Happy 4th of July!

the view from our bedroom window

Yesterday evening after the thunder storms had passed, a ground fog started rising off the field.

Weekend in Blekinge

Last weekend we went to the Nostalgia Festival in Ronneby, a couple hours away. We went there last year and found it quite pleasant. This year we took it a step further by spending the night and attending the following day’s activities in Karlskrona. Both my husband and daughter love cars. My husband loves all sorts of cars, but my daughter is partial to 1950’s American cars with fins, the bigger the better. There were plenty of cars with fins, older cars, muscle cars, performance cars, and unusual cars. There were also mopeds, motorcycles, camping trailers, and even some trucks. (Pictured, the mid-life crisis club.)

Some of the finest specimens were brought up on stage and their owners were interviewed. The owners were often in period costume with all the appropriate accessories. Some even had matching camping trailers completely decked out like time capsules on wheels.

There was also entertainment in the form of a band that impersonated Elvis, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis. They were really quite good. My daughter wore the poodle skirt that my mother made for her, and she danced to the music and talked to the other (mostly older) people in costume.

The weather was beautiful—sunny and in the upper 70’s. Unfortunately we weren’t so well prepared for this since we’d believed the forecasts for low 70’s and very windy. We got a bit hot and sweaty, but we had a nice time.

We spent the night at a 60’s style motel in Karlskrona. We’d stayed there a year ago when we spent a few days in Karlskrona with my mom and stepfather. It’s simple and not particularly attractive (by today’s standards) but it gets the job done for a reasonable price. It impressed me that the entire place seems to be run by one woman. It’s weird to come to the reception area and find it locked, but if you can read the sign and call the number, she comes from wherever she’s making up the rooms.

We went into town for dinner and found a nice Italian restaurant. The food was very good, but we were hungry and the service was unbelievably slow. After dinner we went for a short walk then had dessert at an ice cream shop. The serving sizes were enormous. I ordered one flavor (chocolate marzipan), and it turned out to be 7 small scoops which filled a large waffle cone. It was good, but nothing compared to Ben & Jerry’s.

It was 9 PM by the time we made it back to the motel, and we all went straight to bed.

Sunday was even warmer, but the day’s activities were on the waterfront by the naval museum. We watched the cars finish the rally then examined them in the parking lot. My daughter ran around and took pictures with the little digital camera, and then she went and played at the beach. Since we weren’t with her, she was only allowed to go in up to her knees, but she had a lot of fun anyhow.

Besides the cars, all the boat museums were open, and there was an antique boat parade. We weren’t so interested in the boats, but we poked around the museums a bit then headed home mid-afternoon.

About half-way home, we got a flat tire. I imagine that it’s always a surprise, but this doubly so since the tires were only a couple months old. We pulled over immediately, so quickly that we were slowing down by the time I even noticed that there might be something wrong, but the tire was ruined anyhow. We pulled off the highway onto a little dirt road, and my husband changed the tire. Luckily my car has a full sized spare. This was the first time the spare was used, and the air pressure was rather low, but it turns out we were only about half a mile from a gas station where we filled it properly before any damage was done to the spare.

We made it home without further ado, and I’ve been driving on my spare all week. My replacement tire should come today. Take home message: make sure your spare tire is in working order.

a sad day

My husband's grandmother died early this morning. She'd been suffering from Altzheimer's for several years, and it's been at least a year since she could understand who I was. About a month ago, she tried to walk without her walker and fell. She didn't break anything, but she hurt her back and has been on pain medication ever since. My husband went to visit her two weeks ago when she'd taken a turn for the worse. She wasn't eating much, just nutritional supplement "ice cream," but she could follow a conversation, and with a little help could recognize my husband as her grandson. She has a lot of grandchildren, but she doesn't see most of them very often. Three live in the US, and one is in Japan. I don't hear much about the others.

My mother-in-law called us this weekend to say that the end was near and grandmother was unconscious. We were out of town having a family outing (more on that later). I don't know if she expected us to come, but we did not.

My daughter was very sad to hear the news when she came home from school today, and cried for a few minutes. Then, like with the flip of a switch, she wanted to go to see if the neighbor kids were home.

keeping busy

Summer weather has finally arrived with temperatures in the 70's, but it's been oddly windy--not just the usual breezy, but blow the patio furniture around windy. Elk have been unusually scarce this year, but we have had regular visits by a roe doe and her fawn.


