{"id":171,"date":"2018-10-11T18:22:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T18:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xn--trdgrnsen-w2ad.se\/?page_id=171"},"modified":"2020-01-18T16:37:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T16:37:39","slug":"the-place","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tradgransen.se\/index.php\/the-place\/","title":{"rendered":"A home at the tree line"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you find yourself on a walk on the high mountain plateau of <\/span>Fl\u00e5ten<\/span><\/i>, with the mountains <\/span>Skarvarna<\/span><\/i> at your back, you may stumble upon a small little stream, dancing its way along the tree line, bound for the distant lakes in the valley below. Probably unbeknownst to you, this stream was once upon a time named <\/span>Mariab\u00e4cken<\/span><\/i> after the wife of an artist who spent many days and many months in these mountains in years past.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you follow the stream downhill, as one sometimes tends to do, you will come upon a series of houses, nestled among an advancing line of gnarled mountain birches. The first house is a traditional looking log cabin with a peat-moss roof, in typical Norwegian style. The second one is even harder to see, a Sami <\/span>K\u00e5ta<\/span><\/i>, completely covered by peat moss and a few trunks of the straightest birch trees you are able to find in the area. Continue your stroll along the meandering stream and you\u2019ll finally arrive at a collection of houses: a large dark-stained house on stilts, a one-room guest-house, and a playhouse acting as an outhouse. Welcome to our home at the tree line.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A BEGINNING<\/span><\/h4>\n

Six years after the end of World War II, in 1951, Ragnar and Maria Johansson built themselves a home in the mountains of H\u00e4rjedalen. Not having built a house before, they employed the help of Ragnar\u2019s brother, the inventor and perception psychologist Gunnar Johansson, who also had never built a house before, but had a knack for figuring things out. Along for the adventure was their one-year old daughter Maj.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As years passed the family grew. Maj was joined by three more girls and a number of black, lumbering Newfoundland dogs. Houses were built, art studios added as extensions to the original house and <\/span>Mariab\u00e4cken<\/span><\/i>, on its way down the mountainside, made a stop to pool itself into a home-made pond for swimming \u2013 <\/span>Himladammen<\/span><\/i>. The Johansson family spent many a summer, autumn and winter here, to get away from the hustle and bustle of Uppsala, but also inviting family and friends to visit for shorter or more extended periods of time. Ragnar was a painter, and found inspiration in the seemingly harsh and barren mountain landscape, as did many of their artist friends that frequently visited them. There is a nice documentary film <\/span>Ragnar p\u00e5 Fl\u00e5ten<\/span><\/i>, produced for Swedish Television in 1981, that tells the longer story about life and work at the treeline:<\/span><\/p>\n