Whitsuntide in Sandhamn..

..in the Stockholm archipelago. Marvellous summer it is and the island is visited by 1000´s of day-tourists - here trying to get on the Cinderella ferry back to the mainland on Sunday at 13.00.

Today, I found new inhabitants in my barrel in the garden. They were five newly hatched great tits constantly hollering for food. Their mother is loosing a few feathers being busy tending to her demanding kin. I know the mother quite well - she is quite tame and likes sometimes to sit on my shoulder when I read in the garden. I will leave some cheese for her before I leave tomorrow..

My porch in the early morning hours. The sea can be seen through the pines. This is one of my favourite places in the whole world. I love to get up around 5 o´clock in the morning and watch the sunrise over the sea. And to have a nice little cup of tea with honey and lemon.
And to listen to the sounds of the great variety of birds of the archipelago.
Quality time...

A friend, who lives here all year round, is tending her garden down in the little pictoresque village, donning a great red hat to protect from the blazing Sunday sun.

My good friend Paivi can´t wait to have a nibble from the freshly baked bread outside the Sandhamn bakery..

Anders is the island baker of many years. His is also a great artist and boule player and acting as an extra in a Swedish film presently being shot on the island. Almost the entire island is involved in this film which will show events that took place here in the 70´s. So everybody living here are signed up as extras and running around with long false whiskers and tobacco brown suits and ugly glasses.
Here he is relaxing after a long baking day commencing at 4.00 AM in the morning..
Tomorrow, I will leave the island of my childhood and head for Gotland. There is a garden to attend to down in the southern part of the Baltic! The ferry woun´t be as crowded Monday morning and it will take one hour through the archipelago to the mainland. Then I will get on another ferry in the evening for 3,5 hours to travel to the more distant island of Gotland. I guess I will be rather finished when I arrive at my house down there around 1 o´clock at night. But it is summertime and the nights are so bright this time of year here in Scandinavia. Not a big deal to stay up late, really..

The frustration of our lack of means, measures, steps and actions..

During my years in the 70´s as a Press Secretary with Amnesty International there were quite a few governments in the world that held no sensitive ear whatsoever to the rule of law and the global pressure as to human rights issues repeatedly violated in their respective countries.
"They couldn´t care less that the whole world was watching the autrocities committed by their countries".
President Hugo Banda in Malawi was one. Bokassa in the Central African Republic and Khomeini in Iran were others.
Even the dictators of South America at that time held at least a fragment of consciousness on what the world thought of them and their tarnished global image and tried to "cover up their crimes against humanity " as well as they could. If possible.

In watching the morning news and the interview of Eritreas President Isaias Afwerki by Swedish journalist Donald Boström in connection with the imprisonment of Swedish citizen and journalist Dawit Isaak I still feel the same shock as I did then, about Eritrea´s total ignorance of UN resolutions and the rule of law today.
(See the full interview above)
The next feature in the morning TV News is about the North Corean underground nuclear test and they way the world starts to awake and react on their escalating nuclear power plays.
So slowly and cautiously. Tip toe commenting. Pinning a lot of hopes on China´s reactions.
"We all said something, and we agreed more or less and said the same thing," expresses the US UNrepresentative in a statement which is as inflammatory as the weak coffee I am sipping.
Well it hasn´t changed much since the 70´s. The polarization is as great as it has always been. The frustration of our lack of means, measures, steps and actions to influence these alarming situations are still there to match.

PE

Early morning in the archipelago..

Sandhamn, Monday morning. The Grönskär lighthouse in a distance.

I left Gotland for a while to visit my childhood island of Sandhamn in the Stockholm archipelago and to see old friends I hadn´t seen for a long time. It has now turned summer for real and the sea is smooth and the air filled with sounds from the sea birds hollering eagerly if you tread somewhere near their nests..These are the waters where I learnt how to swim a long, long time ago. As beautiful as ever..
Sandhamn harbour at lunchtime. The majority of the weekend yachts and visitors have left. And the natives enjoy the beautiful island all to themselves..

"I love my dad!"

Malcolm and Thalia in Washington. May 2009.

A Gotland Saturday among cherry blossoms..

The sweet and subtle smell of the abundant cherry blossoms fills the garden and sweeps through my open bedroom window at night.There will be more than enough of the sweet tasting yellowish cherries for me and all the birds in my garden. No need to put out scarecrows and alike. Let´s have a cherry feast! Me, my family and friends and all the beautiful birds of the area - so busy right now to feed their new born nestlings! The first cuckoo of the season has now been heard for a couple of days..
I have now started to find some furniture for my "new room": some old pieces I had before. Anything put in this tiny space has to be of diminutive size. And this time, I will sidestep my belowed white decoration concept for this particular room with its cosy slooping roof and try to give it an English cottage style "oak wood touch". (below)

A new room is slowly taking shape..

Renovation of this room was quite necessary. This is what one of the bedrooms on the upper floor looked like when I bought the house.

Very, very cramped.. It really needed to be opened up..

So, one wall was torn down, as were the thick layers of bulgy wallpapers from generations of living - exposing at least 10 different kinds of wallpapers representing the various pattern styles of the passed 100 years..

The very romantic new American wallpaper from Fairwinds Studio´s Cottage Prints is now in place. Quite expensive they were here in Sweden - those rose bouquets vinyl coated extra broad papers.
But you know how it can be sometimes - you just have too.. (A bit too kitchy - I know - but what the..!)

The floor was of different kinds and quality in the various rooms and had to be made the same -so the easiest way to do it was to put on a new"antique looking oak" floor. A "clickboard panel floor" was chosen and is now well under way..

This is how it looked like this morning from my bedroom in the first rays of the emerging sun when I got out of bed. It will not be long now..I really look forward to have it finished. To be able to finally plan the decoration, furniture, lighting, curtains etc. ( You bet I will attend a few more farm auctions to try to find some suiting pieces!) I am getting increasingly tired of living in a dust cloud of plaster..So today I will try to stain paint the ledges in a suitable antique oak color. Wish me luck!

May surroundings..

"Among the many buds proclaiming May,

decking the fields in a holiday array..

..striving who shall surpass in braverie,

..mark the fair flowering of the hawthorn three,


who finley clothed in a robe of white

Fills full the vanton eye with May´s delight!"
Chaucer

From the family album..

Washington DC, May 2009. Grandpa Dag and Thalia.

Thalia 8 months old..

Thalia, Hinda and Pontus after marathon in Alexandria

Dad and Thalia after dad´s marathon race..

La Familia on the Washington terrace..

Auntie Lina and Thalia. All photos by Lina Ehrenpreis

The trickle..

..of guests to view my new home has now started with the coming of spring. The Swedes are known to be more outgoing with the arrival of the warmer season (surprise, surprise!) and the social life takes off with new intensity.. Today my old friend Captain from Sandhamn, arrived. He had been spending his first retirement winter in Malaga, Spain in a cosy mobile home he bought last fall. He has solemnly made a promise never to spend a winter in Sweden again in his life. His mobile home is now conveniently parked and plugged in, in the back of the garden.

Here we are, sister Nena, Captain and Mats with a sundowner Saturday afternoon in my garden. There was a lot of catching up to do after the long winter with only sporadic phone contacts. And thus we consequently finished the bottle brought in from Malaga! (surprise, surprise!)

May 1:st in Gotland..

Carpe diem!