A smörgåsbord of cottage maintenance, fun, and mishaps

Hello again, dear readers,

Since restrictions on international travel from Australia had eased as 2022 progressed, hubby and I finally booked in April to return to Sweden, for three months from the start of June 2022.  Our cottage on the island of Orust, north of Gothenburg, had pretty much had to fend for itself the three previous years, with just a couple of short visits by my nephew near the Swedish mid-summer holiday.  Our elder daughter and her Senegalese husband had also planned to move to Sweden from Spain, using our cottage as a base at the start.  Despite my trepidation about the flight, it all went quite smoothly with passenger assistance at departure, the two transits (Bangkok and Helsinki), and on arrival.  One curiosity was the flight path to deviate around Ukraine.  

Due to a slip on our part, the electricity at the cottage had been cut at the end of 2021, but we were able to arrange for it to be reconnected for our arrival.  Then it was a case of gradually restoring internet access, satellite TV (two of life's essentials!), cutting the lawn, and getting our 15-year-old Nissan from France back on the road, after it had sat for four years out in the open in our driveway.  All it needed was a new battery, a couple of new tyres, a new fuel injector, and a lot of TLC with a sponge and detergent.  It took three tries to get the car through the road-worthy test, one of which was preceded by a lap or two of the local roads at high revs to lower the CO reading.  Hubby got that tip from the internet, which certainly made the monthly subscription worthwhile.  

Our daughter now has a car to use, which is essential in view of the location of the cottage.  She burst a (new) tyre on a rock outcrop in the gravel road leading to our cottage the morning that hubby and I were leaving to return to Australia, the fan belt has since had to be replaced, and a most recently the alternator gave up the ghost, but, touch wood, the Nissan seems to have survived.  

There is a bit of work and a few tic bites ahead of us.

Hubby had several DIY tasks at the cottage to keep him occupied, including repainting two outside walls.  The weather was fantastic for much of our time there, which is fine if the walls are not south facing, but they were.  He had to wait for cloudy days to avoid the paint drying on the brush.  Red wooden cottages are all very cute, but they do require work.  We should not complain too much though; we have only just begun to repaint walls that were last repainted in 2010.

The five tree stumps near the house had turned into ants' nests.  Sweden has no termites, but an ant infestation is not so desirable.  The blokes-weekend method of trying to burn the lot after a good dousing with petrol is not great near a wooden cottage, but professional stump removal is not cheap.   Son-in-law came to the rescue with Herculean effort using axes, saws, a crowbar, and a lot of sweat. 

The stump near the well.

It was not all work though.  We had very enjoyable quasi-simultaneous visits by friends from France and the UK, with the obligatory silly-hat competition.  The demand on the bathroom was intense, to the point that hubby had to use the outdoor shower - great for the first few minutes when the sun has warmed the water in the hose, a bit bracing after that.  

Overcautious - hats in the shade

Look what came down in the last shower

Hubby spilt glasses of red wine, not once, not twice, but three times.  He could 'blame' the first two spills on the irregular board hidden beneath the table cloth, but the third time was all on him.  To make matters worse, the third soaked a large-print library book that I had foolishly left on the table.  It was part one of two, so we had to pay for both books to be replaced.  Personally, I quite liked the antique look of red streaks on most pages, but not the librarian.  We looked on in amazement at all three spillages, since it is so unlike hubby to be so clumsy; perhaps it was the wine.

My nephew has been nagging us to go to an antique warehouse near Uddevalle, about 30 km from our cottage, for many years.  Last year he was even more insistent, since he was keen to find a stuffed capercaillie (who isn’t?)  So we went, and, lo and behold, they had four of them!  The salesperson did say something like “We don’t get that many people looking for these; let’s take x kr off the price, just to seal the deal.”  My nephew was very satisfied, although he has yet to find a secure way to attach it to a wall in his apartment.

In Melbourne, 'grouse' means something
wonderful or amazing.  That sums it up.

Grass cut, walls repainted, paths and flower beds 
weeded, stumps removed - just in time to fly back
to Sydney.

All in all, it was a great visit to Sweden after a three-year absence, and so nice to be really home.

