Day 126

Every now and then we are a little group that run an after work pub. This time it included grilled hotdogs and beer. It was rather popular even though the weather was quite bad at the beginning. The grill had to be under a party tent to avoid the rain, but after an hour or so the sun started showing up, and it was pleasant outside too. Inside we had our little bar with the fridge.

The location is our lunch cafeteria, and aren't those white and orange lamps cool!? =)

Day 125

Linus did some drawing when we got home from work. He was very eager to show it to me and the camera. The rocket is for me and the boat for daddy. And the sea is orange, that is OK, you can choose whatever color you want (his own words :).

Day 124

I'm sorry I haven't commented that much lately, but the weekend has been busy, and I have a lot of catching up to do on other stuff too. Anyway I have taken the pics each day, and I try to upload them and visit your blogs as spots of free time shows up. I haven't forgot you, and I'm not about to quit. =)

Linus came to us this afternoon, and we went for our usual walk with Ebba. The day started out with some rain, but as the day evolved, so did the weather. By afternoon it was about 16C (61F) and sunshine, and very nice for our outdoor activity.

Remember this view from February? Almost same spot. I love seeing how the nature is changing.

Day 123

We should have picked up our caravan from the winter shelter last weekend, but as Daniel was sent on a trip we did it today instead.

So this is our caravan. She is not very beautiful, and even fixed with some tape in the front, but she is very convenient. Mostly she will be parked at the country cottage, as an extra room, but we do plan to take her on a traveling vacation or two this summer.

We bought her last summer, and the manufacturing year says 1977, so she wasn't very expensive. Maybe we'll buy a fancier caravan some day, but for now this little ugly duckling will do.

Day 122

Another morning of sleeping in. It got really late yesterday, and today we began with breakfast on the porch. Kennet and Lina had stayed over, as they live about 120 kilometers from here (75 miles).

When they left in the afternoon we took the dogs for a walk in our forest. The sun was shining and it almost felt like summer for real. The trees are so green now, and the sky clear blue. Emma is behaving very well now when Daniel is home, and get to go without a leash when we are in the forest. She likes the new freedom! =)

Day 121

Today is 1st of May and Labor day in Sweden, and we have the day off. This is partly the cause for the celebration yesterday. =)

We slept in for a while, and then started to prepare for tonight. My brother and his fiancé was visiting for the first time since we moved to this apartment a year ago. We prepared a dinner of grilled fillet of beef with aïoli and potatoes. I had also baked a Key Lime pie for dessert. Yummy tonight too!

We had a great time, with lots of catching up. As a gift we got this bottle of really nice olive oil, a bag of luxury bread mixture, and a cute little bag with two small balls. When put in a cup with hot water they open themselves as a flower and gives you tea. So sweet of them!

Day 120

Today was Walpurgis Night, and traditionally we get together with friends to eat and drink and watch bonfires to welcome the spring.

This year we celebrated with some neighbors, and as both the other couples have babies, we ate and drank but left out the bonfire. It was a very nice night. For dinner we barbecued wild boar, and ate with baked potatoes and green pepper sauce. Yum!

Day 119

Ebba and I went down to the train station tonight to pick up Daniel. It feels good that he is home again, and he is very happy too. So are the dogs. After we got home we all went out for a peaceful walk, and now both dogs sleeps in the couch. Not next to eachother, but the same couch! :)

Day 118

It is kind of interesting to be walking a dog that is on a leach and no more than one meter away. This is Emma, one of my IL's three tibetian spaniels. The ILs are on vacation, and Emma will stay with us. She came today, and after work Ebba, Emma and I took a stroll in our forest.

This next picture gives a little better look on Emma, and it is taken just minutes before chaos began. We don't like other dogs. At all. None of us.

Oh well, it is not that dramatic, everyone survived without major damage, but the dogs will be taken on separate walks until Daniel is back. Did I say that I'm a cat-person, in my opinion dogs are strange creatures! ;)

Day 117

Another lovely summer-like day with warm winds and sunshine. These are good days for having a dog! Ebba and I took walk after work, and came across these sweet flowers. And the scent! Wow, wish I could add that to the blog too. =) I have no idea of the name of these little beauties, but the trees looks like on the next picture.



Last picture is for Daniel, so he knows what his Ebba is up to. Bathing. She got warm on our walk, so she dived right in when we got to the water.



