LET’S BEEF IT UP AND A LITTLE MORE

Written and Illustrated by A. B. Dance

Dashing and hopping around Bromarv like two fleas on a hot brick, Harriet and I added to our adventures by visiting Rilax Manor on invitation by the owner Mikael Aminoff. On arrival, and parking between two huge barns, we walked toward one where loud mooing fills the air.

Suddenly, appearing from a barn on our right a striking, lively looking young woman approached us. “You’re just in time, two minutes ago I helped one of our cows give birth. Come, I’ll show you.”

This is Jessica Aminoff, Mikael’s daughter. She walked straight, proud and full of confidence, stopped and pointed inside a stall. “Over there, he will stand up in a minute after his mother is done licking him clean.” There in the hay covered ground lay a newborn calf struggling to get to his feet.

“If you like you can name him but the name has to start with a “M”. That’s the letter we’re using to name all are cows this year.”

Harriet and I stood there thinking, looking at the sky, trying to think of a name. “How about Minnie?” I said. Harriet stared at me like I had lost all my Moomins in the valley.

“Dear…”

“Yes.”

“It’s a boy cow.”

“Oh, so it won’t have the swinging milkers on the back end.”

“Milkers? No, it’s baby bull.”

“Oh, okay, huh…” I thought hard. “How about Milton?”

After my Moomins returned to the valley Mikael and Jessica politely showed us around the entire facility where they kept the horses, sheep, and other animals. We were so impressed with how much care they showed each one.

In California I used to ride down the Interstate 10 to San Diego and would stare at herds of cows standing in their own waste. It was so callous and ruthless to see. Here, at Rilax Manor, children could visit and see the animals walking around in the fields free, eating and enjoying life. And yes, each animal had a given name and you knew which ones were older by their position in the alphabet. We returned to visit Milton, telling Jessica and Mikael that we wanted to adopt Milton as our cow son. Humm…it almost sounds like Karston. They agreed, and made it a great deal of fun to visit. We now have a son who really has his feet on the ground.

If you get the chance to visit Rilax Manor, bring the kids. Their eyes will be full of wonderment and excitement. If you get the chance to talk to Mikael, ask about the trees and the ground cover in the area – he told us he used to take care of Nature’s children for years.

A week later we came back and our son was on his feet. However, Milton ignored us due to it being feeding time. We were so impressed, he has learn what is really important: food.

Riding back to the center of Bromarv I am sure that every person in a car, truck or walking waved at us, with me asking Harriet, “Do you know them? Do you know her? How about him? Who are they?”

Why do I concern myself with knowing? You see, if you leave my wife in the middle of an open field, by the time you return, every bug, bird or moose will have introduced themselves. She has an incredible talent to draw and collect people. So I had to ask. However, in Bromarv a wave is as natural as the air you breath. In fact, if you waved back at all the people, by the end of the day your wrist would hurt.

Now finally at the center of town, we received a call from Mårten Johansson to have a late dinner at his restaurant, the Strandbistro. We sat in his restaurant next to the sea as he served us broiled sprat, a large salad, and a cold soda with lively conversation. Then “the feeling” comes over the village. The silence of night slowly tells you it’s time to go to bed with air mixing between land and sea. The trees rock in the great breath carrying their night fragrances to your nose, it’s the moment, sleep, knowing Father sun will be here soon.

-A. B. Dance

A.B. Dance bor under våren 2022 på prov i Bromarv tillsammans med sin fru Harriet och hunden Dina. I den här serien berättar han om upplevelsen att flytta från storstaden till lugnet på landet och deras intryck av livet i Bromarv.