Signs of summer

Goodevening!

However cold the weather have been , spring is marching on and summer is approaching.
Signs of that?  Well, the lark is singing over the fields that turns yellow by the minute. Rapeseed is very common in Sweden and when it's in it's richest, the colour is overwhelming!! Above those fields you often hear the lark, hard to spot, however! The picture below was taken yesterday, but we have far more impressing fields than this, I'll catch one!

This afternoon ,  after service in our smaller church, we went out to the small chapel, the one I have been telling about in advent, for the Spring gathering, sermon by one of our retired vicars, lottery, coffee and homebaked in the benches, smalltalk and plans for the future. We are about 20 active members, hoping to become more.  Below is Siretorp in advent, with a link that post.

http://thebadhipperspective.blogspot.se/2016/11/rejoyce-its-advent-sunday.htm

More hopeful signs of spring are the lambs and calfs running about in the fields, we don't have all that many pastures for them , the farmers keep them mostly indoors, but some are out.
Another sign are the annual running festivals. We have one called Spring Rush. It's for woman only so we gather a bunch of parishoners and colleagues in a bus, and drive up to the neighbouring dioces - Vaxjo. It's redpainted Dome is being repaired so I couldn't get a good picture from the bus window.  So I snatched one from their Facebook sajt. 

 And another one from the inside, Vaxjo is a part of the Glass Kingdoom, in this county there is by tradition and history several glassfactories and an impressive bunch of glass artist, like 

Bertil Wallien who made the altarpiece in this Dome, among many other things. The tree to the right here is for candles used for personal prayers. It's leeves are made of glass just like the Christ figure. There are also apples. The teenagers in white are a confirmation group on their way to the confirmationservice.  To the left you see the organ.

In Sweden the Dome cathedrals have twintowers.

Normally the bus leaves us in the centre of town, to do some shopping and having a bite to eat, but since it has been temperatures close to freezing, they chose the big Mall......need I say more of my feelings here?  This was a very cold day, about 5 degrees celcius but no rain!!  The race itself took place by the lake where St Sigfrid was told by an angel, to build the church. It's a 5 kilometer race, so it's no big deal. Since the race takes place in several cities, it's surrounded by sponsors and events. We were about 4200 women running, the money you pay supports The Fund for Childcancer. It runs on charity and supports research on cancer. The blue chair ( see below)is their symbol, in the commersials you can see many chairs being filled with children and the blue chair being empty, a symbol for the child lost in cancer. The fight against cancer goes on.

Once you have passed this inflatable chair, you have finished the race!

Here are some pictures from that evening, I for my part was walking, since my metal hip doesn't allow running, hence the walkers in my picture!!

Walking walking!

The fastest runner made it on 17 minutes, that is a shame really, the running trail is rather beautiful with the lake and the trees. Fastest in our team took 25 minutes. Me? About an hour, walking with some newfound friends!! After the run you collect a picnic bag, this year all vegetarian. From the stage there is music and all sorts of things you can win on music quizzes and other challenges.

We came back home by 22.30, rather tired!!!

And, the next day you could sleep late?
No, the next day was the annual spring outing for our seniors, 63 seniors in two buses, going for a ride. If yesterday was bad, this was worse; 5 degrees and RAIN. The busride went well enough, singing and talking, but usually we can sit outside and take walkes and enjoy the scenery, but this wasn¨t one of those days!!! We went down south, first stop - off course, lunch!! We had a dish very special for this county :
The egg cake!!! Eggs, milk, a touch of wheatflour , fried slowly in a pan. It's very thick so you turn it using a plate. Served with crisply fried salted pork and lingonberry jam. Mmm.

Then on to one of our middleage churches, Ravlunda. Oldest parts of it were built around 1220, the rest of it restored and extended over the centuries. Inside you can see, like in many of these churches, a small wooden bench beside the mainseats. Those were for servants. In the early days every larger mansion had their own seats, the bigger ,the closer to the altar.
In some churches the familyname is painted on the small door to the benches.
In the churchyard you find two interesting headstones for two loved swedish celebrities:
Fritiof Nilsson Piraten and Olle Adolphsson. One an author, creating amusing and historical anecdotes about life in the villages and life in town around 1890-1940. The other one a trobadour and storyteller. 

" Here underneath are the ashes of a man whos habit it was to postpone everything to the next day. He finally changed for the better and actually died january 31th 1972". Those were his own words for this headstone, Fritiof Nilsson The Pirate.

The interior of Ravlunda, with the altar and the pulpit, with a door!!

This is a very typical sight in the south of Sweden: the churchyard ends, with some old, forgotten headstones and a hedge and on the side the farmers have prepared the field for some crops. The farm you see down there is very typical for this county, half-timbered I believe you call it, we say cross lumbered.
After a short service and guiding we went on to Kivik to visit were my husband and I had our apple safari:
http://thebadhipperspective.blogspot.se/2016/09/the-treat-of-applesafari-and-other.html

Coffee, applepie and some shopping and we went home again, tired and singing!!

Now we are heading for Pentecoast and the great celebration !! We celebrate with our neighbouring parish, all choirs and in our large church. We sing a mass created by a priest called Per Harling, he has created several hymns and songs in folktune.  More of that in next post.  Bless you all, please comment if you like!!