Saturday, October 24, 2009

This picture is taken around eight am. It´s really getting dark here now. But already tomorrow it´ll be a change, because we are changing to wintertime again.



It´s not the best of weathers today, but since there is no wind it´s quite nice outside. The birds gather around every birdfeeder in the village and the cattle walks around on the fields. Now and again one of them shout out loud as if it is trying to cantact someone on the other side of the village. The milking cows are since long inside, but the others are still out on the fields.



The Portal is opening up now, I´m already longing to it will be green again.



I´m really tired now. I forgot to shut down the alarm clock last night so it woke me up already at 04:45 am :-) But I don´t think there´s a nicer feeling than to go back to bed and fall asleep again when one can do so :-) Well I didn´t sleep that long and when i was going to make breakfast I realised that I had forgotten to buy all that I needed yesterday. So after our morning walk I drove away to the grocery store in Gudhem.



We also went in to the forest on our walk and it was so dark there in some places that I had to adjust my camera for evening photography :-)



Everytime I have to go there I pass this old abandoned house. It´s been many years since anyone lived there and the houses condition gets a bit worse for every year. I think it could have been saved when I moved here nine years ago, but now it´s to late I´m afraid. I love to imagine how it must have been there once in a time. If it was a one family or two family home. The house has two chimneys so if it was a one family home they were probably better of than most in this neighbourhood. Most families couldn´t afford to have two fireplaces.

On my way to the grocery store I pass this old abandoned house.


I think it might have been a home for two families once, since it has two chimneys. It can also have been for a family with more money so they could afford to have two heating sources in the house.

There is another little building on the property. I´ve always thought it must have been a pig stie or something similar, but then I noticed that it had a chimney too. Perhaps it was the farmhand that lived there, besides the animals they had on this croft? If that´s the case it certanly was a family with more money than most.


But if it was a two faimily home, what was the use of the chimney in the smaller building? Then they most likly had a kitchen and one room in each home and they would certanly not being able to have a farmhand. I´m not sure I want to know how it really was, it´s funnier to just make up a story in my mind :-)
But some time someone has in that case rebuilt it and made it a one family home. I´ve been inside once, but the floor is filled with windowglass and crushed liquer bottles so it´s a bit dangerous to walk there.

I´ve always belived this might have been a pig stie or something similar, but then it wouldn´t have a chimney. Usually people couldn´t afford to have heat by their animals.
Well, it´s time for a little nap I think. There´s a fire in the stove, I´ve finished a pot of tea and all the animals is already sleeping somewhere in the cottage.
Have a great day now, I will!

Lots of birds flies down to the pond now. At one time I had as many as ten Blackbirds there at the same time and a lot of other birds too. So now I´ve started to spread sunflower seeds on the ground there.


8 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer....maybe the small house was a summer kitchen. i wonder who owns the house and why they let it get so bad. it looks like it was quite the home at one time. the main house roof still looks ok but the small houses roof is collapsing. what a waste! it looks like it could really be a nice home for someone. joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
It´s not that common with summer kitchens over here, so I doubt that. But I can be wrong, it has happened before :-)

I think the house belongs to Bjurums castle. It´s just a kilometer (an american mile) away. Unfortunally most castleowners has just let the buildings fall appart when they couldn´t find anyone to rent it out too. Only in my village where there at least twenty more houses before. It´s a shame when that happens.

Yes the roof looks ok on the big house, so perhaps it could be saved, but I doubt it ever will be. This is unfortunally not a rare sight over here. I often imagined that if I won the big lottery I would buy it and renovate it to a good standard :-) So that wount happen either :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

Your pond looks like it may become a happy place for the birds that should provide you with some nice pictures as the traffic there increases.
Nice little story about the fallen house.

Anonymous said...

Did you ever install that pump on the pond? Great tour of the old homesite Christer and I love the portal opening again. I watched it close for Spring and Summer thanks to your excellent photography. I spent six months after basic training in the Army at Ft Benning, GA and stayed for three of those months at a farmhouse rental a few miles off base. 15 years later when I was traveling through Georgia to Florida I took a side trip to the old Fort, still active and moreso from when I was there, but the old farmhouse looked like your pictures you posted today. I stood there in shock. I learned that the farmer got cancer, died, and the bank took over his farm and let the rental go to hell. They eventually sold the frontage to a convenience store and gas station. But what a shock to see a place I had lived in be taken over by nature piece by piece. I'll never forget it. I hope you do win the big money and fix the one we see here today. Thanks for posting those pictures.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Woody!
Yes the birds seemes to like it around the pond, so if it doesn´t rain tomorrow (as it does today) I start making my feeding station there close to the apple tree. So I´m hoping for a lot of birds in the future!

I wonder what the real story about that house is, perhaps I ask my neighbours, they have lived here for over fifty years.
Have a great day now!
Olof.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
Yes I did install a pump and filter, but it´s now when I´ve shut it down for winter that the water finally are getting clearer :-) :-)

It´s sad when they let houses just fall appart like that. I understand how You must have felt when You saw that house again!

Banks shouldn´t be allowed to own any houses, they don´t care about anything else than direct incomes! Just look what happened to all houses that they took away from the owners in the US now when this crises started!! They should have let the owners to stay and pay later when they had gotten some income again!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Julie said...

Amazing buildings! DO you have any idea how old they are? Out here in Seattle our oldest buildings are only about 100-150 years old. Thanks and love the pix!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Julie!
The oldest buildings I show from the town and this abandoned building is around that age too, 100-150 years old. I´m not sure how old the oldest house in Falköpoíng is, but I´ll try to find out and show it here one day.
Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great day now!
Christer.