As you can see from the picture, autumn is in an advanced state and winter is approaching fast, which means that the winter tyres have to come on, one of those dreaded annual tasks. They are mandatory here between December 1st and March 31st if the conditions warrant them.

In Sweden most people use the kind of winter tyres that have metal studs in them to get a good grip on ice. L-G is very deft at changing the tyres and does it quite methodically, even having special plastic bags to keep the stored tyres in. How's that for clean and tidy? I think I might keep him after all!

We had our first real snowfall on Wednesday while we were out in the car with summer tyres still on! It took us rather by surprise as we'd been slack and not really listened carefully to the forecast. We made it home safely and before it became too heavy. But there was enough snow to turn our world white.




Sadly the temperature rose, it melted into slush. Later the temperature fell again and we woke up Thursday to sheet ice, which meant I had to break out the spikes for my shoes for the first time this season. What a contrast to the day before, when the wind whipped up, it was clear and sunny and the sea pounded into the cliffs by the light house keeper's cottage. It looks like a whole different world, but only 24 hours separates them.




The power of the water is mesmerising. I've always loved the coast and while we never get the fabulous thundering surf we get in Australia, I still love to stand and watch the water crash over the rocks and feel the spray on my face. This stretch of coast is a veritable ship's graveyard and looking at the unforgiving rocks, which stretch out in shoals many miles out to sea, one can understand why it is so.




The lighthouse keeper’s cottage is on Femöre and has a lonely location on a cliff edge above the Baltic. You can't get any closer to nature than this. The path to the cottage is through the woodpecker's forest and it is hard to believe that when you stumble on this intriguing gate in the woods, that it leads out to this isolated outpost.




This picture was taken a month ago when we still had leaves on the trees. It's a beautiful walk through the woods and a big bonus that one is able to stand and gaze out at the unbroken horizon. I feel very spoiled living here as we get the best of both worlds - we have the open waters of the Baltic stretching eastwards from here, but if we look more to the north, we see the amazing archipelago. These islands outside of Oxelösund are also one of the rare places where nature has been left pretty much undisturbed.




But for now, that's out of the question as the yacht lies tucked up on land in her winter place and we can dream of next year's sailing adventures while we watch the autumn storms rage.




I always think this sort of weather is best observed from inside some warm, cosy safe and dry place. People talk about the idea that they'd like to be out on the water in rough weather, but take it from me, you really don't want to be there. It's quite terrifying and I'm quite happy to be a land lubber for the next few months.

Now, if you are looking for a Christmas gift, I can recommend something. A couple of years back, we helped a young American man who wanted to buy a sailing boat and sail it from Stockholm to Morocco, despite the fact that he'd never sailed before. Well, he has written a book about it and it's available to buy. It's called The Sea Inside. Randall is a gifted writer with a beautiful grasp of language and the story of his journey is really engaging. Best of all, we all appear in the book - Lars-Göran, myself, Lambi, Bruce and Sheila. What could be better? Though he calls Lambi a finicky poodle - whatever could he mean by that?