happy sunday, all you out there! here in sweden, summer continues as it has been… rainy & gray. of course, every now & then there’s a day of brilliant sunshine and unbelievable weather. but, most days… rain. gloom. chilliness. meh. oh well. i’m gonna find a way to not complain & enjoy it. perhaps write A LOT! sounds great to me (and to lina too. gotta get that book written so we can live our dream life of traveling around the world, writing, photographing, singing, and experiencing).
well, i thought i’d take this rainy day to begin my series of posts on my camp experience in the archipelago with an introduction to camp life there. a little tour, you could say.
so, welcome to…
on my way!
i’m obsessed with the yellow fields of flowers all over sweden. so beautiful.
typical swedish highway. geez i miss driving soooo much.
this is the house you first see when you drive up. so swedish. love it. all of the meals (unless its pouring down rain) are eaten at the picnic tables in the yard. you know, the calendar shows that it’s summer, so you have to eat and be outside every waking moment you can… even if it’s chilly, windy, or sprinkling. 🙂 darkness and cold will come again in a few months. so, we live in the moment right now.
the kitchen & dining room area. with two rooms on the 2nd floor… where i slept.
my first room: directly over the kitchen, so every morning i woke to the conversations of the group preparing breakfast. hehe.
my second room: soooo cozy. we moved around because people came & went, and it’s all about sharing, right?
idyllic.
little cabins that some of the families stayed in. cute cute cute!
loving the clothes & towels hanging on the front porches of the cabins.
boathouse. a place of solitude.
preparing for the first campfire. we met here nightly for songs, games, grilling, & fun.
the swimming area. a super popular place. and the only place you can get mediocre phone reception. hehe.
so, there you go. a little corner of heaven in the swedish archipelago. a place to get back to simplicity, a place to live in community filled with tons of opportunities for laughter & conversation, and also a place to find a few moments of quiet contemplation. for my love, it is a piece of her history. a symbolic place of peace, family, friends, & love throughout her life. for me, it has become a place of rest and a place which i am longing to visit again in the summer of 2013.
yes, skeppsgårds camp has found it’s way into my heart.
peace & beauty.
What strikes me now is how all of this sounds so “old”- as in- soon to be ice-age.
I think it’s a good thing to have areas which defy reception to our current tech-obsessiveness- & this is coming from a total tech-geek- 😉
I love you experienced this Liz, I love that it’s old-school. I am sad that this will soon end (I think) as people glom-on to tech & forget their “roots”. I kind of can see this as a “hologram” of how things used to be (ala- Star-trek)- and as a nature-lover, it truly bothers me…
Do as much of this as you can- you’ll cherish the memories!
T
Hey T,
You are so right. So many people are caught up in our technological, fast-paced world and forget the simple things in life. I, however, have worked for years to not be one of those persons. While I love modern technology and am a techie junkie myself, I know how to shut it off. I know i NEED to shut it off. So, last week was perfect for me. These kinds of days, weeks, moments, are something that I have done as long as I can remember… my parents raised me to unplug, to get away, and to immerse myself in nature. So, all of this, is just part of who I am, part of how I breathe and balance my life. 🙂 Can’t wait for the next opportunity!
Och nu längtar jag tillbaka igen. Igår var det skönt att komma hem, men nu vill jag att lägerveckan börjar om från början igen. 🙂 Tur att jag vet att det kommer en Skeppsgårdsvecka nästa år igen, så får man längta tills dess (vilket ju är en liten del av det hela)
Kram
Jag håller med dig, Ulrika! Jag känner precis likadant. 🙂 Kram
Lina’s first year at Skeppsgården was also my first year there! It IS a magical place! So glad you have gotten a chance to experience it, too.
And your description of having to eat outside because it is summer, you know, is just too true! Ha Ha!
I did not know that, Barb! That is quite a neat connection. It was actually my second time there, I had been 3 years ago with Lina. Haha. Oh, the pressure to be outside as soon as the sun is shining, or when the calendar shows summer.
Liz, these pics are gorgeous – what a beautiful place to stay! Quite the inspiration 🙂
Thank you!! I wish I could share it with the world.
yeah, it seems that it’s rainy all over Europe nowadays..ugh!