Summer memories from a village at the southern shore of Lake Siljan.

 

 

One day in the Spring of 1994, I attended the funeral ceremony of my wife´s aunt Karin who passed away at the age of 94. She was not married and she had no children. Before she died my wife Margareta and I used to visit her in the old age home in Dalarna´s regional capital Falun.

After the funeral ceremony in the church in Leksand there was a memorial service in the parish house. Then those of us who were family members gathered in Hjortnäst, a small village 5 km away from the church. In Hjortnäs we came to a village road, “Presgattu” that led us in to an open compound, “Callesgården”. This was where Karin and her seven siblings were born and raised, one of them my wife´s mother.

It was a wonderful sunny day and for me it was a first visit to Hjortnäs and “Callesgården”. It was green all over and it gave me a positive feeling to come to this place.

In “Callesgården”, we were gathered under a roof of one of the houses, which belonged to Karin´s brother Erik. Soon a talk about Karin´s little house started. Then I didn´t know what she had or had not. I learned then that some 50 meters from where we were sitting, there was a small log house, locally called a “Harbre”. It was originally used as a storage for grain but in 1940s one of Karin´s brothers, Anders, rearranged the interior of it and modified it to a Summer cottage for his family. Later on, when Anders and his family moved to the main house in “Callesgården” Karin and her sitter Anna took over and lived in the “harbre” during the Summer. Anna had died earlier and Karin remained as the last owner of this small house.

While sitting under the roof of Erik´s house the talk about the “harbre” continued.  A question came from one of the relatives, “What can we do with this small house? Could we move it somewhere? By the way is there anyone who is interested to have it?” There was a silence for a while and my wife and I looked at each other and without exchanging words, we agreed to take it. We told them “we will buy it” and they as inheritors agreed to sell it to us.

We paid the small amount they requested and for the first time we in 1994 owned a small Summer cottage. We only owned the small house, the land on which the house was standing was owned by Hans-Olof, one of my wife´s cousins. There was no water and no latrine in the house.

Every Summer since then we tried to improve the cottage. The first Summer we could change some broken tiles in the roof to stop leakage of rain water, the following Summer we cleaned and prepared the chimney and extended the veranda. During following Summers we bought the land the house was situated on, we joined the local association for drinking water and we also hired a carpenter who built a simple wooden out house with two “rooms”, one for a storage and the other one for a dry latrine. Gradually we added to our property a small plot of land with a one room very small wooden hut. This year we are expanding the original small house (harbre) with one room.

More important than the gradual development of the property is for us the possibility to spend (part of) our Summers  in our “harbre”. We have a very positive relation with our relatives in “Callesgården” as well as with our neighbours. During mid-Summer, we are together with relatives decorating and raising the mid-Summer pole around which children and adults dance together. A big grill party comes later during the evening.

Our Summers for the last 23 years were enriched by people and nature in the area. During warm days, we are swimming in Lake Siljan. Various cultural activities, some of them coming every year, are to be found. Among the ones coming repeatedly is a theatre, “Himlaspelet” (Heavenly play) written by a local writer in the 1940´s.  Several of the roles are played by locals and so are the musicians participating. In addition to cultural activities, exploring and experiencing nature is a major activity. Around Lake Siljan, there are spots from which you have beautiful views of the surrounding areas and hiking tracks are numerous.  During the Fall, there are possibilities to pick different types of berries and mushrooms.  Through the years we have had the opportunity to experience what the human and natural environment provides.