The garden in a May sunset..

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..

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?

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


Wow!

Fergie´s Revenge?

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

I have now lived next to the Lummelunda caves..

..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!

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..

And another little princess..

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

(Foto: Malcolm E.)

Swedish Crown Princess Victoria..

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..

..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..