Anna Rubingh - Oskar's Summerhouse

Photography & Text: © Anna Rubingh

Lugnet 001

Lugnet 002

Lugnet 003

Lugnet 004

Lugnet 005

Oskar owns a sommarstuga as many Swedes do. Escaping busy city life in long summer holidays going back to simple country living. Midsommar, besides Christmas an important Swedish holiday, is for most of the Swedes the start of summer with time spend in their summer houses in the countryside; simple live, nature, lakes, forests and a lot of outdoor living with friends & family.

Long summer days with short nights and almost no darkness, summer is celebrated intensely by many Swedes, before you know it summer’s over and the long dark days of winter return to Scandinavia.

Lugnet 006

Lugnet 007

Lugnet 008

Lugnet 009

Lugnet 010

Lugnet 011

Lugnet 012

Lugnet 013

Lugnet 014

Lugnet 015

Lugnet 016

Lugnet 017

Lugnet 018

Oskar who lives in Stockholm owns a very simple and back to basics summerstuga near the village he grew up in as a child. With no running water, but a lake nearby, an original cast iron wood burning stove to cook on, a fireplace to heat the stuga during cold days and evenings and an old fashion outdoor loo it’s really back to basics and staying there gives you a taste of how live used to be living a basic rural life as most Swedes did back in time.

When Oskar is in Stockholm he rents out his great little Småland summer cottage through Airbnb. On arrival one of his parents who still live in the nearby village, welcomes you with jerrycans of water as there is no running water in the tiny cottage. “I remember an elderly couple living here exactly the way it is now, it was a hard life especially in winter”, Oskars mother tells us. ”It really is basic, the cottage” she warns us with a smile as she welcomes us for our stay in this pretty little place in the woods. We don’t mind.