The date was September 10 or 11 when I arrived and the reason I know this is because it was my mother's birthday a day or two later. Sept 13. She was born 1886.
Since we had no idea when S's leave would be OKed by the the higher-ups in the Army, I decided I would take advantage of the time I had in Sweden. There were some things I wished I had learned as a teen ager. One was porcelain painting. I knew that it was a tedious art form and would take a long time to learn, so that was the first thing I signed up for. I began painting small items but I knew all along that I wanted to paint enough tiles for a coffee table. We all grew up with books illustrated by a German artist, John Bauer. BLAND TOMTAR OCH TROLL (Among gnomes and trolls) I found one illustration that was perfect. It was the huge troll mother introducing the princess she had found in the woods, to her huge ugly sons, hoping there might be one she might want to marry. When I moved into assisted living my eldest daughter inherited that table. When S. finally came to Sweden I took him to the studio where I was painting and showed him the soup terrein I was working on and he said "I don't like that. It's too fancy." I have it here. I love it. For the usual students in this class it was a once a week thing but Mrs. Nilsson knew I had limited time and let me come three times a week.
Knyppling was another art form I wanted to try. Pillow lace is what it is called here in America. I learned it and I made one wonderful little item but I never kept up with it. Luckily I have one granddaughter who is interested so she has all the bobbins and the "pillow".
The third art-form was again a typically female sort, involving needle and thread, and I am afraid I am loosing all my male readers if I go on with by this talk. (needle work has always had a very calming effect for me.)
Next blog will be much more exciting. I have had so many comments on yesterdays blog giving me support and love that I feel whole again. I am so grateful.
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SVENSTO
SWS
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2008
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October
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- Stockholm
- No warm water
- The adventures of S
- more ennui
- Examples of Painted Ceramic, 1945
- Catching up
- Sweden
- There was no time
- Red Cross
- Ennui
- Eventually
- foolishness
- vignette
- New Job
- Post Cigarettes
- Frequent visits to the PO
- He said: Send cigarettes.
- Back to war time
- Sandra's comment
- horseback riding
- E's comment
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October
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4 comments:
Just to echo what someone said yesterday, you are not alone in the experience of mothers who resented their children's very existence. It takes a lot to write the way you did about it, but consider, because of the way she was with you maybe it made you behave in a way that was different with your own children and grandchildren and, as someone else also said, gave you the 'permission' to leave home at 18 and travel to America and have this amazing life you are sharing with us. The thought of the world without you or the coyote 'girl' is a sad one indeed! Long may you both run! I love your determination and the way you just kept 'going' through everything the world threw at you - Mother - WW2 etc etc looking forward to more.....
My husband loves to do needlepoint. I don't do any on the other hand because I would rather use my little amount of spare time to read.
Like the others have said already, I'd like to repeat that you are not alone. Many others have had similar, or equally painful experiences and lived through them to shine....as you have! It sounds like your mom was stuck in a rut she couldn't get out of. It wasn't YOU she didn't want, it was a third baby, who, unfortunately, turned out to be you so you inherited all the consequences of her being unwilling to accept any more children.
I love your painting of the trolls. The poor princess, what did she do? And the poor trolls, what did they do?
These are beautiful! Thanks so much for showing them to us. I am learning to do twisted or twined knitting and would very much like to do some Swedish Bohus Stickning. It is beautiful.
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