All those days that came and went; little did I know that they were life

Dear readers,

I was a little surprised to see that my last blog entry was posted as long ago as November 2020, but not overly surprised.  As for many of us in many countries around the world, the rolling lock downs and further self-imposed isolation during the pandemic sapped most of my enthusiasm for doing anything new. Without anything new, what is there to blog about?  To some extent though, the mundane of shopping locally, watching TV, and staying safe, gave us comfort during that time, and reflected an oft-quoted line from Stig Johansson's poem Förlusten: "Alla dessa dagar som kom och gick / inte visste jag att det var livet" - see this entry title for a translation.

Anyhow there were some events of note in those 18 months, at least for us.  Here are some of those up until early 2022:

Now that we owned a house again, it was time to consider installing solar panels, if only to be able to cut short the numerous cold calls with a clear conscience, and to tell ourselves that at least we were doing something to reverse Australia's poor reputation regarding climate charge.  It took some time to choose a company for the installation, with numerous telephone calls and checking of credentials via internet.  Like many, we spent ten times more time coming to a decision than we would have taken to buy a dodgy second-hand car for the same price.  The work and safety rules seem to be a little lax here, but no-one was hurt in the installation, and it looks like we will be earning real money from the panels in less than four years.

I guess they do this every day

Hubby turned 70 during a partial lock down over a year ago, so we just went with our two kids in Sydney to our favourite local restaurant, rather than have a party with closer contacts and the health risk that that would bring. It was a great day, especially for me who had lobster.  Hubby did go down to Melbourne by train, an adventure in itself, a few months later for the 70^th of a close friend, and to catch up with several members of his family.  Face masks were still the order of the day on public transport, but all went well.

Happy 70^th!

Our meals out locally were often take-away on a bench in a park with a view of the ocean.  I will never get tired of those views.  Even outside, there are guides posted for social distancing, in terms the locals can understand.

I think I would want to be at least one
adult kangaroo away from another
adult kangaroo!

Our younger daughter jumped onto the property ladder at the end of 2021.  She surprised us by making a decision after inspecting just half a dozen apartments in a four-week period.  That shames our two-year search that I wrote about in November 2019.  Her apartment is really nice with a wide balcony on two sides, and is close to several of the hip(ster) parts of Sydney.  She is really enjoying it.

A balcony with a view?

Hubby formally retired in early January 2022, just as another lock down kicked in, which unfortunately prevented him having a farewell party.  He still continues with a little professional work, but the new-found freedom also gave him more time to spend on projects at home, for example framing numerous paintings by our elder daughter, friends or me!  My preference is for floating or shadow frames, which, despite being fairly simple, are still expensive to buy ready made.  That meant a visit to hubby's favourite hardware and purchase of a table saw and dressed timber lengths.  Tens of frames later, he has the production down pat, but he should not give up his day job, no wait, he has no day job!

I've been framed!

From an early age, our son has wanted a dog, but hubby is a cat person, and I am not really a friend of any animals.  Thanks to lack of work during the pandemic, our son had boomeranged back home near the end of 2021.  We have the space, and could profit from the extra company.  We thought little of it then when he volunteered to dog sit a chihuahua for an acquaintance of our younger daughter.  It is not as though a chihuahua takes up a lot of space, but they do take up a lot of affection, cute yet time-consuming.  The dog sitting has turned into a life-long commitment, with begrudging acceptance by our son's cat who is also here.  Nacho is now part of the family!

A reluctant sailor

That pretty much covers my life up until hubby and I flew to Sweden earlier this month, of which more in my next blog entry.

Opening up

Warm and hearty greetings, dear readers,

Here we go again with a little update of our life Down Under. We are getting some nice early summer weather and hubby is out every morning checking on his plants. Unfortunately they are not always doing so well. Plants that used to grow like weeds in France where we lived before struggle here and even die. 

We went to visit some friends that have bought a house just after we did in a place called Epping.  It took us a good two hours to get there. There were lots of blossoming jacaranda trees there, something that we don't have a lot of where we live.

