. He is so cute. Suddenly he threw himself into the soft blueberry-wires and rolled in it. When he comes in he sometimes goes to his favourite corner in the hall and throws himself into this too!! It looks so fun! I wish I could relax as he does! And show feelings as he! The gladness he shows. And sometimes he can really jog along, with the tail and head low, slowly and showing that he is doing something he doesn’t really want!! Talk about body language!! Or is it we who project our own feelings and moods in him?? :-)

Pause again.

Came to think about self-destructivity and destructiveness again (read something I had written earlier this spring in a sort of diary I write)… A piano-teacher at a Conservatoire: “There is something destructive in you…” Holding the achievements on piano on a lower level than what was there, I think… Afraid of measuring up to the real standard?? Afraid of what? That it should be exploited, used?? That and others things too? Afraid of being seen and really appreciated? Getting a “genuine love”?? And thus realizing what sort of “love” I had gotten so far? That would have been too painful to confront?? The comparison would have been too painful?? I would have burst into tears that would never have had stopped? Or gone crazy?

Or I didn’t want that conditional love again?? Because it is only for these sorts of things I have got “love”??? Not for the one I am at all? A small girl (yes, I have always been small and short) struggling to be seen?? Really struggling? Trying with everything? Inventive, doing and trying with everything, full of fantasy…

But now I don’t care about that… There are other things that are more important than achievements.

And that to blame oneself: “We should have thought of … when we built this house (1981), not building so big a house…” Should have done this and that, not this and that. Thought of this and that. Stupid us!! We should have known because doesn’t people use to build own houses now and then?? People just know and shall know!!?? Immediately know everything, even those things they have never done!? And they shall do it perfectly too from the first beginning, or almost perfectly!? All does? Taking the blame on, apologising for everything… A strong primary defence if one should use Bosch terminology. Who had to take care of who?

And came to think if you didn’t get that “reassurance” of being touched on ones own terms as a small and very small child… High up in age, as old, you can get ache in your body? A male acquaintance got rheumatism when he was round 75… Is this inevitable? With ache in the body??

Addition: Read a blog and think I want to write about egoism and being totally dependent or having no dependence needs… Thought of the latter this morning actually, but now I also read something…

House painting…

The windows were so heavy so I had to help my brother to lift them down this morning!!! No wonder I didn’t manage this myself yesterday morning! I have grinded a bigger window and the garden-door and ground-painted all this including the porch step and a small window on the proch step, and puttied the windows I have grinded. But everything has to dry for 24 hours before one start with the real painting!!

When you have never done this it takes some time!! So I have worked almost a full working-day today with all this. Tomorrow I am going to start painting with the real paint, a first layer. And maybe grind the next window? It took more time than I thought! Was more to do. And when one isn’t so practised and has to learn while one does it it takes more time… I hope it is properly done when it is finished!!

There are eight bigger windows and three small on the bottom floor and three in the same size one stair up including five small windows there. So, no, it isn’t a very small house! Phew! But the windows one stair up my brothers has to paint! I don’t dare to climb so high!!

I must say I admire those who are house painters!!

My 16 year old niece Fia is in Brighton in England three weeks to train her English. She isn’t very fond of travelling, but she has gone for this trip nevertheless.

It would be nice with a sauna bath this evening!! Should need it, to wash myself really!! And warm myself…

When I have finished this painting work I am going home for hair-cut and paying bills… And after that I am going to take the car for a real vacation-trip to the north (1000 km or 100 Swedish mil) and hopefully relax there. I got stuck here.

Strikes me when working here how little we probably use our bodies naturally or at all?? Compared to those born before 1960 I think?? Many works earlier were more body works than they are today… On good and bad.

And came to think on a walk with Eskil before the “dinner” about “do” and/or “be” (see the book by Benjamin Hoff about Poh and Tao): how much which is about “doing” today everywhere in society instead of sometimes just “being”… And how problematic this probably is for those whose value lies in achievements… People who have to achieve to get “love”… I belong to that category?? Very dutifully doing and working!? With a sigh... Extremely diligent and clever... (just see how much I have written on the two months I have had this blog. Yes, tomorrow it is exactly two months. Trying to write in English too, because I would like to spread ideas from people that isn't translated to English yet, and don't seem so known. About the little I know about. If anyone happens to read this. Nevertheless, I process things with this writing; trying to find patterns and link things for myself if nothing else, and that's good enough for me).

