Most accidents happen at home

Well, it just had to happen. I have always been afraid of mowing the side bit, on the outside of the hedge. It leans a bit - into a ditch.  However, a few days ago I felt brave. I was in the zone. I had done loads of stuff that I had been putting off for ages and now it was time to tackle the side of the hedge. But it was not to be, after only a few metres the mower started gliding down, and before I could hop off I was laying in the ditch with the mower over me. I wasn't hurt so after having rooted around a bit in the bushes behind me I found that I could slide out from underneath the mower and get up. But I couldn't get it back up on the road. So it sat there all day, until much later when a farmer came by and lifted it up!!! No help, no dragging with another vehicle, just pure muscle of which I have none, it seems.

Over to something else. When I drove back from my visit to my friends in Hälsingland I decided to go via Uppsala where we had lived. In fact it is where hubby and I met. By the time I got there I had already had two power naps and seen the sun go up.


I started the trip before six and I saw some beautiful areas and I also made a new friend.

I never got his name but he told me
his story and how it came about that
he now has thousands of hubcaps.
Somehow I don't think he is married!!

When I came to Uppsala it was "fika" time so I went to Ofvandahl's coffee shop and it had not changed much. The same delicious baked goods and the same oldie worldie interiour.

After that little sugar overload I went to see the Cathedral and the University building. It brought back memories.

So I have been waiting and waiting for the deck builders to turn up and it just hasn't happened. Luckily, our neighbour, who is temporarily out of work, proposed to build the deck. So tomorrow he is going to start, yeah!

And the last photo is from the Botanical Gardens in Gothenburg where I went with my mother the other day. They had a Japanese theme which was very nice and soothing, but I just love the place anyway. Don't miss out on a visit there, if you ever come to Gothenburg.

Thanks for reading and come back soon!

On the road again

Yes, I have been out on a little road trip. I went up to see our old friends who now live up in Hälsingland. For the non-Swedes reading, here is a snippet of information from good ol' Wikipedia. If you have a look at the map you can see that our cottage is down on the west coast in the part called Bohuslän and our friends live in Hälsingland, on the other side of Sweden, and MUCH HIGHER UP. The trip took about eight hours, excluding power naps.

On my way up to Hälsingland I stopped at Husaby church. They have found a bit of oak from year 1000 but the present church is from 1120. It is where, for the first time, a Swedish king was baptized as a Christian.

It is not just that Hälsingland is far away, but it is also very different. They have beautiful, big farm houses in this region and our friends themselves live in one of them. Many of these farms have been classified World Heritage and we went and saw some of them on one of our outings.

The flower of Hälsingland is flax (every 'landscape' of Sweden has a regional flower) and you make linen from it. We went for a study visit to Växbo; it was very interesting. I love clothes made from linen; it is a shame they are so darn expensive. However, my friend bought me a dish rag (!) made from linen and swore that it is the best ever. Apparently, I would never want anything else after using one of them. We shall see.

There were many looms in Växbo,
but in metal, and very noisy when
they were all running.

One of the highlights of the trip (since I missed out on the Jimmy Reeves museum and the hubcap museum on the way up) was a visit to the Lill-Babs café and museum. Lill-Babs was a very popular singer when I was young and she has had a long and active carreer. She comes from a place called Järvsö and we went there for a coffee on my second day.

I have lots more to tell, especially about the trip back, but it has to be for another time. It's now time for some gardening. Just wanted to show you what I came back to:

Nothing!

And this is what I left in Hälsingland, yum!

Crop circles and blue grass

I have always been a little intrigued when reading about crop circles and now I have created one of my very own.

I got the lawn mower back from the repair shop. I was almost sleepless the night before, worrying about driving in the van on our narrow little road ...

... and then tipping the wagon and driving  the mower off. I have not trained for this sort of stuff, I worry about tipping backwards or going sideways into a ditch. It is not as easy as it might sound. Anyway, in the end my neighbour came to the rescue. He did it while smoking a cigarette and finishing his coffee!! So clearly not as dangerous as I had imagined.

So now I have done the mowing and to make it more fun, I have created crop circles. If one of them guys up there in the sky looks down on this island they might get a bit confused and ask themselves questions just like people do about other crop circles.

As far as the blue grass, I am not referring to the color of the grass I was cutting but to the style of music that the band played that I went to see yesterday in the Henån library. The band was called the The Goodbye Girls and consisted of four girls. One was Swedish, two were Americans, and one was Canadian. It was a good romp! In fact much livelier music than on this Youtube clip that I am attaching but I can't find anything else.

We are continuing with the mild weather here in Sweden and unfortunately we are also having forest fires raging in several places probably due to the dry summer we have been having. However, nothing down this way so far.

Here is a new weird little activity if you have a boat. When I saw this person the first time it looked like he was walking on water but I think it must be some little air cushions.

I am off now to take the car to the repair shop, keeping my fingers crossed that nothing is wrong.

Just a little thank you to my favorite "hacker" who helped me get photos off my telephone.

Bye for now!

To say goodbye is to die a little

At least that is what the French say and I tend to agree. Especially when the sad goodbye is to your daughter returning to Africa after two wonderful weeks here at the cottage in Sweden. The list of dangers that I imagine can befall her is endless, especially if you are going to Africa. Plane crashes, Ebola virus, and malaria, spring to mind, but there are no doubt many, many other catastrophies that can strike you. But the thing is you don't have to go to Africa for bad things to happen to you. Lately there has been several plane crashes in other parts of the world, and you can be attacked in any big city just going about your own business.  On the road where I saw the elk accident (see previous installment), a car drove off the road the day after, in broad daylight. Both the driver and the passenger had to be gotten out of the car by the rescuers sawing off the top of the car. The driver didn't make it and the passenger is in critical condition. And that is on this little road that I take all the time!!

