Once in a while..

..on life´s long path you bump into a "kindered spirit." Man, woman or child..It suddenly klicks, you talk the same language, and you feel instant sympathy. This happened when I met Curt. He was the guy that sold me the farm on Gotland and he instantly incorported me into his big warm family. He was in charge of the sale of the estate of the deceased uncle - and he really wanted me to have the farm which had been in this lovely family for over 100 years. So, he did not put the estate on the market."This is ment for you" he said and backed me in this sale. And later helped me all kinds of matters in landing here and settling down on this family estate..
I was dreaming of fixing it up so nicely and then inviting him and his family for dinner here to see his estonished face when he saw the improvments I had done on the house he so very much wanted me to have..
Today, when I was working in the garden someone came by and told me that Curt died at his kitchen table yesterday. Quite unexpectedly.
I am now walking around int the house as a zombie - in a state of chock.
It right now feels like it it not worth getting on with it anymore..
Curt will not come by for dinner.. I will not lay eyes on his naughty brown eyes ever again and enjoy his dimpled laugh ever again.
As Astrid Lindgren so aptly put it: "Han fattas mig!" (His presence will fail me!)

Thalia..

..sweet Thalia, my grandchild now seven months old! I miss her so and just have to go to Washington soon to se her, hold her and get close as we once were..

Oh, Blessed Inspiring Creativity!

Elsa Mora is an outstanding artist using every possible material and means to explore her endless creativity. Thanks god she has a homepage so one can follow her works. I recently fell in love with her Frida Kahlo dollhouse she made
for her daughter..

Every item is a treat! Check her out! Here is the link to her web page: Elsita typepad

And temperature plunges..

..to a record 9 degree below in my area. This winter´s all-time-low! This spring back lash came quite unexpectedly and I feel sorry for all the small pretty flowers showing their shy heads in my garden as a hail to the increasing spring light. This is from my window at 6 o´clock towards the back of the garden..

Here comes the sun - and it indicates a cold but gorgeous day..The white line in the sky behind the trees is the first morning flight taking off on its half-hour journey from Visby to Stockholm. I don´t envy those people on board!

I am happy to be here - at home in Gotland - again!

Hallucinations..

.. tend to linger. I could do anything for a piece of this cake right now!
This is the best cake I ever had!
This slightly sour and lovely cake was once composed for the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova in Australia where it still is very popular.
My friend Paivi is a great cook/baker and she made this for her friends last Saturday. With fresh berries. In wintertime with snow, in an not so easily accessible in a cottage far out in the archipelago - no water in the tabs..
Get my drift? (In Swedish: Bedrift!)
Well, to produce a thing like this could easily be called "a miracle"! She made the delicious lemon curd herself as the meringue layers topped with rosted almonds on the whipped cream and decorated with huge bleuberries and rasberries. Fresh. This took some effort and planning in a place like Sandhamn/Trouville this time of year! So I will go on hallucinating with an slightly embarrassing never ending mouth watering effect..
Recipe here at Joy of Baking

Leaving Sandhamn early Monday morning..

Snow has been falling in the night and I expect a tough ride in the small open boat to the mainland..

I am bringing chairs and lots of other stuff from Sandhamn to Gotland that I will be needing in my new home. The boat is heavily loaded and the vision is null for parts of the 1 hour journey and we have to go by the GPS.. Snow is like small rockets in out eyes..The wind is absolutely murderous!

Small ice floes are forming in bays with still waters..
Monday is a real spring backlash! Shame on you King Bore!
I will not be home in Gotland until 1 PM tonight after another 3 hour boat ride - luckily in a nice cosy ferry with reclining seats! ZZZzz. I think I earn an extra hour in bed tomorrow morning!

Sandhamn, March 18

The Stockholm archipelago is slowly coming around. Snow is melting away and a few boats appear in the Sandhamn harbour.The blackbirds have started singing with loud voices and the first eider ducks have been sighted..

Intense sunlight in cold northern winds in the outer archipelago..

The horizon from Dansberget with its huge anchor..

Three camels worth..

Once, I was driving eastwards in the Sudan in my Landrover heading towards Showak by the Blue Nile to visit the American run Lalamba clinic. The desert was hot and the sandstorm - the habub - had made the trails almost invisible. On the "roadside" in the middle of nowhere, was a tired old bedouin just standing there gazing at the horizon. He surely needed a lift to wherever he was going, so I picked him up and he was comfortably seated in the backseat. And we drove on politely exchanging the few words I know in Arabic. After a while I suddenly felt his hand on my arm and he was pinching me; like taking a measure of my skin.
"Ouch!"
"Three camels!?" he bursts out to my photographer sitting next to me. Totally ignoring me - the pinching object.
He obviously wanted to trade his three camels for me.
To tell you frankly, I was not very flattered at his offer..
However it soon turned out that I was too skinny then and obviously not worth more than three lousy camels.
I lost a huge piece of self confidence right there in the desert!
Today after many years have passed, when I look in the mirror, I feel I have regained it! My Self confidence!
I surely look like I am worth at least six camels! He should have seen me now! Maybe seven!
Ouch!

Back in Sandhamn..

..from the largest island in the Baltic to a much smaller one - I am back in Sandhamn for the first time since November last year.

In walking around, I checked out how the winter had taken its toll this year..

I took a ride in a small boat and found that there are no speed limit signs anymore..

An old beautiful door in the village..

Preparations for summer are going on everywhere in face of the expected invasions of summer guests that will need lodging..

The "Dalahorse" - the Swedish national symbol per se in abundance in a village window..

The beauty of an old door..

A window at the picturesque Strindbergsgården in the harbour of the village..

Sanna - the belly dancer!

I have known her since she was almost a baby - Sanna, one of my daughter Lina´s oldest and closest friends. Sanna is very artistic and has among other things worked for me at my workshop/store Village Corner for ages painting furniture in an advanced and old fashioned way. (i.e. making them look antique.) During many years she has studied belly dancing in this country and abroad and has become quite successful at it. Sanna who now performs professionally at parties and resturants has now created a web page on her belly dancing activities I really enjoyed to watch!
We all knew that something very creative was to come out of this sweet girl. An artist like her father- yes! But who would have guessed a belly dancer!! Congrats to the web page Sanna! We wish you good luck and look forward to watch a show with you performing in one of your gorgeous Libaneese dresses! On Gotland maybe?