Came to think too about what I have written the last days, that abuse and violations in childhood, including sexual abuse, doesn't only lead to psychological illness (or psychiatric!?), but can be shown in other ways, with other expressions and in different ages... As somatic illnesses, psycho-somatic...

Addition: Bob wrote on his webb something I agree with and want to quote (I hope he thinks this is alright?)

"... I've added a third type of learning experience - Forced Secrecy.
Here you first experience a trauma, something outside of you current experiences, but unlike the natural process, I outlined above, you cannot get either external feedback from others, the Forced Secrecy prevents that, and also, totally isolated from others, you're unable to 'think about it' i.e. try to make internal sense, or personal meaning, of all of those sensory, and emotional, and mental, and self-full pieces in some way. So it remains unintegrated, like a stack of papers, with no way to file them, and later, even much later, when one of those parts, a sound, a smell, a sight, a tone of voice, or even a pattern of events happens, which it will, all that you can remember is the totality of un-integrated memories, thus re-triggering, rather than resolving the event.

Basically, in my opinion, it is not the trauma, the horrific event, but the Forced Secrecy about it, that leads to the severe after-effects, such as PTSD, later, often much later in life."

Photos...

We have started with painting a timber house. With the under work. Let's see if we start painting today...

I took a walk in the evening and found blueberries to my surprise!! I have a feeling that's very early!

The small dog Eskil likes playing with balls, balls that are almost as big as he is!! And he immdiately bit a hole in a ball he got , so small he is! This is one of my favorites, my walking partner here! An eager - mostly! :-)

Walk with poles...

Have just returned from a walk with poles and cute and eager dog in the wood. Am baking bread too in the middle of walking and reading, bread with dried fruits and walnuts to the afternoon tea...

Have started to read the anthology about Astrid Lindgren and a blogpost about her will come or even two or more... There were many threads to write around...

Now soon lunch.

PS. Found a letter on Miller's web from a Swedish journalist. He tipped about a magazine "Pockettidningen R" (the site was only in Swedish though). And about the site for the Swedish Journalist's Union.

Overly responsible taking...

Struck me, when when I took a shower and washed my hair (doing things seem to stimulate my thinking!! :-)), about making people feel comfortable...

That nobody shall feel excluded...

Women (generally) tend to take responsibility for the atmosphere, for instance at work places. And stress researchers mean this can be one (of many) explanations why women have been exhausted the last ten years during and after the steal bath in economy.

The pressure has been heavier on those women that tend to take a lot of responsibility in slimmed organizations where more people are tired or exhausted and easier gets outbursts... For those who take responsibility for the atmosphere at the work place too or even too much to carry. Why more women have been on sick list the last 10-15 years... (when we also have had more lousy bosses?).

With this not said that this can't cause problems and irritations for the ones around such a woman/person!!?? But the one that suffers most of this is after all the one that takes more responsibility on her/him than is hers/his!!??

And from where does this stem??? Being forced to take much more responsibility than the ever so clever child ever can take or should take?? And which never was her/his duty at all!!!
Maybe signs of early tragic circumstances???

Fast and spontaneously written as almost always with all what that mean!!

PS. Read something in this style:

"…responsible for looking after others feelings, which one shouldn't have needed to. Still finding oneself doing that, even now, today, an extremely hard habit to break, and does it come of being a loving gentle (???) child, who had to look after everyone else’s needs except ones own?"

Making oneself invisible, no-needy and instilling guilt in all around?? Or, the opposite, refusing to take responsibility for what you should take responsibility for??

Short notes from the magazine MåBra...

Got the magazine “MåBra” (something like “FeelWell” in English) a couple of weeks ago. It has been lying on my balcony after a first skimming through it…

There are short notes among longer articles and chronicles in it.

Here some of the short notes, with a smile… Maybe some are more serious or are worth both a smile and serious reflections??? Or? :-)

Forty-five centimeters is the distance most people feel comfortable with to keep to other people… That’s what a person’s comfortable “room” is. If someone comes closer we have a tendency to take a step back!? Coming closer can be experienced as threatening… Yes, so I think it is… (and by age it can be disturbing if people are coming too close too!!! :-) When siblings children show something just under ones eyes I have to push it away a bit to be able to read and/or see!! If I don't have any contact lenses in my eyes or glasses on. If I don't I need to have the text fairly close! :-)).

And this was probably known to many already!!??

