Tankar från Routern

I realize we live in Medieval..

2012-01-09T09:24:00.010Z

..settings here on Gotland when I discover on Blocket (the Swedish version of Ebay) that this horrifying old stock is for sale! It will be yours to pick up in Visby for a mere 30 dollars!

Anyone?

Stocks were devices used in the medieval and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by.
Since the purpose of putting offenders in the stocks was to expose them to ridicule and mockery, passers-by were encouraged to throw at those being punished mud, rotten eggs, moldy fruit and vegetables, smelly fish, offal, and excrement (both animal and human). Consequently, many of those who sat in the stocks were very dirty and smelly by the time that they were let out.
(Wiki)
Present time:
The Medieval Festival in Visby takes place every year in August.
Taking stock only of the Medieval supplies of the August Fair in Visby!
Fair enough!

Our Christmas eve..

2011-12-25T09:01:00.012Z

A traditional Swedish Christmas at Gotland.

The old fashioned kitchen.

The dining room

A beautiful tree..

The Gustavian parlor decked up for glögg or gluhwine! And the gingerbread house.

A beautiful tree..

Polly under the table with all the goodies having a hard time keeping her hungry lusts at bay!
Well, she soon got her share too!

2011-12-24T06:46:00.003Z

God Jul och Gott Nytt År
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Joyeux Noël et une Heureuse Anné 2012

Twinkle twinkle..

2011-12-16T08:22:00.002Z

Stella, my sister´s darling grandchild sings "Twinkle,twinkle little star" in Swedish.
Filmed by her mother Stephanie!
I say only one word: PRICELESS!

Computer graffiti

2011-12-14T07:09:00.013Z

Christmas morning
Facebook has a graffiti program sooo great to use.
Here are a few pieces I made on the computer in this program (when I did not have the energy to bring out the brushes..) Great fun!

Cap Ferrat

The dollhouse´s new easy chair

"He lived in the shadows, boozed a lot-but oh, so exciting!"

No more..

Sandhamn, the Stockholm archipelagoThe peaceful moon over the endless waters

The 13th of December..

2011-12-13T19:38:00.003Z

..is the day of Santa Lucia in Sweden. An old tradition during the darkest period of the year in Scandinavia. It was a nice day, the Lucia day with still no snow in my part of Sweden.
So we deceided to take a tour with pony Hälge - darned with his jinglebells - in the chariot.
Here we are next to my house. Hälge is an extemely eccentric pony with a will of his own. I love his glare when he peeks at you with his naughty pony eyes: one is dark brown and the other clear blue!
Happy Lucia to you all!

November images..

2011-11-16T08:34:00.024Z

Winding down..

The Still life of November.

A time for painting. My latest oil painting:
" A November kiss".

The abundance of apples The making of must

The many kinds of apples render..

..a spectrum of colors to the must and cider.

The eggs from the farm often hold two yolks.

The beautiful chestnut tree losing its leaves..

The sun sinking at 4 o´clock..

..and the moon rising shortly after..

November is a time for art exhibitions..

This one is at Sanda, Gotland, promoting women artists living on the island.

Digital art by me. I will soon embark on the task of turning this image into an "summer jog" oil painting. (After the copping of today´s ration of firewood! My little studio is heated only by a small stove. Brrrr.)
Time to put the sneekers on the shelf and bring out the lined leather boots!

Coming to a point..

2011-11-08T08:47:00.020Z

..when I could not stand the old, grey wallpapers from the 70´s of my studio anymore, I just had a freaky spell at them the other day. To the sound of the cosy stove burning (and Joe Cocker) I frantically started to paint the walls with"feel-good" pictures.

There were tributes to Niki de St Phalle.
Tinguely and Niki
She, her very person, and her poetry and crazy, great art that is like a roller coaster to your mind and makes you constantly feel good!
Her Buddha sculpture in Israel.
Niki: Mistress of the Universe.

And from Niki to Alice - Mistress of the Wonderland - copied from an old story book I bought in an antiquarian bookshop in Harare, Zimbabwe in the 80´s. Alice in this old story book is the spitting image of..
Alice Liddell in a photo of taken by Lewis Carroll himself in 1858.

Design above the little stove.

I am going to add some more Niki´s. Maybe this one?
Sooo lovely - don´t you think?

Or this one?

Or may be all of them?

Exhaused, I later fell asleep on the sofa next to the silky hunting beagle snoring away in the library while the autumn darkness fell over the now completely stripped apple trees outside the windows. It is still unusually warm in Sweden for November, so today I will abandon the paint brushes to collect the last walnuts on the ground as well as the last red winter apples.
AND it is high time to find somebody to lend me a Lagotto dog to sniff up the Gotland truffles of the season!
On the sunny Sunday morning by the way, we had some 50 flounders/flat fish in the net! And had them smoked in my brother-in-law´s homebuilt smokehouse. Delicious!
Last year´s truffle catch.

Sunday morning, sunrise at Sandhamn, the Stockholm archipelago.

2011-10-23T07:51:00.006+01:00

Trying out the new panorama application on my IPhone. Worked quite OK despite the fact I was not able to cope with the stitching and adjusting of light the way you do with the panning in Photoshop. But this time I travelled light without a computer so it will just have to do.The boats are now resting ashore for the winter; a few sailingboats were spotted at sea though, and there is a stunning tranquility lingering over the autumn days in the outer archipelago. With all turists gone you spendgood times at the Sandhamn´s wellknown Inn talking at lengths to old friends and all-year-around inhabitants (the natives! :-) of the island - like I was myself some years ago. Nice! But now I am flying off back to Gotland again to the old farm with the redroof and the 10000 apples!
Bye Sandhamn for now!

Childhood memories..

2011-10-20T11:46:00.001+01:00

In my summerhouse in Sandhamn in the Stockholm archipelago, I stumbled upon my old song book "Mors lilla Olle" (Mother's little Olle) with its lovely illustrations by Elsa Beskow and just had to share.. EB is placed deep in most Swedish hearts - and definitely in mine!
Had to share with you!

Update!

2011-10-19T04:28:00.001+01:00

Happy birthday Lina!

2011-10-18T08:42:00.001+01:00

And many happy returns!
I wish you a wonderful day and will see you Sunday for hugs and kisses!

Sunday - going to the auctions

2011-10-10T15:51:00.025+01:00

Every other Sunday,

..there is a great auction going on at Smågårde just outside Visby, Gotland. In the summer, it´s crowded with people from the mainland with money in their pockets. But now, in October, we, the natives can make real bargains. Entire farms from the island are often auctioned off - and the quality range from the very exquisite to affordable "wanna-have" bric-a-bracs.
So we went, last Sunday.

My sister made a successful bid for this stereoscopy (see end of this blog comment) from the turn of the last century. (above)

A great gadget with a number of old pictures/photos from the past!
(a bit of burlesque and daring photos too, no doubt!)

Popular auctioneer, Ulf in action. He is a master at creating a jolly ambiance and there are a lot of laughter amidst the efficiency!

However, bidding can be serious stuff..

An impressive 17th century bible for sale. Unfortunately not entirely intact.

Nena and Mia discussing if the pair of binoculars on the table are good enough for birdwatching -
-one of Mia´s great interests.

A pretty hand embroidered bridal footstool.

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"
"Ce trois pipes!"
(Magritte ref: pipe and passport)

We landed the bid for this old tureen!

I haven´t the slightest .. what this is? Do you?
Nor this.. :-)

A towel rack from the beginning of the 20th century.

