Heja Sverige!!

One of the those quaint and intrinsically English things is the summer fête... or so I thought.

Yesterday was Sweden's National Day - a relatively new invention of national fervour. No-one's quite sure how to celebrate it, though like May Day the extreme left and right wing seem to think it's a good excuse for a scrummage in in the city.

Görvälns Slott

Out in the sticks we have more modest ways of flying the flag... which is how I came to take a walk out through the woods to Görvälns Slott with Peter and Karin my neighbours to sample what was, for want of a better word, a village fête: stalls selling handicrafts, a stage with people jumping somersaults, or between times playing folk music, rides on a horsedrawn cart, fresh baked waffles, or just a chance to lie out on the grass.

There was even the obligatory 'loppis' - a stall selling jumble. Since re-use is better than recycling I felt obliged to do my civic duty, and after a determined rummage I came away with albums by the Cranberries, Manic Street Preachers, U2 .. and of course some salsa for the princely sum of 40kr. Plus a burner for a Trangia spirit stove (to an old design I'd not seen before) - which is great, because two years ago I bought a stove that had no burner :-)

Patience they say, is a virtue...

By the way.. can I get a day off for Trafalgar day?