Autumn

Such a cliche, I know, but I love autumn.  Mainly because it is the time when everything is being put away for the winter and I can be inside reading, embroidering and drinking tea, instead of putting myself under pressure because it's such a beautiful day for hang-gliding and I am not doing it, or some such random strenuous outdoor activity.  There is such a beautiful melancholy to the general dyingness of things that you just have to embrace or be overwhelmed. 

Bjurbäck kyrka

Up by us

To celebrate this year, I finally have crossed something off my bucket list.  Well, I say, bucket list, it's more like a loose collection of stuff written on the back of receipts and left in the jean pocket. We, Mr G and I with 2 friends, went to the Harvest Festival on Öland.

It's called Skördefestivalen and the whole island of Öland clears out the attics, empties the pumpkin patches and sells the contents on the road side\in the barn.  There are extra points if you have sheep, or ponies that give rides to small children without throwing them off or eating them.   The main road is jam-packed with cars, caravans and mobile homes, and huge, clean lorries.  I am not too certain about the significance of the lorries, but what do I know?    I have never seen so many mobile homes in one place, there were more than I knew existed. We stayed in a cabin, at least that way, I could fit in the shower. 

Generally milling about.  It's what you use tractors for.....

There were a lot of tractors, Ferguson's mainly..... no, I don't know, things with wheels and stuff.  One chap had even had an EU grant to do a proper exhibition of this tractor and other stuff collection.  That is dedication and oomph!

Anyway, nice place is Öland.  Possibly best to go in late spring, less mobile homes and pumpkins.  I have a feeling that nothing can be done about the loppis though.

 Hello! 

Yes, I am still alive, just. In the intervening years such a lot has happened, so I will just list things to wet your appetite and probably/maybe come back to them later. So, sitting comfortably? Then let us begin..

1. Cafe went very well, then Mad M, Cupcake Queen of Norway happened, and I decided to close. You can't work around Mad Cupcake Queens, sometimes you just have to cut your losses.

2. Developed a bad allergy to cat. Almost went into a coma, at the risk of sounding over-dramatic. So poor Psychokitty had to be put down.  She was a wild cat and would only graciously allow us to have any sort of contact, so there was nothing else for it.  I still cry now.

3. We moved. There is a special place in hell for the creators of the British house buying system and a whole blog of invective is coming.

4. Got a job as a country postman. Awesome job, absolutely awesome.  One day I will write a book called Underpants of Sweden - my life as a postman. 

5. Had a massive burnout. Therapy is brilliant, I think that a psychological health check up should be as standard as a physical health check up.  My one regret is not having therapy sooner, I would probably be better at it then...

6. Covid started and I got breast cancer. I am so thankful that I am living here and not in the UK. I also took the opportunity to start gaming instead of waiting until I retire. Marvellous decision, Dragon Age is the best, though have to rediscover keyboard controls. This is probably good for staving off dementia, though not monsters.

7. A slipped disc in my neck (mega ouch) showed bone spurs digging in the spinal column and radiating nerves (oucher)

7. I am still on treatment for cancer today and have had to give up my life as a postie, so technically speaking I am unemployed.  Though I have more than enough to do, societies to join and volunteer organisations to help with. So it is more like being unpaid community worker, combined with having to "listen to my body" (quite frankly, I hadn't realised that it lies so much, especially about the need for chocolate).

So here I am, shouting into the void and shamelessly practicing my writing.  

More to follow!

Can't reply to comments!

Sorry chaps.

Not sure if I should reply to someone called Troll Paladin or whether it would be giving my head for washing, but hey

Yes, elks drive..

Midsummer

As you may have gathered, Sweden is a country that values its' traditions, of which there are many more than the UK.  It is actually very nice to have so many things to celebrate.  Graham grew up with birthdays and Christmas and a smattering of Easter, that his non-Christian family didn't really know what to do with. (Mind you, neither do many Christian families, so no problem there then) and Bonfire Night.  

Today is Midsummer's Day.  It is traditional, on the longest day of the year, to spend most of it in bed nursing your hangover from Midsummer's Eve. As it traditionally rains, this isn't too much of a problem.
It's traditional here to celebrate the eve of something rather than the actual day.  So when people went off early on the day before Midsummer's Eve, it was an Eve Eve,  Would that be called a Lilith? humm.

So, back to Midsummer.

You dash off to the supermarket on the Lilith and load up with pickled herring, potatoes, sausages, fillet, creme fraiche, dill, strawberries and cream, having a blazingly polite row with the old granny who has just taken the last of the Swedish strawberries to add to her 500kg.  You have to make do with Dutch ones.

Then you and everyone in the entire country packs up in a synchronised traffic jam and head to the summer cottage or a relative's summer cottage or a random summer cottage that you've always fancied, with the sill, etc and the beer/schnapps/wood alcohol. This involves more blazingly polite rows, usually with the Police, who can't understand that you need to read the paper whilst driving amongst so many other cars.  (yes this is so common they actually list this together with not talking on the mobile phone.  It explains why I have no fear of meeting elks on the way home, but of meeting other cars).