I've been working on processing the pictures from the weddings I photographed the last weekend in May and then two weeks later. I'm definitely getting faster with this, and I'm pleased to be making good progress. I also had the pleasure of photographing a cat-lady. She had the most adorable british shorthair kittens. We will probably meet again next week, and I'll give do a workshop with her on how to use her deceased husband's camera. He was a professional photographer who had a lot better stuff than I do. He died about a year and a half ago. She sold some of his most expensive stuff, and I'm giving her camera lessons in exchange for gadgets.

My daughter has been enjoying her swimming lessons and has for the first time earned a milestone pin. There's about a hundred of these pins for various combinations of accomplishments, and they're sold by the swimming club. Naturally she wants to collect them all, so this could get expensive. I told her I'd buy her the pin for the highest level she completes at the end of swimming lessons. Last year, she did not earn a pin beause she refused to jump in from the edge of the pool. I found that really strange since she's usually so fearless, but she's also phenomonally stubborn.

Swimming lessons cost only 200 SEK (~$25) and are every day for a month. What a deal! Luckily for me, for the first three weeks she gets to go together with her after-school program (which is full time now that school's out). Unfortunately, the after-school program is only open for one more week, then they are closed for a month. I'm not sure what we'll do with our daughter then since we both have to work.

Today we're off for a family outing to a classic car show.

Midsommar

Happy summer solstice to everyone! Here in Sweden, Midsommar is the kickoff to summer. The festivities start on Friday, Midsummer's Eve. While not officially a holiday (except for those with government related jobs), pretty much everyone takes the day off. Despite very stressful times at work with layoffs, reorganization, and such, my husband was able to take the day off too. (One of his colleagues made the mistake of taking the week off, and may have been cut because of it. Nobody dares to take a real vacation this summer even though it is customary that people take at least a month off during the summer.)

Our daughter went with my husband's mother to celebrate with some of her friends on a farm. She had a great time, and we had the luxury of not having to do anything. I went grocery shopping and attempted to tidy up around the house. The pantry and freezer are restocked, but the house is still a disaster.

It rained less on Saturday, so between showers we did some gardening. I trimmed the dead stuff off the cottoneaster bushes and pulled four wheelbarrels full of weeds. It has rained so much recently that it was not that difficult to pull ragweed and thistles, which usually sit pretty tight. I also got a whole bunch of stinging nettles, and a ton the vine-type weed that sticks to everything (I don't know what it's called). I used gloves and wore long sleeves, but my arms are still tingling from being nettled. It's like when your foot wakes up after falling asleep, except it lasts for days. Then it starts to itch a little. For me it usually takes about a week to get over nettle stings. For my husband, it takes about 5 minutes.

Between spurts of gardening, we ate the traditional Midsommar food together with my mother in law. For lunch we had: pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with dill, sour cream, and chives, veggies with dip, meatballs (for those of us who aren't into herring), hard boiled eggs, bread and cheese. For dinner, we finally assembled the propane grill I baught last year, and we grilled some marinated pork and ate that together with leftover veggies and potatoes. Dessert was the much anticipated strawberries with whipped cream, and I also made lemon bars since I don't like strawberries.

Today we're off to visit friends in Denmark.

been a while

I know it's been a while since I've had time to blog. Time flies. We're now about half way through a three week visit from my mom and her husband. They've been having a great time playing with their granddaughter after school and on weekends. Right now they're on a mini vacation to Båstad, but they're coming back this afternoon.

Anyone who's seen my house knows that we don't have anyplace to put guests, so they've rented a house in the town where my daughter goes to school. This works out quite well. They have room to spread out, they aren't plagued by my cats, and they can walk to the grocery store and school.

I photographed an all day wedding last Saturday, and I'm doing another wedding next Saturday. I've been struggling to get as much as possible done on the first before I have to start working on the second. Luckily couple #2 will be taking a honeymoon, so I'll have that time to get caught up.

Tomorrow is Election Day here--yup on a Sunday. We're supposed to vote on which parties will represent Sweden in the EU. I read the newspaper every day, but I feel like I have very little information on what the parties want to accomplish in the EU. I know what they're about here in Sweden, but what gets decided at an EU level? I don't even know what the issues are. The only party which has done a good job explaining their position is the Pirate party. (That would be copyright pirates, internet style, named after the famous Swedish website for sharing movies and music, Pirate Bay.) Polling says they're likely to gain representation in the EU even though they're a one-issue party. That doesn't surprise me.

I suppose I'd better stop blogging and go try to get informed.