The Swedish Museum of Art (Nationalmuseum) in Stockholm is now closed for a several year long renovation, but we visited it one of the last weekends when it was open and I was in Stockholm. One of the most fun exhibits was the one on functional and industrial design. It was filled with so many items I know so well from my upbringing in Sweden, and some of them have even made it over to the US. Here is a selection, with annotations:
When I grew up we had a Lamino chair at home, covered with gray woolskin, and it was wonderful. I had no idea then that it was a classic bent-wood design. The chair and its footstool is still in my mom's apartment and I sat in it just a month ago.
Swedish dishbrushes! Once I went to a summer camp with a girl whose father had the patent on the straight line on the front that you use to scrape off hard pieces from your plates if you turn the brush around. I bet he got a lot of money from all the dishbrushes that have been made in the last many decades.
This kind of very plastic and cheap-looking lamp was common in youth hostels and rented cabins. I think we had one too, orange maybe, and I have a vague memory that it nearly caught on fire once, but I could be wrong. They weren't very good lamps, but popular.
The very practical Swedish queue-system. Used at every postoffice, bank, police station, you name it. I actually like this a lot better than standing in lines.
A classic telephone, of the type that was provided by the phone company. Back then you couldn't buy your phone, it was provided and owned by the phone company. I think this one was made by Ericsson for the state-owned telephone company (which is no more, it is now privatized). These were still in use in the 2000s, but I think they are gone now, since the outlets are different now. Oh all the times I sat and dialed the numbers on the turning dial.... You couldn't hurry it, it took its time.
This line of china is one of my favorites, and we had some at home when I grew up. Blå eld means Blue Fire, and my sister collects this brand.
This is probably the most common object in the whole exhibit. IKEA's table LACK, which is still being sold. We have several here at home in the US. IKEA furnished so many homes in Sweden, it saved our budgets and book collections (thanks for Billy!). I didn't realize that the LACK design was over 40 years old by now.
I don't know the year of this collection of dairy containers, maybe late 1980s? Featured here are: regular milk (3% fat), 'middle milk' (1.5% fat), light milk (0.5% fat - too watery for me), mini milk (0% fat or nearly so), 'vispgrädde' heavy cream (40% fat), and 'gräddfil' (sour creme, but runnier, 12% fat). The containers are Tetrapak, paper with plastic on the inside. Oh, the memories.... :)
CONGRATULATIONS on the big day, mamma! Here are some flowers to enjoy in wintry Sweden on your birthday and in the future. (Click on the photos for more information)
Talking about woodpeckers made me think about an illustration in our grandparents house. The great possibly extinct Ivory-billed woodpecker. Native to USA, and searched for 2005-2010 without any solid proof of their existence.
So, this is it.
No more high school rules about
- how you can dress (= no spaghetti straps, but of course nobody enforced it),
- how to make up gym class (= hand in a media article on health, doesn't matter if you read it),
- no more crazy snow days (they rarely exist in college, you are simply supposed to be in class)
- strict grading (in college the teachers themselves set the policy, ok, it can be even more crazy...)
- no more hall passes or nurse passes (= go to college class unless you are throwing up)
- no more football games or senior prank days (time for more sophistication or real sports...)
This is it. End of kid years. Now it is the real thing. 18 and with a driver's license, no money, but a summer job! Shape your life, get in the wheel barrow (if you like), and do what you think is important, not what some senior speech girl or guy that goes to Princeton think is important. It is up to you now (with some help from us). We think you are amazing.
I think you will struggle with keeping things organized, but that is OK. I think you will make wonderful things that touch people deeply. I think you will do great, important things that make the world a better place, and I am not talking about money, creating a new Facebook, or being a new Steve Jobs. Whatever you do, follow the path that keeps you interested and happy with you. I love that you care about others, especially in this world. More teenagers should be like you.
Congratulations, 12 years of regular school is over, and now you get to do what you love (well, mostly...). Actual, unprotected life is scary, amazing, fun, worrisome, and just how life is. You can handle it, I know it! Du ar underbar. Love, Mom/Mamma
When I recently was back in Sweden, I picked up my old stamp collection, which also includes stamps collected by my grandfathers and my uncle. For decades these have been laying in a box, unseen, and now they are back in the light, here in NJ. Here is just a little preview of some Swedish stamps that were laying loose in one of many envelopes.
