Falkenberg Pride Festival

Today was the first time a pride festival was arranged in the west coast town of Falkenberg. Summer has just begun and the tourists are starting to poor in so the center of town really crowded. A couple of hundred people took part in the parade that walked through the town center and many more watched along the way. Almost all of the big political parties took part and several other organizations, such as the Swedish church. The parade ended at one of the squares where Mari-Louise Wernersson represented the municipality. Head speaker was Rickard Söderberg, gay and proud of it. He grew up in the neighbouring town of Halmstad and was bullied as a child because of his way to dress and act. He has since then become a great tenor but was unknown to a lot of people until he participated in the TV-show "Körslaget" where famous musicians compeet against eachother leading a choir each with people from their home towns. Rickard's message is that love will always win and the people being against homosexuals are against love. He is an active blogger (http://rickardsoderberg.se/wp/), twitter (@GayTenor) and instagrammer (GAYTENOR). 

After holding his speach, Rickard sang "Somewhere over the rainbow" and after that activities continued all through town.

Rickard Söderberg

Pride Cake from one of the local bakaries.

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Family Recipe Friday - Chess Squares

I have an old cook book after my grandmother. It is not perhaps that old since it was printed in 1955 but still a lot has changed since then. It covers everything the then modern house wife needed to know about cooking and baking.

On of my favourite recipes is Chess Squares. They are really easy to bake cookies. All you need is:

• 200 grams of butter 
• 1 dl sugar
• 4,5 dl wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 2 Tbs cocao

Mix the butter and sugar. Add the flour and work the dough so that it just holds together. Do not knead. Split the dough into two halves and add cocao to one half and vanilla sugar to the other half. Split each dough into two and roll them inte balls before rolling them into lengths. Put one dark length nest to a light one and then put a dark one on the light one and a light one on the lower dark one. Try to make them as square as possible befor puttin foil around the dough and putting it in the fridge for two hours or freezer for 30 min.

Take out the dough and take of the foil.  Cut the dought into 3-4 mm thick cookies with a sharp knife. Put the cookies on an oven tray. Put the tray in the oven for 8-10 minutes in 200 degrees celsius. Let the cookies cool off. Keep them in a jar or put them in the freezer.

Variations of the chess squares.

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Those Places Thursday - Gårdstenstorp in Södermanland

Gårdstenstorp, also known as Gålstenstorp and Israelstorp, is a farm in the parish of Kila in the southern parts of the province of Södermanland. It is where my mother, grandmother, great grandfather  and great great grandfather grew up. The first person in the family to move to and own the farm was Nils Andersson, my great great great grandfather, who moved there with his secound wife, Anna Persdotter, in 1837. Nils' son Anders and daughter Brita Catharina from the first marriage also moved to Gårdstenstorp. Anders got married to Margaretha Jacobsdotter in 1843 and they had a daughter, Johanna Charlotta, in 1844. Nils dies in 1843 and July 1, 1844, Anders hangs himself in the barn, one month before his daughter was born. Why he took his own life is not known to me. His widow moved and took her daughter with her but Johanna Charlotta would only live to be ten years old. Nils' son Nils, also from the first marriage, now took over the farm and moved in with his wife, Maja Lisa Andersdotter, and their six children (two more would be born on the farm) in 1851. When Nils dies in 1880 his son Carl Johan takes over the farm who, together with his wife Amalia, had eleven children. Konrad, one of the sons, stays on the farm and marries Agnes Hjälte in 1919, togheter they have three girls. Karl Johan dies in 1924 and Konrad dies four years later of septicimia. I have written earlier about my grandmother and her mother.

In 1938 the total land area of the farm was 25,7 acres where half was farm land and the rest forest and grazing land. There was 1 horse, 4 cows, 1 calf, 2 pigs, and 20 hens. The main house was built in the 1890's and stable and barns in 1919.

In 1955 the house was renovated. A basement was added and the house was modernized.

Gårdstenstorp on Wikitree

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Summer Holidays

The summer holidays are starting for a lot of Swedish schools this week and yesterday it was time for "my" school. I teach at the same school that I went to over 20 years ago and some traditions are the same. Back then, and up to only a couple of years ago, we started the day by going to the parish church by bus. We spent about an hour there, listening to music, the principal held a speach and the minister said some words before we went back to our school where the 7-8 graders spent some time with their main teachers in a classroom before going on summer holiday. The 9 graders ate cake in the canteen and got their grades before running out from the school where parents, relatives and friends were waiting. Then each class rode around town on a hay waggon behind a tractor.

