Month: July 2017

Today my parents drove to Småland to visit old friends so we had the place to ourselves. After breakfast some of us went to the go-cart track for some fun. And after lunch we filled one car to head down to the Vida-museum to look at the exhibition, but we hit traffic real bad again and decided to skip the museum today and instead stop in Borgholm for some shopping. Then the rest joined us for dinner in town for the yearly feast at Pappa Blå. After dinner 8 of us played some minigolf while the rest head back home for some quiet time. The sunset from my corner was amazing tonight. I didn’t even have to get up to enjoy it. Life is good sometimes.

There is an outdoor theatre in Kalmar who puts up a show every summer which usually gets very good reviews so this year we decided to see for ourselves. We had made reservations for all ten of us. We drove in to Kalmar a bit early and managed to find parking spaces for both cars quite near the theatre. Then we walked in to town and enjoyed a lovely dinner at a Greek restaurant. The food was great but the service was a bit slow. We had three hours to spend on dinner and we got back to the theatre 10 min before it started… But, we made it. The evening was great – no rain or wind and a perfect night to sit outside and enjoy the show “Flaggan i topp” with Robert Gustafsson among others. We can recommend it!

We have a long tradition in our family to celebrate names days. In the Swedish calendar every day has one, two and sometimes three names. Today it is “Sara” – so Karin made a chocolate cake and grandma a rhubarb sponge cake for our afternoon coffee. Yum!

It has been a gorgeous day today – we have been in the ocean several times and just enjoyed the lovely weather. No wind today. I have painted the bottom part of boards around the house with primary paint. Just the top coat left – maybe tomorrow. Tonight we grilled different kinds of sausage for dinner – served with corn on the cob, tomatoes and a potato sallad. The evening was also filled with board games and a fantastic sunset!

What a lovely day! Very windy this morning but after lunch it calmed down and it was a gorgeous day! After breakfast we went into town to do some grocery shopping, just me, my sis and her sister-in-law. Now when we are 13 to feed we need to do some serious planning in what to buy and how to organize ourselves since we don’t have very big fridges or freezers.

In the afternoon we just relaxed and tried to catch some sun before it was time to start the evening dinner – bbq meat and oven potatoes. Yum! We invited my aunt and uncle for dinner too – so 15 around the table tonight. Lovely. To make a perfect day even more perfect we opened my moms birthday present – a magnum bottle of bubbly.

Since it is Tuesday we had a snack-evening with some good melons, olives, nice prosciutto and salami watching the “Allsång på Skansen” to be followed by “Midsomer Murders”.

Today the velometer showed 11 meter/sec which is quite windy!  But, our mandatory dip in the ocean before breakfast was quite fun with all the waves. And about 17C so not too bad. A busy day with a lot of things done – I have both painted the bottom part of the boards around our house with impregnation oil. I have also rubbed down the old paint on a table and put varnish on it. Great!

The four kids went to play tennis for a while this afternoon! Perfect!

Tonight our new guests have arrived – my brother-in-laws’ sister w/ her family will stay with us for a week. I prepared a gigantic lasagna for all of us. Now we are all full and relaxing after dinner. My third dinner in a row – maybe someone else will take over tomorrow? But, I don’t mind cooking – it’s the planning and grocery shopping that can be a challenge.

This morning it was very calm and lovely. A bit algal blooms in the ocean but not too bad. A new sort of food truck opened today and it is parked right by our property – so this morning we bought newly baked bread for breakfast. Yum! It is open from 8-12 in the morning and is selling all sorts of food. After breakfast we decided to drive into town but the traffic was so bad we ended up only doing half of our errands and gave up and head back home. New try another day.

Me and K went for a 6.6 k walk in the afternoon and as we got closer to home it started to be very windy and a couple of hours later it started to rain. So the youngsters baked buns filled with butter and vanilla sugar – what a treat! The weather has been really bad all evening – almost feels like fall – but it is supposed to be lovely the next couple of days. Let’s hope they are correct in their predictions!

About 17C in the ocean this morning – 8 of us went in before breakfast. Our friend L has been here since Tuesday and this was his last day before he had to take the bus back to the city.

A very sunny day – and with a location like this – who needs to go down to the Mediterranean? I admit, the water is slightly warmer there but few things can beat this view. And the best part – it is ours for as long as we want. It takes a lot of work but it also gives us a chance to spend time together – working on projects for the family and our future here in our paradise.

Packed our things and got on the roads around 9.15 and arrived safely in our paradise a little over 6 hrs later. No traffic to speak of – we were afraid we might end up in traffic due our Crown Princess turning 40 years old today and she is always here on Öland on her birthday to hand out the yearly Victoria scholarship to an athlete. This year the price went to Jenny Rissved who won the Olympic gold in mountainbike.

We had a lovely evening – grilled pork filet on the bbq and sat outside. The evening ended with a sunset – the first of many I hope – to enjoy. Life is good.

My first day off! After breakfast I decided to take the bus over to Skärholmen to do some shopping. Just for myself and to myself. I managed to find a couple of really nice things on the summer sale – two bikinis for instance. Then my husband called and asked me where I was so he drove over to the mall and we shopped some more together and also had lunch there. Nice. After the mall we went grocery shopping and then on the way back we stopped at my parents to tend to their flowers and fishes. Now back home again – being lazy laying in my hammock. Good start of the summer vacation!

No more work for a while. Now some me-time before it is time to join the family. First out – a treat of delicious sushi for lunch. Only 8 pieces today – salmon, avocado and roles. Just the way I like it.

Then a short stop at the Liljeholmen mall but I didn’t find anything that I wanted. But it was nice to just stroll around some. When I got home I had received a new way-bill so I went to return my bracelet. Changed the return-address to our paradise since they only keep packages for 2 weeks here at the postoffice. Let’s hope they will approve of my complaint this time too and that the next bracelet actually will work as it’s supposed to.