Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Yesterday evening.

It´s something special with the ocean, something I can´t explain. I love it here where I live, the forest, the bog and the open fields. Those places make me calm and happy with myself and my life. But coming to the ocean and I feel at home. Most probably that has to do with the fact that I grew up by it and spent quite a lot of time sailing on it.


Getting close to the island.

It´s not that far to be honest. There has been talk about building a bridge but the islanders always says no!

View from my friends house. As You will see in these photo´s the houses isn´t read as they are here where I live. Only barns and sheds are usually red here.



This little cottage however is red and that´s the place I´m going to sleep in next time I´ll visit. Going to feel just like home there :-)

I had driven perhaps 30 miles (3,5 mil) when I felt a tire starting to wobbling. I had checked that there was enough air in them the day before so I stopped the car and got out. The breaks were really hot and I burned my fingers when touching them. Well I haven´t been driving much so I guess that was the reason. So I took a short break and continued. After another couples of miles I stopped again to feel if they still were hot, but they were as cool as they should be so I continued once again and reached my friends without further problems.





My friends house. They are still renovating it but it is a very beautiful house. Next time I´ll take a better photo of it.

Now we have started our walk on the island. As You can see the houses are very different from here where I live. They might look very big but are actually rather small inside.



It´s funny really, when You meet friends You haven´t seen in years (we can call my friends C and H. C is the man and H the woman). We just continued from where we sort of stopped the last time :-) :-) :-) But I think that´s what happens with really good friends.


Finally the ocean. The houses You can see is on another island on swimming distance. Well it would be in swimming distance if the currents weren´t that strong. I always had problems here with my sailboat if the currents went the wrong way :-)








When I started to work at Volvo all these years ago I felt a bit lost to be honest. It´s a place where thousands of people work and the work pace is high and I was a much shyer person then, but C sort of took care of me there. But we didn´t only work together, we spent most of our free time together too :-) I and H used to go jogging together because C was way to fast for both of us. The last time C jogged with any of us he ran all the way backwards and faster than us :-) :-) :-)




This is much how the coastline looks around Gothenburg. No beaches with lots of sand.

Now we´re on our way to the highest peak on the island and I have to say that I need more exersize :-) :-)



No matter how small the island is, there´s always houses on it :-)

But then we moved away and as most times we met more seldom. Well lots of e-mails and sms were sent, but that´s not the same thing is it. But then finally I got my thumbs out of my ass (Swedish expression) and drove down to their new home out on an island outside Gothenburg. At home the weather was quite cloudy and rather cold. But when I reached the island it was warm and the sun started to shine. They day became perfect to be honest and the best thing was that there were almost no flies :-)


Now we´re going down to the forest.
I don´t think there´s a single spruce or pine in this forest.





It grows all the way down to the ocean.

C and I took a long walk on the island too. Half of it was forbidden area for most people before since it was owned by the army. I´m not a big fan of any army but one good thing with them owning lots of land is that it is untouched. So in contrary to most of the islands outside Gothenburg it has a rather big forest. The island also has one of the biggest viper populations (the only poisounes snake we have. It´s not worse being bitten by it that getting a bee sting) You can find here in Sweden. But we didn´t see any on our walk.










Going home again was an adventure in itself to be honest. I drove away in the worst part of rush hour. Up here rush hour means twenty cars on the highway. Down there it means that the cars almost not are moving. I had no more troubles with the breaks, but I suddenly understood that my car just died when stopping! That was a bit worrying but I managed to get out of Gothenburg without any more problems. I tried several times to see if the engine died and so it did.


Teodor sat a long time at the entrence stairs after we had come home.

I baked a tomatoe and basil bread because I didn´t have any bread when I came home. It doesn´t taste much tomatoe nor basil, but it´s quite ok anyway :-)
The old stone age toomb.

Just before the rain started this morning. But now the sun shines again :-)

But when I came home and was getting out the car to get my mail it suddenly sort of jumped and now the engine works without me pressing down the gas pedal???!!! Well now it works and therefore I´m happy :-) :-) :-) Now it´s time for a cup of tea. Outside the rain is falling and will continue so all day. Thunderstorms are predicted too. Normal weather for us living far north.

Have a great day now!

19 comments:

decareis said...

Hello Christer!
What about your photos? SPECTACULAR.
And what about friends? Friend is the greatest wealth of the human being, whether a human or an animal.
I'm sure you spent a wonderful day!
Your country is beautiful, with a simple beauty (this region)
Read his blogg is invigorating, and we are sure that happiness dwells within us, just knowing look ....
Congratulations
Andrea

Anonymous said...

Wonderful visit with old friends. Love the photos, the first one is spectacular. Sorry your car is giving you problems. I hate it when that happens. I would love to live on an island. Those pictures brought new fantasies to mind. Glad you went and thanks for the tour.

ana_didi said...

Hi Christer,
Ahh what a beautiful ride you did! The place is charming, with their houses full of windows, and with plenty of greenery around. Seaside beyond everything! Perfect :)
Your friends should be excellent people, best friends are the ones with whom we can feel comfortable even after long time no see.
I liked you know that these homes look great but are small. I believe that we should not take up much space from the earth, just what we need.
Thanks for sharing with us the beauty of your country.
As for the tomatoes I do not like much, but they improve the flavor when dried and stored in oil. Have you tried?
kiss
Didi

decareis said...