Speaking of water; I have bought a water hose to use in our tiny garden, and today was time to clean the outdoor furniture. Ebba was over-excited! Streaming water! Wohooo!! Every time I turned the water on she tried to catch it. It was not easy to clean the furniture with a crazy dog in front stealing all water! Anyway, she had a blast. Sorry I haven't got pictures of it, but I don't think the camera would have enjoyed the water as much as Ebba... ;-)

Day 116

Ebba and I ran some errands today, and among others we bought dog food. There were some specials today, and when buying the big bag of food you got a dog bed for free. Unfortunately there were only smaller beds left, but I took the biggest one of them.

I do think Ebba would fit into it, but she refuses to try it. First she started playing with it as if it was a toy, but now she only lays next too it and sulks as it takes up space in her couch. Oh well, it was free, and maybe one of the cats finds it some day.

Day 115

This is one of the most beautiful places I know about! It is the summer cottage of my IL's, and it is situated about 30 minutes by car from us.

As Daniel is working today, I took Ebba with me and headed there to spend this lovely summer-like day outside. Ebba did a lot of bathing and I dipped one toe into the freezing water.



I also did some experimenting with the camera. I think it was Shannon who told about using a high aperture to get these sun flares.



Last picture; another one of Ebba.

Day 114

We had an almost summer-like day today; all sunshine and up to 20C (68F). When I got home from work I decided it was time to mowe the lawn for the first time this year. It was not too long, but with this cylinder mower it has to be pretty short to get a good result.

We have a tiny lawn, it only takes me five minutes to mowe it. You can almost see all of it in this picture. But I really like it this way, we just don't have the time to handle a real garden.

Someone else is also enjoying the sun... Zoey was thrilled to get out in the afternoon, and twisted and turned on the stones for a while before she went off.

Day 113

We took a stroll in the forest today again after work. The sun was shining and it was rather warm, very nice. I thought the wildflowers should be a lot more, but apperently they haven't all bloomed yet. Anyway, I like it a lot to walk around out here.

Day 112

The wildflowers (? Anemone nemorosa) are in full bloom, and our forest gets a white cover that isn't snow. It is so beautiful, and I was eager to capture it for my picture of the day.

Today, however, was still grey skies, and the flowers won't open fully without sunshine. So I captured a picture of a small group of wildflowers instead, and placed Ebba in the picture too. She was very happy to roam the forest again! =)

Day 111

It has been rather grey and cold today. After work we went to pick up Linus and Ebba, and then straight to the grocery store. Home, cook dinner, eat, do some laundry, realizing that a picture has to be taken...

To brighten the grey weather I pointed the camera at one of my orchids. Two of the flowers has been there for a while, then suddenly a bud appeared and the third flower bloomed too. And now there is another little bud on its way. Orchids are amazing!

Day 110

Zelda loves this time of the year when the door out to the patio can be a little bit open all evening. The picture shows her on her gazillionth time through the door tonight.

The routine:
- walk out
- stroll around
- get incredible frightened by something not visible to humans
- run in
wait half a minute and repeat from first step.

I was working in the garden, and Daniel and Linus played football while Zelda enjoyed herself. Zoey is more of an adventurer, she began by sneaking up on Zelda a couple of times, then she walked away and didn't came back until after an hour or two.

We all are really appreciating the sunny weather, and although some rain wouldn't hurt the garden, we hope the sun will stay the rest of the week too as Ebba (the dog) comes tomorrow.

Day 109

Today was another day with nice weather, but when we got out we realized that it was a bit windy. Unfortunately, cause this was also the day when our housing cooperation had scheduled a little get-together to put the out-door furniture back from the winter storage.

I forgot the camera during the actual work, but instead I went out now tonight to take a photo of the furniture in its place on the courtyard. These chairs and tables are free for anyone living here to use, but are mostly for those who not have a patio on the ground but balcony's instead.

Day 108

Most of the pictures from yesterday and today is not suited for publishing on the Internet, and I got worried questions when I took a picture; "will this be your pic of the day?". :)

No, it wont. I'll take this one instead; a picture from the outer archipelago of Stockholm. It was a sunny day today, and the archipelago is really beautiful. We sat on deck for a while just enjoying the warmth and sight.

We were home again by 7PM, and I'm a little tired right now. There will be some unpacking and then just relaxing the rest of the night. Hope you are having a nice weekend too!

Day 107

Here is the reason while I haven't updated the blog for a couple of days.. we have been on a cruise! The bus went from Linköping at noon, heading for Stockholm, and then the boat left Stockholm at 6PM. The cruise is 22 hours, so we see Stockholm again by 4PM tomorrow.

