One thing leading to another a long way from the original idea.
The Bog ladies (or as the right translation would be Bog hags) were still having their fires burning when we went out at 5 am this morning.
I was going to write something about health care according to folklore today, so I searched on sjukvård that is the swedish word for healthcare. I didn’t find what I was looking for because I sort of got stuck on another Vård that turned out to be something like a guardian angel or a warden. This, I’ll call it warden from now on, warden is a spirit that follows the human spirit from birth till death and that it sometimes shows itself to us. It could be something like tickling in the palm of our hands or something called lyse (sort of a light and it could also show itself like a simulacrum.
Suddenly this doe came running from behind us! She wanted the attention so I wonder where the little one was hiding.
Later on when Christianity came we still kept these wardens in our believes but a second one appeared. This one was supposed to be evil while the original one was good. If You remember I have written about care trees, I think another name would fit well for them, Warden trees. We still plant Warden trees in our gardens, trees that must never be harmed in any way and these trees are planted as homes for these wardens. It’s amazing how old traditions stays even if we don’t know why we’re doing them 🙂 I for instance have a Rowan as Warden tree in my garden.
The grass is so high that she had to jump her way up to the trees.
We had only walked a few meters (the same inn yards) when we met this buck. He must be new to the village because he’s still a bit skittish when he sees us.
In the pagan days these Wardens were called Fylgjor and Hamingja and were seen as female spirits. I also found other things to look for like earth spirits. An earth spirit could be many beings like elves , fairies and gnomes, trolls, dwarfs and mountain spirits. So I looked in to mountain spirits. Even here it could be several beings and I took a look at Mountain trolls. Mountain trolls are very big, not intelligent but very smart if You know what I mean and have supernatural strength and naturally have magical abilities. They live in big halls in the mountains where they have gathered enormous treasures.These trolls only live far north in the big mountains, further south they are smaller and hard to separate from us humans, but they all have long tails 🙂
All the plants like this weather though. It is like walking in a rain forest most of the times now 🙂 The coming photographs will be a mix from both today and yesterday.
The first wild strawberries are ripe now. I wish i could say they were delicious but I had just brushed my teeth 🙂 They were sort of minty fresh 🙂
Suddenly it rained like crazy again and I think You can guess where we took shelter 🙂
Looking in to trolls made me go further and further away from my original thoughts ( like reading about Vittror, huldror, gruvrån, dwarfs and gnomes) and here I am now. Full of knowledge about lots of our beings out there but very little with the folklore healthcare I originally was looking after 🙂 I can go on reading about all these beings all day because even if we had sun and rather warm weather this morning we now have rather chilly and rainy weather once again. This will continue for at least two days and then we might get sun and warm weather again. It’s strange how one area can get so much rain where it isn’t needed while places in need of rain gets nothing.
Yes, the old stable 🙂
Bertil looked at the rain and for birds that might fly by 🙂
No birds flying in that bad weather so he started to look for mice instead.
No mice were walking around either so he started to lick himself dry instead.
I had planned to do things outside today but it looks as if I’ll stay indoors most of the time instead. I think I might turn on the radiators for a while, not because it’s cold but to get rid of the humidity in my cottage that makes it feel cold.
Larchspur hybrid.
Clematis tangutica.
The cottage by the Crane Lake 
Så kul att få lite vetskap om våra sägner och sagor – och vad som egentligen gör att vi bär oss åt som vi gör. Det är så mycket gammalt som lever kvar utan att man har en aaaning om det! 🙂
Här är det strålande väder idag, så jag har suttit på altanen och kontrollerat att Rolle rensat nedanför ordentligt. *fniss* Han hatar dock när man tittar på honom när han jobbar, så efter en stund hämtade jag en sax och började klippa i den japanska humlen som växer i en hörna och som var på väg att ta över hela räcket och flera meter in på altanen. Humle är rena ogräset, men mycket vackert gulgrönt ogräs.