Christer
Forgot to say:
This island is magical
Your home is magical
Your photos are magical
And that made me want to eat your bread!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Andrea!
That island is wonderful especially since not lots of people are living there in comparence to othet islands in it´s neighbourhood.

It was so fun to finally meet them and their two children. Their childrean are almost grown up by now but I had no problems recognising them :-)

It was a fantastic day and I hope there will be many more :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
I would probably not have cared that much about my car problems if I only had been driving here. Most of my friends live close or someone in their families so I could always get help. But it isn´t fun to have to stop half way there because of the car, especially not when I have three big dogs with me :-) :-) :-)

The mist just came rolling over the fields yesterday evening, it looked amazing, much more so than this photo can show. I thought the night would become really cold, perhaps with frost. But it turned out to be rather warm instead :-)

I would love to live on an island too. But the house prises are way to high for me (even if they are cheaper than they are in Gothenburg). A cheap house there would cost atleast ten times what mine costed :-) :-) But it´s rather ok to have friends with a little extra red cottage one can stay over night in :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Didi!
Yes, they are exellent people and best of friends :-)

The houses down there are so different from ours up here. It´s like comming to another world :-)

I love tomatoes, but not dried and in oil :-) The best is to just grab a tomatoe from the bush when it is warm in the sunshine :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Christer, it was great fun sharing this visit with your friends and a change of scenery too. Your comments about friends being able to pick up where they left off despite not having seen one another in awhile is so very true. It's great to have people like that in our lives. Grenville and I do as well.

Too bad about the car's strange actions and hopefully it will nto be anything serious.

Yes, the expression you mentioned is one we also use here!

And that bread looked wonderful, As soon as cooler weather returns here we will be baking once again!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Beatrice!
Friends like that is hard to come by, but we who has is lucky people :-)

Cars!!! Can´t live without them though. Wouldn´t even come to work without it :-) Well I´ll phone the garage as soon as I start working again. Until then it just has to shape up :-) :-)

So it´s an universal expression :-) :-)

It´s not bad the bread, it´s actually quite good. But it doesn´t taste as I thought it would, not at all :-) It´s to hot to bake during summer and early autumn really. But I didn´t want scones again :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Chris in the Emerald City said...

Simply enchanting photos, and your bread turned out picture perfect! I had to look up what a marten is... are they mean creatures?

Alen Trädgård said...

Vad otäckt när det händer något med bromsarna när man är ute och kör, tur att det ordnade upp sig:) Väldigt mysig och vacker skärgårdsmiöljö din vän bor i:) Kul att få en rundvandring. Ha det gott/Monne

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer..fabulous pics. it looks a lot like the coast of new england. lots of forest and rocks but no beaches. what a cute guest house that will be to stay in! i would miss living somewhere like that! i am still waiting for rain! joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Chris!
The bread is ok, but not as I hoped it to be.

Martens are feared hunters and loves to get a squirrel or two. But they are soo beautiful! The only chance to see one is to get up and out just when the sun rises. If one is lucky there´s a chance they show up for a second or two :-) because they are soo fast.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hej Monne!
Jag visste ju inte om det skulle bli värre så lite jobbigt var det allt. Fast jag behövde ju inte vara orolig för att de inte skulle ta, tvärt om :-) :-) :-)

Det är så fint ute i våran skärgård! Fast det är lite väl tätt mellan husen :-)
Ha det gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
Yes it does look a lot like the coast of New England! I´ve seen photo´s from there and it could have been here :-) The islands outside Stockholm is very different though.

That is a cute guest house :-) Not unlike many small guest houses around here where I live :-)

I do hope You will get some rain soon!
Have a great day now!
Christer.

caryn said...

Hi Christer,
Love that first photo with the sunlit clouds and mist. Very magical. Your trip sounds wonderful. Seashore, forest, good friends. Can't beat that.

The tomato basil bread looked good. I have a loaf of olive bread that I'm working on. It's one of my favorites. I also like to make bread with salsa and monterey jack cheese in it.

Have a great day.

Sharlene T. said...

Well, Christer, I'm so glad you were able to take care of your "thumbs" because driving would have been very difficult... your pictures, today, were a very special journey and breathtaking... you have an artist's eye... it is nice to have an eccentric car but I would still get it checked out, especially, if you need it to get to work... are you going to share your recipe for tomato and basil bread?...

Twitter: SolarChief

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
The evening looked magik when the mist started to roll over the fields. No wonder people thought it was magic in one way or the other. Here they call it Bog women smoke. The mist usually comes from the bog so it must have been those Bpog women that had started fires out there :-)

It was a great trip :-)

I´m a bit dissapointed with the bread since it doesn´t taste as I´d hoped for. But it does taste rather good anyway. I´m not a fan of olives unfortunally :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

HI Sharlene!
:-) Yes it would have been difficult driving otherwise.

I´ll phone the garage as soon as I start working again. eccentric cars are nice as long as it´s not I that owns them :-)

One can´t miss when taking photo´s of the ocean :-)

I never go by recipe when baking. I work "from the hip" as we say over here :-) But it contains tomatoes, basil, little salt, 0,5 litres of water (or sour milk) and sometimes cheese. The flour I´m using is a ready mix between wheat and rye flour. We call it sifted rye flour and it´s around 60% wheat and 40% rye in it.

Have a great day now!
Christer.