Orust; and now to the summer festival!

Orust Summer Festival  2014

Where to begin?  How to climb this peak experience?  A whole mountain range of peaks and troughs and an even higher peak finale - I can't begin to touch it.

But here goes anyway.

Here is a picture of a Scandinavian troll standing in front of his mountain cave...

In case you don't see him, here he is a bit closer up...

Now the strange thing is, nobody actually painted this troll.

How did this painting happen?

Well this, and many other mysterious and magnificent paintings. some of which I will show you later, all happened at this place:

Can you imagine that this place is a school?

And that this is the school dining room with a very beautiful person in it?

And here are two other beautiful people in the school grounds

And three more, and so on, I think you get the picture.

But really you don't get the picture because there were so many other beautiful people here, because all the people in this very special situation and this very special place, were able to become, together,  the very beautiful people that they are.

Here are 3 proud artists in front of their painting

These three people, who did not know each other, were asked to paint a picture together using the materials provided.

There were no rules.

Well, some people had some rules, and others had quite different rules and others were quite sure they wanted no rules at all.

Here is something happening between some colours...from people who drip and drop and swish and let is happen and like to watch what happens...

Far away figures in hidden places

Here a deeper, more intense picture, the second picture attempted by a trio...

Here, there were two people,  one person really drove the other to go for it, made it happen.

Here a trio found form...

And here another trio found texture-form, by wiping out the original painting, painting over the smudge, taking off some of the paint with tissues...some others painted straight over the first painting, and then painted over it for a third time.

Here is a picture which has just been wiped out and is waiting to be painted over.

And of course, if you look at it another way around, in a different light, on a different day, with a quite different understanding, you might see a sea battle, a viking long boat, a schooner, and you might not see the mountain troll at all

(Yes darlings, this IS the picture with the troll in it, you should have seen how much proof I had to provide before JC believed me...)

Orust sheep

These dear Swedish sheep deserve their own post, sheepy shades of grey and such faces!  Taking these photos was a memorable cultural experience.  I photographed them from the other side of a country lane, and each time a car came by, it stopped to make sure I had finished taking the photo in peace before after much good-natured mutual waving, it drove off.  I was in heaven.  I stayed snapping and waving and smiling for much longer than necessary, just to benefit fully from the Swedish courtesy.

Orust; dawn hits

The first night my body informed me it was morning, clearly the clock had stopped as it said 3.30 am.

However, it was dawn, and it was 3.30 am and this is what Orust has to endure in the summer.

The local wildlife is exhausted;  by six o'clock in the evening the wagtails are staggering in the fields, the rabbits are slumped in the grass, the sheep are asleep on heaps and the jackdaw has turned prematurely grey.

Orust surrounds

Mmm, well, it's the sea, and yet not the sea.  

It is beautiful and vast, 

Inland

Waveless and beachless,

Where is the smell of the sea, its energy?

Slithers of mud, crabs seaweed and starfish

Swedes congregate on the rocks like seals, or around wood and metal diving platforms, and plop into the water, and climb out, and plop in again.

Three nations;  fisk for the Swedish, fish'n chips for the Brits, and A la carte for the French

Mmm

Orust, our home for the week

JC reads an illuminated text...

Orust is an island about an hour's drive north of Gothenburg.  We rented a tiny chalet nearby for some convalescence and bonding time.  The country is sweet and the life simple.

The chair where I sit

Two thirds of cottage, kitchen/diner and wc/shower room, 

The bedroom and one chair room, my sarong protects the window from the 3am dawn, C, erm, reads...again

Gothenburg Gardens

Then at lunchtime we came down to a beautiful city garden, created by the local horticultural society...

Garden and golden Swedish legs...

With a lovely cafe...

Lillypads in the glasshouse...

....in the tropical house...

... a fern bench...

A cactus bed

...with succulent flowers.

Crocodile hunting

Two trees grow as one cone...