Early morning in the archipelago..

Sandhamn, Monday morning. The Grönskär lighthouse in a distance.

I left Gotland for a while to visit my childhood island of Sandhamn in the Stockholm archipelago and to see old friends I hadn´t seen for a long time. It has now turned summer for real and the sea is smooth and the air filled with sounds from the sea birds hollering eagerly if you tread somewhere near their nests..These are the waters where I learnt how to swim a long, long time ago. As beautiful as ever..
Sandhamn harbour at lunchtime. The majority of the weekend yachts and visitors have left. And the natives enjoy the beautiful island all to themselves..

"I love my dad!"

Malcolm and Thalia in Washington. May 2009.

A Gotland Saturday among cherry blossoms..

The sweet and subtle smell of the abundant cherry blossoms fills the garden and sweeps through my open bedroom window at night.There will be more than enough of the sweet tasting yellowish cherries for me and all the birds in my garden. No need to put out scarecrows and alike. Let´s have a cherry feast! Me, my family and friends and all the beautiful birds of the area - so busy right now to feed their new born nestlings! The first cuckoo of the season has now been heard for a couple of days..
I have now started to find some furniture for my "new room": some old pieces I had before. Anything put in this tiny space has to be of diminutive size. And this time, I will sidestep my belowed white decoration concept for this particular room with its cosy slooping roof and try to give it an English cottage style "oak wood touch". (below)

A new room is slowly taking shape..

Renovation of this room was quite necessary. This is what one of the bedrooms on the upper floor looked like when I bought the house.

Very, very cramped.. It really needed to be opened up..

So, one wall was torn down, as were the thick layers of bulgy wallpapers from generations of living - exposing at least 10 different kinds of wallpapers representing the various pattern styles of the passed 100 years..

The very romantic new American wallpaper from Fairwinds Studio´s Cottage Prints is now in place. Quite expensive they were here in Sweden - those rose bouquets vinyl coated extra broad papers.
But you know how it can be sometimes - you just have too.. (A bit too kitchy - I know - but what the..!)

The floor was of different kinds and quality in the various rooms and had to be made the same -so the easiest way to do it was to put on a new"antique looking oak" floor. A "clickboard panel floor" was chosen and is now well under way..

This is how it looked like this morning from my bedroom in the first rays of the emerging sun when I got out of bed. It will not be long now..I really look forward to have it finished. To be able to finally plan the decoration, furniture, lighting, curtains etc. ( You bet I will attend a few more farm auctions to try to find some suiting pieces!) I am getting increasingly tired of living in a dust cloud of plaster..So today I will try to stain paint the ledges in a suitable antique oak color. Wish me luck!

May surroundings..

"Among the many buds proclaiming May,

decking the fields in a holiday array..

..striving who shall surpass in braverie,

..mark the fair flowering of the hawthorn three,


who finley clothed in a robe of white

Fills full the vanton eye with May´s delight!"
Chaucer

From the family album..

Washington DC, May 2009. Grandpa Dag and Thalia.

Thalia 8 months old..

Thalia, Hinda and Pontus after marathon in Alexandria

Dad and Thalia after dad´s marathon race..

La Familia on the Washington terrace..

Auntie Lina and Thalia. All photos by Lina Ehrenpreis

The trickle..

..of guests to view my new home has now started with the coming of spring. The Swedes are known to be more outgoing with the arrival of the warmer season (surprise, surprise!) and the social life takes off with new intensity.. Today my old friend Captain from Sandhamn, arrived. He had been spending his first retirement winter in Malaga, Spain in a cosy mobile home he bought last fall. He has solemnly made a promise never to spend a winter in Sweden again in his life. His mobile home is now conveniently parked and plugged in, in the back of the garden.

Here we are, sister Nena, Captain and Mats with a sundowner Saturday afternoon in my garden. There was a lot of catching up to do after the long winter with only sporadic phone contacts. And thus we consequently finished the bottle brought in from Malaga! (surprise, surprise!)

May 1:st in Gotland..

Carpe diem!

..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..