Early bird

Good morning!

Woke up to bright sun shine and birds chirping which is a big contrast to the last few days which have been windy and cold and rain most of the time. Typical Swedish summer. It is also typical that it is hubby's last day before leaving to go to England and Scotland for work and then back to Australia. He has not seen the sun very much.

The first year we owned this place it was like that too. It never stopped raining but we still had to do things so most of the time we were dressed in rain gear and looked like aliens. When hubby complained about the water-logged garden I said "Well, it isn't surprising since it is called Kärra after all"! He asked what that meant, since it had not been a word he had heard before, and I told him it means swamp!!

Other than that we have also celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary, who would have thought! Let's hope we will have 34 more years, well at least a few more good years. We went to a nice restaurant in Lysekil called Havsbadet and had lovely seafood.

The setting sun created a magical light over the harbor and the  sunset was so beautiful, so all in all a wonderful evening.

Oh, I almost forgot, there was midsummer before this event and we had a chance to show the visiting in-laws from Australia what Swedes eat on this occasion (herring, new potatoes and strawberries for dessert of course), all in pouring rain of course, but at least under cover.

The reason I am up early is also because we have asked the farmer and his son to come and cut down three big trees in the back in anticipation of having an extension put on later and we are a bit afraid to do it ourself. The extension will be for next year but there is a lot to prepare. 

I will leave you now with a big hug and write more soon.

The brother- and sister-in-law visiting

It is very busy and a lots of fun having family here in our cottage.They are soo amazed about the light here in Sweden at this time of year, I mean how it never gets really dark. We have totally lost track of time most nights and end up doing like the Spaniards, having dinner at eleven o'clock at night. This is usually followed by a ferocious game of cards which keeps us up even later. My dumb luck and not really knowing what is going on has helped me a few times. The others are sitting there planning and trying to foresee every move and I think they overthink things and therefore sometimes lose it completely when a wildcard like myself plays without thinking of the consequenses.

So let's see, what other things have we done so far?  Well, we have been to Uddevalla in the pouring rain to change money in a changing office because you can't expect a bank to be able to help you with that, can you? That is another universal question. What do the people who work at a bank do all day? They don't change money, they don't do your banking (you are doing that yourself over the internet). Will they soon become extinct?

We have also had a nice outing to Grebbestad and Vitlycke museum, where they have rock carvings from the bronze age, this time in gorgeous sunshine. This museum is a World Heritage place and very interesting. I recommend a visit!

My sister-in-law and myself also took my mother to Sarö, the place where she grew up, and had lunch there, and it was very nice.

Lunch at Blomstermala restaurant

Today we went to a place called Marstrand which has a fortification called Carlsten which was used for keeping prisoners. It was a bit chilly and quite windy but still nice. It's not quite the tourist season yet so it was not crowded.

Midsummer is coming up this week-end and we will pick up my mother and nephew to spend the week-end here and we are really hoping for a few nice and sunny days.

Until next time, "Far bu vel ok heill".  It means something like "take care" in old Norse. I happened to have to look up something else and saw it.

Off the beaten track

We survived the harrowing experience of driving on the German autobahn to Sweden. You think that you are keeping up with traffic driving at about 140km an hour but you are constantly being overtaken by Mercedeses and the like, driving at 190km an hour. Then if that is not bad enough you also have the thousands of trucks.  They have their own little competition going on. They keep overtaking each other and being generally dangerous and also very big.

Anyway, it's over now for this time and we survived and are now at our destination. On the way though, we had to sleep somewhere and we have noticed that in Germany, if you take a little bit of extra time, you can find great guesthouses in little villages off the beaten track. This time we found a place that dated back to 1847, and it was very popular with workers of different kind, so I was the only female there. Breakfast was fun and rowdy even though I think my presence put a damper on it. Everyone was also given plastic bags to do their lunch bag, which is usually frowned upon if you try to do that in hotels.

'Abseits ausgetretener Pfade'

Our few days in Grenoble were fun filled. We had dinner and lunches with friends and neighbors and we also caught up on a few errands we had to do. As I did last time I slept at my kind neighbour's house and hubby was left to his own device in our little studio. He still have loads of paper work to check through from his previous job so it is best to leave him to it.

Dinner the first night after our arrival from Australia. Jet-lag ! Never heard of it!

A nice Zen breakfast with our neighbors in Montbonnot.

Delicious dinner with old friends

Lunch in Villard de Lans, very yummy!

Happy reunion with neighbors

Now we are yet again off the beaten track in our little cottage in Sweden together with sister- and brother-in-law. First day it poured with rain, but yesterday and today look good.

We drove into Gothenburg yesterday to visit my mother whom we hadn't seen yet. She looks very well and we will have her out here in the cottage as soon as we have everything in order. It always takes a while to get the garden looking ok and the house set up so a 88-year old can be comfortable

Coffee time at the old people's home!

Leaving you with a big hug. Yes, Swedes hug as naturally as the French kiss, even though hubby still has a problem with man hugs!!

Migrating bird

Yes, me and the other migrating birds are going to warmer climates. Maybe they don't have to spend the night before leaving panicking about the luggage and the weight of said luggage. In fact what do they bring and how do they feed themselves in flight? I know I will be constantly fed on my flight, even to the point of gagging, but what do they do? I am hoping to hear from one of my bird spotter friends on this matter. And since I am on the subject of universal questions I would also like to know how they find their way.

Packing problems

When I first came to Sydney I got lost all the time. To the point that I very nearly had to take a motel room one day when I had been to IKEA. My elderly mother was with me and it started to get dark and I don't like driving in the dark. Well, anyway, a wonderful kind man in the gas station where we had to make a pit stop took pity on me and drove in front of us to the road we had to take. After that I got a SatNav from our son, bless him, and I use it all the time, even for the smallest excursion.

I am not looking forward to the actual flight and I am debating if I should take a sleeping pill or not. At the same time I love catching up on movies etc. Please don't let this put you off, dear friends, if you were thinking of coming to visit us. It really is not that bad, I just like to whinge.

Lao Tsu says; "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving". I think that definitely makes me a bad traveler. We arrive in France on Friday, spend the weekend there, and drive up to Sweden on Tuesday, that is what I call a plan. However his concept of traveling sounds pretty cool.

Until next time, so long!