Their house was built on a previous farm where they grew apples in the old days and neighbouring their property lived a lady called Maria Ann Smith. She grew little green apples that got the name Granny Smith and are now sold all over the world. There is a Granny Smith Memorial Park in her honor but we didn't have time to go there this time.  By coincidence, Granny Smith apples were a clue just two months later on one segment of my favourite Swedish TV program, På Spåret (On the track), and the train trip shown went from Wollongong to Sydney, passing just a few hundred metres from where we live.

Our friends had prepared a delicious lunch with steamed oysters as a first course. Tell you the truth, I was a little hesitant at first since I had had a projectile-vomiting episode involving oysters some time ago but it turned out to be delicious.

The day before this I was invited to a local Swedish girls-night-out dinner which was nice. The fact that we all ordered something Thai beforehand to be delivered at the hostess' place made it easy for everyone. It was a very nice evening. It turns out that there are quite a few Swedes down this way so I look forward to more of theses get-togethers in the future. We can now have 10 people together which is nice.

Two of my friends from the painting group have also been down for a visit. We have not had any painting lessons at all this term due to Covid so it was very nice to see them again. 

And last but not least, we also had the end-of-the-year ladies' lunch at my art-teacher's place in Miranda. She had just had a big gazebo put in, in the back of the yard, so that is where we had our lunch.

Life goes on

Dear friends, 

Life goes on, but very slowly. We are still in a pandemic state but not complete lockdown. As for us, hubby works from home and we don't eat out anymore, nor do we have visitors or get invited anywhere since everybody is afraid. Latest news today is seven new Covid-19 cases, four from overseas hotel quarantine and three locally acquired from a well known source, so it's not over yet but it is dying down at least here in NSW.

However we still have little outings, still discovering unexpected things down here on the South Coast.

Last Saturday we drove down to Nowra and Shoalhaven. We had fish and chips with the pelicans on the Crookhaven river. They might not look so big here in the photos but when they stretch up their necks to get something to eat near where you are sitting, they are scary and very hungry.

Fortunately a fishing boat had just come in and the fishermen were cleaning their fish, so we were left in peace since there was plenty to eat from the fishermen.

Another thing that has kept us busy lately is watching Tour de France, especially the three days when it was going through the area where we used to live near Grenoble. We saw the spot where hubby fell off his bike and also the spot where our son drove into a traffic light when he had just had his licence.

It went right through Montbonnot - St Martin which is the place where we used to live and we were able to see the road that went down to our house. I was not able to spot our neighbours though I am sure some of them were there in the crowd.

Sunday was the last day of the Tour de France and hubby was up to past three o'clock in the morning watching the last ceremony on the Champs Élysées. He really is a great fan and I do remember when we lived in Montbonnot he used to take the kids somewhere close where they were passing and come home laden with freebies from the sponsors. We had a big green hand, for example, hanging on the wall in our son's room for years.

Here are a couple of photos of the flowers that have popped up. It is so much fun to discover a garden that you have not planted; it is full of surprises. The people who sold us the house must really miss their garden.

Have to go and start a new week now. Take care and stay well!!

Watching TV

Dear Readers,

I am a little ashamed to tell you that we do watch a lot of TV these days compared to normal times. Hubby has discovered a channel that shows train programmes almost every night. I guess they are running out of cooking programmes and home improvement programmes and buying-houses programmes to show and now have to be a little bit more innovative.

We have also had a few people over for a meal since that is allowed now. In NSW you can have five different people from different households. We decided to go for a raclette which means you only have to make a salad and boil potatoes and buy raclette cheese and charcuterie and cornichons, and you have a great meal.

Oh, I almost forgot, you also have to have a nice white wine with it. Preferably a wine from Savoy but since that is a little hard to come by here, it can be a nice Pinot Gris or Sauvignon Blanc.

The big square in the middle is the actual raclette machine. It
heats up and each person puts his/her cheese section in it, in
 their separate little dish, and it melts from the heat coming
from the top of the machine. When it is melted you pour it
over your potato.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it but sometimes you are not so lucky. When we lived in Grenoble hubby rang home one day and said that he was bringing home a visiting colleague for dinner. Raclette is an easy solution when you don't feel like cooking so that's what we had. Sadly the guest, whom I had never met before and therefore didn't know much about, was a lactose-intolerant vegan teetotaller. Oh well, I hope he enjoyed the salad and boiled potatoes.