The main event on Midsummer's Eve is the raising of the midsummer pole, that has an uncanny resemblence to the May Pole of rural England.   There are other similaries....  You can do this in a family, but most go to the nearest Local Historical Society who dress up in traditional clothes, dress the pole in flowers and greenery and inflict folk songs on law-abiding people.  We all (ha ha ha) dance around the pole to the lilting '3 small frogs' 'I'm getting the washing in' etc etc, in our flowery crowns. Absolutely nothing is about sex or fertility or blood, at all, in any way.    As we weren't allowed to go to these innocuous festivities when we were young, I feel the LHSs are failing somewhat, somehow...

You then move on the real party, when you all eat the stuff everyone has bought, slap a load of mosquitoes, slap the first person who has had too much to drink and then just give up and join in with whatever fertility paganism is going.

There are, of course, local (or soberer) variations of these traditions, but not many.

I actually feel it's a shame that the maypole dancing has been relegated to the children and their respective parents/strike that, their respective mothers.  It would benefit the rest of the adults to not be so much up their own arses.  However that is a fine Swedish Tradition and not to be messed with!  The wood alcohol could problem be dispensed with though...

Normal Life Day 2

Day 2 is being uploaded/downloaded/sideappatured on day 3 because I left my computer in the cafe, still good things come to those who wait.... [Ed - ?????relevance????]

The day started off as normal with alarm at 6, loaded the car with all the bags and zoomed off to make carrot cake, fetch the buns and passionfruit cake, order the bread for paninis, make chocolate balls and lentil pies... open up and then collapse in a weeping heap in front of everyone..(as they say here for everything - only joking)

Never thought I'd live to see the day I used sprinkles! (only joking)

Behind any great quiche/cake is a load of washing up

Managed to have a 5 min break and look out of the window.  The slope is still covered with wood anemones, like stars.

There was an evening (!) meeting at 6:30 of the Habo Tourism Network, which was very interesting and potentially very useful.  The women from #sveciatravels were certainly pros.  It was fun meeting people too and putting faces to names. Bit of a bombshell with the announcement that Landhs (one of the best cafes in Sweden) are buying the local cafe here.  

Left just after 9 to drive through the STILL DAYLIGHT!! It's such a lovely drive home (not joking).  (only joking)

'Normal Life"

In the strange world of Facebook, I have been 'challenged' to provide photos and a commentary on 5 consecutive normal days.  Presumably normal in this context means the next 5 days, come what may.  I guess most of us won't win the lottery or a Nobel Prize in the window, so it's a little vignette of how life goes on.  I thought that this was quite a good idea actually, so I've decided to also blog them.

Starting with yesterday, naturally.
Tuesday was the second day of my weekend.  It's the equivalent of the wage slaves' Saturday and yesterday kicked off with the dentist and a root canal filling.  Surprisingly, there are no photos.  I had thought to get lots of other shopping for the cafe, but felt unable to do more than food shopping and I also managed to stop at a garden centre (shame!) and got 10 geraniums.  There are rumours of good weather coming!

Got home, collapsed, had a cup of tea and then heaved myself up to start the accounts, paying invoices and filing.  It's illegal to use Excel here, so I have to pay for a proper book keeping program.  I have no idea how to use it, and keep filling in things in the wrong spaces, but I have every hope that things will turn out alright in the end...

After a bite of lunch, I thought that I'd better iron some tea towels and table clothes for the cafe. This is only half of the way through.

I so need to get a more cheerful ironing board cover!

That lasted until G came home and I was bound by my duty as a good wife and cat slave to start dinner. As I haven't yet got routines going, such as, what G is going to buy on Sat so we can have dinner on Tuesday, we had salmon from the freezer, boiled potatoes and dill and peas pureed with mint.

The cat was very, very pleased with the salmon, ate one skin almost without stopping to chew and promptly went upstairs to sleep it off.  Didn't see her again the rest of the evening.

This is Psychokitty halfway through her dinner, she's not that keen on her picture being taken and hasn't got a diners instagram account.

After that, well, it was getting things in bags, piling them by the door for taking to work the next day and then collapsing into the sofa (again!) and listening to Radio 4 as there was nothing on the telly.  Tell a lie, there was ice-hockey, but I guess we're not yet completely Swedish and so fail the Norman Tebbit test... Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

May flowers

I know it's a cliche, but May really is the most beautiful month.  Even when the weather has been pants, like this year, it's lovely.  The pines and firs send out their new shoots, light against the dark and the birches are like spring green mist.  After a long dry spell, the rain came and it's been raining on and off with daytime temperatures of around 8-12C for a week now.  It feels colder than minus temperatures, probably because it's meant to be nice!  However, the smell is delicious, rich and light with the promise of sun and flowers.  And the cows have been let out!  It's a real family day out, even in the rain!


I'm sitting now in my café, watching the blossoms spiral down from the tree outside the window, hoping for nicer weather and some customers.