Växjö - sod roofs, immigrants, glass, and crafts

We're in Växjö in Småland - where Swedish glass is still made and the province that many Swedish immigrants came from back in the 1800's and early 1900's. Växjö - which sort of sounds like you're sneezing, as in Veck-choo - has a glass museum, a local history museum with a lot of handcrafts, and a museum about Swedish immigration to the US. And as it was a fairly rainy day - is was a good day for spending in museums.

Here's gray clouds over the lake, the ubiquitous red house and sheds with sod roofs.

The  Smålands Museum had an exhibit of Swedish traditional crafts and some not so traditional including: 

Krokbragd - a type of very thick weaving that often has figures and stories woven into the wall hanging - 

Here's a close up of some of the figures - a girl skiing and grandma below

A mother pushing a child on a sled

And if weaving threads isn't enough - you can also weave birch bark. 

This area is known for some incredible glassblowers. Here's a bowl, etched with Sami figures. Note the reindeer shadow on the shelf that holds the bowl. 

Or a glass blown flock of geese.

Bruce, of course, likes his crafts traditional. Here's a Mora clock, Sweden's version of a grandfather clock. 

And cloth paintings that were hung to decorate homes a couple hundred years ago. 

But my favorite - Nils Holgerson from Selma Lagerlof's The Adventures of Nils - flying on his goose.