My Swedish Summer

Well I just wanted to say a really big hello! It has been ages since I dropped in, right? It has certainly been a lot longer than I had planned.

Life is going along nicely here and after a lovely long summer, we’re now well and truly into Autumn. But that’s okay, I feel so satisfied with the summer we had. It began a lot earlier than normal here in Sweden and May felt better than most summers can, in fact a lot of the Swedes were warning me that summer may have come early, meaning that we may not get any in the actual summer months. Luckily they were wrong.

I know that making a big deal over warm weather might be a bit strange to some, but this far north, while the summers can be so beautiful and the atmosphere so festive, the real warmth doesn’t really last long, if it arrives at all.

If you didn’t experience it yourselves, you no doubt would have heard about the heatwaves that we experienced in Europe this past summer. It was long and hot and while people here were in a bit of shock by it all, it actually felt a bit like back home in Australia to me. After a nonexistent summer the previous year, I feel well and truly satisfied to move into the cooler (or freezing!!) months. Before I do though, I thought I’d share a few photos of my very special Swedish summer with you.

Come May as soon as the ice had melted on the lakes, we started our Swedish summer a little early with a weekend getaway to the Archipelago with friends. Honestly, if I were to settle in Stockholm, having a summer house, along with a city apartment would be my dream. Such a life! It’s quite common to have a summer house in Sweden and usually they have been passed down through the family. When the warmer weather arrives, the  Swedes take off each weekend and often spend the entire month of July disconnected. That’s quite a healthy way of living.

From there my mother visited from Sydney and we had fun playing tour guide. You can’t spend time in Stockholm without a visit to Gamla Stan – the most incredible medieval village in the typical colour palate in mustard and reds.

Come summer solstice, the schools have closed for the long holidays and everyone escapes the city for their summer houses for Midsummer celebrations. We were lucky enough to spend it with a bunch of good friends in this quintessential Swedish house. Note the Belgian flag! It was the FIFA World Cup time and our friend is Swedish/Belgian.

On our return, my father and my bonus mother arrived, and we took off for a few days by the lake in beautiful Uppsala. We woke up and picked fresh berries from the garden for our morning museli, ate every meal in the garden and did midnight walks by the lake. It was heavenly and I was so glad that they got to experience the real Sweden with us.

// side note here: you might have wondered what “bonus mother” is? It’s what they call a step mother here, which I just love and I’ve adopted the term.

My parents then stayed with our children while Guillaume and I took off for a four-day hike along the northern part of the Kungsleden above the arctic circle in Swedish Lapland. This was an absolute highlight of our lives and a dream of ours. It was challenging, the terrain wasn’t always the easiest to cross and we had everything on our backs. We camped along the way, experienced 24 hours of daylight and drank crystal clear water from the streams. While our bodies ached, our hearts were absolutely bursting with wonder at the display of beauty in that part of the world. In all we covered 70km beginning in Absisko and  finishing in Singi. We didn’t have the time to walk the two days out so we took a helicopter with another hiker. Seeing the trail from above was an experience in itself. If ever you have the opportunity to do the Kungsleden (The King’s Trail), a great website to check out first is The Distant North.

We now have all of the gear for this kind of walk and we’re now planning where to go next. We might start with some lighter hikes and stay in cabins so that our children can come along with us. I think it would be such a great thing to do as a family.

Before sign I off, I wanted to thank everyone for the encouragement you gave me for my last post. I’m plodding along with my book (which is taking some real form). Along with mum duties and everything else that pops up, the book has kept me really busy and that was all that I felt that I could juggle. But I have missed this blog and my connection with you, so anyway, I feel I have more of a handle on things now, so hopefully I will be a little more present here sharing my thoughts and experiences. Recently I took some photos of my bedroom, so expect something in the next week or two, and you may have seen on Instagram that I was in Gotland last weekend, a place that is too beautiful not to share with you.

Anyway, I hope you’re well and enjoying life.

Mel xx