Cottage life

Dear readers,

We are enjoying nice sunny days over here right now and doing the most of it. For example today we are going to Fjällbacka which is the Swedish version of Midsomer Murders in the UK. There are a lot of murders and other crime taking place there, and we are hoping to spot something.

But first we are doing an extensive visit to the tip. As you might have read before, Sweden is famous for dealing with their garbage and sorting your rubbish is taken very seriously. Last year I was told off for putting something that looked like plastic in with paper. I am sure the lady in question would have reported me to the police if they had been near by.

Yesterday my sister in law and me went into Gothenburg for a spot of shopping. She loves this very flamboyant Swedish designer Gudrun Sjödén and they had great summer sales on. Then it was time for a little visit with my mother. She is still a bit sore from the fall she had when she visited us over midsummer. It will maybe not be possible to have her here at the cottage for extended periods any more but rather just bring her here over the day.

Today might be spent doing chores around here with just a quick trip to get supplies.

So far we have been seven people in the cottage and it does require a bit of planning and shopping but everybody has been on best behavior so it has gone great.

We have had fun evening with board games, charades and limerick competitions and a lot of singing. That's what you do when you don't have proper internet.

We have also had our 38-year wedding anniversary celebrated with a seafood meal in a French restaurant in Skärhamn on Tjörn.

Time to get this day started, I hear people stirring. Unfortunately, with mature age comes early waking so I have already been up for hours trying to do quiet things but now I think I can go and do kitchen noises. 

 

Cheerio!

Canadian cousin

Dear Readers,

We have already been in Sweden for a week with both rain and glorious sunshine.

The highlight so far has been meeting up with my cousin who lives in Canada. He left many years ago so we have had no contact but I think it was last year or the year before that we found each other and this year we also managed to meet up. We grew up in the same neighborhood and I have such fond memories of our childhood. He had two older brothers and my sister and I used to play together especially with the two younger ones. We have not seen each other since we were children and it was great to catch up. This time it was just a lunch in the sun and a visit with my mother but next time we hope it might be longer.

I wish I had thought to show you before and after pictures of our cottage when we arrived with the grass up to our knees and now with the beautifully cut lawn, but I didn't think to take photos. What a difference!

Soon our friends from England, my sister-in-law and our daughter from Africa and her husband will be arriving, as well as my nephew and mother, so we will have a very full house. I am sure I will have lots to tell soon.

Until then all my love.

Art Trail

Hello Dear Readers,

Bundeena backyard view.

I know I said last time that next time I write will probably be from overseas, but hey, what do you know, here I am again and we are still in Australia. We are leaving on Friday and I don't look forward to the trip because yet again we are not having a stop-over on the way.

It is getting very chilly here now. One morning I think it was only 12° C in the kitchen when we came down. It warms up nicely in the day though, and you just have to be outside to warm up.

Yesterday we went to Bundeena to see the Art Trail. Bundeena is a lovely small place where a lot of artists have settled and the first Sunday of the month you can visit their studios and talk to them. So this time we took our friends S and A there because they had never been. Sydney is so big and since they don't live in this area they had never heard of it. A is herself an artist of Chinese origin so she was particularly interested to speak to Jiawe Shen, a former farmer and soldier from Manchuria who came to Sydney after what happened in Tiananmen Square. I had seen him paint a couple of weeks before in the art society to which I belong. After only a few minutes you could detect the likeness of the person he was painting and after less than an hour we saw a finished portrait; he truly has a gift.

But the most interesting thing is that he loves to read, especially history and some of his wall panels depict whole moments in history, like, for instance, the Russian revolution.

We visited a few other artists and then had lunch in Bundeena too. They have opened a new place called Driftwood and it was very good, and very much needed. Last time we were in Bundeena for lunch we went to another place and every single thing we ordered, they were out of. In the end we just had to ask them "So what do you have then?" I think it turned out to be a sandwich or something. There is also a market in the park near the beach on the Sunday of the Art Trail but sadly the stall holders were packing up when we finished lunch so we missed that little pleasure.

Tonight we are going into Sydney to see Vivid Sydney. I have not been for a few years but it is always very impressive. If all goes well with my photographic skills I will put some photos on here before I post it.
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Until next tim