I must show you one of the bushes in our garden that is now in full bloom. It is a camelia and it makes me think of hubby's fortieth birthday. Our garden in France was pretty barren and we were very happy to be given such an exotic bush by our neighbours. There was a lot of talking and suggesting and discussing about where to plant it. Finally it was given a nice shady protected spot with special soil brought in and it seemed happy there. We treated it as our baby.

Now this one here in our Australian garden is exactly the same colour and nothing seems to bother it. Give it rain, storm, a full day's sunshine, and it seems to be doing great. Even better than its sister in France and it is not even a native Australian plant.

I leave you now with a little thought from a local church. We have a little giggle every time we pass by. Who makes up these little sayings!

Another day in lock-down

Newsflash

NSW is now permitting two visitors per household so people are getting excited about Mothers Day this weekend. In some states they even allow more visitors per household but not in Victoria where they have had some new cases of Covid-19. However, we have decided to keep to a zoom meeting and not risk anything. We have had a zoom dinner with old friends in Melbourne which was fun and we have also had an "aperitif" meeting with the kids in Sydney and Africa and Sweden. That was amazing and I hope we can do it again soon.

Now that the restrictions might be lifting I am thinking of all the things I had planned to do with all the free time in lockdown. I was going to learn a new language, maybe Finnish. That hasn't happened. It's too hard. Have you ever tried it?

I was going to write more of my personal story that I started some time ago. I haven't done that either, I can't find it on the computer. In fact there is a list of things I had planned to do but haven't.

However there is one thing I have done and I think many with me. I have cut my fringe, twice. That was an absolute necessity since the hairdressers around here are closed.

I have also unpacked book boxes with books that I haven't seen for years and started re-reading some of them.Among them was a series of Finnish books translated into Swedish written by Kaari Utrio. They are all about historical events mainly set in the Middle ages and focusing on women's plight in those days. They are a little purple-passion-like but great for historical facts. Like my daughter said "history for dummies".

Hubby, on the other hand, has become a foodie and is spending a lot of time planning, shopping and cooking for us. Everyday is a feast far removed from our childhood memories of what eating was like.
I remember dinner being potatoes and fish balls and maybe frozen peas. These fish balls were sold in a can and you could have them with dill sauce or just white sauce or lobster-flavoured sauce. It was a very common and cheaper alternative to fish.

Hubby has fond memories of canned spagetti and meatballs warmed up and if they had leftovers it would be put in the sandwiches they brought to school. He still loves it, and I guess I could give it a go. What I can't have though is rabbit which they apparently had quite often. It was cheap and nourishing.

Cheerio for now. May we soon be rid of this pandemic. Sincere and heartfelt condolences to those who have lost a dear one to it.

Self isolation and social distancing

Dear readers,

Just a quick blog entry to let you know that we are well and hope that you are too. The only people I have spoken to, at a safe distance of course, have been the kids and two friends who came for hubby's birthday two weeks ago.

 

I didn't get the memo about wearing hats

Birthday boy with cake without candles due to
Corona of course

The chef with helper R busy in the kitchen cooking
canard aux oranges and other goodies

Other than that we see people walking by our living room window, mainly dog walkers and hard-core runners. The schools are closed now for the virus and for the Easter holiday so I guess there will be a lot of desperate parents trying to think of things to do with their kids at home. They have closed many of the beaches in Sydney but not down here so I guess they can still take the kids to play on the beach but keeping a safe distance to others.

Well, this turned out to be mainly about the Corona virus but it is hard to talk about anything else. I remember every time there was a flu epidemic when I grew up, for example the Hong Kong flu, my grandmother started reminiscing about the Spanish flu and the horror of that period in her life. She was born in 1896 so she was just a young adult when the great war ended.

Well, I better go and get dressed now since hubby is in a Skype conference for work and I don't want to be seen sitting here in my undies and a tee shirt. He is working from home now during the virus and it comes with its pro and cons mainly pros of course.

Until next time, keep your distance and wash wash wash!