So I am going to try to be reasonable and stay calm until I hear that she got to her destination alright.

On the island of Lyr

We have had a wonderful summer so far and the fact that two of our three kids and a nephew and my mother have been here has been wonderful.  Now they have all gone back but in fact I am sitting here waiting for our French/Swedish friends who are coming for a little visit.

This is NOT the cleaning our crop of marijuana. It is the
oregano that was mistakenly cut down and had to be taken
care of.

I am also hoping that the builders will turn up soon and do the back deck but their notion of time is very fluid. They were supposed to be here two days ago, but not a word from them.  I know they will come but when?

Maybe next time I will have photos of the new deck, or not, until then, take care and enjoy the rest of summer, I know I will!

Road tragedy

Yesterday when I was driving back to the cottage from Henån, our closest small town where we go for shopping, post-office stuff, library, and last but not least wine and beer shopping, I saw something very sad.

I was driving behind a slow-moving car when I saw an elk coming down a slope, ready to cross the road. The people ahead obviously didn't see her (it was a female elk). They collided with her and she flew onto their windscreen,, and then up on top of their car and rolled off, falling down on the side of the road. She was still alive when I jumped out of my car and just lay there so stoic and beautiful even though her two hind legs were clearly broken and pointing any which way. She must have been in so much pain. The elderly couple were fortunately fine though a bit shaken up. They had been driving quite slowly which might have reduced the impact. We had to wait quite a while for a hunter from the hunting team responsible for that specific area to arrive and shoot the elk.

The incident stayed with me all day. I was wondering if she had a young one back in the woods somewhere who was waiting for her.

On to happier things...

There is a heat wave here in Sweden right now. It is almost +30°C in the whole country.

We have been going for dips in the sea, especially to a place called Ellös where there is a ramp to get into the water. It makes it easier for a soon-to-be-ninety-year old to get in. No, I am not talking about myself! It is about my mother who is staying with us for a few weeks.

Last night after dipping we went to an auction at Tofta Gård. It was good fun and you could probably find good bargains. However we don't have space for anything so I held myself back. It was the first auction for elder daughter so I gave her strict warnings not to gesticulate or scratch her face or ear. This can be taken for a sign to raise the bid and you can end up with something very expensive and unwanted, if the auctioneer decides to accept that as the last bid.

A funny detail showing the difference between generations. A teenage girl asked her mother after having spent an hour in the sweltering heat of the barn where the auction was held: "Why don't they just sell the stuff on e-bay"? Yes, indeed, why don't they?

Sing-along

Oh, by the way, they seem to love sing-alongs here in my old home country. I had no idea! It's a revelation!

Three evenings a week they have either sing-along from Gothenburg  (my hometown) or sing-along from Stockholm (the capital), and if that is not enough we can also sing-along with our Norwegian neighbors from across the border (Drammen).
.
It's great when you live with a 90-year old, as long as they stick to the old songs from way back. We know the texts then and we can belt them out.  What we don't want, are the new performers, with their new un-singable tunes.

And oh, by the way, today was the anniversary of the birth of my first born, I guess he/she would call it a birthday. It was almost as sunny and pleasant a day, as that day thirty-four years ago, when my life changed forever.

At the time we lived in Scotland but due to, what I perceived to be the dodgy healthcare over there,  I had opted for coming "home" for the birth of my first  born. I won't go into any more details and I think you are happy to hear that but it was a very happy day! Never to be forgotten!

Motherhood rocks!

PS Still no photos, but when I get on to it I will shower you with photos

Strawberry picking

Today was strawberry picking on a neighboring island, on a self-pick farm, with my soon-to-be 90-year-old mother.

I don't recommend it!
It's just not worth it!
Avoid it if you can!

By the time you park the car and get yourself and mother out of the car it has already turned into an ordeal. Then you have to get your little empty buckets weighed, then you have to walk to the strawberry field. There is nothing for elderly pickers to sit on. It's also very hard to see the berries. You have to move the plants around a bit. You can get very dizzy bending down.

Still, we ended up picking four litres but that was really all we could do. I had to ask the person overseeing the picking if it was ok for me to go back and get the car so I could drive on the little path and pick up my mother.  She very reluctantly agreed but it wasn't very popular with the other pickers, you could tell. You could tell what they were thinking!

Anyway, after a few detours on the way back and a wasp sting in my scalp, we had a late lunch with strawberries for dessert. Wish I could show you a photo but my camera is acting up and I don't know how to get photos off my phone. I really need another adult here, preferably under 35. Isn't it lucky that only son is coming soon for a little visit. He doesn't know it but there is a little list of things for him to do.

We have been very lucky with the weather here in this part of Sweden. It is not blazing hot but sunny and pleasant. I arrived here before Midsummer and it was very light and it is still June but you can tell it is already getting darker at night.

I have to go out on the veranda now and do my usual elk spotting. The neighbors always seem to  see them before me and usually send me an SMS so I can go out and see them. They are magnificent and a little scary! It sounds like I see them every night but that is not the case, but just now and again, when they decide to parade themselves in the field in front of the cottage.