Barn Charm - Farmland Scenes from Southern Sweden

Being a new participant in Barn Charm--and not having a chance to get out looking for barn photo ops lately--I've resorted to trolling through travel photos. This week I'm sharing farm scenes from one perfect day driving through southern Sweden last September. Most of these photos were taken through a tour bus window so you may see the occasional shadow, but the day was so clear it was hard to go wrong. Just for a bit of orientation, we left Stockholm early in the morning, traveling south toward Malmo where we crossed to Denmark on the Oresund Bridge-Tunnel:

Here you see a closeup of the red barns of southern Sweden. This red paint has been used in Sweden since the 17th century. At that time not many people had houses built of brick so this red paint was used to imitate brick. It is called "Falu red" because the paint is made from the tailings (refuse) from the copper mines of Falun--iron oxide, copper, zinc--combined with water, rye flour(yes!), linseed oil. And in earlier time ox blood was also used so you can see its agricultural origins:

This farm, and many others, was on one of Sweden's largest southern lakes, Lake Vattern. In this photo you see brilliant layers: the sky, clouds, distant islands, water, dark tree line, crops being harvested, grasses. It reminds me of a delicious pastry or veggie napoleon with layer after layer of wonderful things to eat--only this was a feast for the eyes:

Here you have a grain field ready to be harvested:

Even before we reached Lake Vattern in the afternoon, scenes of the countryside and farms were just magical. Huge clouds hovered in a brilliant blue sky and I was struck by the different colors of the soil in the plowed fields from grey, to pale gold, to rich red. Notice that all the barns and out buildings were Falu red:

Here you see Swedish farmers very smartly taking advantage of wind energy:

And finally, a closeup of a barn in a small village. Look closely in some of these photos and you can see that the barns were accented with white paint--designs or just along the roof lines. Don't know the purpose for that:

So, I hope I haven't totally over-estimated your interest in Swedish farmland photos. It was hard to show any restraint in my selections because each scene was so different.

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