Some years ago laws changed in order to make sure that people of different religions were not left out so schools are still allowed to go to church and celebrate the beginning of the summer holidays but the minister is not allowed to give a blessing and there should not be any prayers. Traditional summer hymns are allowed. One of our principals decided that we should have our celebrations in our assembly room instead so yesterday we all gathered there. The 9-graders sat in the middle in front of the stage and had 7-graders on one side and 8-graders on the other. Some of our students performed  on the stage, our two principals made a sketch and said good bye to the 9-graders and then there were more music before all the classes went to their class rooms. This year I had to say good bye to my class 9C so we ate a chicken wrap and had some cake before they gave us gifts and we gave them their grades. After that all the 9-graders  walked out from the school to stand with their classes infront of the school until we, the mentors, cut a ribbon and they could run out to their relatives and friends. Each class of 9-graders then ride behind a tractor or on a truck through town. Each class decorate the waggon or truck the night before with birch, baloons and funny signs. Personally I think our class had by far the best signs.

Another tradition is that in the evening all the 9-graders gather to watch funny sketches and dance numbers where a group och students make fun of students and teachers (in a warm and loving way). After that busses take them to a secret location where they have dinner and dance a while before saying their final good byes. 

Photo taken by Agnes Johansson (or her dad ;) )

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Breared

The parish of Breared is situated in the province of Halland and is since 1971 part of Halmstad municipality. The village of Simlångsdalen used to be the village of Breared but in 1912 the name was changed. The parsh however, kept its name. The name change because of the hit novel "Folket i Simlångsdalen" (The people in the Simlångsdalen) by the author Fredrik Ström that was released in 1903. Simlången is a lake and dal means valley. The story became a movie in 1924 and 1947.

The church is believed to have been built as early as the 13th century and dedicated to Sanct Laurentius. It was burnt down by the Swedish army in 1563 during the Nordic seven year war but could be rebuilt on the old walls.

There is a total of 23 nature reservs within the parish.

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Uppsala Cathedral

Today in 1435 the cathedral of Uppsala was offically opened. It is one of the biggest cathedrals in the Baltic Sea region.

It took over 300 years to finish the cathedral. The old cathedral in Old Uppsala burned down and the pope gave permission to build the new church in what today is called Uppsala in 1258. In 1272 or 1273 construction on the new cathedral started stopped in 1280 because shortage of money. Construction started again in 1287 and the south portal stood ready in 1310 and the north portal stood ready a couple of years later. Section by section the cathedral took form and even in 1435 it was not finished. There was a fire in 1447 but not much was damaged. It is believed that it was not finished by the time of the reformation in 1527 when all financial aids were withdrawn.

Renovations were made after a big fire in 1572. Additions were made but another fire took place in 1702 and the church and inventories were destroyed. Again big renovations were made and restorations and renovations have been made almost continious but the last big renovation took place 1972-1976.

Picture:
Uppsala domkyrka i oktober 2011
By: Dcastor
License: CCO

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Sibling Saturday - The Esa brothers

My farfar (parental grandfather) was the youngest of twelve siblings. His oldest brother was 21 years older than him. They were seven brothers and six sisters but only two of the brothers and three of the sisters got married. The oldest Simeon married a girl named Edit and moved to her home 30 kilometers away but they never got any kids. Elisabeth had eight kids after she moved south. Gunnar died during his military training. Lars (Lasse), Teodor (Tedde), Otto and Tor (Tore) never got married and were the ones who kept the family farm. Edit married a local and they had four sons but only two became adults, Erik and Åke. Ester died when she was 37 and Nina was 73 but had MS during most of her life. Elsa moved to the neighbouring parish where she and her husband had two daughters. Last but not least is my grandfather who met my grandmother and moved to another parish before taking over Simeon's farm.

 

 

Thore, Lasse, Erik and Folke

The brothers were known and are still talked about in the village where they grew up. I went there today to take pictures of the headstones of the siblings that stayed in the parish they grew up. I met a woman who grew up in the house next door. She told me about how she and her sister used to go over to the brothers; Lasse, Otto and Tedde, when she was a little girl. She had warm memories of them and we agreed to keep in touch and have coffe with her father and aunt one day to talk more about the Esa-brothers. Their father's name was Esaias and therefor the nick-name the Esa-brothers.

Unfortunately there seam to be no photos with all of the siblings.

Nina and Ester

Gunnar and Tore

Otto, Lars and Teodor

Edit, her husband and three of their sons.

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