..and a "Crudité de saison" of a different and brutal kind..

..here is the link to the video on the improved map on the H1N1 swine flu current and future evolution..

Crudités de saisons..

Guess what I had for dinner this splendid summerday? Yes! They are now here, the very first asparagues of the season grown on this island of Gotland with its marvellous climate..
Sun sets at 8.15 PM as seen from my bedroom window..

Done!

The roof job is now done! This is what it looked like yesterday! Neatly finished and too shiny and too reddish - but this is a standard color that will soon turn to a milder terra cotta in the Gotland sun! Anyway, it will last for a long time and looks a lot better than before! See below..

The house the day before yesterday: the roof with a grey primer..

The guys in priming action..

The worn roof coating of the house as looked like when I bought it! This photo is from last summer when I passed the house and fell in love with it - before I know it would be up for sale!

The cuddling..

.. horse (video below) and Sunday coffee
in the meadows of the nearby church with Mats who arrived in his golf car, Nena who rode in barebacked on Shanghai from their neighbouring farm "Lugnet" and Paivi who came in the day before from the mainland by plane. The 12 year old gelding Shanghai participated eagerly in the party. My barns can bee sigted in the background. This large meadow will be full of rare orchids in a few weeks and I am priviledged to be its next door - and only - neighbour..

The yellow garden..

I woke up this morning and my garden had turned yellow by a carpet of Lesser Celandines! It a feast for the eye and a great setting for breakfast in the warming spring sun. The present weather in southern Sweden is way above normal and is there the enjoy! We are slowly acquiring a healthy looking tan after the dark winter and no one likes to stay indoors if they can help it..

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, celandine comes from the Latin chelidonia, meaning swallow: it was said that the flowers bloomed when the swallows returned and faded when they left. It has also been known to be called the spring messenger

As time goes by..

When I spotted Knut´s pics on Facebook this morning I got a breeze of nostalgia..

..remembering when I was babysitting for him and his brother in Arusha, Tanzania. It must have been around 1975. He was a very sweet and polite rather chubby kid..

Today, himself a father of three, he presents these pics and others on FB under "Old sins" (he once was a great model!) and surely needs no babysitter any longer.
As time goes by..

Från riskkapital till riskakor..

I prognosen för världens lågkonjunktur
Ligger helt visst ännu större svackor på lur;
Och i Sverige står en säker inflationsbrasa på tur.
En minskande efterfrågan på kapital för seriösa projekt
ger priset på kulor en realisationsmässig effekt.
Fiffigt kamouflerat med sänkning av priset på prylar vi inte behöver
Medan bankerna överskrider sina befogenheter vad det gäller våra klöver
Och Riksbankens enda uppgift är ju att hålla inflationen nere,
men så här kan ju en annan se re:
"Nu slänger dom alltså in den allra sista indränkta trasan..
Ska vi nu stillatigande kolla in vad som händer med själva brasan?
Man önskar numer allt oftare att bonusmaffian skulle få smaka
på sin egen hopbakade riskkaka..

PE

A complete makeover..

Monday they arrived. The roof make-over-people. The house "beautification squad" with all their impressive equipement.

For a full day they rinsed my roof with a high pressure water jet from old and faded paint.
The sound of the jet thing was unbearable and I had to flee to make errands in Visby, 17 kms away. I am now praying that the weather will be fine over the weekend when they hope to turn up for the repaint. This will be a true makeover for my 100-year old house in its spring beautification programme scheme - because she is worth it!
(And I will surely not be able to afford a single lipstick for my own "spring beautification scheme" after this budget bang! But who cares, anyway... )

Breakfast at the beach..

..early Sunday morning. Still rather cold at the deserted bay of Ire (Ireviken) in northern Gotland.

But hot coffee and a warm baguette with chevre cheese helps against the cold wind from the north..
As well as the beauty of it all..

..to experience a beach running for miles that you have all to yourself this time of year.
And especially this time of the morning!

Ireån - the Ire creek - is full of spawning salmons this thime of year. We did not discover any this time though..
The creek´estuary debouching into the Baltic..

Small downy flowers growing directly on the beach..

Gotland is a large island..

..measuring some180 kms from the northern tip to the south. Today we drove som 200 kms from Stenkyrka with friends from a big farm in Vale in the north to Rone in the south to have lunch with old friends from Saltsjöbaden - Kerstin and Peter. They bought their Gotland house in the 90´s and put quite some efforts into its renovation and decoration:

The livingroom combined diningroom..

A romantic bedroom..

The house contained a lot of inspiring ideas - this stool had been painted and pasted with lots of old fashioned bookmarks. And then thoroughly vanished..

An intricate antique device for yarn holding on the upper floor..

Kerstin and Nena chats in the cosy attic where the former - and now dead - owner walks at night.. Muhaauhaa..

This old vastepaper basket is handpainted by Kerstin.

Peter preparing the three course lunch in the newly renovated kitchen. Oh the food! Seafood lasagne, beautiful sallads, mushroom toasts, crayfish tails, followed by an exquisite cheese tray and coffe and chocolate "kladdkaka" - sticky cake in the garden..

After enjoying a great spring premiere of outdoor coffee and laughs and lazy conversation, we drove home north by Gotland´s western coast watching the marvellous sun setting in the spring blue sea..
(The mighty Baltic is steel grey in winter time.)