Gotland - late winter days..

Early morning sunrays.

We are now in a stage after "a long winter of discontent" with an increasing amount of sunrays and daylight hours. Here I took a picture of the first morning rays in the Morning Room.
I love it´s pretentious name: "The Morning Room". It really sounds like I am living in a mansion of 250 rooms of Downton Abbey style!
So I am thinking of sticking to it. However I can promise you I have no intentions so far to dress up for dinner yet as the ladies do in the great TV-series.
Oh, dream away..

Winter is slowly slipping away and the birds are chirping in a new kind of happier way.
Sunday afternoon at Själsö fishing harbour in Gotland.

We turned our pale winter faces for a minute towards the sun and to enjoy the heat on our cheeks.

The stony beachfront and pretty ice formations.

Old fashioned net cradles in straight lines on the shore of the small harbour.

The sun starts setting..

..and the coast changes its icy blue into a warmer color. We return home with a first notion of the oncoming spring in our minds.
"Now is the winter of our discontent,
Soon made glorious summer by that sun of Gotland.."

A small part of the Xi´an Terra Cotta Worriors..

..is presently exhibited in Stockholm. So I took the ferry to the mainland and travelled to the capital to see the impressive worriors before they moved on to other places around the world. Above is a picture how they found the statues in the 70´s. They still held fragments of their former splendour and color. (Which presumably was lost when unearthed)

We brought Niki Isabella, 7 months to see them. She too, was truly fascinated.

A general in armour. I wonder what he once had been holding in his hands?

The smaller in size the lesser military ranks..

This one has a subtle smile on his face..

The horses were beautifully shaped..

This is supposed to be a woman straddling her long fallen horse. You can spot her round breasts. No side saddle business in those days!

The exhibition was situated in Skeppsholmen
(Island in the centre) close to the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.
Here we finally had a nice lunch.
Niki and Grandpa Dag are playing in the Museum bistro.

The vicarage in Rute

Today, I helped a friend to deliver a car from the old vicarage at Rute in northern Gotland.

The rectory is as pretty as any story book house.

The adjacent Rute church in the grey, moddy Saturday afternoon.

The present vicar is retiering and packing up to move to a more modern dwelling in Visby. He sounded rather happy about this - the rectory is difficult to warm and a big house to take care of for two people - the vicar and his wife.
By the way - the first vicar posted here was a Hercules Davidsson in 1631-1659. He was married and had 9 childern.
The present buildings are from around 1871 though.
The pretty vicarage in summer.
(More about the buildings for interested Swedish readers here)

As they were packing, I spotted the fine Gotland carpented dollhouse just about to be packed. The vicar´s wife is a doll house enthusiast - so I couldn´t help myself to take a few pictures of the packing turmoil of her handmade houses - a mini eco of what was going on at a larger scale in the big house..

The blue tiled stove in the back of the Blue room, the owner had made from the core of a paper roll.
There were so many pretty items but these dolls captured my heart. They were just standing there idly waiting for what was coming to them.. Note the only men here are both covered in cellophane paper. Hmm. Women´s lib at the mini-rectory? I always spin a story in my head when I see things like that.. (well, I woun´t bother you further with my tales..)

Now, this pretty doll was just sitting comfortably in the window waving goodbye to an era at the old rectory in northern Gotland. I just fell in love with her!

The ticklish baby

Oh, this is such a great age!

Niki playing with her mom - so much fun!

My second grandchild, Niki Isabella, now almost 7 months seems like a child of good spirits!