Little Sweden USA

Over the weekend I migrated Little Sweden USA from MovableType to WordPress.  As this was my 2nd migration in the past couple of weeks, it went very smoothly.  Redirects are in place for all old content, so old bookmarks will work, and people coming from Google will still find what they’re looking for.

One new feature on the site is the  flickr image bar; it consists of images on flickr that have the “Lindsborg” tag.  So far I’ve seen quite a nice variety of pictures showing up.

Enjoy the new site and let me know if you notice any problems or have any general feedback.

Lindsborg celebrated Midsummer’s yesterday, and a great time was had by all. As previously reported, the format changed quite a bit for this year; the result was a pleasing mix of old and new!

The new layout in the park, the booths representing various aspects of traditional Swedish village life, and of course the wonderful Swedish dancing, all made for one of the best Midsummer’s celebrations I’ve attended.

On the photography front, this year turned out much better than last year. Though I took around 1,000 photos last year, I was disappointed with most of them, and only published a handful.

This year’s results speak for themselves; the 15 shown below were chosen from the set of 80 I posted on Flickr, and those were the best of the 178 that made the first cut, chosen from 784 total images.

Using Adobe Lightroom, it’s taken me about 5-7 hours to sort, process (crop, straighten, color balance), convert to jpeg and publish to Flickr and my web sites. Well worth it, I might add. I love trying to capture a fun event like Midsummer’s and then sharing it with the world.

Susan and Becky did a tremendous job in leading the team this year, as we pulled off one of the best Midsummer’s in recent memory!
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Traditional manly dance.
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Swedish dancers.
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Swedes love their coffee!
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More Swedish dancers.
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I just love the dance with the flower covered hoops!
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More of the hoop dance.
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Wheee!!
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The Swedish dancers continue to be the highlight of Midsummer’s for me.
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The dancers head to Sweden soon after Midsummer’s; think they look excited?
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A master at work.
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Main street even had a Maypole this year.
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Midsummer’s isn’t complete without the traditional Maypole raising ceremony.
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Leading the charge. The live musical accompaniment provided by these local musicians adds greatly to the days’ proceedings.
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The frog dance, a humorous dance made more fun by the audience’s participation. Even the bishop is in the mood.

Lindsborg Tomorrow Fitness Challenge June 2008

Lindsborg Tomorrow is sponsoring a Fitness Challenge for a month. Teams of 5 members will compete for prizes based on distance or time walked. See the poster below for full details. The signup sheet is available here.

Lindsborg Kansas will once again host its annual Midsummer’s Festival the weekend of June 21st, 2008. Festival organizers this year are planning dramatic changes to underscore the community’s Swedish heritage and, at the same time, offer visitors the experience of stepping into it.

In early February, Lindsborg News-Record publisher John Marshall conducted an interview with Midsummer’s Festival co-chairs, Becky Anderson and Susan Achenbach. They discussed the changes planned for this year’s festival; I hope this information helps make you more excited about attending this year’s festival.

I have posted this very informative interview on the Midsummer’s Day web site. Read the interview to learn more about what’s in store; I truly believe that the changes envisioned for this year’s event will make for a very special Midsummer’s celebration in 2008!

We had a bit of an ice storm last night and today. Though not severe, a number of branches and limbs have come down around town. In addition, parts of town were without power for a while; our power was intermittent in the morning, but was steady during the afternoon.

I took some pictures around our house this morning, and a few from around Lindsborg later in the day. The full set is visible at Flickr, and a few are shown below:We had a bit of an ice storm last night and today. Though not severe, a number of branches and limbs have come down around town. In addition, parts of town were without power for a while; our power was intermittent in the morning, but was steady during the afternoon.

I took some pictures around our house this morning, and a few from around Lindsborg later in the day. The full set is visible at Flickr(coming soon), and a few are shown below:

Rain delayed Lindsborg’s annual fireworks display by one day, until July 5th. While this may have led to a smaller crowd, it didn’t hurt the fireworks at all. You can see even more images (larger ones, too) at my Fireworks 2007 set on Flickr.

Another Midsummer’s Festival has come and gone, and from all reports this year’s event was one of the best in recent memory! Hurrah for the Lindsborg Midsummer’s Day Committee; if I do say so myself, we did a great job this year.

From the excellent stylings of the Swedish rock band Tiny Toads through the always excellent performances by the youth and adult Lindsborg Swedish dancers, the weekend was almost perfect. Sunny skies, happy crowds, great selections in the crafts vending area and a wide selection of children’s activities contributed to a wonderful celebration that was capped off with the raising of the Maypole and more dancing! Even the food was more varied than in years past, but fans of Lindsborg’s Viking on a Stick were still able to satisfy their cravings.

I took a few photos, but it may be a while before I get a chance to review and publish them. In the interests of more quickly sharing our wonderful weekend I’m going to link to fellow area artist Julie-Ann, who has posted a great Flickr set of Midsummer’s 2007 photos; enjoy!

Here’s one of the pictures I took: