..and a "Crudité de saison" of a different and brutal kind..

..here is the link to the video on the improved map on the H1N1 swine flu current and future evolution..

Crudités de saisons..

Guess what I had for dinner this splendid summerday? Yes! They are now here, the very first asparagues of the season grown on this island of Gotland with its marvellous climate..
Sun sets at 8.15 PM as seen from my bedroom window..

Done!

The roof job is now done! This is what it looked like yesterday! Neatly finished and too shiny and too reddish - but this is a standard color that will soon turn to a milder terra cotta in the Gotland sun! Anyway, it will last for a long time and looks a lot better than before! See below..

The house the day before yesterday: the roof with a grey primer..

The guys in priming action..

The worn roof coating of the house as looked like when I bought it! This photo is from last summer when I passed the house and fell in love with it - before I know it would be up for sale!

The cuddling..

.. horse (video below) and Sunday coffee
in the meadows of the nearby church with Mats who arrived in his golf car, Nena who rode in barebacked on Shanghai from their neighbouring farm "Lugnet" and Paivi who came in the day before from the mainland by plane. The 12 year old gelding Shanghai participated eagerly in the party. My barns can bee sigted in the background. This large meadow will be full of rare orchids in a few weeks and I am priviledged to be its next door - and only - neighbour..

The yellow garden..

I woke up this morning and my garden had turned yellow by a carpet of Lesser Celandines! It a feast for the eye and a great setting for breakfast in the warming spring sun. The present weather in southern Sweden is way above normal and is there the enjoy! We are slowly acquiring a healthy looking tan after the dark winter and no one likes to stay indoors if they can help it..

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, celandine comes from the Latin chelidonia, meaning swallow: it was said that the flowers bloomed when the swallows returned and faded when they left. It has also been known to be called the spring messenger

As time goes by..

When I spotted Knut´s pics on Facebook this morning I got a breeze of nostalgia..

..remembering when I was babysitting for him and his brother in Arusha, Tanzania. It must have been around 1975. He was a very sweet and polite rather chubby kid..

Today, himself a father of three, he presents these pics and others on FB under "Old sins" (he once was a great model!) and surely needs no babysitter any longer.
As time goes by..

Från riskkapital till riskakor..

I prognosen för världens lågkonjunktur
Ligger helt visst ännu större svackor på lur;
Och i Sverige står en säker inflationsbrasa på tur.
En minskande efterfrågan på kapital för seriösa projekt
ger priset på kulor en realisationsmässig effekt.
Fiffigt kamouflerat med sänkning av priset på prylar vi inte behöver
Medan bankerna överskrider sina befogenheter vad det gäller våra klöver
Och Riksbankens enda uppgift är ju att hålla inflationen nere,
men så här kan ju en annan se re:
"Nu slänger dom alltså in den allra sista indränkta trasan..
Ska vi nu stillatigande kolla in vad som händer med själva brasan?
Man önskar numer allt oftare att bonusmaffian skulle få smaka
på sin egen hopbakade riskkaka..

PE

A complete makeover..

Monday they arrived. The roof make-over-people. The house "beautification squad" with all their impressive equipement.

For a full day they rinsed my roof with a high pressure water jet from old and faded paint.
The sound of the jet thing was unbearable and I had to flee to make errands in Visby, 17 kms away. I am now praying that the weather will be fine over the weekend when they hope to turn up for the repaint. This will be a true makeover for my 100-year old house in its spring beautification programme scheme - because she is worth it!
(And I will surely not be able to afford a single lipstick for my own "spring beautification scheme" after this budget bang! But who cares, anyway... )

Breakfast at the beach..

..early Sunday morning. Still rather cold at the deserted bay of Ire (Ireviken) in northern Gotland.

But hot coffee and a warm baguette with chevre cheese helps against the cold wind from the north..
As well as the beauty of it all..

..to experience a beach running for miles that you have all to yourself this time of year.
And especially this time of the morning!

Ireån - the Ire creek - is full of spawning salmons this thime of year. We did not discover any this time though..
The creek´estuary debouching into the Baltic..

Small downy flowers growing directly on the beach..

Gotland is a large island..

..measuring some180 kms from the northern tip to the south. Today we drove som 200 kms from Stenkyrka with friends from a big farm in Vale in the north to Rone in the south to have lunch with old friends from Saltsjöbaden - Kerstin and Peter. They bought their Gotland house in the 90´s and put quite some efforts into its renovation and decoration:

The livingroom combined diningroom..

A romantic bedroom..

