Jun 16, 2013

Chilly day/Warm neighborhood


-       Can we sit outside?

Now that’s probably the most common phrase in Northern Sweden during the summer. Combined with glances at the sky, looking for a crack in the clouds for the sun or worries about rain showers. And since we are directed indoors by the climate at least seven months of the year, the optimistic and brave answer for that question is often: we’ll give it a try! And then we put the fleece jackets on and wrap ourselves in blankets and shiver in the wind for a couple of hours while having our fika (coffee/tea with a little something), but hey, we are sitting outside!

I just had one of those moments this afternoon. My village is basically three parallel roads running north-south. I live on the upper road, at the foot of Dry Mountain. On a about a quarter of a mile (500 m) stretch there are seven houses, and I am at the south end. Next to me are Alida and her family who have been there since 1939, and of course all my life. Change of ownership of the homes on my road are very rare, but during this winter two new families have moved in, last time we had that kind of circulation was twenty years ago!

So, new neighbors are a big thing. Big thing! Will they be someone who I feel comfortable asking for a breakfast egg if I am out of it? Someone who merrily assists me when the car battery is dead? Someone to once in a while have a fika with? Or, will they even be someone to enjoy and have fun with?!

And I have to say, this time around, my road has scored! Next to Alida now, there is Ondina and her late teenage kids, and next to them Jenny and Hannes in their early thirties. They are all very much into gardening and nursing, so Ondina will take care of my hops babies growing like weed around my front porch and she is offered rhubarb from Alida’s prosperous beds.

Jenny and Hannes on the other hand are committed to trying out alternative farming and are interested in the overabundance of rocks around my place and the piles of sticks in my groves! Ondina’s son turned out being a gem washing and waxing my cars all shiny (I am paying him of course), and the other week when a splinter in my foot made me limp, Jenny was my nurse taking it out with a tweezers! As a neighborly service in return I was able to provide her oatmeal and cacao the other day when she was in need. Love it!

Today everyone at the road was invited to Jenny and Hannes for a getting-to-know-each-other fika. The regular Swedish very windy summer has arrived with temperatures at maximum 59° (15°C), overcast and rain. So, the question was, could we sit outside? Yes we could. It was pretty chilly, but the burgeoning warmth between people who not yet know each other but in good spirits are making an effort to start building something together made us stay a lot longer than the weather was telling us to. And we had so much fun!

Our new neighbors have dreamy plans of keeping chickens and beehives. What about Alida’s old chicken coop, would it be possible to move? And did anyone know if there were ever livestock in Jenny and Hannes’ old barn?

Alida knew, of course. Alida turned 96 this Wednesday. This last winter has been hard on her. She has lost more of her sight and her hearing is failing her. She enjoys company on-one, but groups are difficult. Last night her family of four generations and I celebrated her birthday and she was very reluctant to joining the neighborhood fika today. She told us she felt uncomfortable and old, outside and a burden. We tried to make her understand that she had a very important role though. That her job as the senior of seniors was to bid her welcome to the young newcomers.

And so she took her walker to her new neighbors. She sat at the table in her lovely red woolen sweater, tanned from all the hours in the sun this early summer. Her eyes a bit dim from glaucoma. Her mind wandering. So what about the barn, were there ever livestock in there?

Of course! Alida’s eyes are full of life again. The old lady Wahlqvist kept one cow and a pig in this barn, probably built 1927. There, we got our answer! And it seems very appropriate to put some kind of life into that barn again.

So, will my new neighbors be someone to once in a while have a fika with? Of course! Or, will they even be someone to enjoy and have fun with?! Absolutely!! We are already planning on our next occasion; a summer potluck, probably at my place where the sun lingers until it sets in the late evening. I am so happy. I can’t believe how lucky I am. I actually think this will change my life. And I am looking forward to a long summer, rain or shine, with my newfound friends building our little community at the foot of Dry Mountain.

No comments:

Post a Comment