The Fairytale Forest

A few posts ago I left you all with a teaser.

I told you how Jacob and I had hiked up to a place called the "Valley of the Snakes" and flipped out over how surreal it was. It was all too much beauty for my camera as well, which subsequently went on the fritz and wiped all the pictures as soon as we got home.

So we went back. But now we knew what we were getting in to, so we went prepared to do a photo shoot. I lugged two extra pairs of shoes and 2 changes of clothing in a backpack, trying my very hardest not to sweat on the hike up. No one wants to look shiny during a photo shoot.

We got to the forest, and, if possible, it was more magical than before. This is the type of place that only grows more beautiful the more you see it.

It is an "old growth forest", where nature has been left unchecked and uncontrolled. Here, you can find ant hills that are taller than you, and fern forests that look prehistoric. You could probably also find trolls under bridges and unicorns in distant meadows if you looked closely.

The one downside is that where nature is left unchecked, the bugs are also left unchecked. If you stand in any one place too long, you will be overrun by gigantic ants. Just imagine that going on as we tried our best to look like models.

Enough with the talking. Here are some pictures.

The 9 P.M. Walks

9 P.M. has become a special hour for Jacob and I within the past few days.

It all started when, after an evening of lazing around, I bugged Jacob until he agreed to go on a walk with me. We left the house right before 9 p.m, just as it was beginning to get dark outside.

We turned the corner out of the tree coverage and onto the street, where the view opens up to fields on either side and the road leads up a hill. And then we flipped out.

The sky looked like it was swallowed in fire. We had never seen a sunset that saturated the sky so vibrantly with neon oranges and pinks. We kept walking up the road, getting more and more excited the more we saw of the sunset. Finally we took off running, trying to get to the top of the hill before the sunset was gone.

It was breathtaking. This is what we saw:

The picture is poor quality and taken on a cellphone - and of course you know pictures of sunsets never come close to their real-life splendor. But it still gives you some idea of how spectacular this sunset was: incredible enough to make us run.

The next evening we ventured out at 9 P.M. again, hoping we would find another sunset like the night before. Opting out of running, we took the bikes up the hill, and did not find a sunset.

We found this:

Evening fog was rolling in over the fields, making wispy designs and patterns in the air as it flowed between trees and settled over the grass. Jacob even saw three deer leaping through the fog. We stayed until it was almost completely dark, then rode our bikes back home.

And just for good measure, here is another picture from a recent trip to our favorite lake on a stormy hot day.

It seems like everywhere here is the "scenic route". We've just been rolling in the natural splendor, and it never gets old.

I Want You To Know

I want you to know that Jacob and I are really cool, super attractive, artsy, creative, and perfect in just about every way.

I mean, obviously.

But seriously. I've always hated the blogs where people give off the carefully calculated impression that their life is perfect. That is blatantly untrue. It can't be true, because no one's life is perfect, even when you are traveling the world and taking pretty pictures (like the one above).

As amazing as travel is - the thrill of new places and cultures, the beauty of new sights, the experience of new foods - it can all give way very easily to a sense of restlessness. Homesickness. Purposelessness. (Not sure if that is a word). Living out a dream still has it's ups and downs.

So, now that we are on the same page regarding our awesomeness, here are some pictures.

Thursday evening our hosts threw a little party for all of their house guests. (Besides us, there was family visiting from Washington D.C.). In Sweden there is a traditional summer celebration meal: The Crayfish Feast.

The Crayfish Feast is held in August to mark the beginning of crayfish season. The crayfish are served cold after being boiled in vinegar, dill, and other good stuff. They are traditionally served with Aquavit - a caraway-infused vodka (really good - tastes sort of like whiskey). I couldn't believe it when I saw the platter of crayfish - they looked like plastic.

After our first course of crayfish and vodka, we moved on to another traditional Swedish meal: Pickled Herring.

Pickled Herring is right up there next to Swedish Meatballs on the scale of All-Things-Swedish. It is fish which has been preserved in a vinegary-sugary brine, sometimes with a sauce like honey mustard. It is served with boiled potatoes, red onion, and sour cream. All together it's very good.

To further our education, we learned some traditional Swedish drinking songs. I can't actually sing the words for you, but I can follow along the tune while making convincing Swede-like noises.

On Friday Jacob and I took the bicycles 4 km. out to a nearby lake. It was my turn to take the little yellow bike, the same bicycle that Jacob had taken 20 km. to Skinnskatteberg just a few days earlier. Little did I know - that bike is the two-wheel equivalent of a clown car. I barely made it to the lake, hunched over a bicycle intended for someone a foot shorter than me. I still can't figure out how Jacob made it 20 km.

It rained on us just as we got to the lake, but cleared up fairly quickly.

A picture cannot do it justice.
Now please comment and tell us how cool we are.

The Food Issue

This post is going to have a lot of pictures of food. If you are feeling a bit hungry, I suggest you go find a snack now.

Much of the past two days have been spent in the garden or the kitchen. On Wednesday Jacob and I switched jobs. I took on the manual labor, while he put on the apron and baked in the kitchen.

It was challenging, but digging flower beds in the garden and transplanting trees was fun and (sort of) empowering. Meanwhile, Jacob was in the kitchen, baking up a storm and having a blast. Jacob got the extra satisfaction of selling a number of his confections that day in the cafe (with compliments to the chef!).

First I will show you my favorite stool in the kitchen. It's my favorite because: 1. It's pretty, 2. It's handy, and 3. I stand on it or use it several times a day to take pictures of food that we made, foraged, or dug up in the garden. You will be seeing it a lot.

The Stool

This stool is a good example of our role in the kitchen: Apprentice. We are learning to run the cafe the way Amy does, which means we do a good amount of watching and listening before we can jump in. But when we do jump in, we get to make some pretty awesome stuff.

Key Lime Pie

Chocolate Cupcake

Homemade Bread

Once we were done with work, Jacob and I decided to bike into the closest town of Skinskatteberg - 10 km bike ride each way. It was a very pleasant bike ride - mostly flat, with beautiful views of fields and forest and storm clouds on the horizon. Once we arrived in town, we found a train station, a church, a grocery store and one town square. That's about it. Tiny.

Regardless, it was nice to be in a town for the first time in a week.

Today consisted of more baking and digging in the garden - but this time Jacob and I worked together. Since the summer season in Sweden is winding down, Amy has tasked us with working through her garden to harvest vegetables and find creative ways to preserve them for the winter. For obvious reasons, I'm thrilled with this job. The first thing we harvested were garlic and potatoes. For a mid-size garden, the variety and quantity of vegetables in those beds is constantly surprising.

The Daily Crop of Salads

Garlic, Beets, and Carrots from the Garden

In the afternoon Jacob and I went for a walk through the woods and found a treasure trove of mushrooms called Summer Chanterelles. We had heard from Amy that they could be found everywhere this time of year if you just knew the right type of forest to look in. Jacob and I had been searching for them on every walk we had taken, and now we have finally found the right forest. We stuffed the huge pockets of my coat with the mushrooms, and took them home with us.

Summer Chanterelles

Tonight we are going to participate in a traditional Swedish summer celebration - the Crayfish Feast. Jacob and I have been really looking forward to this. I'll tell you how it is in a couple days!