Now:
Guess what I brought home? My sister and my friend stuffed my car so full of good I could hardly close the booth! And I? I bought nothing. I am presently busy insulating my little well-over-100-year-old farmstead before the winter. Talking about antiquities!
And those many repairing activities do not exactly cost
" needle money" - as the saying goes in Sweden.
"Rather warm feet,
than hand embroidered sheet!"

Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopic or 3-D imaging) refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth. Three strategies have been used to accomplish this: have the viewer wear eyeglasses to combine separate images from two offset sources, have the viewer wear eyeglasses to filter offset images from a single source separated to each eye, or have the lightsource split the images directionally into the viewer's eyes (no glasses required; known as Autostereoscopy).
(Wiki)

Tribute to Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

2011-10-06T07:04:00.005+01:00

I want to put a ding in the universe..

Life before the computer

Memory was something you lost with age

An application was filed for employment

A program was a radio- or TV show

A cursor used profanity

A keyboard was a piano

A web was made by a spider

A virus meant a runny nose

A CD was a bank account

A hard drive was a tough trip in your car

A mouse pad a place for the mouse to crash

And if you had a 3,5 inch floppy -

you just hoped nobody would find out

(Free interpretation from Funny.com)

"And the White Knight is talking backwards.."

2011-10-02T13:33:00.012+01:00

Sunday, I spent decorating a wall in the old section of the house which has not yet been renovated. The fog was rolling outside and I stayed indoors painting Alice! Here she is growing after eating the strange mushroom! The rest of the walls in this corner room beaming with light will be covered with other Wonderland motives. A rabbit or two? An evil off-with-her-head queen of Diamonds?

I remember what we used to call that mushroom back in Berkeley in 68, grooving to Jefferson Airplane´s record: "The white rabbit" - which I have to admit, I still adore:
Grace Slick paying tribute to Alice´s famous trip to Wonderland. (At Woodstock, -69)

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said;
"Keep YOUR HEAD

Keep your head"

Indian summer..

2011-09-29T20:43:00.018+01:00

October is soon upon us and Sweden (at least the southern parts) is really experiencing a great "Indian Summer" with warm and sunny days. Tuesday, I did not leave the boundries of my paradise garden for a moment. The lawns are emerald green, the grass is studded with a variety of apples in all apple colors.
The sun was burning my cheeks while I picked the late, huge,sweet rasberries.

Presently,the kirchen is covered with buckets full of golden apple must and I am trying to make some cider too. What a nice feeling it will be to open a bottle of perfectly ecological must when the winter storms rattle the dark windows!
I will most probably finish them off long before that!
(The bottles that is - not the ratteling windows!)

The old barns are painted in the impressionistic
light of late September..
Some roses are still flowering to the joy of ambitious bees who are flying in for a last sip.

The nasturtium is heading towards the sky - oh, how I love their typical smell that brings back childhood memories..
The pears are just about to ripe and these big ones above tastes delicious,
- warmed by the late early autumn sun.

The small green grapes are full of seeds and growing by a southern wall.
Not much for wine making, really!
(The cider will do just fine!)

The Jerusalem artichokes In the background are almost three meters tall by now and the small lumps will not be dug up from the soil below until the first frost!
Then, we shall make a delicious soup!
(It´s the first season I grow these - cost a small fortune for two plants!)

The dahlias are in now in bloom.

And there is a crimson sky almost every evening. Soon, to soon, the entire garden will turn the same colors, gold, purple, orange and crimson..
I wonder why the Anglo world calls the warm fall days "Indian summer"?
So we consult Wiki as always:
An Indian summer is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the autumn. It refers to a period of considerably above normal temperatures, accompanied by dry and hazy conditions, usually after there has been a killing frost. Depending on latitude and elevation, the phenomenon can occur in the Northern Hemisphere between late September and mid November. In Sweden we say "Britt summer" because of the namesday of Britt or Britta that occurrs on the 7th of October.

As imperceptibly as grief..

2011-09-28T06:50:00.005+01:00

..The summer lapsed away, --

Too imperceptible, at last,

To seem like perfidy.

A quietness distilled,

As twilight long begun,

Or Nature, spending with herself

Sequestered afternoon.

The dusk drew earlier in,

The morning foreign shone, --

A courteous, yet harrowing grace,

As guest who would be gone.

And thus, without a wing,

Or service of a keel,

Our summer made her light escape

Into the beautiful.

--As Imperceptibly as Grief by Emily Dickinson

The Fårö night - "Fårönatta"

2011-09-18T10:11:00.035+01:00

Once a year, the small island north of Gotland - Fårö (at the very northern tip of the map above ) celebrates an entire night every September with a fiesta which is marking The Grand Finale of Summer. It is called "Fårönatta" (The special night of Fårö).

Fårö the small island separated from Gotland by a short ferry trip, is perhaps internationally mostly known through famous film director Ingemar Bergman who spent a large part of his life here. He brought a spectrum of Swedish and international actors to the island and made Fårö a superb setting for many of his great films.The film maker lived here where he had his heart, work, studios and home..

(Ingemar Bergman right with Sven Nykvist)
It is well known that the Fårö natives portected the genius´ privacy carefully. It is said that you never got the right information on how to find his house situated near a stony beach.
http://bergmancenter.se/en/
During the years he lived there, you could ask any of the locals about the whereabouts of his houses and they most likely would point in all kinds of directions and scratch their heads respectively..
The island provided settings for his Fårö trilogy of: Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna and Skammen, as well as Persona. Andrey Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice was also filmed on Fårö.

Link to Ingmar Bergman official website Face To Face.

Back to Fårönatta. Our first stop were at wellknown Kuten´s - a great place for nostalgica with focus on the 60´s. At first, the sight of a junk yard meets you. Here, Kuten, - a groovy ..
(Photo: Sverige Radio)
..hippie drop-in, runs a great Creperie speak-easy which serves lovely galettes and crepes. And a book store across the road which bears quite some resemblance to "Shakespeare´s" intellectual hang-out in Paris.

This is the psychedelic entrance! (below)

Next to the Creperie, there is an out-of-sight bar brimming with all the paraphernalia bling bling from the 50´and 60´s you can think of. On stage, bands play music from the era and here they celebrate odd evenings with vigils like the death parties of Elvis´s and Marilyn´s and other deceased icons!
And all courses on the menu carry names like "Galette Hopper," " Brando" or "Marilyn" etc. (I had the Hopper with Chorizo, with all kinds of goodies baked á lá minute into the delicious durum pancakes. You bet your sweet bippie!!)

The entrance. Far out! Can you dig it?

Bar graffiti. Groovy man, groovy!
The Blue Grass band rehearsing before the invasion of the Party Night crowds.
Bar action, hey hey let´s get stoooned..
(Photo: Gotland net)

A gas pump from Anno Dazumal.

The junk that meets the eye!

On the northern tip of Fårö..

Fårö Lighthouse is a Swedish lighthouse located on the island´s easternmost tip.
In the 19th century there had been many complaints from sea authorities that the coastlines on Gotland had very few lighthouses. So the decision was made to build one on the north side of Gotland. This lighthouse was constructed one year after the one on Hoburgen at the south tip of Gotland.The light ran on a colza oil lamp at first. In 1882 a paraffin lamp replaced the old one, and in 1953 it was electrified. From 1891 to 1976 the tower had a first-order Fresnel lens installed in its lantern which made the lighthouse very powerful. It is remote-controlled since 1976 and owned by the Swedish Maritime Administration. (Wikipedia)
Unfortunately, the lighthouse was not open to the public this year on this night.

