Today it is a glorious autumn day - the sky a piercing blue with the sun shining so bright that, in the words of Timbuk 3, I gotta wear shades. The last few days have been dull and grey, so this unexpected bonus day of sun is greatly appreciated and people have flocked into town to take advantage of it, despite the temperature of 3C.

We went down to the local art gallery in the town square to the opening of an exhibition of paintings by a local artist, Åke Magnusson. We know Åke personally as he used to live in the same apartment building as us. He paints scenes of Nynäshamn from the 1930s or so in a naive style. The vernissage (opening day) was really busy - the gallery was packed with people and we enjoyed sipping cider, nibbling on goodies, chatting to Åke as well as having a look at his art work and marvelling over pictures of the town as it was back then. The old world charm and the cute little wooden houses were beautiful. I particularly want to cry when I see the old Konsum supermarket site. It was a gracious, beautiful building that was torn down in the 1960's and replaced by an excruciatingly ugly grey box.

We also spent some time in the front part of the gallery/shop which features handmade craft work, mostly local. We spotted a ceramic model of our beloved Landsort Lighthouse which houses a tealight candle. We both coveted it, so we intend to return next week when it is less hectic and give it a home. I also have to buy a thankyou gift for a friend who has invited us to stay for Thanksgiving weekend. I'm sure I'll find something lovely in this shop or perhaps next weekend when we go down to Blomsterhuset to watch a demonstration of making old fashioned paper Christmas decorations.

Then we came out into the main town square and saw it was taken over by bikers. No, not the Hell's Angels, but more like the Hell's grannies.



As it was so sunny and lovely, we naturally gravitated down to the harbour - such a focal point of this town. It's great here all year round as it is so alive with activity. On the fishing pier we found several tugboats from Röda Bolaget tied up. We see their icebreakers here quite a bit in winter as well as the tugs. But the one that really caught our eye was an oldfashioned tug, Anny from Stockholm:



From here, looking across to the ferry terminal, you can see the trucks ready to be loaded aboard the Gotland ferry and in the distance, the tankers tied up to the industrial oil terminal.



We then walked along the guest harbour and checked out the building of what looks like it might be a new café on Frejas Holme near the minigolf place. It was quiet and peaceful here, with the only sound being the murmur of the ducks.



Then it was fika (coffee and cake) time. We pondered where to go and finally settled on a charming little café just near the tourist bureau - Café Snäckan. It was warm and cosy inside and very busy. We decided to try their freshly baked saffron cake to go with our drink. It was scrumptious. We hardly ever go out to cafés because it is quite expensive in Sweden and also because we often have the dog with us (but not today!). So we had a chat about lifestyles and our priorities as far as how we spend our money.

It's interesting to note that while I am nowhere near as well off financially as I was in Australia, I'm still so much happier here in Sweden. We talked about how different my lifestyle was and what we felt was important to us. I also thought about just how well off we are compared to others in the world. While it's easy to bitch and moan about being poor, are we really poor? Do we sometimes need a reality check? Certainly, Rebecca's article about a trip to an Indian village that I read yesterday was an eye opener. The other thing was seeing How rich are you? Take a look for a little perspective on your own life. It's quite a sobering thought.

This picture is quite a relevant one at this time of year. Moose accidents are unfortunately common in Sweden and when you look at this safety poster, you get quite a good idea of the relative size of one of these 500kg, long legged animals as compared to the family car.

The moose are particularly unsteady on their legs around autumn. They are already a little jittery anyway as it's hunting season, but it is made worse by the large number of fermenting apples lying on the ground which the moose feed on and then proceed to get plastered. It even made news in the Aussie papers: Don't mess with a drunk moose.

I'm rather fond of moose, though Lars-Göran has a hard time understanding why. I think Swedes in general are rather bemused by foreigner's love for this ungainly animal. My friend Liz also has something of a moose fetish and even a small collection of moose objects. I need something like that. Last year I saw some lovely wrought iron moose candle holders that I fell in love with, but Lars-Göran just rolled his eyes, as did the few Swedes that I showed them to in the shop window. And no - he didn't get them for me. *sigh*

A friend who knows about my liking moose sent me this cute slideshow about moose courtship. How can you resist them? We are heading down south in a couple of weeks and I showed Lars-Göran that we could possibly stop and see Grönåsen's Moose-Park on the way. He looks most unenthusiastic, but we'll see if I can get him to change his mind.