With Midsommar (Midsummer’s celebration in Sweden), there is no place I’d rather be than home. Surrounded by flowers, lakes, and wildlife. This year we were super lucky with beautiful blue skies and a warm sun during the almost endless days.
Where I live, in Dalarna, we have a sunset unlike the 24/7 way up north, but in reality, it never gets fully dark. Nights are like the blue hour until the sun comes up again.
I love it!
However much I adore winter, the hardest thing about that season is the darkness, not the cold.

On Friday, the day of the Midsommar’s celebrations, Mogwai and I sneaked out in the morning for a quiet walk and sketching. It was a great moment to test my new camping chair I got for sketching on location (but also for camping). As you can see, I chose a low type of chair. On a chair of normal height, I’d curl up, hovering the page, while now I can simply let my sketchbook rest on my knees. As for the filming, I’m still trying to figure out how to record the drawing process. This time I tried a timelapse while the camera was sitting in the front pocket of my dungarees  haha 😀

I planned on drawing at the festivities in town, but not only did they ask for an income fee (which I find silly just to watch people do frog dances), there was an endless stream of people either on foot, by car, or by boat, turning into a big crowd- and I’m not into loud crowds.

We stayed for a bit in the free area for some good old people watching. Midsommar is huge up north, so people have been counting the days since Christmas, and they often dress up beautifully. The ladies mostly wear long dresses and flower crowns or traditional outfits matching their birthplace. For a country that wears so much black (in winter) and white (in summer), the traditional outfits are surprisingly colourful.

I also spotted some handsome men in flower crowns, beautifully matching the ladies. But I have to say, the men, in general, were a disappointment. I think 95% wore beige shorts and sneakers which in itself isn’t a crime on a summer day, but damn it looks terrible next to a fairylike lady. My favourite guy of the day was the one running across the field wearing a tiara with a veil while chasing a 5 or 6-year-old girl in a pink gown.
For the men who did dress up, there were 2 main looks.
1. Black and white, but now always well-fitting and not a full look. In my outsider opinion, it looks kinda harsh for a Midsommar celebration.
2. Beige chinos, a nice shirt (often a blue pattern), and a Panama hat.

And then we took off to have our own little celebration 🙂