There is a smell of autumn in the air, even though it is only mid-August. I get the feeling that those two and a half weeks of warm weather in early July are going to be all the summer we are going to get this year. Mind you, I am not complaining a bit as autumn is one of my favourite times of the year full of the lingering warmth of summer, a few sunny days, a kaleidoscope of changing colours and lots of berry picking, mushrooming and crayfish parties!

Many people, though, are really disappointed by this year's summer and the media has been full of stories quoting the comparative stats for this year. According to the stories I've seen, this July was the rainiest July for thirteen years. I do have to agree that the downpours have been quite unbelievable at times and we came home early from our sailing because the rain was non-stop for days. The normal July rainfall for Stockholm is 72mm, but this year the capital recorded a whopping 122mm. In yesterday's Metro they declared "This has been the 15th rainiest summer in Stockholm since SMHI (the Swedish bureau of meteorology) began measuring in 1756". This has abated somewhat and while it still rains every day, there are at least sunny periods in between. The temperatures have been up around the 20C mark, so it is still warm and notwithstanding the rain record, it seems that July was also warmer than normal - the fifth warmest July in the last one hundred years.

But it's not as cold as it currently is in southern Australia at the moment. Yep, you guys made the national news here last night with stories of 20cm snowfalls in Melbourne, described by the Aussie weather forecaster yesterday as a "major event". There are pictures of it all at The Age and on SVT news we saw footage of kangaroos hopping through the snow and snow-covered palm trees. It looked fabulous, but very cold and wet. I guess it will be our turn soon enough. Gosh, I even have "candles" on my shopping list once more - a sure sign that the darkness is on its way.

We have been getting restless on land again and are increasingly getting caught up in reasons to put off sailing again. Should we wait for better weather, we wonder. Should we stay for various family and social get togethers in the next few weeks? What about the work on our apartment - we are getting all of the water and sewerage pipes changed, plus rewiring, a new bathroom and the kitchen renovated and some painting done. Ought we be here to supervise all of this? What about the board meeting next week? And people are already ringing to book a time to have their boats lifted for winter! We did our required guard duty at the boatclub on Tuesday evening, so why stay?

In the end, we decided to stuff everything and so the last couple of days I've been madly cooking, shopping, cleaning and preparing to move back on the boat again. We are going out for a farewell gathering for someone on Saturday afternoon in Stockholm, then we are coming back to the boat and heading out again, this time southwards until we feel we want to come back to Nynäshamn. Even when we get home, we'll more than likely be living aboard until the renovations on the apartment are complete. I don't fancy living in all that chaos for weeks and weeks.

The big event at this time of the year as we bid farewell to summer is the crayfish parties (kräftkalas) taking place almost every night.



I can't tell you how excited I was the first time I heard about these crayfish parties. I love crayfish, though we generally ate it in Australia for Christmas or New Year. I would queue up at Gulf Seafoods for my freshly cooked crays, each one weighing around the 1.5kg mark. These would be kept ice cold and served on a bed of ice, with just a touch of lemon juice. Delicious! I couldn't wait to eat Swedish crayfish and when I got my first invitation I dreamed about it for days beforehand.

Initially, however, I was disappointed. When I saw the actual crayfish, they were tiny - more like what we'd call a yabby or marron. Not the big delectable monsters that I was used to.



And I really hate fiddly food, having no patience for the whole crunching up, slurping out the tidbits of flesh etc. I like my seafood to be served in an already edible fashion. Once I was at a well-known Italian restaurant back home and ordered spaghetti with crab. I expected a sauce full of luscious chunks of crabmeat. Wrong. I got a plate of spaghetti with a whole crab, shell and all, sitting on top. Not happy, Jan.....

But in the end, the infectious joy and fun of such events over-rides the whole aversion to messy eating and now I can enjoy the party atmosphere itself and partake of other food on offer.

Weather permitting, the party is set up outdoors, usually in gardens, on patios, verandas, gazebos, balconies etc. Since the warm summer evenings are getting darker, the surroundings are often lit and decorated by hanging up colourful paper lanterns. Many shops sell matching sets of crayfish party accessories and tableware consisting of everything from dishes, glasses and cutlery to tablecloths, place mats, candles, napkins, aprons and bibs. The most popular ones seem to have a moon motif on them.



The atmosphere at crayfish parties is usually very relaxed and informal, including consuming of several glasses of snaps with the food and singing of snaps-songs. The freshwater shellfish are boiled in water, dill, salt and sugar and left to cool overnight. The next day they are served with hot buttered toast and caraway cheese, accompanied by snaps and beer. Or maybe it’s more truthful to say that the snaps and beer are accompanied by crayfish.



And yes, you are expected to wear a silly hat. It's all part of the fun and after several shots of snaps, who cares anyway?

A couple of years ago, I read about a man attending one of these parties, and, as he lived not far away along the coast, had driven his motor boat there. After a feast of crayfish, beer and snaps, he decided that he would drive home in his boat.

He climbed aboard, started it up and drove away from his friend’s party. Unfortunately his sense of direction had been somewhat impaired by the beer and snaps consumption and he and his boat ended up unintentionally attending another crayfish party – which was being held in a boat house on a nearby jetty. He had fallen asleep and his boat had crashed up through the pier and stopped just outside the boathouse.

Oops....

A small note: I have discovered quite by chance that the email feature from this blog and the Aussies in Sweden site has not been working for the last few weeks. The glitch has now been fixed, so if you wrote through either site and got no response, I'm not a stuck up snob, really! The mail never got through...