San Michele and magic of an island..

Last night, one of my close friends called me and asked me where to stay in Capri. If I know of any good hotels. She knew I had spent some time in this magic place and she would love to visit this complex and beautiful island in April.

I could not give her any hints on hotels since I was there on a scholarship staying at the San Michele high up in the Capri mountains in Anacapri.

After the Grotta Azzurra, the Museum-House of Villa San Michele is Anacapri's most visited tourist attraction. The villa dates back to the late 19th century, when the Swedish physician, writer and recreational archaeologist, Axel Munthe, adjudicated the site, previously occupied by an ancient roman construction, the perfect place where to build a house in which to display his collection of relics and classical artefacts. His book (above), still makes marvellous readings..
However, I was there in February which was not a good time. I was the only guest at San Michele (lonesome) and the powercuts caused me to sleep with mittens and a wolley cap. There was ice in the washbasin in the mornings and I am sure Axel Munte´s friendly ghost kept visiting me at night clad in a black swagger coat and a wide brimmed hat. He was just sort of checking up on me to see that I - his guest- was well under the circumstances, I am sure!
I actually met and old, wrinkeld sales lady that claimed she had met Munthe when she was very young.Axel Munthe - a good looker and true ladies´ man - in the early 1930s

Capri indeed is a facinating, beautiful and magic place with a rather frightful and decadent past commencing with some of the Roman emperors and their parties in the deep caves still there.. ..from which the young boys were made to jump to their death - after "use". Emperor Tiberius partying in Capri

The Barbarossa..Oscar Wilde and his tragic love story on this island..
I quite felt the vibes Capri´s complex history being there alone in cold February. But April is another story. It will be filling up with people, Maria will enjoy a limonchello at the piazettas, the almond trees in bloom, it will be warm and cosy and she will be able to enter the Blue Grotto - which was closed when I was there.
Anyway, I was able to make my report on Zambia´s hard currency auctions down there in San Michele - inspite of ten frozen fingers tapping away on the small typewriter in candellight at San Michele once on a very cold month of February quite hard to forget..
View from San Michele

Once in a while..

..on life´s long path you bump into a "kindered spirit." Man, woman or child..It suddenly klicks, you talk the same language, and you feel instant sympathy. This happened when I met Curt. He was the guy that sold me the farm on Gotland and he instantly incorported me into his big warm family. He was in charge of the sale of the estate of the deceased uncle - and he really wanted me to have the farm which had been in this lovely family for over 100 years. So, he did not put the estate on the market."This is ment for you" he said and backed me in this sale. And later helped me all kinds of matters in landing here and settling down on this family estate..
I was dreaming of fixing it up so nicely and then inviting him and his family for dinner here to see his estonished face when he saw the improvments I had done on the house he so very much wanted me to have..
Today, when I was working in the garden someone came by and told me that Curt died at his kitchen table yesterday. Quite unexpectedly.
I am now walking around int the house as a zombie - in a state of chock.
It right now feels like it it not worth getting on with it anymore..
Curt will not come by for dinner.. I will not lay eyes on his naughty brown eyes ever again and enjoy his dimpled laugh ever again.
As Astrid Lindgren so aptly put it: "Han fattas mig!" (His presence will fail me!)

Thalia..

..sweet Thalia, my grandchild now seven months old! I miss her so and just have to go to Washington soon to se her, hold her and get close as we once were..

Oh, Blessed Inspiring Creativity!

Elsa Mora is an outstanding artist using every possible material and means to explore her endless creativity. Thanks god she has a homepage so one can follow her works. I recently fell in love with her Frida Kahlo dollhouse she made
for her daughter..

Every item is a treat! Check her out! Here is the link to her web page: Elsita typepad

And temperature plunges..

..to a record 9 degree below in my area. This winter´s all-time-low! This spring back lash came quite unexpectedly and I feel sorry for all the small pretty flowers showing their shy heads in my garden as a hail to the increasing spring light. This is from my window at 6 o´clock towards the back of the garden..

Here comes the sun - and it indicates a cold but gorgeous day..The white line in the sky behind the trees is the first morning flight taking off on its half-hour journey from Visby to Stockholm. I don´t envy those people on board!

I am happy to be here - at home in Gotland - again!

Hallucinations..

.. tend to linger. I could do anything for a piece of this cake right now!
This is the best cake I ever had!
This slightly sour and lovely cake was once composed for the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova in Australia where it still is very popular.
My friend Paivi is a great cook/baker and she made this for her friends last Saturday. With fresh berries. In wintertime with snow, in an not so easily accessible in a cottage far out in the archipelago - no water in the tabs..
Get my drift? (In Swedish: Bedrift!)
Well, to produce a thing like this could easily be called "a miracle"! She made the delicious lemon curd herself as the meringue layers topped with rosted almonds on the whipped cream and decorated with huge bleuberries and rasberries. Fresh. This took some effort and planning in a place like Sandhamn/Trouville this time of year! So I will go on hallucinating with an slightly embarrassing never ending mouth watering effect..
Recipe here at Joy of Baking

Leaving Sandhamn early Monday morning..

Snow has been falling in the night and I expect a tough ride in the small open boat to the mainland..

I am bringing chairs and lots of other stuff from Sandhamn to Gotland that I will be needing in my new home. The boat is heavily loaded and the vision is null for parts of the 1 hour journey and we have to go by the GPS.. Snow is like small rockets in out eyes..The wind is absolutely murderous!