The house contained a lot of inspiring ideas - this stool had been painted and pasted with lots of old fashioned bookmarks. And then thoroughly vanished..

An intricate antique device for yarn holding on the upper floor..

Kerstin and Nena chats in the cosy attic where the former - and now dead - owner walks at night.. Muhaauhaa..

This old vastepaper basket is handpainted by Kerstin.

Peter preparing the three course lunch in the newly renovated kitchen. Oh the food! Seafood lasagne, beautiful sallads, mushroom toasts, crayfish tails, followed by an exquisite cheese tray and coffe and chocolate "kladdkaka" - sticky cake in the garden..

After enjoying a great spring premiere of outdoor coffee and laughs and lazy conversation, we drove home north by Gotland´s western coast watching the marvellous sun setting in the spring blue sea..
(The mighty Baltic is steel grey in winter time.)

Dazzled..

I see my garden transform..

..into spring. This 100-year old garden, attended to by so many loving hands over the years and I haven´t any idea of what is going to sprout from one day to another. I sometimes wonder just how many gardening "working hours" that have been laid down on these grounds. (And aching backs!) It is glorious to step out on the front porch in the nigtie every morning and see the early mist slowly disolving by the raising sun and listen to the sounds of all the spring birds greeting the new day..This morning the smell of hundreds of blue hyacinths were overhelming. It is all served to me on a plate!

The front lawn is right now covered by bright yellow lesser celandines..
My recent contribution has been to plant 2 hops by one of the entrances and 20 old fashioned rose plants -the Rosa Rubiosa - to form a bushy hedge against the church next door. The rich soil here is so easy to work - compared to the one on Sandhamn where I grew up with its hopelessly thin and sandy stratum of earth. And the back aching rather came from collecting kelp at the beach for composting to get a bit of humus for planting the following year..

I wouldn´t know a better way..

..to spend Easter Day than to attend the great auction at Tofta Smagarde in Gotland! This easter Ulf, the popular auctioneer, has collected a number of great items like this old wicker pram, for example. People are now starting gushing in from the mainland eager to be on this beautiful island now decking up for spring..
So I guess the auction will be crowded and prices will raise.Well..

The items at this auction are collected..

..from Gotland´s old farms and homesteads..

I have decided to place a bid or two on the small writing desk above..

And maybe on this old drop-leaf table that would fit in well in my old farmhouse. Or getting carried away on some other spontaneous bids to cheer the soul after this long, dark Scandinavian winter months..
Anyway, it is a great opportunity to do a bit of "island mingling" and meet great people and to enjoy the homebaked cakes in the little homely cafeteria!

(Pictures: Smågårde auctions)

Following a day of fog and rain..

..came the soothing sun of the late afternoon. A time of drying the feathers..

"Oh how this spring of love resembleth,
the uncertain glory of an April day!
Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,
and by and by a cloud takes all away..!

(Two gents of Verona, Shakespeare)

(Pics from my sister´s farm on Holy Thursday)

At night, there was a breathtaking full moon..

Sorry for..

..keeping repeating myself! But I never seen such an abundance of the blue spring Anemons called Blåsippa in Sweden! In the center, the lovely little Blåsippa Stella - the10-year old grandaughter of my sister - picking a nice bouquet. This is just behind my garden in the woods..
The area where I live is an interesting wetland with the famous Lummelunda caves underneath some miles away. This little pond can be found in the rather inpenetrable woodlands behind my house. I wounder if it contains any crayfish? The brya - as a pond is called in the Gotland lingo -should be ideal for this delicate shellfish.. Hmmm..

The very first Anemone Nemorosa - "vitsippa" in Swedish - was sighted today. Gotland is well ahead of the rest of Sweden (along the very southern part of Skåne) when it comes to the advancement of spring in Sweden.Soon the woods and meadows will turn from blue to a compact white..

Pontus!

He has now turned 35! My beloved son-in-law! Whom I have actually known since he was 9 months old and came to visit us with his parents in Arusha, Tanzania where we lived for a year. . I still have a Super 8 movie I shot of my daughter Lina and Pontus in the Ngorongoro Crater way back when they were toddlers among the lions, buffaloes, elephants and giraffes. Those were the days in the 70s when wildlife was still abundant in these areas.. Lina and Pontus celebrated his 35th birthday in lovely, springlike Mallorca at Deja on a veritable culinary spree..Well done! And bienvenue to Gotland on Thursday! And we will do "hip, hip hurray" for you!
Majorcain treats for a 35-year old....
La Residencia, Deja
A view of a calm and blue Mediterrainean sea - like custom made for a romantic birthday..