Nu är den ansad och snygg, men sen var jag helt slut och var tvungen att sätta mig här för att vila lite. (Det är alltså förkylningen som gör att jag blir trött, men op som gör att jag inte får göra något vettigt som att bära vattenkannor eller liknande.) 😦
TREVLIGT SLUT PÅ MIDSOMAMRHELGEN
Susie
Hejsan Susie!
Ja, jag hade då ingen aning om att Vård var något speciellt faktiskt 🙂 Men då får man ju förklaringen till ordet vårdträd, vi inte bara vårdar trädet, det är ett hem för just en Vård 🙂
Det började riktigt vackert här i morse, men nu vräker regnet ned. Till och från lugnar det ned sig och lite solsken kommer genom molnen, sedan vräker regnet ned igen 🙂
Förkylningar som man får på sommaren är jobbiga! Brukar dessutom stanna kvar riktigt länge.
Ha det gott själv!
Christer.
Fantastic post!!! Your photos and story told of a magical world that I truly enjoyed. Thank you!
Hi Denise!
I’m glad You like it 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
Hi Christer,
Isn’t it great how you can get lead away on a magical mystery tour when you start looking up things? It used to happen most frequently when I went looking for a word in the unabridged dictionary. Most the fun of doing that was all the cool words I found on the way to the one I wanted. It’s harder to do now that the internet dictionary will take you right to the word you want without showing you any other words beforehand. But it’s still nice to know that you can get diverted by following embedded links. 🙂
Looks like you might have the beginnings of a photo essay entitled Year of the Shed Downspout. 😀
Yesterday ended with big thunderstorms and heavy rains. After all that was over and gone we lost our power. It was out for over three hours, I think. Just as I decided to climb into bed the power came back on. I had to get out of bed and go around the house shutting off whatever I had forgotten was on when the power went out. This morning is sunny and 60 degrees Fahrenheit but it will warm up to high 80’s they say.
Enjoy the rest of the day even if it is rainy!
Hi Caryn!
I have always loved that when going through dictionaries 🙂 But as You say it doesn’t work that way with the internet, yet anyway. It is a total different thing when it comes to the different encyclopedias here on the web, lots of leads to follow 🙂 I never managed to find out anything about folklore healthcare 🙂 🙂 🙂
It would be a boring essay to be honest but it seems I just might do it since I end up there all the time 🙂 🙂 🙂
We’ve had some thunder here today, in a distance but the flies act like crazy so it might find its way here later on. I unplug everything when thunder starts so if the power is lost I rarely have to get up to close anything down if power comes back 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
Haha, precis så där gör jag också:) Söker på något och hamnar på något helt annat och ofta så är det riktigt intressanta saker man finner på så vis:) Vår folktro är mycket spännande och jag älskar sagor om troll,älvor och annat oknytt:) Nu ska vi ta en fikapaus i ogräsrensningen:) Ha det gott/Monne
Tjänare Monne!
Visst är det kul 🙂 Men jag har fortfarande inte kollatr upp folktro och sjukvård än 🙂
Här har skurarna kommit såpass tätt att det inte hunnits med någonting där ute. Nu är jag redigt trött på detta regniga kyliga väder!
Ha det gott!
Christer.
Great post. My nieces are very into Fairies and Gnomes and such. So much so that they travel to Oregon each year for a big “Fairy Festival”. They have a Fairie Garden and believe.
Enjoy your day inside. I am doing much the same. On the News station they just said it will be Hot and Humid today with low chance of rain and yet I’m sitting next to the window as it rains and a cool breeze is coming in…..I really need to have their job, I’m sure they are paid more than me and it’s obvious that it’s not hard! 😀 😀 😀
Hi Cindi!
I do like to read about all this but I doubt I ever would go on a fairy Festival 🙂
It does seem that one doesn’t have to have much knowledge to become a weather man 🙂 I guess they make a lot more money than I do too so perhaps one should try it 🙂 🙂 🙂 The only problem is that I think I would have to move to the big city so I doubt it’s worth it 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
haha…do i need to knit a scarf to wrap around your long tail? come out with it and admit you are a magical troll! we still have no rain though it is a bit cooler. we are getting hot again at the end of the week. all of my oakleaf hydrangeas have shriveled so i have to turn the sprinkler on them this afternoon. bertil is too cute!
