About living in an old school / Gamla skola Sjöbygget

In the middle of the woods and near the lake Flyxen you will found this building. It is a former school, Stegaryd Sjöbygget west from Vittaryd. We bought it in 2015. It is a very old building. It was build around 1876. The children from the houses and farms in the neighborhood went to this school  from 1876 till around 1950. Sometimes people are looking at our house, looking for memories, because a long time time ago they went to school in this building. It was only a small school, they only had one classroom, for all ages. We know the teacher was living upstairs. That's why you will find an old days woodoven to cook on (på Svenska: "vedspis") and 4 tiled stoves (på Svenska: kakelugnar) to warm the rooms. They are still there 😃

Downstairs the former classroom

The old entrance of the school

Wood oven / Vedspis upstairs

One of the kakelugnar

As far as we know now, the school was closed around 1950, when they build a new school in the middel of Vittaryd. The old school was sold to a lady who lived there for a long time, nearly more than 50 years. . The classroom was kept in the way it was for a long time. As far as we know now they were only living upstairs. We are told she liked to garden. She was always outside in the garden. Today we still can find traces of that times. We found already the old times compost place and some of grandmothers plants. We were told she was also a writer with the name Elsa Lindström. But we are not sure about that. Her husband was creating concrete sculptures. Today we still find three fisher man at the lake, an old man watching the gate, a hair, some flowers and some frogs in the garden.

Around 2008 the building was sold again. From that time the building was completely renovated. They saved some old details, but also some disappeared. They changed the classroom to a living room, made a kitchen downstairs and sleeping rooms upstairs. We, Peter and Brun, bought it in 2015.

We should like to find out more about the history and this building. Like plans, stories or pictures.
So when you know more? Please tell us or send us more information. Thanks!

Creating a new garden

Finally you can see there's coming up something. You can see it is not that wild anymore (read not taken care of at all), though I want it to be a natural garden.
It was grass and trees everywhere, now you can see some borders and paths again. I hope the plants will grow soon and healthy. It looks promishing, it will be even better next year!

Summerflowers from Göteborg

What a nice gardens in Göteborg! Always when I'm there I visit the Trädgårdförening in Göteborg. And guess what, it is always nice to see, even in wintertime or autumn.

This week I was there, and wow, what a nice views, even bettter because it was splendid weather!
There were a lot of priarygardens, one of my favorites! Take a look at it yourself...

Beautiful Botaniska Göteborg

I have never visited those gardens before, but it is really worth it. When you like gardens, flowers and good arrangements of course. I wish a had the possibilities to make it.

Visit to Sandefjord Norway

It is very easy to find nice forms of gardening everywhere. I went to Norway and I saw many nice pictures in the surroundings of Sandefjord. Due to the sea climate you can grow many plants, also in Norway. Take a look by yourself!

Midsummer / Midsommar

Midsummer is one of the biggest traditions in Sweden, it takes a weekend. It starts on Friday (midsommarafton), the Saterday (midsummerday) - your put the Swedish flag outside- and the Sunday. It is celebrated between 20 and 26th of June. It is an old tradition, they started in 400.

You celebrate with family or friends. You make flower bouquets and wraiths for in your hair. You have a seat outside (of course), have a coffee with cake, later some fresh herring, new potatoes and cream and as a dessert strawberries with cream.

Det är wel inte riktig nödvendig att förklara vad Midsommar handlar om för svenkarna, eller hur?

Beautiful place Brunstorp Trädgård

What a beautiful place, Brunstorp Café and Trädgården. Beside of the lake "Vättern", with very nice views, friendly people, good coffee and very good appelcake. In summertime, it is a really nice place to go and have a little slow down, just being there and have a look around.

The Secret Garden

Motto for life 

When we moved to Sweden it was our big dream to make a garden again. Around the old days school "Sjöbygget i Vittaryd". We were told that the old lady who was living there, after the school was closed in the fifties, had a beautiful garden. We had a lot of dreams. It should be full of flowers, with a lot of green and grasses, fit in the natural area around it and easy to maintain. The famous Dutch garden designer from The Netherlands, Piet Oudolf is a big inspiration for us. His famous designs show a natural way of planting including the beauty of the circle of life in the garden. You only have to google to find some examples of gardens designed by his hand. It is even easy to recognize his philosophy. Do you want to know more about him and his work? gardenista: 8 favorite landscape ideas by Dutch Designer Piet Oudolf

Typical Piet Oudolf Garden & Picture

When we arrived a lot of borders had nearly disappeared while it wasn't maintained at all. The grass and Sevenleaf was ruling all over. The trees who were planted lang ago were grown to big. New trees grow up out of wild seeds, like mountain ashes ("Sorbus"), Pinetrees en Acers. So there was a big jobb to do. It is a challenge as well, because we are not used to garden in forest areas, we don't know the ground as well as our mothers land, the climate is a little different from The Netherlands and we don not have a lot of money, so you can not change everything in one day...
It takes a lot of work, attention and patience. But we can do it, just do it and enjoy your life in nature every day 😍

Overgrown borders

Old days earth cellar

Fina vårblomsterna / Spring flowers

It took a little time before we got spring, even in the south of Sweden. Half of may we had still snow falling and low temperatures. But finally nature started growing, you can see the results in my garden.