As usual, the background music for our morning at Bösakulla was hymns and ditties played by the girls on this piano.
The weather was sunny and beautiful and the boys tossed Johan's football out on the lawn for a bit.
Torbjörn laid the groundwork for each day's activities with careful research and advanced planning. We were taught so many amazing things that I'm sure we qualified for university credit in a semester abroad program.
Torbjörn had a surprise for us this day foreshadowed by this "key to history."
We drove through the beautiful woodlands around Bösakulla.
Then walked through the woods until we came to a cottage.
It was as though we had stepped back in time to Åbrulla.
This farm has been in Torbjörn's family for hundreds of years.
About 100 years ago it could no longer provide a living for the family and was abandoned. It was as though the family had left just before we arrived. Nothing had changed.
In the late 1800s the old hearth was updated with an iron cook stove. The hatch on the left of the hearth wall is where hot coals were put into an oven to heat up the adjoining room.
This is the oven which got hot enough to heat the irons on it.
We walked from the kitchen into the great room where the family worked, ate, visited and slept. The furniture was designed to serve multiple uses. The lids on the benches raised to reveal beds inside.
The wooden strips hanging on the wall were dinner "plates." Perhaps this is the origin of the expression "room and board" which refers to providing someone with a bed and meals.
The painted border above the clock depicts Bible stories and was purchased from a traveling craftsman. The clock was made in a nearby town with a painted faux hardwood finish.
The family's collection of books is well worn.
This wardrobe is painted with a couple's initials and the year 1821.
This is a portrait of a former resident. No doubt she cooked in this very kitchen, did needlework sitting in these chairs and slept in the bed.
These antique garments are hanging in an entry. The slippers beneath the table were woven from straw.
This small chest was beautifully decorated with tole painting.
This fully lined wool jacket was entirely stitched by hand.
In addition to the beds in the great room there is one separate bedroom. The space-saving bed can be pulled out to make it a double.
A pair of wooden shoes were left underneath the bed.
Torbjörn holds a flower wreath worn for a baby's christening which was dried and framed in a shadowbox with a certificate that documents its significance.
This old house plan shows the U-shaped layout of the cottage and farm buildings and labels their original uses.
We each signed the guest book and expressed our thanks for the rare opportunity to travel back in time and visit this quaint and authentic farm cottage.
The family started a successful business making woven baskets.
We are standing in front of the barns and stable buildings.
The small extension at the right end is the outhouse.
This thick stone cellar was their equivalent to our refrigerator.
Haley and Emma quickly made some friends.
The weather was sunny and beautiful and the boys tossed Johan's football out on the lawn for a bit.
Torbjörn laid the groundwork for each day's activities with careful research and advanced planning. We were taught so many amazing things that I'm sure we qualified for university credit in a semester abroad program.
Torbjörn had a surprise for us this day foreshadowed by this "key to history."
We drove through the beautiful woodlands around Bösakulla.
Then walked through the woods until we came to a cottage.
It was as though we had stepped back in time to Åbrulla.
This farm has been in Torbjörn's family for hundreds of years.
About 100 years ago it could no longer provide a living for the family and was abandoned. It was as though the family had left just before we arrived. Nothing had changed.
In the late 1800s the old hearth was updated with an iron cook stove. The hatch on the left of the hearth wall is where hot coals were put into an oven to heat up the adjoining room.
This is the oven which got hot enough to heat the irons on it.
We walked from the kitchen into the great room where the family worked, ate, visited and slept. The furniture was designed to serve multiple uses. The lids on the benches raised to reveal beds inside.
The wooden strips hanging on the wall were dinner "plates." Perhaps this is the origin of the expression "room and board" which refers to providing someone with a bed and meals.
The painted border above the clock depicts Bible stories and was purchased from a traveling craftsman. The clock was made in a nearby town with a painted faux hardwood finish.
The family's collection of books is well worn.
This wardrobe is painted with a couple's initials and the year 1821.
This is a portrait of a former resident. No doubt she cooked in this very kitchen, did needlework sitting in these chairs and slept in the bed.
These antique garments are hanging in an entry. The slippers beneath the table were woven from straw.
This small chest was beautifully decorated with tole painting.
This fully lined wool jacket was entirely stitched by hand.
In addition to the beds in the great room there is one separate bedroom. The space-saving bed can be pulled out to make it a double.
A pair of wooden shoes were left underneath the bed.
Torbjörn holds a flower wreath worn for a baby's christening which was dried and framed in a shadowbox with a certificate that documents its significance.
This old house plan shows the U-shaped layout of the cottage and farm buildings and labels their original uses.
We each signed the guest book and expressed our thanks for the rare opportunity to travel back in time and visit this quaint and authentic farm cottage.
The family started a successful business making woven baskets.
We are standing in front of the barns and stable buildings.
The small extension at the right end is the outhouse.
This thick stone cellar was their equivalent to our refrigerator.
Haley and Emma quickly made some friends.
1 comment:
I can assure you that no one has made that old out-of-tune piano sound so good as Haley and Emma.
As you can see there was a lot I could learn from Jim when it comes to tossing a football.
In Sweden we kick a football with our feet.
Åbrolla is where my morfars mor (matenal great grandmother) was born. That farm and the neighboring one has been owned by relatives of mine at least since 1540. One of the earliest ones was Jeppe Andersson. I have found 99 grandchildren of his. At least 8 of them were named Jeppe after him.
You are such a sensitive photographer. You have caught the light of that old place in a marvellous way.
Those old books are bibles, psalm books and books of sermons – all of them. People didn´t have many other books back in the 19th century.
The initials on the cupboard are those of the parents of my morfars mor- Nils Månsson and Elna Björnsdotter.
Can you believe that the old lady on the black/white photo was born in 1797?
Today this is a very quiet and peaceful place - even if you consider the sheep.
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