Picking apples, plums, and strawberries

Last week, I invited my friend, Joan, to follow us in Vara. It is a town where my parents-in-law usually pick strawberries during summer season. They have been doing this for about 40 years.

In Sweden, it is a tradition to pick strawberries during mid-or summer seasons and eat a lot of it. For example are; cake strawberries, strawberry panacotta, dessert strawberries, etc.

It was raining before lunch time in Vara so we proceeded to my mother- in- law's syster, who lives not so far from the strawberry's farm, to help her cleaning her apples and plums trees in the backyard.

The young apples...

The young plums...

The apples and plums trees were almost bowing to us, they were full of unriped fruits. We started picking them to provide spaces to other fruits.

I am picking small apples...

This is Joan, she's enjoying picking plums...

These are my parents-in-law together with Joan..

We had gathered more than 10 kilos unriped apples and plums but we must throw them away, they are not good to be eaten.

When the rain stopped, we proceeded to strawberry's farm to gather some ripe strawberries. The farm looked like this...

This is my mother-in-law, she started to pick strawberries...

Picking strawberries is not easy, you must have stronger knees...

Is it really okey to eat them??? Oh, yeah..

We had gathered 2 pails full of strawberries...

After some minutes, we were done picking and we must weigh them to know how much it costs. It is known to be cheaper doing like this than to buy it directly in the market.

Målilla Tractor Pulling 2013

In Friday, we went from Alingsås to Målilla. It took us about  3-4 hours of travel before we reached the area.

This big thermometer in the middle of the intersection's road, surprised me when we were entering Målilla.

This was my second time to be here in Målilla and look at those wonderful tractors.  They call the show, "Tractor Pulling" and it is done every year in G&B Arena in Målilla, Sweden.

The parking area looks like this...it is inside the forest! But it is nice, there are lots of spaces to park in.

Before the show started, this wonderful monster car was doing some amazing stunts.

There were different kinds of tractors in the area that parked. Here were some of them.

Racing Special Tractors

Some machines were for sale...examples were grasscutter and ATV.

The two special cars, the "Monster Cars"! They are taller than me...it is about 3-4 meters high.

The Special Tractor's  Pulling Show...

Or even the old Finnish trucks's Pulling...

The old tractors racing...

Crossing the muddy water challenge...whoever cross this muddy water could win a "grave maskins koppa".

Here was the winner!

Old tractor hay racing...

While watching to these tractors, some wild flowers were also attracting my attentions. Here were some of those beautiful wild flowers in the area.

I found this yellow mushroom (or they call it "Kantarell" here in Sweden) beside the parking area where we parked our car.

On the way home, we took the way to Jonköping. In the middle of the road's intersection, this bicycle can be seen! It is just a decoration, an art.

There were many more but my camera has a problem. I hope next time I can have a better camera. I have not watched the other black monster car because it started to rain by that time. Even if the weather was mixed rain and sunshine, I am very happy for these wonderful and unique experiences in my life. Special thanks to my beloved husband, Stefan.