Langhammars at Fårö. (photo: Gotland net)
(photo: Gotland net)
The Laterna Magica theater, (Laterna Magica is the title of Ingemar Bergman´s biography).. held a surprise performance in the night..
(photo: Gotland net)
The "FåröNatta" event is an effort to present Fårö as an all -year-round-island-resort, where a number of enterprises, businesses, individuals and associations join forces to show that Fårö is very much alive all year around!

And all through the night once a year!

Every 30 minutes there are ferries from Gotland to the island. The easiest way to travel is by car (for rent in Visby). In the summer you can reach Gotland by plane from Stockholm, Göteborg, Ängelholm, Sundsvall, Ronneby, Norrköping, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo and Hamburg as well.

Stockholm under the rainbow..

2011-09-18T07:36:00.004+01:00

From the ferry to Djurgården cruising in the beautiful Stockholm harbor, this stunning September rainbow was captured..
(Photo: Lina Ehrenpreis)

Late summer pleasures..

2011-09-03T17:20:00.004+01:00

Sweet corn harvested on Gotland. Yummy!

The pretty apple trees of my garden in the late afternoon sun, Saturday.

The grapes are still pretty sour.. :-(

Are there any apples called "Blushing cheeks?" (In case not: I thy hereby christen you, my favourite apples anonymously hidden in the woods in the back of the garden to...)

Happy Birthday,Thalia!

2011-09-02T05:29:00.002+01:00

She turns 3 years today, my grandchild Thalia! Have a great party in DC ,in your new day care school and at home! Hip hip hurray!
I´ll see you soon my darling!

The Eastern coast of Gotland..

2011-09-01T06:06:00.018+01:00

Shrimps so temptingly presented, boiled on one side of the wooden serving box and smoked on the other.

The opposite coast of Gotland (from where I live), to the east is called Östergarnslandet; has a lot to offer. Some days ago it was time for an excursion east together with a friend who has been living there for many summers in the past - and, of course was an excellent guide!

Starting off at Katthammarsvik with shrimps at their Smokehouse was an excellent launching point for the day.

Beautiful Gotland glass and with a view of the Baltic.

Gotland designs and the famous sheepskins of the island in the back.

Great designs!

The only real manor house in Gotland is to be found here in Katthammarsvik.

Annexes for rent.

Time for a walk in the woods and a peak at the various birds at Storsund.

The bird watching tower.

A visit to Ilses toy store in Kräklingbo is a must.

Ilse to the right. She stocks a lot a quality toys from Germany - mainly made of wood. Not much plastic here! She made a lovely package for me to send to Washington where someone is turning 3 years tomorrow!

Meanwhile, at home, some huge old ashtrees are felled in my backyard. Good stuff they have for equipment, those good humored Gotland farmers!
Well, now is time for cleaning up and burning. That part is mine! And my equipemnt is just great! A rake will do just fine (and some girl power)!

The island of the penguines of the North..

2011-08-28T19:40:00.038+01:00

Yesterday, on the hottest day of this summer - with a cloudless sky and some 25 degrees C - I set out in a small ferry onto the heaving sea to visit an island I had never been to before.

I was heading for the famous bird island of Stora Karlsö in the Baltic close to the coast of Gotland.

This visit had been high on my agenda for years so finally:
"Stora Karlsö. Here we come!"

This little limestone island that rises from the sea like a rock in a storybook, is situated 30 minutes boat ride some 6 km west of Gotland. The island where I was going is a nature reserve, after Yellowstone National Park the oldest established protected nature area in the world.
Gotland, Sweden with the two islands: Stora and Lilla Karlsö

This fossil rich limestone island rising majestetically out of the sea is mostly known for its rich birdlife and flora.
En route, we had to pass the smaller sister island, Lilla (Minor) Karlsö, which can be spotted here through the spray made by the speeding the ferry.

Little Karlsö with its steep rocky slopes.

Norderhamn (The Northern harbor) of Stora (Major) Karlsö with its small museum and a resturant and café, is a fairly sheltered port with a jetty.

The pink marble of Karlsö.
There is evidence that Stora Karlsö has been inhabited since the stone age. During the Middle Ages there was a marble quarry, which provided material for a number of Gotland's churches.

Deep caves were used for storage in the old ages. Needless to say, many interesting findings..
..has been dug up here by archeologists through the years.

A cave with a view
- actually, certain parts of the island quite remainded me of Capri, Italy!

..and the smells of a Greek island in summertime..
The scents of the flora here is heavenly- especially on a sunbaked day like yesterday! Oh, how I want to bottle this feeling and take it back home with me !

Karlsö is mostly covered with alvar, with many juniper bushes and some small groves of deciduous trees. In spring, there is an extraordinary number of orchids-mostly elder-flowered orchid and early purple orchid. There are also several very rare plants for Sweden such as Adonis vernalis, Lactuca quercina (called 'Karlsösallat' in Swedish), hart's-tongue fern (actually depicted on the Swedish 100-crown bill!) and Corydalis gotlandica (the only endemic plant on Gotland).

The island is mostly known for its rich birdlife, however. It has large colonies of Common Guillemot - the penguines of the North - (about 7500 breeding pairs).
(Above:Wikipedia photo)
Here at the small museum you can get an idea of the mighty performance every year when the Guillemot chicks after hatching are beaconed by their fathers at sea to jump off the steep cliffs and land on the rocks 100´s of meters below (they bounce on their fat bellies and are presumably not hurt)

An impressive King´s eagle hanging from the museum ceiling with a nameplate between his claws: "May I introduce myself..!"

The Stora Karlsö lighthouse. The rooms here can be rented per night and is supposed to be a great stay - if its lady-teacher ghost lets you rest quietly, that is!

The smells, the humid spray from the sea, the wild thyme, well it all reminded me so
much of a Greek island! Just missed a chilled Retsina!
Limestone pebbles and fossils form a long beach. I couldn´t resist a dip in the clear water after a couple of hot hours guided walk across the island. Nice!

The island vehicle, alas!

The farewell committee acting up like an Hindu godess (Shiva?) waiving!
The 9.00am-3pm trip is about 300 Swedish crowns. (48 US dollars) The guided tour included.

Have you ever encountered Tuttivillius - the devil?

2011-08-24T21:13:00.011+01:00

Today I made an extensive excursion to the eastern coast of Gotland (Östergarnslandet) and en route made a brief stop at the pretty parish church at Bäl. Luckily the church was open and I got a chance to view its many fresks recently unveiled, renovated and conserved. During the Enlightment era however, it was commonplace to try to cover and white wash the many old 1300-century fresks in churches to emphasize the theological purity of the places of worship.

Well, it is not difficult to realize why!
Now, here is one hell of a fresk that emerged and met the conservators: Say hello to Devil Tuttivillius! Just love that name!
Take a good look at his horrifying feet and bulging eyes!

Tuttivillius is sitting by the church entrance forever taking stock of people gossiping in church!
Note the angel trying to hit the devil on the head!

Here, some devilish gossiper has his tongue painfully pulled to the degree that he is involuntarily relieving himself! This poor fellow must really have been quite some blabbermouth!
They all are great proof of some 1300-century cartoons/graffiti styles with quite a bit of humour in their presumably deterring efforts!
( Painting by Johan Bartsch 1664.)
And, above the altar, this lovely apple cheeked and red nosed Jesus is happily enjoying
the Last Supper! Who is resting in his knee looking like he had a bit too much of the good wine from the calice and what kind of little strange animal is it on the plate ready to be devoured?

Who ever said that visiting old churches were boring?
A tuttivillius function was to collect in his sack any words omitted or stumbled over by a careless clerk, as well as to record the words of any who joked or gossiped in church.)
Tuttivillius to you all for now!
And remember to watch your tongues today and ever after!

Washington minutes after..

