Patrik Djurfeldt Personal Page

Address Information

E-mail
   
Postal Address
    Mistelgatan 7
    SE-722 25 Västerås
    SWEDEN
Telephone
    + 46-21-183132
Fax
   + 46-21-183132

Current Interests

Primary Main Interest
    Medieval Mechanical Artillery

Other Interests
    Archaeology
    Classical Music (I am a member of the Maria Choir in the cathedral of Västerås.)
    Gardening
    General History
    Greek & Roman Mechanical Artillery
    Medieval
        Architecture
        Arms & Armour (especially mid-14th c. armour)
        Clothing
        Engineering
        Fortification (especially pre-gunpowder)
        History
        Technology
        and just about everything else...
    Photography
    Prehistoric Animals
    Riding
    Wildlife
    W.W.II Aircraft
    W.W.II Armoured Vehicles
    etc.

Some other Djurfeldts

The Djurfeldt family originated in 1648 when the Captain Stig Arvidsson was raised to the nobility by Queen Kristina and received the name Djurfelt. Officially we are now extinct, but I am sometimes inclined to argue otherwise.

The dearest non-humans in our family have been our dogs.

Jeanette, 12 years old, during her last summer in 1986. She was always very friendly to people but also somewhat independent. One day, during a visit by some neighbours, she patiently endured the very close attention of a baby while our attention was elsewhere. After this she avoided small children. She was very fast and could outrun a hare. Once, during an evening chase, she was hit by a taxi. Only slightly injured, she limped up to the driver to apologize.

Beauty, was one year younger than Jeanette. She was intelligent and attentive. Unfortunately, for her personal development, Jeanette was the "top dog". This meant that she tended to "support" Jeanette in various activities, rather than participate herself.

Merlin, 2 months old, in 1990. With the prior experience of two she-dogs, we expected a male to be tougher. We were wrong. Merlin was even more gentle. His disposition was evident from the beginning. When we were to take him home, it was no coincidence that we found him sleeping together with his sisters, while his brothers were playing.

Merlin, here 4 years old, was very thoughtful, attentive and intelligent. Since he was quick to learn, we sometimes had to change the code words we used when talking behind his back. He was easy to talk to and showed stronger signs of a sense of humour than I have seen in any other dog.

Merlin, 13 years old, in the summer of 2003. He never looked old. On 14 October he suddenly fell ill, and on the next day we had to put him to sleep, thirteen and a half years old.

Saruman, 5 weeks old, in 2004. After the loss of Merlin, we decided not to get another collie. It was soon clear that there were few breed options. We decided on a tervueren (one of the four Belgian shepherd dogs). Photo © Hexen-House

Saruman, 13-14 weeks old, in the summer of 2004. Saruman is even more sociable than Merlin, but he is still wary. He is a lot tougher and more fearless, has a lot of energy and is very inquiring. All of our three collies have been more or less afraid of thunderstorms, and Merlin was even afraid of rain (since he associated it with thunderstorms). A couple of days after we took Saruman home, there was a thundershower, and Saruman, then 9 weeks old, went out under the sun-shelter in the garden, and confidently continued with his maltreatment of his toy. Collies can be "concerned" about slippery floors. This is evidently not a problem for the average tervueren.

Saruman, 15 months old, in June 2005.

You may wish to visit my brother Mikael's Spartan homepage.

Main Page

This page was last updated 2008-09-28