Being very quiet

Just sitting here, outside our little cottage, trying very hard to do quiet things. You know how hard that can be!

Every thing you want to do makes noise, for example opening the cupboard to get some chips. The bag needs to be opened and it takes two tries, first with the scissors and then with a knife. Finally you get that sorted and then you just want to get something to drink and take it quietly outside and try not to make a peep. That's when something, precariously placed in the fridge, splashes onto the floor and needs to be wiped up. Your'e still trying to maintain some sort of silence but it is not to be, because when you finally get outside the neighbours, whom you haven't seen for a while, decide to come around for a chat. You try to speak quietly to set an example without actually saying anything but it doesn't work. And why this endeavor to be so quiet you might wonder.

Well, elder daughter and a friend arrived from London Stanstead today. If you habitually take the Ryan Air flight to Gothenburg you know that it leaves early in the morning, and if you want to be sure to make the two-hours-before-hand check in that they require, you need to get there the night before. It's barbaric! But, since it seems to be the only way, they should at least install comfortable armchairs. You can see whole families with elderly grandparents making makeshift camps on the floor, trying to catch a few hours of sleep. People get pretty protective of their spot too and it can get a bit nasty. So as you can imagine you are pretty cranky when you arrive in Gothenburg. This time it wasn't helped by the fact that we took a little detour into Gothenburg to visit my mother before setting off for the island. My mother was very happy to see her older granddaughter though, and we had a nice little visit, and handing out of presents from Africa.

I hope the nice summer weather will stay on for a while and that we will be able to enjoy the Swedish summer. We haven't even had that many mosquitos this year.

Before the girls arrived I also had whirlwind visit from our friends from Grenoble. They also have a house in the south of Sweden, and now that we live in Australia it is so nice to catch up in the summer. They came up here with three teenage boys to go to Liseberg, the big amusement park in Gothenburg, and also to show the boys this part of Sweden which is different to Skåne where they have their house.

Unfortunately there were no elks around when they were here but they did show an albino elk on the news. Even the horns were white.

"So remember every goodbye makes the next hello closer"

Speak again soon then!

Fika

Yes, finally! This is a Swedish concept which really just means having a coffee and maybe a bisquit or a cinnamon roll or something else sweet at any time of the day. Swedes love it. It is such a simple way to invite people, without worrying about cooking and what wine to have with different dishes. Just put on some coffee and maybe bake something or get something from the many bakeries or just open a package of bisquits. Even Wikipedia has cottoned on to it and here you can read more.

The reason I am writing about is that yesterday I took my mother, who is staying with me, for a little drive, and we ended up in Fjällbacka . As soon as we had parked the car and started walking around my mother expressed a desire to have a "fika" and we ended up doing just that on one of the piers.

The place was packed and Fjällbacka is not very big, so it was noticeable. We got a good spot for people watching though. I think some people there were famous judging by other people whispering and taking pictures with their phones, but not really famous for me, since I have not properly lived in Sweden for 30 years.

It might not be visible in this photo but most of the boats sailed under Norwegian flag or maybe some under German flag but not many Swedish boats. I don't really know the reason but I am guessing that the neighbouring countries might have stronger economies than Sweden maybe. Or maybe Swedish boat owners find Fjällbacka too crowded and know of other places hidden away.

The reason I was keen to see Fjällbacka was because I have read all the books written by Camilla Lackberg. They are murder stories based in Fjällbacka and now they are being made into films, called the Fjällbacka Murders (hum, where have I heard something similar?).

We have had a whole week of warm, sunny weather, I could almost contemplate having a dip, even though the water temperatures are not up to 20+C, if it wasn't for these little monsters.

It is time to go out and enjoy the sun while it lasts and I suggest you do the same, maybe with a suitable beverage in your hand or maybe with a "fika".

Gardening advice

I am not an expert at anything but one thing I am fairly good at is  this.... growing grass, beautiful green grass.

So this is how it works!  You clean up an area and put down some landscape fabric and then you  put gravel all over that and then you go to another country far away, say, Australia, for the sake of it. You come back 9 months later and the most beautiful grass will then have come up. Thick and healthy! You couldn't have done if you tried! It's a miracle! The problem is you wanted it to be a gravel path and now it is not even visible, and you have to do it all over again.

Cabin fever is rampant here with the rain and the grey skies and if it doesn't stop we will have to do the Swedish thing and go to Mallorca or where ever the sun is.

Forget the above sentence, it was written in despair after days of greyness and rain. The sun has arrived now and all of a sudden everything feels better.

I got up early today because the farmer's son who is going  to take down some trees here was supposed to come this morning but yet again he didn't turn up. Maybe country people function on a different inner clock. I will have to learn to be patient, not the easiest thing for me.

Last night I was watching TV and my mother who is staying here with me, had gone to bed when there was a little knock on the window. It was my neighbor who wanted to tell me that there was an elk in the field on their side. I have been told about these elks ever since we moved in but never seen one. I have seen others though in my previous life when I was a cook in Dalecarlia. This job included   getting breakfast going very early for the sawmill workers and I saw elks almost every morning driving to work. But we have never spotted one here, so this was a treat.

It was too dark for photos so you just have to take my word for it. My SIL will be so jealous. When they were here I had to take them to a special elk park to see elks. I know it is a little bit like cheating but what can you do when you are only here for a short time.

Hubby has left too, to go back to work and on his very last day we took a walk called the Coastal walk and it is marked the whole way. For a normal fit and well-equipped person this would probably have been a piece of cake but I struggled.  It was extremely wet and I was in normal shoes. They had also put up a stile to prevent horses and cows and some people to get over to the other side and I had a hard time with that. Hubby walked ahead to see if we were on the right track and I didn't see him again, not until I had given up all hope, and then he returned with a bowl full of mushroom. I understand that when you find a good picking spot, be it mushroom or blueberries or whatever, you can't stop. It must be the gatherer instinct that kicks in; you want to provide for your household. So when he finally turned up with that, all was forgiven and we had a nice mushroom toast each when we got back for our farewell supper.

Until next time "May you too see an elk. They are magic!"

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!