Having a whale of a time!

We are back from our trip to Iceland, and I think we are realizing now how lucky we were with the weather. We were there for four days and only had a little bit of rain on one day; the rest was glorious sunshine, day and night - even though there was really no night.

A clear highlight of our trip was the boat trip to Vestmannaeyjar. After a quick Skype conversation with our bird friends in Sweden, they advised us to go there if we wanted to see puffins.  Since it was high on my list of things to see in Iceland we set off and we didn't regret it at all.

We arrived at the ferry with an (almost) empty tank of petrol, very frazzled nerves, and with two minutes to spare, we learnt that it was booked out for cars and only walk-on passengers could still get on. So off to park the car and then rush onto the boat, but we made it! We were the last ones on though!  That still didn't stop us from getting a photo with Eyjaflofull.., no!! Euja*##%ull , no!! Eyjafjallajökull in the background:

When we arrived at Heimaey we realized that we probably had to take a boat trip around the island, or a bus trip, or do some serious hiking, since we didn't have the car. So we hopped on to yet another boat. Let me make it clear that this is not my favorite form of transport, especially not in rough seas. However this particular trip was the best ever. It took us into areas that we could not possibly have seen otherwise and we saw not only puffins but other birds and whales. Both killer whales and minke whales, less than 10 meters away. It was fabulous!

Hold your collective breaths for the puffins. It is bedtime here in dark Sweden (compared to Iceland)!

Oh, Iceland in the sun

Yep, we are in Iceland right now and loving it. We had been warned by my nephew who has been here several times, and only had one afternoon of sun in those three visits, that it can be a bit grey and rainy, but so far it's been nice and sunny. When I say sunny, I mean day and night!

We arrived around 02.00 and by the time we got our rental car and found our hotel it was already full daylight. We were upgraded the first night due to a little booking problem and were put up in a very funky and cool place, but now we are in the serviced apartment that we had booked originally, and it is also very nice.

Yesterday was spent getting around Reykjavik and seeing the local sights, including Hofstadir Viking long house, and the Raven's Nest Recycled House, belonging to Icelandic film director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson. The place was surrounded by geese who seem to take their job of guard geese very seriously! We didn't dare to venture very close even though we had read that active participants were allowed to enter this very bizarre haven.

We also had a prolonged dip at the Nauhóltsvik Geothermal Beach.  When I say prolonged, I really mean long and wonderful, never wanting to get out.  The water is around 37°C and the outer temperature around 17°C, though it is quite sunny.  I guess it is not as fancy as the famous Blue Lagoon, but it was a nice start.  We'll probably go to the Blue Lagoon closer to the end of our stay, since it is close to the airport.

For the shoe lovers amongst us, this is what I saw in a window walking home from the restaurant last night. Eat your heart out, Imelda!

Iceland next

Tomorrow will be exciting!! We are going to Iceland for our wedding anniversary.  I must admit that initially I was not very keen. I would much rather have gone to Egypt or Istanbul or in fact anywhere  warm. However, having read a bit about Iceland I am quite looking forward to it now.

We are returning my mother to her assisted-living apartment for a week and driving down to Copenhagen for our flight. Hopefully we will have some time to look around Copenhagen as well.

There is not so much to tell other than that the deck will be done by the time we come back and we are looking forward to using it. Too bad hubby has to return to work shortly after, and it will probably be another  year until he can come again. I must admit it is a little crazy living in Australia and having a summer cottage in Sweden.

Black hole, open space

You might think that I have fallen into a black hole and disappeared, but no, no I am just so busy slaving away at our cottage. Every time when we come we have so much to do and it takes weeks to get the place back to some semblance of order. This year it is worse than ever since we decided to have a new deck built. To have someone else doing something in this family is in itself a big thing. Hubby is more of "the last man" category and doesn't delegate work easily, but this time he just had to because of the lack of holidays in his new job.

We are very impressed with the work they've done so far and also with the speed they are doing it. Hubby has previously built a deck and it is one of the times when the saying "he doesn't make a mistake in a hurry" came to mind. What he did in a month or more they have accomplished in two days. Today they start with the roof.  We are fretting over if we should have a bannister around it or not. It looks nice the way it is now since it feels nice and open, but having elderly family members in the house (no, not just us) it might be better to have visible limits.

Survival

We think (or I would like to think) that the little birds that I deprived of their cosy home, survived. Hubby built them a little nest, which a couple of the birds enjoyed for two days, then both disappeared.  He swears that he has now heard them nesting in the pine hedge at the side of the cottage.  Let's hope for the best.

Right now we are preparing for local builders to come on Monday to build a new larger deck at the front of the cottage.  We would like to have torn down the present deck and replanted all the flowers before they get started.

We are having the usual Swedish summer weather which means rain off and on and around +12° but as usual everybody keep saying that it was so nice and so very hot the month before we arrived. Typical!

Yesterday we rented a trailer and drove into Gothenburg to buy second-hand furniture. It was good fun but we had a panic moment since we were almost late returning it. We had been told that we could only have it if we promised to be back at four. We also bought a sofa bed at Ikea. Again I realized that I would never ever, ever buy stuff from there if I was on my own; I could never put it together, ever. I know, I have used the word ever too many time, but I really need to for emphasies.

For all of you who have asked how my mother is doing I can report that she is doing very well, and enjoying a break out at the cottage from her retirement home.

