This aerial shot of my neck of the woods (Stugun, Jämtland County, Sweden), popped up in a facebook post today. My house was built in the early 1960s so it is not there yet. I live near that field to the right with a nice view of the water below and the mountain rising above. Of course the field is not there these days, but by the looks of it it was farmland back in the day. You can see the old church down by the water as well. I feel jackpot lucky to have found such a wonderful place to live in.
(Photo by AB Flygtrafik, Dals Långed, cleared for use back then by the Swedish General Staff)
Winter has not quite arrived as yet, but we have had the first snowfall here in Stugun (Jämtland County, Sweden). The sun will not climb very high on the horizon now for some time, and today the mist is almost making it look surreal outside my window (I do enjoy my mountain view, it is the water down below that often creates this phenomenon). This snow will be gone in a couple of days, not quite cold enough as yet, but by Christmas it should be piling up. I will be reading a book and enjoy a couple of days off work.
A few days ago, on Friday the 29th at about 23:00, I saw a lynx right in front of me running very fast down a street and into my neighbours yard (and out of sight) here in Stugun (Jämtland County). Obviously a rare sight, and it surprised the hell out of me. I was on my way from work and I was just approaching my mailbox when this happened, so I was very close (a bit to close for comfort really). It looked like it was very focused on catching something, but I have no way of knowing what was happening. I just picked up my mail and got inside my house without investigating further. Had no interest to stay outside at all. Have talked with neighbours about this and it seems to have been a very unusual sighting. A lot of house owners around here have cats so this is not exactly good news. I would guess that some prefer to not believe my story, but hey, I know what I saw. Life in the countryside can obviously be pretty exciting. As long as I do not spot a bear near my place, I am OK with that. People have seen bear not that far away though, so who knows. Hopefully, this will be my only lynx story. I think one is more than enough.
Big day today here in Stugun (Jämtland County) as one of the biggest Pike fishing contests in Sweden, Stugugäddan, took place. I missed the moment when the flotilla of small boats took off so the blog post I was hoping for crashed and burned. It was quite cold and windy so I did not want to hang around and catch a cold. Also, my knees was killing me after some work on the property this morning. Not getting any younger. Next year I will get some good shots. I do like that a community like ours has things like this happening. Quite a lot going on today, loads of stands etc – kudos to the people involved. It goes on for over 12 hours, a band is playing later tonight. So, next year then…
For a while there I thought that Spring had arrived but Jack Frost is not quite done yet. The weather forecast predicts nothing but snow in these parts so Easter will be white this year for sure. Oh well…
Sometimes it is nice to take a stroll down Memory Lane and here is a nice little adventure from 1983. In late 1982, a very young act called 220 Volt from the Northern parts of Sweden (Östersund, Jämtland County) got signed to Epic/CBS. It was a huge deal for the music scene in Östersund and it was also part of a fast growing Scandinavian Metal scene. 220 Volt had played to ever larger crowds in Östersund for two or three years but now they had reached a goal that was just off the charts, with an album coming up on a major label. Original singer Christer “Frille” Åsell had been replaced in the studio during the recording of the debut album so the return to live work back home was going to be the actual introduction of a brand new line-up, that would now feature new boy Joakim Lundholm. On May 20 1983, the band performed a warm-up gig in Stugun, a small village 50 kilometers from Östersund, and on May 21, they would present the new band at Gamla Teatern (The Old Theater), and their newly recorded songs to a very hard core partisan home crowd. I had presented the idea that it would be cool if they dedicated the show “To the memory of Deep Purple” and did some Purple on stage on the night, and the boys had agreed to do this (everybody loved Purple anyway, so it was just a bit of fun). A nice looking ticket for the night was printed (saw it at a museum not long ago!), and the Purple tribute was mentioned. I met Jon Lord as he visited Sweden with Whitesnake right before this happened and mentioned to him that a newly signed band from my neck of the woods were to play a show and that the night would be dedicated to his old band. He was more than happy to write a few words to the lads, a Thank You note that would later see print in the first issue of the 220 Volt Information Magazine, and of course the guys just loved that. They were young rockers taking their first steps out into uncharted territory, and Jon Lord (whom was considered a God after all) had been kind enough to wish them Good Luck. It was just good fun and spirits were up.
