Your Inner European is Swedish!

Relaxed and peaceful. You like to kick back and enjoy life.

This result was so funny that I just HAD to post it. What a laugh. The forecast snow didn't arrive, instead it was a lovely, sunny weekend, though the wind was very cold. Our weekends are spent on getting the boat ready and so today, we went down early to the club. Most of the reason for that was so that Lars-Göran could check out the stuff for sale at prylbytardagen. This is a day when people offer their unwated boat goods for sale. Most years we have picked up some good buys and this year was no exception. He found some special blocks that sell for 700kr offrered for 100kr, so he bought a couple and was well pleased. Then it was off to the boat itself.



We have forest directly behind us and the morning was filled with the sounds of spring birds calling out and nest building. I watched a woodpecker as well. My first sight of one in the wild. It really is a lovely environment. I felt sorry for Lars-Göran today as the work he did involved squeezing into tight spaces and threading cables through a conduit pipe. It is work that will help keep order in the electric cabling, but is mostly hidden behind the cupboards. Still, little by little it is starting to regain some sense of order.

I was discussing life in Sweden with a friend who lives in Darlana and we agreed that one of the sheer joys of living here is the proximity to nature and all it has to offer. Every town and suburb has abundant green space and we both see an assortment of wild animals in the woods near where we live. Being close to the sea, we get the additional bonus of watching the plethora of sea birds and my very favourite (though quite rare) sightings of these gentle creatures



When I look at them, with those big puppy eyes, I wonder how people could be so heartless as to club them to death. I'm so pleased that has stopped in Sweden and now they are returning to the Stockholm archipelago. Nynäshamn is one of the places where you can go on organised seal tours to the outer islands where these shy mammals live. Several island groups are no go zones when the seals are mating and pups are born and still other islands are protected for nesting sea birds.



Signs such as these dot the coastal areas and are strictly enforced. All areas are clearly marked on sea charts as well and I can remember several evenings when we were tired and looking for a bay to moor in for the night we had to sail on a little longer to find an unprotected island, especially a little further south of here in the St Anna Skärgård.

Lars-Göran has been asked to do another delivery of a boat from Kiel to Sweden in late May or early June. It is a brand new Bavaria 33 and while it is not my choice as a beautiful boat (I don't like the modern shaped fore nor the bulb keel) it will still be a wonderful opportunity for Lars-Göran to go to Germany and get in some great sailing in the open water. Let's hope there are no hitches and that it all goes smoothly as the time factor is a little tight if we want to head off northwards in good time. I'd like to spend Midsommar in Höga Kusten.