Author: Magdalena Cavallin

I have lived my entire life in the countryside and have always been filled with wonder over nature, the life and the beauty. I live on a farm in Sweden in the middle of nowhere and since 2015 I have together with my sister taken over my parents farm. Here I try to combine all the things I love best: Be and work in nature together with my dogs, to sing and study and photograph, my catholic faith, and last but not least to contemplate and recognise "the extraordinary in the ordinary".

Treasures of the forest

The time for berries is here again. It is always with some suspense I walk the first time of the year to the old bog forest of the blueberries. With my backpack stuffed with boxes and my berry picker, I hope I will see a lot of berries, but you never know until you start picking the berries.

This year it was an abundance of berries. It is a lovely place, silence apart from the wind in the pines and small chattering of the birds. I can stay there for hours, not noticing how the time passses.

Toby settles very easily, resting among the blueberry sprigs.

But he guards att the same time, keeping an eye on the surroundings to warn me if anyone is approaching, It has almost never happened that anoyone has come when I have been there.

This year the wild raspberries are also having a lot of berries. It is a true gift to just be able to walk one or two kilometres and pick as many berries you can. Joy of the countryside

On a visit

On midsummer eve we, my parents, my sister, and the dogs, visted my older sister and her family’s place about three hours away in the area called the Kingdom of Crystal. It is an area known for its many glass factories, which had their peak in the end of the 19th century.

My sister lives close to an old water mill which has turned into a sort of museum. It is a lovely little place with adjacent old buildings dense with history and stories.

Since I take Toby with me when I go on visits, I am always excused to leave now and then on small walks. I found a beautiful path around the mill pond.

To take an evening walk on midsummer eve has its special atmosphere. This night was light and soft. Since we walked along the pond, the air had a faint fragrance of gale.

Country roads

One of the best aspects of summer is to be able to go by bike, to run or to walk to the different pastures where our cows are grazing.

I often go partly through the forest and partly by road. It is lovely to follow the road and watch the butterflies in the flowers.

On one occasion a butterfly decided to rest on my hand, a beautiful moment.

Picnic

Isn’t it one of the most loveliest things to do, to go out on a picnic in the green, under the trees, among the flowers, listening to the birds?

To just pic a basket, pack some cinnamon buns, prepare some lemonade and be on your way.

A privilege of spring and summer…

Noticing the beauty in the small things from busy ants, to tree roots covered with wood anemones, the rustle of the dead leaves, the peculiar call of the woodpecker, the trees solemnity. Individually and as a whole, they render the gift of awe.

I just passed the lake..

On my way to catch the horses which had found a much better field to graze in than their winter paddock, I passed the lake. Just a simple moment of beauty, the little house, the sky and the relection of the bushes and the clouds on the surface. A lack of time to contemplate, simply to receive, be grateful and to continue… Farmlife.

A misty morning

I took a morning walk together with Toby. The mist has always attracted me in its fairytale atmosphere, always a little mysterious.

Arriving to the old barn, gray and sombre, we took a pause enveloped by the saturated air, and looked at the beauty.

Then back again, the mist almost vanished by the sun.

Roráte caéli désuper,et núbes plúant jústum.

Mass in honour of Virgin Mary, Mother of our Saviour, during Advent. It is celebrated during sunrise. When the mass ends the sun has risen, symbolising the dawn of salvation, the birth of Jesus Christ.

“Drop down, ye heavens, from above,and let the skies pour down righteousness.”

Ne irascáris Dómine,
ne ultra memíneris iniquitátis:
ecce cívitas Sáncti fácta est desérta:
Síon desérta fácta est, Jerúsalem desoláta est:
dómus sanctificatiónis túæ et glóriæ túæ,
ubi laudavérunt te pátres nóstri.



Peccávimus, et fácti súmus tamquam immúndus nos,
et cecídimus quasi fólium univérsi:
et iniquitátes nóstræ quasi véntus abstulérunt nos:
abscondísti faciem túam a nóbis,
et allisísti nos in mánu iniquitátis nóstræ.

Víde Dómine afflictiónem pópuli túi,
et mítte quem missúrus es:
emítte Agnum dominatórem térræ,
de Pétra desérti ad móntem fíliæ Síon:
ut áuferat ípse júgum captivitátis nóstræ.

Vos testes mei, dicit Dóminus,
et servus meus quem elégi;
ut sciátis, et credátis mihi:
ego sum, ego sum Dóminus, et non est absque me salvátor:
et non est qui de manu mea éruat.



Consolámini, consolámini, pópule méus:
cito véniet sálus túa:
quare mæróre consúmeris,
quia innovávit te dólor?
Salvábo te, nóli timére,
égo enim sum Dóminus Déus túus,
Sánctus Israël, Redémptor túus.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people;
my salvation shall not tarry:
why wilt thou waste away in sadness?
why hath sorrow seized thee?
Fear not, for I will save thee:
For I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli  porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti,surgere qui curat, populo: tu quae genuisti,  natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem,Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore  sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.