Month: July 2015

What to do when it is really windy, cold, a bit rainy and grey.. homemade crumble with freshly picked gooseberries. Yum. And a thick layer of vanilla sauce on top.

Since it’s such a tiring day and not really inviting to get us going in the building project since we can’t work outdoors and we need to cut the plaster boards outdoors we ended up infront of a movie instead.

In a bit we will start dinner – “isterband” (smoked pork sausage) with stewed potatoes and chives. Not too bad on a Tuesday!

Today it has been sunny and raining off and on. It is still around 17C in the ocean so the water temperature definitely has potential to improve.

I painted the last parts of green on our house towards the ocean and M, F & S painted the parts facing the main house. Only the parts over the shower left – we might do them tomorrow. It looks so much better with the white boards painted green. Not so shiny and unfinished-looking anymore.
 
Tonight grandpa and grandma treated us a great dinner at the local fish restaurant in Sandvik. I had deep fried cod with fries and remoulade sauce and it was really good. Apparently our king and queen are guests at this restaurant every now and then and last week they had been there together with prince Carl Philip and princess Sofia. Not tonight though, that would have been fun!

Celebration time in the family – my youngest niece has her names-day today. So, grandpa put up the Swedish flag this morning and then me and Sara went to get strawberries and then we baked a heart-shaped chocolate cake covered with ganache and strawberries. Yum.

They guys have been busy bees all day and made great progress in the construction. Almost all the walls are done now with the first couple of layers – plastic film, glass wool and boards. Only the plasterboards left before it’s time to start with the ceiling. Not sure we will do that this vacation though. We’ll see.

A crazy day. 17.6C in the ocean this morning – still quite cold but bath-able. When we were having breakfast it started to rain and we all tucked up in our corners and just relaxed for a bit.

After lunch the sun came out and it became quite nice for a bit so we decided to give ourselves a Saturday treat and went to the go-cart place and went for a drive. Well, I was designated to mind the mobiles and take photos which I was happy to do. Grandma came along too!

When we got back there was a big thunderstorm and it was quite fascinating to enjoy the lightning show outside our big windows. My youngest son and oldest niece made a great lasagna for dinner (with a little help).

Now in the evening we have been out for a 2.2k walk and the evening is lovely. A lot of different kinds of weather in a day.

Friday. Where did this week go? Today it was very windy this morning and the waves almost reached over the bathing jetty. But, that didn’t prevent us from going in..

After breakfast we went shopping for groceries and also stopped by a farmhouse to get their own produced vegetables. Lovely. 

This afternoon it got quite lovely with sunshine and blue sky and not windy at all, but it was a bit chilly in the air so we had our dinner indoor anyway. We also managed to put in a few hours of work – I painted the ceiling beams in the storage room and the guys worked on our house.

We bbq:ed salmon tonight. With boiled new potatoes and a roe-sauce. It turned out great!

17.4C. Todays’ temperature in the ocean. Slightly better but not quite there yet.

Today we had special guests over for afternoon coffee. My mother baked amazing cinnamon buns and a butter cake filled with almond icing and vanilla custard. Yum.  It was my parents-in-law, my mother-in-laws sister and their aunt that came over. It was a lovely, but quite windy, afternoon but we could sit outside. They brought a red rose which we have planted by our house. I hope it will like it there and bring us lots of flowers to enjoy.

Then tonight we have been to the yearly meeting in the local community association. A quick meeting tonight with not much to discuss so we were back after an hour or so.

Morning swim was pretty cold today – only 16.4C. But in the afternoon the temperature got up to about 18C – much better! 

The guys were busy bees today and went to the lumber yard and bought plasterboards and fiberboards so we can start working on our house. I painted some parts of our outdoor shower where the paint needed some improvement.

Me, K and F went on a long walk after lunch. Grandpa and grandma drove us up the coast and then we walked the 7k back along the seaside. It was a gorgeous walk and we managed the distance in about 80 min. I had my walking bungy sticks and I am pretty sure I will be sore all over tomorrow.

Finally a sunny and nice afternoon when we even managed to lay in the sun for a minute. Let’s hope it will stay like this for a while!

This morning it had dropped to 17C in the ocean instead of the slowly increasing temperature that we would have prefered. Let’s hope it doesn’t continue down tomorrow..

It rained quite a lot last night and we have enjoyed all the meals indoor today. Some sun and some rain.

July 14th is a special day here on Öland since our royal family have their summer house here and always celebrate our crown princess Victorias’ birthday here. She turned 38 years old today and the whole family was gathered together for her official celebrations in Borgholm with the best Swedish music can offer. The Victoria scholarship for outstanding athletic performance of the year was this year rewarded Sarah Sjöström – our amazing swimmer with tons of world records in all sorts of distances. Good choice! The whole celebration is broadcasted on national television. Happy birthday, Victoria!

First official day of vacation – 17,8 C in the ocean. Let’s hope the temperature goes up a bit every day then maybe it will be nice and warm before we have to return to reality again. 

Me and my mother went into Borgholm today to get some wine and groceries. New week. New plans. Guests for dinner.

In the afternoon it got quite nice outside and when our old friends arrived we were able to enjoy our dinner and coffee in the garden. We didn’t move inside until quite late. A few parlour games and a lot of chatting and laughter later we said good night. Great to have them over – a lovely tradition since many years. Let’s keep it up!

One long quiet day – not the greatest weather but not too bad either. Some wind, some rain, some sun. It was a very refreshing 17,4C in the ocean this morning – but it feels so good afterwards.

My sister and a friend of the family went back to the city today so two less around the dinner table tonight.  Big difference – feels a lot emptier without them. My sister will be back in a couple of weeks though!

A good day in paradise – the first one of many! Let’s hope it will energize all of us enough to last through the fall! We have a busy year in front of us.