Sardinia in October..

 My long time friend Helmut keeps sending me great pictures from his island, Sardinia, where he has been living for many years. I have never been to Sardinia, so it is with great enjoyment I find his beautiful photos from his island in the Mediterrainean. We keep a island photo swapping relationship!
(Not island hopping, so far..)

 

Helmut and I met in 1960 in Landshut, Bavaria, Germany, where I was studying German for the summer. I got to know his warm, big family and subsequently returned for X-mas to celebrate a real Bavarian X-mas with his family travelling through the snowy, pineclad Black Forest.

 

 Helmut and friends from Landshut later came to visit me at Sandhamn the following summer..and then we lost track for so many years..

 

Until we found each other on the web again!
These are some of the photos he sent recently from his Sardinia.

And this is a photo he took of me in Germany in those days and recently mailed to Sweden..

And this is Helmut in the Landshut days when we used to listen to his great records in his cosy crash pad..It is truly great to be in touch again thanks to the i-net! And please Helmut, keep you great pics from Sardinia coming! One day I might even do some island hopping and go to see you and your great island in the great, green Med!

 

 Photos: Helmut Binder, Sardinia

The last bouquet?

The beginning of fall with stormy winds had been upon us the last couple of days.

 On Gotland those winds sweeping over the flat island are especially nasty. Just before it started, I collected probably the last flowers of the garden -or "My Park" as I cheerfully like to call it - tongue-in-cheek.
It is amazing that there are still so many varieties of beautiful flowers around in October! So here I give to you a little bouquet of a Gotland summer still hanging on..

Visby on a sunny afternoon..

 ..in the end of September. The tourist season is over. There is still a feeling of the sun drenched warmth of summer in the cobblestoned, peaceful streets.
The Yellow House Café is a favourite place with a small walled garden with lavendel plants and fig trees, home baked bread and pastries and a warm and cheerful staff.

The garden of the Yellow Café. Madeleine, Heléne och Nena can be spotted at the table in the back munching Gotland pastries.

The sign on this pretty door´mail box reads in Swedish:
"No ads or scrap mail - preferably loveletters only!"

 

 

The famous roses of  Visby are everywhere..

 

  The roses of Visby´s Botanical Gardens are magnificient this time of year.

Young love on a "Monet" bridge in the Botanical gardens

Below: The marvellous "Falu Rödfärg" traditional paint..

Afternoon light and an old house painted in the most common type of exterior paint in Sweden. It is inexpensive, easy to apply, organic and has a great preservative effect! And it is pretty and even smells good of the linseed oil and soft soap mixture..

Decorating with silk flowers..

Today, I was happy to find a basket full of candle-rings of various silk flowers in all shapes and sizes at a flea market in Visby, and paid an astonishing four dollars for the lot!

And I had no idea what to do with them at that point..just had to have them! When I got back home I spread them on the floor pondering upon how to make the best use of them.

  Half an hour later this is where most of them ended up!

 

  How easy wasn´t it to thread them on to an old curtain wire I found at home..
And I assembled them rather tightly as you can se from this close-up.
I know this pretty flowery festoon will please me immensely, especially when the winter storms start whipping the windows in a few months.

 

The remainder of the candle-rings ended up here along the edge of a wrought iron lamp in the kitchen.

Those had of course to be cut open before attachment..
This is an idea I bluntly stole from my sister who has a great arrangement ..

 

..like this in her big country kitchen.

Snow White´s apple?

 

 Today. Lina found this beautiful apple in the garden..

 

I just had to take a few pictures of its exceptional and strange beauty..
I figure that if I take a big bite of this strange fruit, I will promptly fall asleep and subsequently wake up by the sweet kiss of a Gotland prince..

You never know..

Produce from the neighbourhood..

 Fall is in the making and it is time to take care of the rich supply of produce of our immediate surroundings..

 

Yesterday I preserved some of the garden´s pears in ginger and dark rum.
Next to the jar are the lovely chanterelles!

 

  My daughter and her husband - both great cooks! - are visiting and last night they were unpacking a late wedding gift: An Alessio espresso brewer ..

 

Lina is preparing the marvellous dessert based on the apples from the garden.

 

  Pontus is frying the chanterells from to go with the freshly fished cod from the Baltic nearby..

 

Everything on the dinner plate from last night is produced in the immediate neighbourhood. Only the wine came from South Africa. My own grapes in the garden are far from ripe unfortunately. Will they be before winter?
This is my first year on the farm and there are so many things to find out and discover as the seasons turns..
This morning, the fisherman knocked on my door quite early asking if I would like to buy some flounders! Oh do I feel priviledged to live on Gotland!
A nice and culinary weekend to you all!

Itching..

..to take off again..
A few months have passed since I was riding on this train from Napoli to Rome reading about Yoko and taking the views of the countryside from the express train..

 

I am slowly getting that all too familiar itch again. It is a bit disturbing.. Can cause rashes they say! :-)

 

This is on the ferry Capri-Napoli last July.

 

  Vesuvius in a distance..

 Relaxing with friends at the bustling railway station in Napoli waiting for the train to take us to Rome.

And all its goodies..

Markets..

Art in every shop window..
Yes, a disturbing travel itch is rapidly approaching quite like an express train between Napoli and Rome. You know the feeling?

With fall approaching..

 ..lots of preparations have to be made for the oncoming winter season..

Some of them rather more tedious and tiresome than others..

But you sure will enjoy them when the snow storms of January are raging. I have to put absorbent cotton wool between the window panes to stop humidity - in the old fashioned way.

And others a bit more fun and inspiring..

I found this big IKEA mirror on the community garbage dump when I was getting rid of old boxes and stuff the other day. I quickly threw it into the boot of the car and went home and cleaned it, and since I happened to have this pretty border at home and the proper paperhanger's paste...
This is the result! It turned out quite nicely, I think - and cost absolutely nothing!

And today I have bought a mulberry tree! I have now to find this little expensive
"Morus Nigra"   a proper spot in the garden facing south and well out of the persistent Gotland winds..