Time to gather the family for the traditional Walpurgis celebrations, have dinner together and watch the bonfires.
On Skansen website you can read “The tradition of celebrating Walpurgis Night came to Sweden from Germany as far back as the Middle Ages. Walpurgis was an Anglo-Saxon underking’s daughter who travelled to Germany in the 8th century, where she became an abbess. After her death, she was canonised on 1 May and subsequently commemorated on that date.”
April 30th is a flag day – but not because we are welcoming spring and clearing the winter away (or remembering Walpurgis). No, it is a flag day because it is our kings birthday. Today year he turns 77 years old. This year is a double jubilee, marking 500 years since Gustav Vasa was elected king in 1523 and it is also King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 50th jubilee. Lots of reasons to celebrate.
Our family is coming over later to watch the soccer game on TV (fingers crossed.. ) and then to have dinner together. Later we will go over to watch the bonfires near by. I hope the rain will stay away today – so far so good.
Royal breakfast
One of the best perks about staying at a hotel is the breakfast. If it is a good breakfast that is. And this one was great with a few minuses. One minus was the scrambled eggs not being made from fresh eggs. They were still good though. The choices were many and we did not need to leave hungry.
Now we are back home again and have already ticked off our Saturday chores with doing groceries and getting rid of our garbage. A quiet afternoon preparing for our guests tomorrow. And an extra long weekend to enjoy with Monday off too. Lovely.
Castle of the month – Gripsholm
Our castle of the month in April is Gripsholm. Built in 1370 and situated about 60km away from us. We worked from home so we could get on the road as soon as our workday was finished. An hour later we arrived at Gripsholms Värdshus for our over-night adventure.
After a stroll around Mariefred we walked over to the castle for a quick view. Back at the inn we were treated a four-course dinner with bubbly and the food was really good. A lovely ending of a great day.
Cherryblossoms
A very strange day with both sunshine, rain and hale every other hour. Had to run a few errands at work and passed the cherry trees in Kungsträdgården which now are in full bloom. So pretty!
Long day today and got home in time for dinner. Or, to start dinner that is. We had lightly smoked pork loin (kassler) for dinner served with mash or pasta. Haven’t had that in a while.
Leftovers
We have a nice tradition at work to celebrate our colleagues birthdays. Now when we are becoming quite a few at work we have changed the tradition a bit and instead have one celebration per month when we celebrate everyone who has a birthday that month. And yesterday it was my turn to be sang for and treated cake.
Today I could enjoy great left-overs from yesterday. A gorgeous delicious rhubarb mousse cake with almonds and strawberry jam. Mmmm. Loved it!
Pyssel hos M – 25 apr
Äntligen dags för en kväll med bästa gänget. Min tur att köra så jag hämtade A och åkte till N… och insåg sen att vi skulle till M (som bor runt hörnet från N iofs). Haha. Trött? Jajamensan!
Väl där bjöds vi på en fantastiskt god middag – pasta med en underbar sås med lövbiff, svamp, paprika, rödlök och annat gott! Mmmm.
Kvällens pyssel var ett försök att vrida paraffinljus efter ett bad i varmt vatten. Det gick sådär. På instruktionsfilmen ser det jättelätt ut men de ljusen vi valt samarbetade inte och färgen lossnade. Men, de några blev jättefina och vi hade otroligt kul. Bra för själen med mycket skratt och samarbete!
Kvällen avslutades med en kopp te med glassbit o kaka. Tack vänner för en härlig kväll!
Outlier
New week and we’ve completed the series we have followed lately. This week we have chosen to start watching “Outlier” – sent on HBO Max.
“When she hears about the murder of a young woman in northern Norway, doctoral student Maja Angell sets aside her research on serial killers and heads back to her home country to try to catch one. …”
Sounds like a story for us!
The sunny summer-feeling is gone. Back to rain and chilly weather. And the forecast even promises snow later on in the week. Brrrr.
Cake
Managed to sleep in a bit today – yeah! Doesn’t happen that often. Spent the morning cleaning the house and did laundry. Great when we do it together!
This afternoon my parents-in-law came over for coffee and White Lady-cake to celebrate my birthday. I got a pyjamas and it fit perfectly – thank you! So nice with something new to wear! Good choice!
Going to make a lasagna for dinner tonight. But first, some soccer on TV and relax time enjoying a glas of white.
Game day
A wonderfully sunny day and time for soccer – home game and my dad managed to get us tickets. Yeah. My hubby drove us there (thank you) and we arrived with no problem. About 23000 people in the audience and great conditions for a good game. And finally – we won – 2-0 towards Varberg. A must-win game with two losses so far (and one win). And we have three more games when my dad has been granted tickets to look forward to the next couple of months. Yeah!
My hubby had dinner on the table when I got back home. Perfect – thank you! Now some corner time before it’s time to hug the pillow.
Done
I am a jigsaw puzzle person and I always love a challenge (as long as no more than 1000 pieces are involved.. lol). Got this very dark one for Xmas from my sis and now I’m finally done! Yeah. Took a while.
I also completed a book I’ve been reading forever while I had time last week. Great. Now I am allowed to move on to one of the two books I received for Xmas that I’ve been longing to read. One more thing done.
Finally weekend and time off. And lovely weather at least for tomorrow. Perfect.