2011-08-24T08:14:00.003+01:00

..the earthquake yesterday - 5.8 o in the Richter scale. People leaving buildings on Pennsylvania avenue - shaken but not stirred.
(Photo: Malcolm Ehrenpreis)

The spires of Washington National Cathedral snapped and broke in the quake. Thanks God no one was hurt or injured yesterday - according to preliminary reports..
(Photo: AP)

Young Obama..

2011-08-20T06:24:00.003+01:00

I found these lovely photos of a very young Obama on the net.
But have no idea who snapped them on a happy day on Waikiki, Hawaii a long time ago. His grandma, perhaps?

Embrazing life and the whole world.. I sincerely hope and keep my fingers crossed that he will make it through these rocky times of global financial distress and he´ll be able to lead his huge country away from dreary, repulsive tea parties for another presidential round of global common sense.

Sitting by the dock of the bay..

2011-08-19T06:36:00.011+01:00

Mid august morning on the Trouville jetty at Sandhamn, watching (as I have been doing ever since childhood) the clear water ripples..

..playing giddily over the sandy sea floor.
Same spot long ago - other ripples, primitive jetty, young, non-rippled sisters breakfasting on that same beach in their nighties ..

Summer pictures..

2011-08-15T12:24:00.015+01:00

Full moon. The harbour.
Mid August in Sandhamn, the Stockholm archipelago.
The Club house jetty, Friday.
(Photo: Nena G)

Dansberget, Sandhamn Friday night.

My hammock- brought home in the handluggage from Nicaragua.

Sunday on the main jetty- popular Swedish artist Plura of Eldkvarn, entertains.

Sun filtering through the shrubs in my archipelago garden.

Beautiful rocks at Kniphalsen.

Tasty beauties on the veranda..

Water reflections

Brandskär - one of the outmost skerries in this part of the Baltic..

Paraphernalia Nostalgica..

2011-08-12T08:02:00.019+01:00

I recently visited a small neighbouring cottage in Gotland where the local historic parish society has been collecting a number of everyday use objects and touching countryside memorabilia over the years.

The little historic cottage is situated in Stenkyrka in northern Gotland, Sweden.
An intricate knitting machine of anno dazumal caught my eye here, for a long time. (Thinking about the warming socks, mittens and pulls that had been produced here on snowy winter nights in the light of a kerosene lamp.)

Good stuff and useful farm utensils..

.. in the kitchens of the old days ..

An old anchor I found in a small fishing village in Boviken, Gotland. No museum here!
It was just sitting there on the ground!I just love is simple construction!

Stenkyrka parish cottage.

Mouse trap of the old days -so called clump trap.
(The times of flat dead, departed and deseased mouses?!)

Cashier´s receipt board in the old - still thriving- Sandhamn bakery in the Stockholm archipelago
The pretty bakery in the Sandhamn village.

"Farmer´s pride"- old marine print, Gotland

Traditional cupboard, Swedish country style, (Gotland) today very much in demand at auctions. How I would love to have one of those!

Here it starts!

2011-08-07T13:59:00.002+01:00

Great pix of my grandchild Isabella ( 1 year old) reading the Sports pages!
(Photo: Lina E)

Gone fishing..

2011-08-06T05:03:00.002+01:00

Sture, Sherry & Pricken docking in the Sandhamn harbour yesterday.

Blog vacation!

2011-08-03T07:43:00.001+01:00

Sandhamn days!

Cloudberries..

2011-07-11T07:08:00.012+01:00

It is well known fact in Sweden that the "Gold of the Forests" -the delicious cloudberries- are to be found mainly in the northern woods of Sweden. Little is known that they can be found on the small islets and skerries far out in the Stockholm archipelago! You will have to travel rather far to the outmost islands to find them in the small, mouldy and humid canyons among the crags.

These canyons are in addition the favourite grounds of rather poisonous vipers. (These islands are known to have the largest population of venomous snakes in Europe.)

Being placed under protection they thrive in abundance among the tasty frogs of the many small island ponds. A protection enactment which no "archipelago aboriginal" really obeys, I can assure you.

So yesterday, donning a good pair of Wellingtons, I set out to search for them - the cloudberries, that is - and alas!

This is the harvest which I prompty poured into a pan and boiled with sugar until almost caramelized and then served with thin pancakes a´ la´galette and devoured on a smooth rock in the sunshine overlooking the glittering Baltic..
The summer Baltic

My cuddling grandchildren:

2011-07-08T10:35:00.004+01:00

(photo: Lorena Gonzalez)
Thalia in the US..

(photo: Lina Ehrenpreis)
..and Isabella in Gotland!

Happy First Birthday, Izzy!

2011-07-07T06:22:00.002+01:00

Hip hip hurray!
Niki, Isabella, Lily-Lou, my second grandchild, is turning one year old today!
She is celebrating her first birthday in Gotland!
All the love in the world to you from Grandma!

ÅF Offshore Race..

2011-07-06T08:58:00.004+01:00

(photo: Anders Eliasson)
..The two-days regatta and the most prestigious race in the Baltic Sea - with an average of around 300 participating sailing boats, starts today from Sandhamn. The larger yachts take off from Stockholm as of this year. The photo above is from the information meeting yesterday that took place on the main jetty in Sandhamn.
Quite an international crowd are now gathered on our small island which kneels under the logistic pressure..

(photo: Anders Eliasson)
One could only wish for better weather and some sunshine!
The winds are OK though for a fair sailing start which is at least something..
We wish them all a great race around Gotland and back here in Sandhamn!
Good luck and have fun!

Now it started to rain..

2011-07-01T06:38:00.004+01:00

..alas, and I found a few boxes of oil pastels I didn´t know I had. Still acing for an Isaac Grunewald painting, my copycat tail started to wag and..

..this is a need to satisfy this urge.
Meanwhile, it was rather nice to listen to the summer rain hammering away on the loft and to have a go at oil pastels which I had never tried to work with before. If the rain continues, I will soon do some more in oil pastels. But then, I will do some of my own. Maybe of a delicious turbot? Or some other spikey themes..

Gone fishing..

2011-06-30T17:55:00.011+01:00

Moving out into the archipelago, we now started some fishing. Meters of nets go into the Baltic every night carefully positioned on fishing reefs well known to us since childhood.. We are now mainly focused on turbut but catch an occational salmon as well. (I certainly will dillcure these tonight) The turbot is cleaned of head and intestines and put as is in the owen at 100 C for an hour to simmer slowly in its own juice. Nothing added. Just that. And served with new potatoes and horseradish butter.. Mmmm mm
This is me early this morning getting a real muscle ace after pulling some hundred of meters of nets out of the sea.

It almost takes a full day to the clean the nets of sea weed..

But at sunset in a 100-year old fishing lodge (that has been handed down in the same family for generations) in the skerries far out in the archipelago , we enjoy a well deserved meal..

The fishing cabin.

A water color I have made of the cabin at the islet.

A great fishing partner on the go!

Sandhamn´s harbour in a distance
where thay are now preparing for the big event of the year: the Baltic/Gotland Runt Sailing Race/or "ÅF Offshore Race" (previously "Round Gotland Race") is an offshore sailing race in the Baltic Sea, arranged by the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS) at the turn of the month June/July each year with the starting and finishing lines in Sandhamn in the outskirts of Stockholm archipelago. The two-days regatta is the most prestigious race in the Baltic Sea and have an average of around 300 participating sailing boats.
(Photo: Abcseglarskola.se)
The competition is divided into eight different classes, sailing on five different courses. The longest, 653 M, is sailed by 60-foot trimarans, the shortest 179 M, for classic boats. The overall victor is appointed in the ORC International class. For the less experienced and family sailors there is the SweLYS/SRS class, which provides the holiday sailors a taste of a real sail-race adventure.

