Last day in Sweden

Söder in Stockholm is a mixture of old and new.

Väsby is also a mixture, but of people from all over the world.

The bus driver is from Irak.

This is Lydia from Peru.

Another beautiful face.

Difficult to choose what to buy?

Two friends having coffee.

It seems to be very popular to have tatoos.

Even the flowers around the centre look exotic.

I noticed very quickly at mum's that there's a picture missing on the wall. Does anybody know what's happened?

Mum was calm but I don't know if she remembered who I was, which is very sad.

At the end of the day we visited Malte. Pelle had just collected him from the hospital. He had had pneumonia, again. It was nice to see Pelle, it's not often we meet.

Well, this was my last day in Sweden. I'm now changing blogs. You're welcome to follow me to Cyprus.

Driving south in the sunshine, passing bright yellow rape fields and silvery lakes. Taking pictures through the windshield of a moving car is not to be recommended, but we wanted to visit mum before lunch and didn't feel we had the time to stop.

Dinner at Kina and Sune in the evening. The view from their balcony is fabulous.

I wonder what they're talking about?

Across the canal people are climbing the sheer wall. I get really nervous just looking at them.

Much nicer to watch this little boat resembling a clog - I love the sound of a "kulmotor" (spherical internal combustion engine, is its proper name.)

After dinner coffee tasted good.
Thank you Kina and Sune for a lovely evening!

The last few days in Forsen

My Forsen holiday is almost over. Gertrud and her family came visiting. We met up in Leksand and took a guided tour through the historical Hildasholm. Afterwards we wandered through the beautiful park belonging to the property. The day started wet but cleared up quickly and gave us a sunny afternoon and evening.

Crouching through the secret tunnel, and there is this snake-like animal guarding the path. May we pass?

Yes, we were permitted. Bacchus laughs as we are tempted by

the opium growing close by. Imagine what orgies could be had among the greenery!

But we are satisfied with sedate walks along the gravel paths - can you see the two unbrellas Reino carries? Well, it could start to rain again, couldn't it?

Alf and Magdalena taking a load off.

Home again to Forsen for something to eat. New potatoes are a must this time of year.

Two siblings waiting for dessert.

Gunnar never says no to help with the washing up.

Time to lock up as we're leaving for Stockholm. I'm flying home in a few days while Gunnar will return to stay in Dalecarlia another month.

Even that what we call a weed can have beautiful flowers.

Bye bye Forsen until next year!

In and around the library in Leksand there are some statues. Rather fun.

Two angels in the entrance?

Musical instrument outside the door.

Not sure what this is so we had to read the description below.

Oh! Inspired by a Greek victory goddess from the island Samotrake.

Remnants of some sails stand on the grass outside. I think it looks like a screaming face. Saying what............?

On the way home after getting some more gas, we encountered this installation.

Amazing that a small stream can do such a lot of damage!

Pictures from nature

Because of all the rain everything grows out of proportion.

The thistles are taller than Gunnar now.

At the top all sorts of insects are jostling for space.

In spite of it still raining off and on, the water is receding. 20 more cm and the stepping stone will be visible.

The white bushes in front of the house are also attractive to insects. Here 2 bumblebees seem to want the same spot to munch in.

A beautiful pattern on one of the logs making up the wall by the entrance.

An afternoon we could do without

Yesterday afternoon we heard from Heather that Bella could not get up, nor could she stand even when Heather supported her. She did the short morning walk as usual, but now everything had changed. We felt awful being so far away.

She's in pain and terrified.

Heather took her to the vet and we feared the worst. But this is a tough cookie. She got a vitamin injection in the neck and a steroid one in the backside.

Home again and she's calmly relaxing outside the downstairs bedroom, her usual spot. The other animals are still shocked and wonder what's happening.  The vet wants to see her again in 2 days to see how she's responded to the treatment.  Bella is more than 15 years old, living on overtime you could say.

Hang on, Bella! I'm home in a week!

Big problem

A week ago something happened to one of the back car windows, it wouldn't close. Not so good when it's raining. Today is a dry and sunny day so Gunnar's taken the whole caboodle apart to try to fix it.

So many small parts that has to work together.

He props up the window with a piece of wood but it didn't work, so he's now jammed it shut with a piece of hose pipe!

A trip to the garage for new parts is called for. He's not a happy bunny!

Meanwhile, I'm making sure we have firewood for the house.

First, sawing the pieces that are already dried into correct length to fit the cast iron stove.

Then, get the axe,

and give the pieces a good wack.

Yes! Job's done.

A "kopparorm" kept me company. It's not really a snake but some kind of strange lizard and completely harmless. This is the largest I have seen around here.