This is a party cruise, and we went with some friends from work. There were a nice dinner when we got on board, and then there were dancing and fun the rest of the night. Sometimes early in the morning the boat will arrive at Åland, the Finnish island between Sweden and Finland. It leaves the port rather early too, and we were asleep during the short stay, so no view of Åland this time.

Day 106

We went home after work today, only to change clothes and take the bikes back to work and the gym that is situated there. There were an hour work-out before we took the bikes back home again.

When we sat up on the bikes we talked about how nice this was to do, but then we had the wind agains us all way home and it was not nice at all! We sat for a while on our patio to relax when we got home, and that's when this picture was taken.

Day 105

There will be two pics today, cause I couldn't decide which one to show.



This is from our walk with Ebba, it's the view from the little hill out over the meadows where we so often walk. I took a picture here in January, quite a difference, hu? ;)



The other picture shows what I have been doing all night after we got in from the walk: working on my family history. I have just subscribed to an online service where one can search for and read old parish registers from different counties in Sweden.

It is very interesting trying to find out where my relatives was born and lived their life's. I realises many times that it was a hard life hundred or two hundred years ago, and I'm very lucky to are born in these times.

In the middle of the picture is my mothers' great grandfathers birth note, and the year is 1858.

Day 104

We had almost sunshine during our afternoon walk with Ebba. It was still so lovely; fresh green leaves and grass everywhere and also some flowers. These small yellow ones seems very dedicated, as they have even shoot up through the old dry leaves. See, one of the flowers green leaves has pinned one of the old brown ones. I think it is pretty cool. :)

Otherwise not much new today. First day at work after Easter holiday, and then a meeting with the housing board. Now there are some scrapping I need to see to!

Day 103

The wooden floor on our patio is done! We went to buy the missing logs this morning, and Daniel laid his final hand on it by lunch. We had pickled herring and potato for lunch out there, and really enjoyed our new patio. Thank you everyone for your nice and encouraging comments on our little project! :)

Tomorrow is time for work again, and hopefully I'll also have time to visit and comment on your blogs. This weekend has been so busy and didn't allowed for much project 365-time, unfortunately. But I'm so curious how your weekend have been!

Hopefully this lovely weather continues into this week. Today has been another sunny and warm day, perfect for working outside. We also discovered, while walking Ebba in the forest, that it has become so green during just the last couple of days. Some leaves are already showing, and a lot of fresh grass and flowers are growing everywhere. Hope I get to capture some of it to show you and to remember spring 2009 by.

Day 102

We stayed the night from yesterday at the IL's, and this morning we took the dogs for a walk on the golf course nearby. The Åtvidaberg golf course is one of the more beautiful in Sweden, situated along a lake and windling green hills.

The morning mist was just about to go up, but the sky was all white, and it was rather moist. Just half an our after we got home, the sun appeared in full bloom again and we had another lovely spring day.

Day 101

Easter dinner at my IL's. There were a table full of eggs, pickled herring, Janssons frestelse, Easter ham, meatballs, small sausages and lots of more. Come to think about it, it is much like the Christmas table.

We had a wonderful afternoon with sun and warmth, and was even able to sit outside on their patio relaxing after the dinner and having coffee.

Daniel was able to do some more on our patio before we went for dinner:



The floor is almost laid for half of the patio, but we lacked some logs to finish it completely. That will be a task for Monday. At least this pic gives a hint of the final result:

Day 100

It is day 100, one hundred!! :D I'm so proud of myself, and of you too girls! Hang in there! *doing a little party dance*



The building of the patio started today. Daniel did an awesom job, and even though he works daily at an office, he is a superb builder!

(I've used Annies Silver Screen action on this one.)



The day started out with the bottom frame for the floor. All electrical equipment was brought out.

It is not quite as cold as Linus clothing shows, but I was a little worried as it was shadow on the courtyard. Just half an hour later the cap, gloves and coat were gone.



All the bottom frames are pinned to the ground, and it is about lunch-time.



After the framing on the ground, we added another frame, that will be visible. Lots and lots of angels here!

Daniel also started laying the vertical pieces, that will form the actual floor. Hopefully we will be able to do some more tomorrow, before we head for Easter dinner at my IL's.

Day 99

Day 99! The last day with a two-digit number. :) Amazing that I have made it this far, but I'm so happy when I look back at all the pics, and what a wonderful memory this will be.

Todays picture is a pile of wood, and the back of our cat Zelda. We went and bought wood for the floor on the porch today, so tomorrow you will hopefully see a picture of us in the middle of building!

The weather started out with grey skies and even rain in the morning, but at lunch something began happening. Slowly the grey was replace with blue, and when we went from work the sun was shining from a clear blue sky. Lovely! Just hope we get the sunshine to stay for Easter.