Midsummer celebrations..

2011-06-25T19:01:00.005+01:00

.. in the beautiful Stockholm archipelago.
Midsummer is big in Sweden. Most people try to get out of the cities and find a place in the countryside to dance traditional folkdanses around the Maypole, eat pickled herring and drink quite a lot of schnaps. And singing a lot of songs. (The longer into the night the dirtier!)
This Maypole was raised at Lökholmen, a small island neighbouring Sandhamn and the archipelago centre of the..
The Royal Swedish Yacht Club

We had splendid midsummer weather, high spirits , good food and sweet strawberries and beautiful yachts decorated for the occation!

Midsummer is Scandinavia's most popular festival
right along with Christmas. A traditional celebration of the Summer solstice.
Midsummer is the longest day of the year. In Sweden, Midsummer is even celebrated as a national holiday . Most Midsummer's Eve celebrations take place on the Saturday between June 20 and June 26.

One of my favourite pictures/ads..

2011-06-22T06:04:00.006+01:00

..of all times, is this outstanding photo of a very young Marisa Berenson shot in Maroc back in 1967. Now when summer is becoming serious business I want to.. look like this-like her- to be clad her beautiful sandals, wear this stunning golden kaftan on the beach, the marvellous rings on my fingers, and to be combed in this elaborate empressic hairdo...

But oh..
I guess I will have to settle for that this.
Will just have to do!
Do, do do..In the summertime:

The Day of the Open Gardens in Visby

2011-06-19T08:46:00.023+01:00

Saturday, the owners of the old houses..

within the ancient town wall of Visby opened up their private gardens for the public.

It was a great opportunity for us to see these marvels of gardens you didn´t even know existed. So of course we joined in the afternoon excursion..

Each garden owner-all women, sic!- prowdly showed us around and explained and answered our questions on the range of beautiful kinds of roses,(for which Gotland is famous, thanks to its fertile limestone soil) wines, mulberry trees etc

Fireworks of peonies in one garden.

Here is Karin lecturing on her rather large garden close..
..to the old town ringwall.

The smallest garden on the show was owned by a decendant of the well known Swedish gardening family Weibull. Every inch was elaboratelly planned in this miniscule, pretty garden within its limestone washed walls in the middle of the town. (Creating a microclimate of sorts!) She was even growing quite a number of potatoes here!

A garden house like from a Hanzel and Gretchen saga!

A rather large, well kept formal garden that held a well/fountain and the smallest pond of water lillies I have ever seen!
The pond.

This small "garden-oasis" even contained a walnut tree! Lots of plants in terracotta urns here..

"Communis" of the Centifoila- Muscosa group exposed its strange thornclad stems.
I touched them and found that they were actuallt very soft. To scare off insects, anyway??

Pretty group of yellows and blues..

Here I finally found the small bushy, lovely smelling pink carnations my Grandma once had in her garden! I have been looking for them every since, but in vain. So, the nice lady-gardener of course promptly promised me a plant of those upon hearing my lament..Their smell bring back my childhood memories indeed..

A firework of peonies!

A feast for the eye where ever you turn!
The medeval town of Wisby, June 18 2011

In love of the blues..

2011-06-16T07:23:00.039+01:00

Marimekko, Ittala, Finland

Isaac Grunewald, Sweden

Alhambra, Granada, Spain

The Red Sea, Egypt

Magritte

The Blue Train, South Africa

Peacock, Gotland Sweden

Interior, Gotland farmstead, Sweden

Ming urn, China

Baie des Anges, Nice, France by Roul Dufy

Ladies´fan, China

Blue eggs.

Blå Blom. Gustavsberg, Sweden

19th century Swedish wall paper
Blue view from my window

Vintage blue..
The Blue Parlor. Gotland

Belize

Not mine..

Spring blues..
China blue
Cowboy blue. Young fashion. Washington.

Blue shadows. Nyhamn, Gotland

Blue flairing dress. Vogue
A piece of coastline. Gotland
Would like one of theese!

Greece, no doubt!

Henri Matisse´s blue girl

Snow Blue. My winter garden
Feeling blue? Nails to match.

Sampling blues

Monet´s blue mood.My blue mood takes over. Normal cherries from the garden. Fake blue.
Vincent, marvellous Vincent

Greece.

Sandhamn

Blå Porten, Djurgården, Sweden

Another of my artist neighbours..

2011-06-09T06:23:00.015+01:00

..is the gifted sculptor, painter and stylist Carola Edlund of Ungesmiss, Stenkyrka.
She is very skilled at her craft and most of her sculptures are chiselled in marble and with a sensual/erotic focus. Last year, she called our then Bishop of Visby, Lennart Koskinen, and asked him if he would object to her having an erotic sculpture exhibition in one of the many church ruins of the Gotland capital. To which the Bishop promptly answered: "But of course! Anything on the theme of love can be displayed within the walls of the church!"
Carola Edlund in addition spends a month a year in India to manufacture clothes for the popular Medieval week on Gotland that takes place every August.
This year she produced a calender on Medieval Erotica (together with photographer Carolina Bosdotir and a number of models,) shot in parts in the church ruins of Visby:

Month of July

This model is the great guy who installed my new fireplace last winter. Here he really looks like the crafty handyman he is! :-) (He is also Carolas husband)

Miss Medieval February

Sweet May Love!

Merry "Christmas-kind-of.."

The woods of Gotland..

Finding the needle in the haystack?
October.

A beautiful photo of the artist herself dressed in one of her Medieval dresses.

This week, the many artists in Gotland..

2011-06-03T19:24:00.019+01:00

..are inviting the public to view their artwork in their ateliers. Maria Brandsjö-Fredin - and very old friend of mine and neighbour here on the island, is showing her production in her studio by her home in the parish of Stenkyrka .

Maria and I went to the same school of Journalism in Stockholm and spent some time on the US West Coast together in the groovy 60´s. She has been painting all along her years as a professional journalist.

She has a great studio covered with canvasses and paintings on a number of strong themes that doesn´t excactly leave you unaffected. Her satires of local Gotland politicians are stunning. Maria always tries to add a bit of warmth to her satires which is not the case about her series of paintings on the theme of mobbing ..

Growing up..

..trying to cope with your parent´s expectations..trying desperately to please..

..if not successful in meeting your parent´s expectations, you could always dream about winning the Nobel Prize. Then you wold win them.. Perhaps.

Maria´s cold world of school mobbing..

Am I an alien?

"You are a disgusting whore"

A school corridor. You just have to walk past all..

The brutality of youth.
The cold and scornful faces of the silent bystanders.

View from the floor..
Her mobbing painting makes my blood turn to ice.

Maria among her satiric paintings..The politician on the left is the man who is trying to introduce the parking meter here on Gotland!

The coverage she got in the Gotland papers.
"Satires with a "tongue-in-cheek" it says in Swedish.

Meanwhile in Washington DC..

2011-06-02T06:50:00.005+01:00

The unmerciful humid heat of a Turkey Hammam has hit the capital..

..and Thalia is spending her time in the little pool at her terrace!
She now looks quite a bit like her father at the same age! Miss her!
She really should be here in Gotland instead in this pleasant summer weather of 20 C!
(Photos: Lorena Gonzalez)

Good Morning!

2011-05-31T06:45:00.014+01:00

Greetings from my Gotland garden (at 6.30 AM, Tuesday) foaming with cow parsley!The first rays of this splendid day are filtering through the canopies of the old oaks.

The smells from a numer of different kinds of lilacs are heavy..