A few weeks ago we had reason to drive to the other side of Philadelphia, about 2 hours away, to pick up a great machine we bought, a Gravely mini-tractor! The pick up place was only 10 min from Longwood Gardens, one of the most famous gardens in the US, so of course we had to stop and visit. I have been there several times, but each time is a little different. It was an overcast day, and pretty hot, but still a real garden experience. Here are some impressions, and click on the photos for larger versions on Flickr.
This just doesn't do it for me. Totally artificial, and all about having controlling power over nature and shape it into unnatural forms. Topiary craziness, indeed.
Bonsais, like this pomegranate, are also about power over nature, but somehow this is more based on nature's own circumstances. The plants will simply die if you don't take care of them at all, and the plants are meant to look natural, even if in smaller, dwarfish shapes.
The palm house with cycads and Monstera's is always such a lush and overwhelming place.
I love the water lily ponds. Even if they add black dye to the water to get better reflections.
From inside the greenhouse, between one of the greenhouse rooms and a music room. I liked the contrast between the soft fabric and the climbing plant.
Nice reflections in the sunken tree fern greenhouse, with pink plumerias.
In the tree house you can listened to the sound of the forest. We didn't hear anything. It is not only light pollution at night around here, but also sound pollution in the daytime.
Green, green, green forest. Nice.
From the Du Pont Mansion's exhibit: Just like this figure caption, my mother also told us to differentiate between 'clean dirt' and 'dirty dirt'. The clean stuff was, for example, if you dropped your sandwich in the forest and it was down for a few seconds, then you could pick it up, blow the pine needles off, and then continue eating it. Dirty dirt was somehow more related to humans and other animals.
Too perfect landscaping is boring and stressful. It is like a painting with geometric shapes, not how living things really want to be. Again, all about control. this kind of landscaping is like painting with plants, forcing them into your own design, without any respect to them and what they can and will do. And not a weed, as far as yo can see.
Right now it is 6 PM in USA on August 18, which means that it is August 19 in Sweden, and today (in Sweden) is the wedding day for cousin EH and his C. Warmest congratulations to them and their four children (in various parental configurations). We are so happy for you, and sorry we can't be there.
This old possible ancestor of ours had many names, Harald Hårfagre (Harald Finehair, Harald Fairhair, Harald the Fairhaired, Harold Haarfarer), Harald Halvdansson, and Harald I of Norway. He was born in 852 and died in 933, at age 83. These old Vikings had great names, such as his father, named Halvdan Svarte (Halfdan the Black) Gudrödarson. Harald had several wives, including a 'Snøfrid' (‘Snow peace”).
His most famous claim to fame was as the winner of the battle of Hafrsfjord in 872, which united Norway as one country for the first time. There is a giant sculpture at this place in Norway commemorating this event shaped as three swords stuck in solid rock, with the tallest sword representing Harald.
The long-haired tale is that the woman that Harald wanted to marry said she would not marry him until he was king of all of Norway, so then Harald vowed not to cut his hair until this was accomplished. This took a few years, so he got known for his long, blond hair, and earned nicknames such as "Shockhead" or "Tanglehair" (I think there was a lack of shampoo back then…).
Harald left a mess after himself, with something between 11 and 20 sons with 7 mothers (one of them a maid) fighting over the inheritance and the kingdom, and sometimes the sons were killing off each other. Over half of them considered themselves kings at some point in their lives, and the son our family traces back to is Olav Haraldsson. Olav died only one year after his father, in 934, at a battle in Norwegian Tønsberg, which might be the first founded city in Scandinavia. Both Harald and his half-brother Sigrød Haraldsson are buried here, and their killer was their half-brother Eric Bloodaxe, who again united Norway under one ruler . These Vikings really have a bloody history, and we haven’t even gotten to the arrival of Christianity around 1000.
Of course Harald and Snofrid have a Norwegian stamp – but look at them, don’t you think they are arguing? Over what? And that is that man behind them doing with his finger on his nose?
