Stones

Småland, the part of Sweden where Svångemåla is located, is famous (or infamous to be honest) for its many stones. As you might have seen on many of my pictures, there are stones everywhere. In the fields, in the forests, in the lakes, well you can hardly find any uncultivated land that is not full of stones. It has therefore been a constant job for the farmers to remove all the stones to make it possible to grow something and one can today find heaps and walls of stones everywhere. One example is the enormous stone wall I put in the blog 2011 . (http://svangemalanews.blogspot.se/2011/08/stonewall.html)   The energy and time it must have taken to clear the land from all the stones was for sure one of the main reasons why so many from Småland left the country for stone-free and fertile soil in North America and other places.

These two photos are taken very close to my plot. The area around them is called Ida's plot, indicating that it was owned by a lady called Ida. If she is the one who built them I do not know.

This heap of stones is a good example of how stones were gathered together when they were not needed to build walls. The old trees around it is a clear indication that it was made a long time ago. 

Not far away from the above heap of stones, I found this very old and overgrown wall. 

These two photos show parts of the wall of stones that goes all the way around my plot.

I was reminded of all this when a strong and fit friend and myself the other day had to dig up and remove a stone in my garden. It was not very big but it still took us the better part of an hour to do it and when we had finished we looked at the stonewall that surrounds my plot and marveled at the size of the stones it has been built of and the exactness with which they have been stacked together. Simply mind-boggling.

And again...the Wagtail landed just in time to be in the picture!