Hi Joyce!
And I’m very proud of my tail 🙂 But I keep it warm with leggings during winter 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m getting tired of all this rain now! and tomorrow it will pour down all day, they are warning people that there might be flooding all over southern Sweden. I really wish we could change the course of these rain clouds and send some to You!
Have a great day!
Christer.
I forgot to add that if I had found the forest berries, minty fresh breath would not have saved them. It would just have postponed the inevitable. I hope you put them in your pocket and took them home.
Oh I ate them, but it didn’t taste especially nice 🙂 🙂 🙂 But there’s lots of them out there so if the horse flies aren’t too bad I’ll pick some later 🙂 Perhaps putting them in the freezer so I can make jam later on 🙂
Christer.
better start praying to the rain gods to stop all this rain!!
I Have to say I have enjoyed these posts so very much, this is something i have great interest in.
I think we can never go wrong putting our faith and belief in nature, there’s nothing as powerful as nature, man pales in comparison
Hope you never run into those trolls though, they sound rather nasty, maybe like the troll in Harry Potter, smelly too!
I thought Bertril was sharpening his claws until you told us he was drying himself,
Hi Laurie!
It would be nice if the raining ended soon! I’m so tired of it now.
Nature will always win over us in the long run. Sooner or later it will hit us hard and we won’t be prepared at all.
Nah, trolls down here are rather nice 🙂 As long as one doesn’t follow them home because if one does there’s no escape. But our trolls are nothing like the one in Harry Potter, I actually couldn’t believe that was a troll when I saw it in that film. Ours do look much nicer and my guess is that they smell much like the nature around them.
have a great day!
Christer.
Enjoyed your detour into troll and fairy lore. So much rain! We have had little to none. The grass is so high in the fields, it looks like you are growing deer! I liked the photo of the buck. Your photos of all the varieties of flowers in bloom are, as always, a delight. Especially with rain drops. Poor Bertil, bored with no birds or mice.
Hi Robin!
I had fun myself finding out all this 🙂
Most farmers has already cut down the grass one time and if this continues they’ll most likely soon cut it down a second time.
I bet Bertil returned some hours later and found at least one or two mice 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
Should I pray to the trolls for a Lottery win? I like that fairy folklore and people in the Pagan Age really believed in them. Great photos again Christer. That deer shot of him jumping is really good. It makes me want to say again, “I wish I lived there”. We have rain all weekend from Hurricane Debby. But she’s suppose to head west into Texas early in the week. We are not getting strong winds in the outer band but lots of rain often. I get hungry for the sun too when it’s overcast like this for days. Our Supreme Court will issue its’ decision on Obamacare this coming week. Maybe you can pick up some healthcare news from that decision. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Hi Z&M!
No, I doubt trolls care anything about others getting rich. They only care for themselves I’m afraid 🙂
Unfortunately we also have loads of nasty insects and I doubt there are enough deers to make up for those 🙂 🙂 But they are beautiful!
At least we never have to worry about hurricanes like the ones You have. But I’m soo tired of the rain now, I do hope they are right when they predict sun and dry weather later this week!
Have a great day!
Christer.
Great pictures, especially of the deer.
Hi Linda M. and welcome to my blog 🙂
I’m glad You like them 🙂
Have a great day and welcome back 🙂
Christer.
Christer,
I love the flowers, as always, but I mostly love the ones with drops of rain. They look so lovely.
On my walks, I never see the wonderful deer you see on yours, cows neither!
Hi Kat!
It’s something with water drops (and fog) that makes everything look more beautiful (even though I’m starting to hate rain now 🙂 ).
The cows are everywhere here so it’s hard to miss them 🙂 🙂 🙂 and the deers knows that it is I that gives them apples during winter 🙂 It’s not more than right that they give me a chance to see them all year round 🙂 It also helps to walk around at 5 am 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.