So is the sweet fragrance of the cow parsley. The cockoo is repeating its promising chants
in a distance.

With no neighbours I feel free to stroll in my nightie with my camera at this early hour..

Fragrances, fragrances, fragrances..

"Here comes the sun.."

Wood cranebills are promoting the upcoming midsummer! In Swedish they are called Midsummer flowers.

A tale of a very old house..

2011-05-29T07:30:00.016+01:00

”The natives were jovial, courteous and humane.”
In 1741, Carl Linnæus visited Gotland:

Carl von Linné

Yesterday, I had a chance to enter a very old house, situated on my neighbour´s grounds close to their beautiful Gotland farm at Nygranne, Gotland.

No one really knows when it was built but a guess is during the end of the 17th century. Very few interventions have been undertaken as to resturation measures - proving the quality of the materials and the methods of the old days..

Layers uopn layers of old wallpapers depicts the trends (and economy) through the years....
The building used to house an inn with lodgings a sort of half-way-hostel 1,5 kms from Visby for travellers heading towards Gotland´s northern coast.

The entrance door..

The tavern..

The surroundings..
Now, one of the historically interesting parts around this old inn is that Carl von Linné - the Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature - once made a stop here for the night. He was en route on his famous botanical trip to northern Gotland. And he spent the night here on the upper floor of this building. And most probably some food and a "Gotlandsdricku" (see video below on the traditional brewing in Gotland. Swedish only) in the tavern downstairs..
Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775.
Oil painting in the portrait collection at
Gripsholm Castle.

Carl von Linné is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the father of modern ecology. It is said that he was dead tired upon arrival after having spent some 14 hours on horseback from Visby; the principal town of Gotland.
Actually, he spent some time by my garden too. There is a sign by my fence about his explorations here of the impressive biodiversity of this area.
(The one I´m priviledged to enjoy every day - especially now in the month of May!)
More on Carl von Linné..

God Grief how complicated!
In May 1741, ten days after he was appointed Professor, he undertook an expedition to the island provinces of Öland and Gotland with six students from the university, to look for plants useful in medicine. First, they travelled to Öland and stayed there until 21 June, when they sailed to Visby in Gotland. Linnaeus and the students stayed on Gotland for about a month, and then returned to Uppsala. During this expedition, they found 100 previously unrecorded plants. The observations from the expedition were later published in Öländska och Gothländska Resa,
written in Swedish. Like Flora Lapponica, it contained both zoological and botanical observations, as well as observations concerning the culture in Öland and Gotland. And finally, as a curiosity: In this book he made a note about the living conditions of Gotland farmers as being:
"Good, orderly and well-arranged".

Out of the blue..

2011-05-22T05:53:00.004+01:00

..and a dear childhood friend (with whom I haven´t had any contact with for some 30 years) called me the other day to inform me that one of my paintings from 1961 was now hanging on his wall. (I hade given the painting to his mother long ago and he had now inherited it)
It´s a rather large painting and one I hardly remember. He was kind to send a photo and here she is the lady-with-the-golden-locks! A premonition of the upcoming psychedelic era?
He said he was quite fond of it!
Can you belive it?!!

The garden in a May sunset..

2011-05-19T20:23:00.016+01:00

Having been away for a week from Gotland, I returned to my garden yesterday. This paradise garden with its many seasonal faces never ceases to amaze me! Summer is just about to explode and the fruit trees are all in bloom. So I went into my haven with the camera just before supper and had to share..
(Just hate to have to travel and leave this timeof year but alas! sometimes you just have too)

All the blackbirds that I had fed through the harsh winter were singing happily and my almost tame phesant was proudly strolling around in his sparkling outfit..(he refuses to get within range of my camera though..)

There are plenty of orchids in the garden and the amount is increasing after the clearing of some trees and bushes last fall.

Soon the rapeseed field in the back will be full of poppies - a sign of ecological agriculture, I guess.

My small veggie garden where I planted Jerusalem artichokes and tomatoes today.

The old cherry tree that almost reaches into my bedroom on the upper floor must be almost 100-years old. It´s time in bloom is very short - just a week or so. I enjoy every minute of it and you can easily see it is hard to leave this little paradise this time of year..

The Till Tale. Or The Tale of The Tilted Tub..

2011-05-11T11:15:00.006+01:00

My only neighbour here in Gotland is an old but vital farmer whose mother was the sister of one my predecessors in the house I bought. They are all cousins and and related one way or the other here in the parish where I live.

Getting to know them is getting gradually to know my old house´s history.
Yesterday Rolf payed a visit and having often played in the house as a child, he felt quite at home and stormed into my small bath room and exclaimed "Aha!"
"Do you know why it is so small in here? Do you know what is in the area behind the wall?"
No I didn´t for sure..
"When they decided to renovate the old bathroom and to get rid of the old bathtub, it turned out that there was no way to get it out without breaking a wall or two.."
So they simply tilted the tub and built a wall to cover it!
So now I know. I have a big stand-up bathtub built into the wall between the livingroom and the bathroom! Great!
The things you find out..

Anyway, my neighbour came by the other day and tilled and ploughed and harrowed a strip of land for me. So I have now ordered maize seeds and now dream of maize of the "Sweet Nugget" kind!
Keep your finger crossed I will succeed! Please.

I haven´t grown any maize since my African years. But then again, then you relied on a lot of help from experienced gardeners. I remember so well in Tanzania the way my gardener repeated:"Mbili, mbili" while sowing and planting, which meant "Two, two" at the same time.
(If one seedling should die or not succeed.)
So I will surely hum "mbili, mbili" when planting.
And maybe a little of my favourite Malalaika-tune in Swahilii too:

Nakupenda Malalaika..

Wanna get a goose pimple or two?

2011-05-05T05:33:00.004+01:00

You just got to watch this if you haven´t already!

Wow!

Fergie´s Revenge?

2011-04-30T08:14:00.003+01:00

Her mother´s "subtle" revenge for not having been invited to the Royal weddding?

I have now lived next to the Lummelunda caves..

2011-04-29T07:03:00.020+01:00

..for 2,5 years and never entered them! And parts of the grotto system probably run right under my own grounds!

The extensive cave system reaches far and subsequently you are not permitted to do any deeper interferences with the grounds as for instance, to install geothermal heating etc, when your property is thought to be situated above this winding system of cavities, creeks, small lakes, halls and fossile rock formations..

So on Good Friday I finally entered my neighbouring, exciting cave system. The Lummelunda Creek is meandering deep down there in the dark grounds, with plenty of stalactites and stalagmites, impressive halls and lakes and fossil formations. (Gotland was in the very beginning situated next to Kenya before they split up and the island slided northwards when Gondwana began to break up in the early-Jurassic!)
This little group above felt almost sacral on a Good Friday.

(So OK, I did a little adding on Photoshop to capture my feeling on this - the Virgin with Jesus, Joseph and the Three Wise men.)

Lummelundagrottan (Swedish for "The Lummelunda cave") is a nature reserve located near Lummelunds bruk north of Visby on Gotland, Sweden.
(Wikipedia)

It is best known for the actual cave Lummelundagrottan, also called Rövarkulan (40 acres) and include the cave and an area above the ground. It is one of the longest caves in Sweden; the investigated parts of it measure almost 4 km (2.5 mi) ("The Den of Robbers"). The reserve is 16 haThe site is visited by about 110,000 people each year.

Not quite everything felt sacral though! The old Swedish trolls seemed to keep still on this very day!

Back in 1948 the first efforts were made to enter the rather small system of caves when three young boys with adventures in mind sneaked into the grotto. At one point a rock fell down and exposed a 20 meter long narrow tunnel. They were slim enough to be able to go where no one had been able before. (I am happy I was not their mother!) They discovered two big halls and was subsequently stopped by a lake.