An exercise to get a better memory according to researchers at the University in Manchester: if you look from one side to the other for 30 minutes *) each morning you improve your memory with ten percents!!! Think!! When the eyes are working from the left to the right (without moving the head!?) the brain halves are forced to cooperate more effectively, even later during the day.

*) of course this should be seconds!! Doing this for half an hour sounds a bit... :-) I wonder how I would feel after such an exercise???

“Women on pictures lower men’s ego”. That women feel inadequate (otillräckliga) by seeing pictures on other women in magazines is maybe not so surprising to most people, but did you know (!!??) that men too get bad self esteem by watching pictures of beautiful and attractive women??!! When he sees an attractive and sexy women on a picture he fantasizes about how her dream man looks – and soon realizes that he can’t compete with this man. He can feel complex for his body too and his ego can become lowered… Think!!?? Yes, I can imagine...

In the middle of writing...

In the middle of writing about these heavy topics a break for washing my hair, going to the grocery store... I am going to make lasagna and a hopefully fresh salad to it, home baked bread, to a lunch to a sister her son and "husband" which are coming here for lunch... Hmmm, I am already hungry!! :-)

My brother in law is going to help me with my new computer a little more, to connect it to the wireless network etc.

The second day with lousy weather!! Grey and wet... But I think I won't have to take the car to the store. Can cycle between the houses. It's much more practical with the bike!! With parking it if nothing else, compared to a car!! :-)

Oh, it would be nice with some warmth...

Addition at 17.15: Now I am surfing wireless with my new computer here at home. Nice. But it was really tricky before we managed it!!

I wouldn't have made it on my own. I have Window Vista (not my active choice though) on my new computer and it created a lot of problems when we should install my antivirus protection. But at last we managed it!

Now I need to go out, get some day light after being in the whole day almost. And the weather also makes me quite tired. The dog Eskil also reacts when it is bad weather. Then he don't want to go out even if he hasn't even seen what weather it is. He just senses it!! A comfort really!! :-)

At last out on the net...

Now I am out on the net for the first time with my new computer!! Fantastic! With the help of one of my brothers in law. But I would probably have managed it myself - I think! On the first photo: Two of my nephews to the left and my youngest brother to the right, and the neck of a brother in law.
I wonder if we are fairly lucky with the weather here in Dalarna where I am celebrating midsummer!? It hasn't been any rain yet and we have been sitting out eating herring at lunch time. But I think the weather is worse in the southern parts - not fun!

The relatives in the north sound as they too have ok weather.

Now we are going to grill... Nice. I have taken photos on celebrations we visited here which I will publish later, with may pole and plays.

Happy midsummer or Glad midsommar to all who happen to read this blog!

Addition: now some photos added back home again. When I drove home it started to rain a little and was fairly cold out...

On the last photo the neck of my youngest brother and another of my brothers in law t the right..

New computer...

Oh, how fun... My new computer arrived at last! Light!!! I got surprised! A very practical bag to it!!! My English isn't sufficient enough to describe all that was in it! To organize things practically; pens, the cell phone if I want, note-books... And I THINK it is a CD-burner in it!! I hope it is, so I can burn CDs!! Down load from the net and burn CDs. And install Finale to be able to write notes, now really practice what I learnt last fall (what I remember)... To use in my work...

Be able to sit out and write and being connected to the net still... My "brother in law" is going to help me with "kryptering" of the wire less access to my broadband... This is really Greece to me!

Be able to take this computer with me when I travel!!! Having my own computer with me, and be able to write whenever I want and have it saved on my own computer...

Be glad for so little...

Now it's only that dress that ought to be fixed!!! I hope I will manage it!!

It was nice with my friends... We ate mushroom soup, home baked bread (Anjas), cheese, butter, ham, sliced tomatoes, cucumber and bell pepper (green)... Strawberries and whipped cream afterwards. And the others drank coffee afterwards with sugar, whipped cream and chocolate powdered on it... We talked and talked...

The computer came just one hour before my friends was invited, so I hadn't packed it up when they came...

Think I shall try to use it tomorrow... :-) Let's see if I manage it!!??

Mer om Astrid Lindgren/more about Astrid Lindgren...

Det stod mer om Astrid Lindgren i Lärarnas tidning idag och det var så intressant att jag vill skriva mer om henne...

Astrid föddes som Astrid Ericsson i en familj med tre syskon; två systrar och en bror.