I still have the letter in my collection. It says; “To 220 Volt. Thanks for the thought. Keep playing the music. Remember the good times. Make yourself more good times!! Love, Jon Lord”. A friend of mine, a young photographer called Michael Johansson (whom I had befriended through my Deep Purple Magazine operation), came up to town to cover the show and he wrote an ecstatic review that saw print in Växjö Info on May 26. The headline? “220 Volt – The Leading Swedish Hard Rock Band”. His opinion was that the show was one of the best that he had ever seen and he urged people to see the show in Gothenburg on May 29 at Liseberg. The debut album “220 Volt” were to be released on May 30 in Sweden and our friend Kjell Björk (or “Kjelle” as he is credited on the album), a local music shop owner in Östersund whom had helped the band to release their “Prisoner Of War” single the year before (on Guntans Records, named after his shop Guntans), made sure that everybody that bought the album at his place got a faksimil of the article that Michael Johansson had written (see top image). A poster with Michael Johansson shots from the day was later printed for the members of the 220 Volt Information Center.
I filmed a lot of shows with a heavy Betamax camera & video recorder back then and most likely I filmed this show too. I switched to a VHS system camera not long after this and I filmed a lot of 220 Volt shows until about 1988. Hopefully this stuff has survived to the digital age (I gave it to the band years ago) and it would be nice if little snippets could be shown someday to the public. 220 Volt really was a force of nature. John Norum once called their song “Firefall” “The first Scandinavian Metal classic” (and he has joined them on stage to perform it, probably around the time that he had left Europe and was in the process of recording his first solo album “Total Control” – an album that 220 Volt drummer Peter Hermansson played on). This night in Östersund was a night to remember. And there would be more of them. Many more.
My friend photographer Michael Johansson would soon work for the leading youth publication OKEJ in Sweden, and maybe his shot of guitarist Mats Karlsson and singer Lundholm from the Östersund gig was one of the first that he had in print in that publication (the article was written by Stefan Johansson). Needless to say, he would go on to become one of the leading rock photographers in the world. It was a great time for all of us. And nearly 40 years later, the band is still out there. Still making memories. Oh, and what Deep Purple tunes did they play on the night? Well, according to the Johansson article, they performed “Burn”, “Smoke On The Water” and “Lazy” (or parts of these songs, as I recall). It went down a storm. It was awesome. As for the letter from Mr. Lord, you can see it on the table between us on the top image of my facebook page. Also shot by Johansson. Good times.
(My shots of said debut album, articles and what not, all live pictures by Michael Johansson)
Winter is slowly taking over again in these parts and the sun stays up for about seven hours at the moment, never reaching very high in the sky. Took these snapshots mid day today as I took a walk here in Stugun (Jämtland County) and nature is full of wonder. The real snow will come in December and from then on it is three four months of cold and few hours of sunlight. For now, we are slowly getting used to the changes. I have changed to wearing winter clothing in the last week or so. Last winter was pretty rough and I hope we get away with a slightly milder season this time around. We shall see.
I had heard that there was an excellent place to go swimming and enjoy a bath nearby (Stugun, Jämtland County), and yesterday evening I visited the place in good company. The lake is called Mörtsjön and it is located within a 10 minute drive from Stugun. You have to leave the main road outside of Stugun and travel through a foresty area (about 5 km) but once you reach the lake a bit of paradise opens up. You have some cottages and homes in the vicinity but I have to say that there can not be many places like this in Sweden. The shore is about 200 meters and the water depth is pretty shallow for some distance before it gets to be deeper (meaning it is friendly for kids). You also have a sand beach which is pretty unique in these parts. Driving up towards this place as you see it emerge through the woods, it really is a surprise to find such a lovely place basically in the middle of nowhere. The beach (called Mörtsjöbadet) is a beautiful place to visit. Here is some snapshots.
(My shots, a shoutout to Kalle and Per for the trip)
This is how you do it. This place is called Restaurang Pizza La Prima and it is actually located more like 500 meters away from this sign (maybe it was originally designed to be placed somewhere a little bit closer?). Not that it matters, I think this looks great and it goes well with the general vibes here in Stugun. As for the food: top notch.
A final batch of images down by the river then (the second part actually had a lot of visitors yesterday, which is nice). The top image is from the western side of the bridge facing right (there is a hydropower plant a couple of km´s downstream). Once you pass the bridge you are in the main village and the first thing you see to the left is some tourist information (which comes in handy so I have added a couple of shots of this including details of a map). And finally there is a snapshot of the hydropower plant taken from some distance. Beautiful area, lots of small houses that people have along the shoreline. As for the hydropower plant, should Sweden ever get into a war a site like this will be a big fat target and I am aware of this. I guess the bridge would be a target too. I have spotted large drones that are coming over the river from my house a few times. I certainly hope they belong to us and that it is all innocent. It would be pretty outrageous if it was somebody else scouting the river but we live in interesting times. I guess that is the prepper in me talking.
trinkelbonker 