Thalia goes shopping..

..and the guys can´t take their eyes off her..In a few weeks I will be able to hold her too. My little grandchild is now 4,5 months old. Time runs quickly.. I am soon off for Washington once more. Just can´t stay away..
Would you?

Smile..

A grey a rainy January Tuesday in Sweden. Brr. BRRRRR! Moods are low all around and we long for spring. My daughter Lina sent me this smiling cat. I put on a great cup of coffee brought all the way from Nicaragua by my friend Eva and mused at this kitten and felt a lot better! I can´t share the coffee with you all but I can share this lovely smile to compensate for the lack of sunshine and decent daylight in the Swedish winter! Thank you Lina! And have a great day!

Embarking on the restoration..

..of the old house I am now too busy to even open my computer. Or to blog, for that matter.. I fall asleep in front of the telly by the 8 o´clock news, totally exausted. What have I done? Buying this loveley but quite rundown house?
This (photo above ) is what the future upstairs bedroom looked like before I bought this house ( which was built in various stages starting 1880..) I plan to make this room my future upstairs bedroom..
(My sister is critically observing above..)

It took three days - and a severe neck pain - to restore the run down celing and to paint it in mild sand color. Meanwhile the entire oldfashioned eletricity system of the house got an enitre makeover. Not by me though..

Here, however, I am putting up the wallpapers myself with a little help from my friends. And me, who have sworn never to expose me to this wallpaper glueing hassle to myself ever again! The wallpaper - also in mild sand color - twist and stick and bubble..And I hate it!
So for tomorrow I have booked a professional painter to do my livingroom - celing AND walls. Phuii.. Relief. But at a cost however..I will show results as we go along..

This is the livingroom with its old medallion green/brownish wallpapers (from the -70´ies?) as it looks today. Tomorrow we will see some changes here! I am so exited! Good night for now!

Six Gotland pictures in the New Year

The first snow - and my new house with some of the barns to the left..

The New Year´s moon

The small fishing port of Nyhamn on the 1:st of January

And the first snow fell - view from the kitchen window

The boats in Nyhamn on a windy day..

The snow clad garden looks quite beautiful from the living room window..

I can think of lesser reasons to choke on my lobster tonight!

Great pasta recipe (cost 2 billion Zim dollars!)

Esther (not her real name), 28, a professional living and working in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, has been writing a diary throughout the year, describing her struggle to survive in a country with an economy in freefall.

LIVING IN LIMBO

"The other day I saw this simple pasta recipe and thought I would buy the ingredients and try it out:
500 g pasta 750,000,000.00 Zimbabwe dollar
500 g minced beef 560,000,000.00
200 g cheddar cheese 120,000,000.00
Bag of mushrooms 480,000,000.00
So that is almost 2 billion for just to put one simple supper together!"

(Text & picture: BBC. Read more from her diary about the ups and downs of living in Harare over the past year: Zimbabwe diary

När fick du en "desarmerad" stol sist?

Una Silla desarmada.. Ett stort presentpaket levererades till gården idag med goda vänner som bor i Garda på Gotland som kom och hälsade på.. En stol som kommit ända från Nicaragua i detta stora paket!

Jag lyckades under kvällen montera ihop denna fantastiska handgjorda gungstol som kom från andra sidan klotet för att hamna här hos mig på Gotland! (Frågan är nu: om den omonterad heter "desarmada" på spanska - heter den nu helt monterad "armada?") Jag sätter mig försiktigt och gungar och faller nästan i sömn..Vilken present!

Tack underbara Eva för din inflyttningspresent! Eva som bott många år i Nicaragua där hon var vår ambassadör, och där jag hälsade på henne i Managua under en månad för ett par år sedan, har sedan länge ett hus på Gotland. Här är Eva med sina gotlandsgrannar Lena och Bosse. Bosse träffade jag f ö helt kort i Managua - just när jag landat ..

I talked to her on the phone..

..yesterday. My grandchild is growing quickly back there across the big Atlantic! She said: "Ghaaga, ouiii gahgga." which in brief mean: "Merry Christmas Grandma and I miss you!"
Her eyes are still very deep blue and her father informs me that she is a very happy baby!

Christmas evening at Lugnet ,Gotland..

So many nationalities, languages, cultures and religions..

They came some weeks ago from Afganistan, Eritrea and Iraki Kurdistan- all muslims and one Buddist..and they celebrated their first Christmas in Sweden.

Scarred from wars, these young newly arrved refugees are experiencing this new country with its strange customs.. And they all had the strength to come to this warm and welcoming traditional Swedish Christmas party arranged by Magnus who was also the Santa and brought gifts to all..

"New gloves and a bottle of After Shave!" Oh, the joy so far away from home..
I feel priviledged to have been invited to share these precious Christmas moments in peace with these guys carrying too heavy a load of memories from the recent past on their young shoulders..

Christmas..

Christmas supper: A beautiful butterfly suddenly lands on the smoked roe and I happened to have the camera at hand..

Eftertänksamhetens kranka blekhet..

Sjuttiotalet var den veritabla avfyrningsrampen för den moderna råkapitalismen... Rymden är således idag så överfull av gamla rymdsopor att de nu tenderar att trilla ner och slå oss i huvudet.
PE