The three adventurous boys who discovered the cave are all still alive today to tell their story:
(In Swedish only, however a reconstruction on the adventures well worth watching anyway!)
Later they brought a raft that took them further into the cave system. Today, diwers have discovered a further 400 meters of tunnels in the grotto as well as the biggest hall room so far.
Cave map

Sandhamn represented in Washington!

2011-04-28T07:01:00.006+01:00

Thalia and Malcolm,Washington DC. Easter Parade 2011.
Thalia wearing the sweater with the Sandhamn logo she loves! Malcolm is carrying my father´s old, worn leather jacket of a quality it can probably be passed on for further generations!

(I just wish I could find a photo with my father wearing it in Sandhamn!)

(Photos: Dag E)

"Curls" or "Profiles in happiness!"

Thalia: a young girl in-the-making!

Easter moods..

2011-04-19T05:01:00.014+01:00

And another little princess..

2011-04-17T08:02:00.002+01:00

..just as sweet! Thalia in the Flamenco dress Granpa bought for her in Sevilla, Spain.

(Foto: Malcolm E.)

Swedish Crown Princess Victoria..

2011-04-15T19:08:00.009+01:00

Pretty Princess.
..and her husband Prince Daniel paid us a visit at Gotland today and I managed to take some pictures of the couple.

Gotland showed itself from its best sunny side and the Princess kept saying how much she enjoyed being here. She spent quite sometime talking to people who ha turned up here in Tingstäde to greet her.

Here they are visiting the Polhemsgården in Tingstäde.

Gotland spring flowers..

A great outfit!

The couple radiated heaps of warmth.
And they seem soooo much in love!

The new islam scores..

2011-04-15T04:33:00.011+01:00

..when actress Weena Malik in an orthodox Pakistani TV-programme, is accused of Koran sinning for her participation in the Indian docu soap "Big Boss".
Watch when Weena in an unprecedented rage discharges her mortar shelling on the perplexed mufti Abdul Quavi:

Quavi: "A million watched your programme. 100 % believe that you disgraced Pakistan and the religion."
"I am more outraged with you than you are with me" she retorts. "Today, bribe crimes, murder and theft are all committeed in the name of islam!"

The truth is, that fundamentalism - no matter whether you name it Christianity or Muslim or by any other name - frequently consider itself to possess the capacity/monopoly/priviledge to hold the full knowledge and the fundamental insight
on what "everybody is thinking and how everybody should live and behave" ...
and subsequently have the world to adjust accordingly..

Waching the mini series about the Kennedys..

2011-04-13T04:39:00.010+01:00

.. presently running on Swedish television, I suddenly realised that I had once met Rose Kennedy. Mrs Kennedy was in Sweden in the 60´s to pick up a Swedish Guide and Scout Association award and I (a journalist trainee at Svenska Dagbladet-daily conservative) was sent to write a small article on the event.

The type of events trainees are sent to cover.

The trainee. (Or possiby - rowing reporter?)
After the necessary rutines, we sat down and chat. Guess what we were chatting about?
I asked wheather Boddy sang in the shower in the mornings!? (I was a trainee, remember!)
And Rose politely smiled and said: Yes he does! And well too!
I had a strong feeling from the following conversation that he was her favourite son. I think that is quite obvious in the TV series too.
Years later I saw Bobby live, speaking/campaigning from a truck in sunny Oakland, California.
He was so young, suntanned, handsome and full of life.
He was so close I could have reached out to touch him.
Four days after, he was shot dead in Los Angeles..

"In 1968, with the country divided over the war in Vietnam, the Democratic Party struggled to rally behind a candidate. Amid this political turbulence, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, guided by a set of principles and his burning opposition to the war, entered the race. The party establishment reacted with dismay, but his candidacy, coming just five years after the assassination of his brother John F. Kennedy, filled the electorate with hope—a hope that met a violent end just a few months later.."

A freckled boy....

2011-04-11T10:05:00.010+01:00

..playing on the beach before the disaster.

This is an oil painting I made some days ago.
The youngster above is a childhood friend of mine and he is playing at a particular Sandhamn (Stockholm archipelago) beach in the 50´s. At this white-sandy pretty beach,
daily swimming lessons for the kids on the island were held through a number of summers, as were many junior regattas..
The old picure is from the beginning of the 1900´s though. "Barnens regatta" has been a big event on Sandhamn through well over a century now.

The thing was that close to this beautiful beach, the island´s sewers led straight out into the sea - untreated. This was the 50´s remember. And this was the days before the polio vaccinations, alas.
Jonas Salk

Some of my friends subsequently caught polio here.
Me and my sister, went to another swimming school on the other side of our island, close to where we lived - with no sewage.
So this is a tribute to "A freckled boy" who caught the dreaded desease, but thanks God, is OK
today.
(And yes, you observant viewer, it is also tribute to Isaac Grunewald, my favourite painter!)

Now when the kitchen starts getting into shape..

2011-04-05T10:12:00.025+01:00

..it is time for me to get there too. Hmm. What can you do when you finally have built a cosy kitchen but to start great cooking ?

This is how the 100-year old kitchen looks today.
And this is how it looked yesteryear when I bought the house.

The only window is facing east and provides a nice light here in the mornings.

You can´t have it all but I find the room rather dark in the afternoons and have been working with a number of various built-in light sources-with focus on the great Led bulbs.

I am very fond of open shelves for storage and had those taylored for me.

The staircase leading up to the second floor from the kitchen.

This one says "Flour" in Swedish and is inherited from my Grandma´s huge apartment in Kungsholmen, Stockholm.

The handpainted baskets I picked up in flea markets.

This sign with hooks which is antique is a winning bid at a Gotland auction.

I sneaked in this Shabby mirror above the stove to help a bit with light reflections. The kitchen tools in brass, I bought in Zimbabwe where they used to hang in my kirchen in Richmond Road, Highlands, Harare. The heavy brass pounder was my mother´s.

Now! Let´s start some serious cooking!

I can´t resist giving you darling Julia here:

Just before leaving for..

2011-04-04T06:48:00.005+01:00

..a Sunday dinner party which eventually ended up with a nice round of International Gin Rhummy, I found a box of Pastel Crayons/Chalksand just had too try them out. They were absolutely great to work with but it´s dust spilled all over me and the studio. Working in pastels is new to me and I had to turn to the net to find out how to find a fixative to make the colors stick.
I was told that they used hairspray in the old days. But then again, modern hairsprays are quite another story.
I almost was late for the party but I get totally caught up with drawing and painting and lose time-all the time. But later, tummy full of a 3-course dinner and red wine, I won the Gin Rhummy! And I am off in the rain to Visby this Monday morning to get some professional fixative for future pastel adventures!
( OK. I will just check a little for GinRhummyWinningFix too! :-)
This was fun!

Happy Birthday, Pontus!

2011-04-03T08:55:00.010+01:00

Many happy returns on your birthday today, dear son-in-law, Pontus, with a big bundle of flowers!
You very first year as a father!
Niki Isabella and her loving father Pontus!
On Grandma´s porch July 2010.

Trouville, Sandhamn last summer.

Soo close you are from the very start!
Hip hip hurrah and have a great year Pontus!

Love is in the air..

2011-04-01T08:14:00.010+01:00

Some days ago, I went with my sister to pick up bags of carrots for her carrot-loving horses. I bought a heavy sack for myself to make juice to deep freeze and to make the new favourite: Carrot mousse! (cook pieces like potatoes, add whole cream some salt and pepper and mix to a mash. Delicious! And healthy too - now when we live in the:

"Real-fat-is-IN-era."