Small ice floes are forming in bays with still waters..
Monday is a real spring backlash! Shame on you King Bore!
I will not be home in Gotland until 1 PM tonight after another 3 hour boat ride - luckily in a nice cosy ferry with reclining seats! ZZZzz. I think I earn an extra hour in bed tomorrow morning!

Sandhamn, March 18

The Stockholm archipelago is slowly coming around. Snow is melting away and a few boats appear in the Sandhamn harbour.The blackbirds have started singing with loud voices and the first eider ducks have been sighted..

Intense sunlight in cold northern winds in the outer archipelago..

The horizon from Dansberget with its huge anchor..

Three camels worth..

Once, I was driving eastwards in the Sudan in my Landrover heading towards Showak by the Blue Nile to visit the American run Lalamba clinic. The desert was hot and the sandstorm - the habub - had made the trails almost invisible. On the "roadside" in the middle of nowhere, was a tired old bedouin just standing there gazing at the horizon. He surely needed a lift to wherever he was going, so I picked him up and he was comfortably seated in the backseat. And we drove on politely exchanging the few words I know in Arabic. After a while I suddenly felt his hand on my arm and he was pinching me; like taking a measure of my skin.
"Ouch!"
"Three camels!?" he bursts out to my photographer sitting next to me. Totally ignoring me - the pinching object.
He obviously wanted to trade his three camels for me.
To tell you frankly, I was not very flattered at his offer..
However it soon turned out that I was too skinny then and obviously not worth more than three lousy camels.
I lost a huge piece of self confidence right there in the desert!
Today after many years have passed, when I look in the mirror, I feel I have regained it! My Self confidence!
I surely look like I am worth at least six camels! He should have seen me now! Maybe seven!
Ouch!

Back in Sandhamn..

..from the largest island in the Baltic to a much smaller one - I am back in Sandhamn for the first time since November last year.

In walking around, I checked out how the winter had taken its toll this year..

I took a ride in a small boat and found that there are no speed limit signs anymore..

An old beautiful door in the village..

Preparations for summer are going on everywhere in face of the expected invasions of summer guests that will need lodging..

The "Dalahorse" - the Swedish national symbol per se in abundance in a village window..

The beauty of an old door..

A window at the picturesque Strindbergsgården in the harbour of the village..

Sanna - the belly dancer!

I have known her since she was almost a baby - Sanna, one of my daughter Lina´s oldest and closest friends. Sanna is very artistic and has among other things worked for me at my workshop/store Village Corner for ages painting furniture in an advanced and old fashioned way. (i.e. making them look antique.) During many years she has studied belly dancing in this country and abroad and has become quite successful at it. Sanna who now performs professionally at parties and resturants has now created a web page on her belly dancing activities I really enjoyed to watch!
We all knew that something very creative was to come out of this sweet girl. An artist like her father- yes! But who would have guessed a belly dancer!! Congrats to the web page Sanna! We wish you good luck and look forward to watch a show with you performing in one of your gorgeous Libaneese dresses! On Gotland maybe?

Finally, my old fashioned..

..wallpapers with gorgeous roses arrived! I am going to put them in the upstairs "morning-room" flooding with light in the morning and with a sloping roof.

I fell totally in love with them and and turned a blind eye to the price of these high quality papers from the Carma "Cottage Prints" collection. They fit the ambiance of this house quite well and I will just have to stick to pea soup and pancakes for the rest of the month after having settled the bill!! But it is worth it! Piece of cake!

Painted panels..

Now, I am ready with oil paint and brushes!

I want to attack my panelled doors like this!

It would be just lovely in an old house with 100 years old doors, like mine!
Here is the page that inspired me: click

Let´s see what will come out of it eventually..
Anyone knows a real artist? (might need a bit of help here!!)

Happy Birthday Malcolm!

An eventful and fantastic year it was for you , Mille! Getting married, buying a big house in Washington DC and becoming a father! We all wish you a happy birthday back here in Sweden with a loud
HIP HIP HURRAY (so you can almost hear it across the Atlantic!!) and wish you a matching year to come!
Kisses and love from Mum

Sunday at the auctions..

Sunday, we spent a good many hours at the auctions in Tofta at Gotland. Financial recession, still winter and no tourists yet on the island in combination with "beginning-of-the-month" not so very full purses, made a few bids quite astonishing bargains! Here is Ulf, the great conductor of the show in action. My sister happily landed the bid on the lovely Gustavian mirror in the background.

An old "nostalgia" radio with bakelite fittings is changing owner at a fair price..

These are some of the items I landed: the small "Emma" easychair at 20 dollars, the beautiful carved chair with hand embroidered seat for 45 dollars and a field easel for summer´s outdoor painting activties for 6 dollars.
Like this maybe: Wilson Irvine painting en plein air with portable easel

Ulf with assistants auctioning off an old wooden chair..

Anticipating auction feet ..

Old copper..and 100 years of fine dust..

Brique-á-braque and a lovely old turn-of-the century straw hat..

Bambi keeps an watchful eye on his items in the box..

I really freaked out over those two lion´s hilarious smiles..

A pretty stuffed fox gazes out through the window and yearning for the freedom of the woods..
"Who will be my new owner?
What will I do? Where will I go?"