Month: July 2016

Sunday. Second week has come to an end. My mother and I went for a walk along the coast – we walked up to the place where people have built big piles of rock and made funny looking formations. It’s about 2k up to that point and then we walked straight east and left the coast line for a couple of k’s. We were gone for about 90 min and managed to complete close to 7km. Yeah!

Tonight we bbq chicken for dinner and served it with fresh pasta and the rest of the sauce I made for the other day. Yum!

Today we have built the rest of the furniture we bought at IKEA and also put them all up. The two rooms are getting closer and closer to be finished but still there is a few things left to do – such as the last electricity parts to solve and also the final plumbing. But I am so glad we have come this far! Making progress!

Unfortunately we have bought the wrong size of the interior in the wardrobe .. one never learns .. so another visit to IKEA is required to change to the right things. Blä.

Dear friends came for their yearly visit to our paradise today. They spend their vacation in a very nice caravan and on their way back to Stockholm they have stopped over for a couple of nights for many years now. We spent the day together and shared a great dinner outside. It was a nice day but a bit colder than the last couple of days. But we have enjoyed the sunshine and many dips in the ocean still.

Another dear friend stopped by for a visit today – we became friends when we were kids and have kept in touch ever since. Her family have their summer home very close to ours so we try to see each other every time they come up for a visit (which isn’t that often, unfortunately).

Today mom and I went down to Kalmar with the two youngest to do some shopping at IKEA. New furniture for the hallway and bathroom have been purchased. We also bought new gas for our tube so we can bbq again and stopped for groceries on the way back. It was raining cats and dogs on the way down there but the sun has been shining all afternoon so the weather cleared up quickly again.

The guys were busy bees working on the bathroom while we were gone. And now we have a whole stack of IKEA-boxes to put together the next couple of days.. 🙂

Tonight friends from Stockholm will come over for a visit and stay for a couple of nights. Fun!

Wednesday. Mom and I painted the new glassfiber cloth twice – it is now Stockholm white (it’s a white with some yellow and black in it so almost eggshell colored). Good job! Now we leave the next job to the guys – plumbing is not something I am very experienced doing.

We had smoked pork sausage (isterband) with creamy potatoes  for dinner today (you boil potatoes and cut them in small pieces, then make a béchamel sauce and add the potatoes along with chives. Voilà!)

Today it was really windy – Öland is called the “Island of the sun and the wind” and today it was one of those typical days. Mom and I finished putting up wallpaper (fiberglass cloth) in our new bathroom. It turned out better than we dared to hope! Yeah!

New guests arrived in the afternoon and after a traditional dinner of  potato dumplings with lingonberry jam we took a nice walk along the coast.

The last couple of hours we sat outside and enjoyed fresh strawberries picked here on Öland and some whipped cream to go with them. The sunset was magical.

And what is a Tuesday in the summer without “Midsomer Murder” to end a perfect day!

First week already gone. Now week number two has begun. We were able to complete a lot more than I had dared to hope for last week and if we keep this up we will have plenty of vacation days left to enjoy by the time we are done working on our hallway and rest room.

We went into Borgholm after breakfast to get some more things for the house but also groceries and a box of wine (I wonder who drank the last one.. 😉 ). Tonight we have enjoyed dinner outside again – it’s been really warm all day. Nice.

Time to celebrate my name-day – Christina. But only one present today- usually my niece is here too. When my grandma was with us it was our day. Usually we have strawberry cake today  but this year there was no strawberries so we made an m&m cake instead. Filled with jam and custard. Yum.

My mother and I have been putting up wallpaper all day. We found old wallpapers from my grandparents house here that we used. It turned out great. And a fond memory every time I look at them. Yeah.

The alarm went off at 05.45 this morning. We realized that we would not be able to manage putting in the new carpet by ourselves so we had a carpet fitter come over and do the floor for us. It was easy peasy for him and done in no time. Yeah!

Today it was time for our house-guest to return to the city. My brother-in-law arrived last night so same amount of mouths to feed still. We have relaxed today and enjoyed the weekend. I cleared off all the weed behind our house but that was just for a half hour or so.

Tomorrow we might be busy bees again.. And the sun is still shining from a clear blue sky. Life is good.

Can’t believe we have been here a whole week already. My mother and I went for a one-hour-walk and my youngest and his cousin went along to see if they could catch some pokemons. I really like this new game – my kids have never been outside this much before they started playing it. And not just outside – they take long walks and also want to come along when we go shopping and stuff. Yeah. It costs me a few megabytes but hey that’s ok.

Another fantastic day – and another bbq eve. Steaks tonight since it is Friday after all.