This naughty couple was among the carrots I was going to peel today - April Fool´s Day,

and I couldn´t bring myself to kill their cuddly, shy spring love! He really looked like he was making a good pass at her! Had to share! Before the peel-kill!
(And.. give me credit for NOT adding talking bubbles here! Hard to resist though! Could have turned out a bit indecent! )
This is for great laughters! The involuntary "manslaughters" of Autocorrect messaging!
Click here for more!
Have a great April Fool´s day!

Thalia..

2011-03-28T09:05:00.004+01:00

..with teeth.

Miss her soooo!

Liz departed:

2011-03-24T05:46:00.010Z

Watch &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.fanpop.com/spots/elizabeth-taylor/videos/20395876"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79 - In Memoriam&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; on &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.fanpop.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Fanpop&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Funny. My first reaction on yesterday´s news of actress Elizabeth Taylor´s death at the age of 79 was:
"Oh, my, now she is going to meet Burton again! Heaven will never be the same!"
Thank you Liz for all the unforgettable moments you have given to the world through movies, stages, charities and glossy magazines!
The world will never be the same!

Time for the making of Easter eggs!

2011-03-22T07:11:00.002Z

Yesterday´s production!
I try so hard to make them look like this:
:-)

My criminal past?

2011-03-20T16:11:00.015Z

All of a sudden, a piece of paper unexpectedly falls out of an old book that had obviously not been read for ages. My very first driver´s licence obtained in Mexico City in the 60´s!

I can´t believe it:

It is me on the photo, dark dyed hair in a Farah Diba hairdo soooo very fashionable in those days! And the name! They -the authorities-had to provide me with a typical Mexican name in order for me to be able to obtain a provisional "Permiso para manejar"
So ..this is the story how I suddenly became married to a certain "Perez!"

And the authorities did that!
I took driving lessons in Mexico City (NOT easy!) for a great old lady who could be cut out of a Oscar Lewis "Children of Sanchez" literary casting. She was a sole provider of a huge family of children, her business went well though and she had bought a plot in the outsskirts of Mexico DF where she was building a big house. In digging the grounds for the projected building they came across heaps of Aztec artefacts which they - as unfortunately is all too common in many developing countries - refrained from reporting to the the authorities.
Who would have stopped the building project.
OK.
As a farewell present from this colorful lady, I got a small Aztec object dug up from her grounds - a little jar with a grinning face - which I subsequently smuggled out of the country hidden among my hair rollers. (Shame!) An object which has become so dear to me. (Not the rollers!) And I guess I was too young/innocent/naive to realise this deploring act in those days!
And..I really wanted the little jar! (Greed takes it´s toll!)
Nor did I realise that later, in applying for my Californian driver´s licence, I had to tick a column saying "Did you ever apply for a driver´s licence under a false namn?"
Oh. Perez!
No, I never met him! But I figure he might have looked something like this!
Well, I will never know but the guy very much has the face of my grinning Aztec jar!
It all ties up, doesn´t it?

The spitting image of self..

2011-03-15T06:32:00.006Z

Niki Isabella and the discovery of this very interesting person in the mirror..
"Now repeat after me.."

"How does this really work?" I wonder.

"Strange this little hand. A spitting image of mine!"

"There are so many things I really don´t understand. Why are they having such a great time, Mom and Dad??"
(Photos: Lina/Pontus Bjurner Ehrenpreis)

Yesterday I found them..

2011-03-14T05:31:00.004Z

..the very first spring flowers in the garden! Oh joy! They carry a sweet subtle smell of
oncoming bliss! Soon all the snow will have melted away and the garden will be covered by the yellow winter aconites with a mix-in by snowdrops. The latter are of a beautiful double kind planted many years ago by the family who lived here for generations.
Yesterday, I heard the first blackbird warble -a bit subdued -but still..

This beautiful song I found onYoutube could get anyone into a good mode!
Will probably bore you with many posts on spring progress from now on!

2011-03-10T10:03:00.001Z

I have been struggling..

2011-03-07T20:26:00.013Z

..with this oil painting for quite a while now :

A memory from a Paris´cafe.
It is now in a stage when it will run the risk of becoming over worked and I will leave it for a while.
This was a true exercise in "capturing light!"
(How on earth did the old light masters manage?)

This is a painting I made after an old photo found in the family album of my paternal Grandma Astrid as a young girl in the end of the 19th century. Love her dress! (Not her hat alas!)

The happiness of unpacking a new artist´s box full of the loveliest colors and brushes which I did the other day! I feel sad I find too little a time to try them out at present. The house is completely full of ECO-fibers due to a massive isolation process - quite necessary to dodge the draught in this old farm!

So you´ll find me with quite other kinds of brushes in my hands these days! Big ones!
Well - this little water color I just had to make after reports about the winter situation in the Stockholm archipelago. The ice/winter situation has not been as tough for decades in the Baltic! Friends are driving their four-wheelers on the ice all the way to the outer skerries!
(and back, alas! before the ice started cracking. Oh these daredevils - archipelago sons of the rough and tough..
By the way, this gorgeous photo was taken by my friend Paivi M a few days ago from the southern shore of Sandhamn. Keep them coming Paivi!

Gotland - late winter days..

2011-02-28T11:47:00.015Z

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..

2011-02-19T08:39:00.011Z

..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.

Tankar från Routern

I realize we live in Medieval..

Our Christmas eve..

God Jul och Gott Nytt ÅrMerry Christmas and a Happy New YearJoyeux Noël et une Heureuse Anné 2012

Twinkle twinkle..

Computer graffiti

The 13th of December..

November images..

Coming to a point..

Sunday morning, sunrise at Sandhamn, the Stockholm archipelago.

Childhood memories..

Update!

Happy birthday Lina!

Sunday - going to the auctions

Tribute to Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

"And the White Knight is talking backwards.."

Indian summer..

As imperceptibly as grief..

The Fårö night - "Fårönatta"

Stockholm under the rainbow..

Late summer pleasures..

Happy Birthday,Thalia!

The Eastern coast of Gotland..

The island of the penguines of the North..

Have you ever encountered Tuttivillius - the devil?

Washington minutes after..

Young Obama..

Sitting by the dock of the bay..

Summer pictures..

Paraphernalia Nostalgica..

Here it starts!

Gone fishing..

Blog vacation!

Cloudberries..

My cuddling grandchildren:

Happy First Birthday, Izzy!

ÅF Offshore Race..

Now it started to rain..

Gone fishing..

Midsummer celebrations..

One of my favourite pictures/ads..

The Day of the Open Gardens in Visby

In love of the blues..

Another of my artist neighbours..

This week, the many artists in Gotland..

Meanwhile in Washington DC..

Good Morning!

A tale of a very old house..

Out of the blue..

The garden in a May sunset..

The Till Tale. Or The Tale of The Tilted Tub..

Wanna get a goose pimple or two?

Fergie´s Revenge?

I have now lived next to the Lummelunda caves..

Sandhamn represented in Washington!

Easter moods..

And another little princess..

Swedish Crown Princess Victoria..

The new islam scores..

Waching the mini series about the Kennedys..

A freckled boy....

Now when the kitchen starts getting into shape..

Just before leaving for..

Happy Birthday, Pontus!

Love is in the air..

Thalia..

Liz departed:

Time for the making of Easter eggs!

My criminal past?

The spitting image of self..

Yesterday I found them..

I have been struggling..

Gotland - late winter days..

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

God Jul och Gott Nytt År
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Joyeux Noël et une Heureuse Anné 2012