Restless night

I guess that when you are responsible for maybe up to five deaths it is hard to get a good night's sleep. Let me explain. Every time we get out to our cottage on Orust we have a few days of extreme gardening ahead of us. It involves lawn mowing, weeding, cutting, and planting etc. It's back breaking, but has to be done so you can enjoy the rest of the stay. Is it any surprise that most of our visitors choose to come after we have been here a week or two?

Anyway, I was tearing away some tall yellow flowers from last year to give the new ones some space when suddenly my un-gloved hand felt something very soft and fluffy that fell to the ground. I had, by accident, torn down a birds' nest with five newly hatched baby birds who couldn't fly. They fell to the ground and managed to hop away to all points of the compass, even though we found three of them hidden in the high grass later on.  It was traumatizing since we knew we probably couldn't save them and we also knew that the mother probably couldn't find them.

However, hubby set off to our nearby general store that sells everything, and bought something that he could transform into a birdhouse and put the three birds that we found into it and hopefully the mother will find them.  It is a little ironic that the store is called Göksäter which contains 'gök', the Swedish word for cuckoo, but they only sold kitsch little ornamental birdhouses. Hubby had to build one from a compost bin!  This story is to be continued...

Anyhow, soon the cottage will look like this, or even better!

Oh, another thing!  The lupines are fantastic this time of year. They grow wild everywhere along roads, in ditches etc, but you try to plant them, and it is impossible. Better just enjoy them in the wild!

Summer gnats

One reason for coming to Sweden around midsummer was to profit from the longer days. Where we are on the west coast, it is only really dark between 22:30 and 03:00 in the middle of June. What we had forgotten though was that June is also the 'best' time for the gnats or midges! Anyone working outside in the evening is bathed in a cloud of tenacious tiny gnats that makes any task impossible unless it involves rapid movement. An hour or so outside one evening results in a week of itching and skin that resembles a first-date nightmare.

The only amusement that petrol-headed hubby got from this was thinking about the homophonic Summernats, a hotrod festival held in Canberra each year. Actually, we don't have to go too far to see flash older American cars here in Sweden. Each week-end, a group of owners of 'raggarbilar', loosely translated as 'babe magnets', meets in a local sea-side village to show off their cars. Despite having large V8 engines, these cars are generally driven quite slowly, presumably to attract the 'babes', although many of these are the same age as the cars and the owners themselves!

He will probably wish to take me to the Summernats now as another 'surprise outing', something else to thank the gnats for!

Not the Queen

Well, dear readers, I was a bit naive thinking that we could get anywhere near the river and see the barges and the Queen. We were swept away with thousands of visitors and we went from bridge to bridge trying to get to a spot where we could see the river, but everything was already full and security prevented people from crowding in, all done in good spirits. Some of the policemen were walking on stilts. for example. Finally we got to one spot where they had put up a big screen so we could see a little bit.

The lady next to me at one point said that she just had a text message from her sister who said she had really good seats. I asked her where that was and she said, tongue in cheek, that it was in Romania, in her own living room, in front of the TV. To think we could have done the same! But of course then we would have missed the alternative demonstration that took place near Tower Bridge.

As forecasted it also started to rain and everybody got their umbrellas out and what little you were able to see disappeared in a sea of umbrellas so we decided to go home. We had to walk all the way since there were no buses. On the way we saw some funny sights, people dressed up and some really didn't hold back. All in all it was good fun.

Now the big question is, will my clothes dry in time for my very early departure for Sweden tomorrow morning.

Guess whom I met!

Yeah,  it's true! I met one of the thousands of Williams and Kates, and the Queen and other royalty. They were just everywhere.

We also met friends on the South Bank and had lunch and a long walk from Waterloo to London Bridge with only one little stop at the Tate Modern. It was such a pleasure to introduce our friend to oysters. He has reached the age of retirement but never tasted an oyster in his life. He went from oyster virgin to a true convert, and I think he might come back today for more.

Rod Pearce is a very good artist and I am enclosing a link so you can admire some of his art.

All along the Thames you could see people setting up camp for the night to have good spots for today'.  Jubilee festivities on the Thames.

We are just about to leave now.  I know, it is a bit late. We should have been there already this morning but I think it will be so crowded that it doesn't make a difference. So stay tuned for an update on the big event!

Dorset and Sheffield Park

I have seen so many pretty sights lately and I just have to publish them here to share. Dorset was lovely. We had hoped to get to Devon and even Cornwall but due to the problem with the rental car from Europcar we only had two days and decided to do less driving and more looking. So here are some lovely views from Dorset and also from Sheffield Park where the rhododendrums and azaleas were in full bloom.

Yesterday, the day before leaving Cranleigh, we visited Sheffield Park which was gorgeous. You walk around a small lake, and everywhere you look there are azaleas and rhodoodendrums in colors that I had never seen. It was spectacular!

In the evening I was also invited by my dear friends to a play in Guilford which was very interesting. It was all in a very difficult Northern accent but I think I caught the gist of it. Here is a link to it http://closethecoalhousedoor.co.uk/.

Now I am in London and ready to go to a reggae club in Brixton with eldest daughter. Tomorrow we are meeting up with old friends in the city and on Sunday we hope to find a good spot to see the Royal Barge go by on the Thames for the 60th Jubilee  (together with lots of other ships).