Harvest time..

..From my garden, in Gotland.

Sandhamn. Weekend remix.

Autumn is almost there..

A strange kind of peace starts settling upon you like some weather proof outfit.. Outdoor activities are traded by indoor occupations at the tune of the rain drumming on the windows accompanied by an unmercyful wind from the restless, greying sea.

So.

Today I brought out the paint brushes. Long time no seen, friends!

And practised on a bit my roses.
I wonder how many of those I have painted over the years in my interior decoration store? On furniture, linens, fabrics and on canvases.. A rose is a rose is a rose..
It worked quite OK so I made this one (see below) from memories of the rooftops of Paris instead.
I always dream of Paris, particularly in the fall-then who doesn´t? To take afternoon tea in Jardin de Luxembourg..
..enjoying the fragrance of the abundance of asters this time of year in this huge garden "très ravissant"..
In this small studio (below) I stayed when the deadly cyclonic windstorm hit Paris 10 years ago. I spent all night fully dressed clasping my passport and handbag by the entrance door rigging all the stuff I could find against the only studio window.
Well that was a night to remember. In the morning when the storm had faded somewhat, I hit the deserted streets of Paris - and was chocked. It looked like Paris had been under a siege.The Seine had overflowed. Huge parts of buildings and balconies had landed on the streets. Broken glass were cracking and scrunching under my feet.
Below is the Paris rooftop painting I made this morning out of memory of the little studio window just before the storm:

A doorway in Paris.
Click for a great Paris blog: Peter´s Paris from which this picture is taken. Makes you long even more..

Hip hip hurray!

Thalia is turning 2 years old today!

September the 2nd, Thalia turns 2 years! It feels just like yesterday you were born and a tiny little baby. (Yes, I was there when you were just a few days old..) Happy birthday my dear grandchild far away over there in the US! I so wish I could be with you on your birthday! Love and kisses from Grandma in Sandhamn!

Photos from today..

..painted in virtual painter!
It is so great!
(Photo above: Paivi M. virtually painted bu me)

And fun to do! And the results are just great!

You can do it in bed with the computer on the blanket. No
wet paint och brushes..

Suites a lazybone like me..

You get a creative urge, take a few pics and start the computer.

These photos are taken in Sandhamn - the island in the Stockholm archipelago.
Please observe there is not a single sailing boat in sight!
(Sandhamn is the sailing centre of Sweden and there is hardly a photo from here without a sailing boat or yacht!)

Les Volets Jaunes..

Goddamit! Today I found a photo of my old summer boarding school in Switzerland on the net:

Les Volets Jaunes (The Yellow shutters) in Chateau d´Oex - near Montreux. Oh memories!

Situated in a beautiful valley near Lake Geneva the Les Volets Jaunes boarding school taught English and French - and manners - to teenagers from all over Europe. School regime was very strict with the boy´s dorm on the upper floor and the girl´s on the lower. "Instructive games" were played at night - well chaperoned by the teachers. BUT we had fun! And we surely learned about languages, each other and... some realities of life:
The French teacher who used to chase the girls down the alp slopes with an Edelweiss stuck behind his ear, happily joodeling!
Towards the end of the term, I could not stand the strict regime anymore - being Swedish and all that - and escaped from the school and hitched down to the Riviera. In a red wide brimmed hat. Being 16 years old. Hm. Adventure started to beacon..

The first thing I did upon hitting St Tropez was to order a Cuba Libre in a bar (early in the morning) and slot a coin into the Juke box to listen to "North to Alaska" sipping my freedom..

Later on this trip, I by accident run into my favourite cousin Bitte in Basel, and we made Europe together until we finally reached Stockholm Central station (we got friendly with a train conductor and managed to hitch another free ride in a sleeping compartment all the way to Copenhagen) our fathers were there (they were brothers) to pick us up! Smiling- but shaking their heads! " Our wild daughters" they seemed to say while they hugged us.. I guess they were happy we were all in one piece.
Anyway, I just found out that Les Volets Jaunes has been transformed to a hotel these days. The bording school days of strict regimes are now gone.
However:
How I would love to go there and check into my old room once more!And to practise a bit of the long forgotten joodeling skills of youth..

Collectables..

..in my Sandhamn cottage. I built the larger house in the outpost of the Stockholm archipelago back in 1991. Over the years and after many trips near and afar there are now quite a few items gathered in the house that sparks one or two memories..
The America clock was bought locally in a Stockholm antique shop and was provided by me with a nose, a mouth on the pendulum and a gleaming eye..

This putty I once found totally broken on a garbage dump. I fell in love with the little baby Jesus and spent some time mending and painting it. He is now attached to a secure snow boot from the Canadian army.

"We are in the village"..(as opposed to "gone fishing" when you turn it over) ..I painted on a piece of driftwood..

A long piece of driftwood with rusty nails serves as hat stand..

Peter Rabbit in porcelain has traded mr McGregor´s garden for my living room. Safer there..

The lovely kite I bought in Lombook, Indonesia.

Well. Yeah. That was a night in Paris to remember..

This little fellow I had a hard time leaving behind on the Jaipur market, India. Just had to bring him home. Here is has settled in the windy archipelao playing his little sad tones on his bag pipe. I sometimes wonder if he misses the hot Jaipur nights and his missus.
(They came in pairs..)

This grim prince has been with me for many years now. I think I picked him up in Vera Cruz, Mexico, when I lived there a long time ago. He watches over me still.

The old wall medical cupboard that still smells heavily of camphor, I picked up at a market in Juan-les-Pines on the Riviera. The "old" dolls are replicas and I sold a lot of those in my former boutique "Village Corner".

Lanterns, and old ship model and a box camera that I picked up in Harare, Zimbabwe. A lot of people left that country (rightly so it turned out!) when Mugabe came into power and they in turn left great many antiques behind that they were not able to carry. I arrived in the country at that time 1982 - but did not have any money to buy many these antique bargains. However some old cameras I was able to afford..

Old tools and a masai necklace I was given my the Masai at one of their biannual meetings on a sacred hill in northern Tanzania. I went to this event with the (then) Minister of Interior in Tanzania and could thus attend - not being Masai. The Masai tribes gathered here from all over the East African region preforming all kinds of rites. As a greeting one of the Chiefs spat me right in the face. A token of his esteem! And I got the necklace with the hanging beads symbolizing my marital status. A fair compensation!