"Vi lekte och lekte och lekte, så det var konstigt att vi inte lekte ihjäl oss"

har hon berättat om sin barndom, på bondgården utanför Vimmerby i Småland.

När hon som 17 åring hade shinglat håret (tror jag), sa hennes pappa Samuela August:

"Då är det väl ingen idé att du kommer hem".

När hon väl kom hem var det ingen som sa något. Astrid satt på en stol och de andra gick runt henne och tittade förundrat.

Under sitt 18:e levnadsår blev Astrid gravid och barnafadern friade men Astrid sa nej. Hennes pappa var emot giftermålet och sa att

"Det räcker väl med en olycka!"

Jag tror barnafadern var chefredaktören på Wimmerby tidning.

Astrids mamma Hanna sa

"Vi sä'r [säger] inget utåt"

om sådant som skulle stanna i familjen. Vilket gällde inte minst när Astrid blev med barn som tonåring i en liten småstad på 20-talet. Hon åkte bort för att föda sin son Lars och han bodde sina första tre år i Köpenhamn.

1928 träffade Astrid sin blivande make, alltså 21 år gammal... 1931 gifte de sig och Astrid blev hemmafru, i en tvårumslägenhet på Vulcanusgatan i Stockholm. 1941 flyttade de till en större lägenhet på Dalagatan där Astrid sedan levde resten av sitt liv.

Astrid lyckades efter många om och men ta körkort,

"Sveriges dyraste körkort"

enligt henne själv. Dock insåg hon redan efter ett år sina begränsningar som bilförare och cyklade resten av livet.

När Astrid skulle ta emot bokhandlarnas pris i Tyskland 1978 godkändes inte talet hon tänkt hålla, det ansågs för kontroversiellt, så man bad henne att bara ta emot priset utan att hålla något tal. Detta vägrade dock Astrid och hotade hon med att inte komma alls och hon fick till slut hålla det provocerande talet - om aga!!!

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In the teachers paper that came today it stood more interesting things about Astrid Lindgren I felt I wanted to forward.

Astrid Lindgren was born as Astrid Ericsson November 14, 1907, on the small farm Näs just outside Vimmerby in Småland (Swedish site about Vimmerby) with three siblings; two sisters and one brother. She was the second child in line after her brother Gunnar (born 1906, maternal grandfather of Karin Alvtegen, see earlier blog post about Astrid Lindgren in the end about her and the blog post "12 questions to Karin Alvtegen" from her website).

"We played and played and played, so it was strange we didn't play ourselves to death"

Astrid said about her childhood.

When she had shingled her hair as 17 year old and phoned her father about this, to which her father Samuel August replied:

"You'd better not come home then".

When she at last came home noone said anything. She sat on a chair and the others walked around her looking at her silently - struck with wonder.

At 18 she got pregnant with the editor-in-chief at the local newspaper in Vimmerby as the coming father, he asked her to marry her but Astrid said no.

Her mother Hanna used to say when things occurred in the family:

"Let's not say anything to any outer person (outside the family)."

And so she did this time too.

Astrid went away when it was time for the birth and got a son, which spent his first three years in Copenhagen and one year with his maternal grandparents at Näs till Astrid got married 1931 with a man she had met 1928. At first she was home as housewife. 1934 she got the daughter Karin.

Her son Lars is supposed to have said about his mother:

"She wasn't that sort of a mother which was sitting silently in the park on a bench watching her playing children. She wanted to play herself and I suspect she thought it was as fun as I did!"

Yes, Astrid Lindgren in a nutshell I think!

After many struggles she took a Drivers License,

"The most expensive Drivers License in Sweden"

Astrid said, so she must have taken a lot of lessons!! Already after one year Astrid realized her limitations as car-driver and cycled the rest of her life!!

When she should receive the reward in Germany 1978 she was asked not to hold the speech she had thought of, it was seen as too controversial. But then Astrid said that she would not come to the ceremony at all. In the end she held her speech - about corporal punishment of children!!!

Addition: Astrid's engagement in animals rights resulted in the law Lex Lindgren 1987 as a gift on her 80th birthday from the hands of our prime minister Ingvar Carlsson, but she wasn't entirely satisfied with this law, thought it was half of what the government had promised. She frankly said what she thought about this! As the straightforward she could be. :-)

Astrid Lindgren world on this site, really worth a visit.

And also see the site Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award – Alma.