Gardening literature

Yesterday, I forgot to add to the collection a very much desired Christmas present. A couple of books which I have been asking Mattias as present since we went and visit Sofiero a couple of years ago.

The books are written by Princess Margareth of Connaught, known in Sweden as Margareta. She became interested in gardening once she got Sofiero as wedding present together with her husband, Gustav VI Adolf.

The two books. "Our garden in Sofiero"(Vår Trädgård på Sofiero) and "From the flower garden" (Från Blomsterträdgården)

Of course, these books are for future purposes, since our garden style should resemble the one of Sofiero, just in a smaller scale. I'd like to use it as inspiration when we will possibly sort out the jungle mess that our garden is today.

A page of From the flower garden

A picture describing the structure of part of Sofiero garden

Literature & Collections

Lately, I have spent a lot of time with yet another task. After I went to Hasselagård and wrote that post about it, I have found extremely interesting to look more closely at the history behind the different villas in Åkarp.
So far, the results have been very exciting. Not that I have found something that is revolutionary, but it seems a lot of "important" (from a small Swedish town perspective) people have been living here and that this has always been a quite dynamic small town, despite the fact that today there is very little that could make life interesting.

In order to fulfill my research I have collected few books more, to the ones that I have had purchased.
"Åkarp genom seklerna" (Åkarp through the centuries) was actually a 2012 Christmas gift from Mattias. It is a small book that summarizes the most important facts from even ancient history to more modern times, but it is very incomplete.
"Burlöv Kommun Historia Del I och II" (The history of Burlöv's Municipality part I and II) is currently borrowed but I am planning to get it into the collection as soon as it appears around the market with a good price. It is a very comprehensive book with a rich chapter about Åkarp and its farms. There is also a small chapter about the "merchants" in town.
"Kring Lund C" (About Lund Central Station) focuses on Lund Central Station history and the railway. For this reason, Åkarp is mentioned in some parts of the book and that underlines the importance of the railway for Åkarp's development.
"Hvilan Historia om en skola" (Hvilan, history of a school) narrates the development of Hvilan, which is an important folkhögskolan (a sort of higher education school), the oldest one in Sweden if I have understood right, located in Åkarp. Due to this reason, Åkarp's history is definitely interwined with the one of the school

Literature

On top of this, I have finally put the hands of the so called Åkarps samling (The Åkarp Collection), a collection of about 100 Åkarp postcards that I have been looking carefully at for a couple of years. First and mostly, I have been interested in those postcards were Villa Bellevue was visible.
At this point in time, I have realized that except for some postcards depicting just the pond and some swan, all the ones with the houses were relevant for my curiosity.

The Åkarp collection

Now, I would just need some extra hours every day for being able to dig into everything...

Some more Jugend touch

Our house is surely lacking the "cosy factor", considering that we have barely spent any effort in decorating. In fact, the paintings and frames that are lying around waiting to be hang are countless. Every now and then, though, we manage to get some items that hopefully in the future will contribute to give a nice atmosphere (maybe like another Åkarp citizen with passion for jugend).

A pen set, coming from Mattias' family

A Liberty parfume bottle

A table brush set

Some weights. The 5 kg one is used to hold the child gate opened for the cats

The Freebergs

Just before our summer holidays in July, we had the visit that I had been looking forward to for at least half a year.
During my research, I had found that our house had been owned by Kathleen Cook-Marslen Frieberg. I had talked about her (with a mispelled surname) in this old post.
On top of that, I had managed to find that she had two children, Essie, who I have already mentioned, and Chris.

I have been very lucky to get Chris and his wife's email address and get in contact with them, since they nowadays live in Florida. It is then that I have found out that they were coming to Sweden for a visit around midsummer and we then agreed in meeting.

I was so excited when I went and pick them up at the station, and they were accompanied by a granddaughter and a his sister grandson.
It was not certainly that long ago that they have been around in Åkarp, but I believe also in this occasion it brought back 60 years old memories. When that happen you could see that in their eyes.
Chris was telling us stories about the Tre Musketörer and when he was also working there and how the business started to decline. When it did, Kathleen sold Bellevue and the Tre Musketörer and moved to Näsbyholms Slott, near Skurup.

I hope they did enjoy the visit as much as I did. When we were out in the garden, Chris was impatient to go inside and his eyes were sparkling when we finally entered the door.
Outside, he told us that the grapes that are growing on the veranda were there also when he was 20 and that in the back garden there was an orchard.
One of the most interesting details was that he was using the garage to park his car (of course, we are the only one not doing that ;-P) and that such car was a Mercedes. It was said that there was a rumour that the car was once owned by Hitler and that had been given as wedding gift to Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Princess Sybilla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who got married in 1932.

Unfortunately, they couldn't find that many pictures of the house, but they had few that shows the sophisticated furniture taste of Fru Cook-Frieberg. She liked antiques and the whole house was filled with very special furniture, some of which was coming from Sweden and in specific, from Vinslöv (Hedbergs).

Chris had been living in Bellevue just few years, from 1952 to 1956, before he moved to USA when he got married with Joan Connie. Their memories of details had been surely faded out. But few things were memorable: in the veranda there was a fountain (!!!!) which was going on and on, with its dripping sound during the long dinners that were taking places in the house, for the guests' unconvenience which were queuing up to the toilet...

Chris' room was our current guestroom. Isabella is instead using Essie's room.
Kathleen's mother, a British who had got married very young in UK and left with two daughters (Kathleen's sister towards the Swedish shores at the beginning of the 1900 century, was occupying Oscar's room.

Katherine Payne. Essie is behind Jack Bagner at the piano.

She was called Katherine Payne and married in 1897 Charles Cook, who was 10 years younger than her. More about her can be read in this forum post.

Essie is getting married!

 When Christ and Joan Connie returned to USA they sent me few pictures. Unfortunately, I was too much excited by their visit to remember to take pictures of us with them. I know that the kids did take few, though.

On the way to the train station, we almost knocked on Tårtrummet's door, but time was flying and there was a train to catch. The Tre Musketörer has to wait their next visit to Sweden.