Another midsummer eve in the books and contrary to CNN’s strange idea of how Swedes celebrate, we only did the drinking part. And actually only 2 of us did the drinking part, since one was driving, one doesn’t drink, and the other can only drink limited liquids due to a heart condition.
We had an absolutely lovely day, weatherwise, which was extra appreciated, because today is rainy, cloudy, and humid. Anders was out in the yard for most of the day: mowing, weeding, trimming the hedges, and putting down slug-killing pellets. I cleaned inside and outside, tidying up the deck, and putting out all the cushions, plus a load of laundry. After the yard work, he dug up potatoes (9 plants! the potatoes were still really small, but OMG so good) and made a västerbottenost paj (cheddar cheese quiche) for the buffet.
He was working in Landskrona all last week and on Wednesday he stopped at an excellent seafood store and brought home warm-smoked salmon and gravlax plus enough sauce for each to last us until NEXT midsummer, and a sausage as well. He and Karin (though mostly he) made 3 kinds of herring earlier in the week, and Camilla brough matjessill (yet another kind of pickled herring). In addition to all that, the midsummer smörgåsbord had meatballs, prinskorv, radishes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks, sourdough and dark breads with 2 kinds of cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. Feasty! Annelott was asked to bring a “strawberry dessert of some kind” and she delivered with a huge 3-layer pound cake iced with whipped cream and decorated with strawberries and Noblesse chocolates.
Mats’ mom’s funeral was the day before so, of course, the conversation all evening tended to return to a lot of serious subjects that you’d expect with a group of people all around 60: death, illness, retirement, funeral arrangements, but it wasn’t morbid or sad, actually. More matter-of-fact, since these are the topics that take up a great deal of brainspace when you are nearing an age when they become a little more pertinent. I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about, like what happens to your estate in Sweden if you have no living heirs (it goes into a fund that can be used by organizations and municipalities for community improvements), and that there is a cemetery that you can be buried in if you don’t want to be buried in a church graveyard, who to call regarding help getting pension money from the US over to Sweden (Pensionsmyndigheten), and that an online service called Vita Arkivet or Livsarkivet exists that allows you to input your preferences for your own funeral arrangements plus important document information so that your loved ones don’t have to guess or argue about what you wanted after you pass.
In Sweden, most people don’t necessarily bother with wills because everything is pretty much pre-determined. If you die and are married, your spouse inherits, then any children, then any siblings, then their children, then your parents if they are still alive. You can’t write your children out of your will, though you can apparently diss your spouse. You can use your will to specify who you want to give certain items or amounts of money to. They don’t seem to have trusts here, the same way they do in the US, at least. I haven’t done any detailed research, but it’s a fascinating topic, given the differences, since we have just been negotiating this legal journey for my mom.
Anyway.
Today is a sluggy day. I’m doing laundry (shocker!) for linens and towels, and we have some Ireland trip booking to take care of, plus I have a crossword puzzle to work on and a good book I just started, AND we also booked tickets to go see a movie in a theater this evening, which I’m looking forward to. 3-day weekend for the win!
I’m very deliberately NOT thinking about the fact that we’ve passed the longest day of the year and the days will start getting shorter now. Happy midsummer!
Mood: relaxed
Music: Boomkat—Crazylove
🐸💃