Day 98

The weather's been a little grey today, with some rain too during the afternoon. But it is still above 10C (50F), and hopefully those winter coats can soon be put back where they belong; the closet.

We went out for a short while to put away stuff from the porch, and Linus and Daniel took the time to play some football (that is, soccer). They had a lot of fun with the ball, and I had a lot of fun with the sport mode on my Canon. :)

Day 97

Tomorrow Linus will be here again, so we thought it was a good idea to buy his easter-egg today, to be able to keep it hidden until Easter-eve. We bought two eggs, one is for Linus and one for his cousin. We will all be visiting my IL's during Easter weekend, and my guess is that equal eggs to both kids are a good idea. Hopefully they will not be all high on sugar, but able to play and enjoy each-other too. :p

Now it is only two days left at work this week; Friday is off. Next week Monday is off too, also due to the Easter. That makes two 4-day weeks in a row. And there will be more of these; soon we have May 1st, which is another Friday off and 4-day week. Boy, do I love the spring season! :)

Day 96

This is our, pretty messy, garden and porch. We live in an apartment but we are among the few in our building with a small garden towards the courtyard. There are also a small common lawn and some children toys.

Daniel and I have just been measuring the porch as we would like to build a wooden deck to cover the concrete floor. We moved here last spring, and immediately got the awnings to cover for the sun, which can be quite harsh in the afternoons. But for this summer we would like to do a little more. The concrete is not very nice to walk bare-foot on, so this should be a good solution.

I thought I should take this before-pic, as once we start with the building we will forget how it looked before. It had to be in b&w (Annies action Silver Screen) as the mess on the left hand side was too obvious in color. ;) We have used it as storage for lots of stuff during the winter. Soon it will all be gone, and we will be able to enjoy the area again.

Day 95

Pretty uneventful day today. The weather was not as good as yesterday, it was a little windy but still about 10C (50F), so it is still spring. ;) No matter the weather, Ebba still needs her walk. We took a stroll in the woods, to get out of the wind, and I got to capture this picture of a calm Ebba. Daniel has a pic of her when we played, not as calm then!

The rest of the day was spent doing some shopping and then relaxing in front of the F1-race on TV. It is very quite here now as we left Ebba with the other family after shopping. Daniel and his ex had Ebba before they divorced, so we take turns in caring for her. That is rather handy, cause having a dog can really limits you sometimes. But if we have to go away and can't bring her, we just agree with the other family to care for her during that time. And of course the other way around too.

Day 94

BBQ! Today was our first barbeque for the year. We had lovely warm and sunny weather today, and it was a perfect day to start our favourite summer happening. There will be loads of these evenings trough the summer!

We have this little grill, that we puts in the middle of the courtyard/patio, and then we are ready to go. Today was marinated beef and corncobs. Indoor our nice neigbour had made sallad and baked potatos, and we later ate at their place. Still too cold to enjoy the dinner outside.

I hade to have this picture as well, as it describes the event even more; Daniel overlooking the grill while enjoing a cold beer. Spring is here! :D

Day 93

This is the standard look on Ebba twice a day, when it is time for food. That is when I am ready for breakfast in the mornings and around 7.30PM in the evenings. Ebba starts to wander from her bowl and to the drawer where we keep her (and the cats) food and back again. Sometimes she put her nose to the drawer and starts nosing loudly; "The food is here!"

We pour the food in her bowl and she is completely frozen until the magic word "varsågod" (please [help yourself]) is uttered. Then she dives into the food, and finish it in a matter of seconds. After her medicine, wrapped up in a slice of cheese, and some water she is perfectly happy and leaves the kitchen for now.

Otherwise it has been another nice spring day, with sunshine and rather warm weather, although a little windy.

Day 92

It has been wonderful weather today, sun shining and temperature about 10 degrees (50F). It is really spring in the air! As we are alone (no Linus nor Ebba) we decided to run som errands in town after work, and have dinner at "our" pub. As the weather was so nice we took our bikes.

Day 91

Today we have (finally!) been away shopping. For us. Not groceries. :) Neither Linus nor Ebba is with us, so we went to the mall straight from work. Wednesday is a good day to go shopping, as the mall is almost empty. At least it feels that when compared to the weekends.

We strolled around for a while, buying some stuff, and then at one store I got this bag with my things. I love it when I get a paper bag instead of the standard plastic one. And the stuff was wrapped up in silk paper too! So nice! Maybe you recognize the brand? A bit expensive, but very supportive! :D (I got myself two bras.)