When you look at my blog, it does indeed look like nothing much is happening. However, going through my recent calendar, and my recent pictures you would be getting an entirely different impression. I was just checking to see what should be included in a much needed update, and from that, I can totally see why I haven’t had time for blogging.

I miss my blog, my blog reading, and all of you guys out there (if anyone’s left), let me just say that first. However, these past few months work has been terribly busy and quite energy comsuming, which is good because I love what I’m doing – it just takes a few sacrifices. And as if business at work wasn’t enough, we also took on a project in our family – more about that further down.

I’ll give you a picture wrap up – so let’s see what we’ve been doing the last few months.

So – briefly:

Mallorca in July

Canoe trip to lake Immeln in Sweden in July

Ronja starting school in August

Ronja’s 6 years birthday in August

I made these adorable goodie bags from Minimega’s printable pdf for the occasion when the class was visiting – just had to show you!

And now in this look-back we’re approaching September, and of course, in our family we just always need 2-300 things keeping us busy, so we started looking for a sail boat (this is the project I mentioned at the beginning). Our new love will be a separate post (or several, of course), now that I hope I will keep up the posts just a little more than I have the past 3-4 months.

We spent all of our spare time for a month driving around the country (and southern Sweden as well), dragging the children onto all kinds of sail boats that were more or less fit for a family of 4 – in all kinds of weather. Which is a lie, actually, ’cause it was raining almost all the time. We finally found the boat model Shipman 28, which is a good Swedish design by Olle Enderlein from 1969. It seems to live up to the things we were looking for in a sail boat, that is meant to host future summer vacations, and numerous sails during the sailing season – within the price limit we were willing to spend. So check this out:

We named the boat ANNA after my amazing grandmother who died 4 years ago. She was a woman who radiated warmth, wit, interest, and just a presence that anyone around her felt and was struck by – she always had a strong ability to gather the family. So those are the qualities we humbly want our new love to possess – or perhaps rather the name stands for a lot of positive things that we want to carry with us when we are sailing and spending time on the boat.

We have spent quite a few weekends with her by now, and we all love it. The girls are getting used to saling step-by-step, and we cannot wait to spend a summer vacation with Anna.

On to the next thing:

Frida’s 3 years birthday in September

All these things have put quite a strain on the calendar, and remember, this is without the stuff that has been going on in our work lives, which at least in my case has been quite a bit. And did I mention we started renovating the bedroom?

This post reflects very much my need to do a wrap-up before I can move on to the next blogpost. It may seem like nothing, but this is just not really what you want to be doing when you have a blog – you want to write whatever enters your mind at the moment, right? Not much crafty stuff here, and the time-issue is in part an explanation for that, but I have been doing minor things. I’ll let you know more soon.

Pappersbruket is just a 5 minutes drive away from Denningarums Gård, and we arrived there after a brief afternoon detour into the woods for a geocache. It was somewhere around 4 in the afternoon, and we had plenty of time for a shower and some clean clothes before dinner. Jessica who runs the place together with her husband, greeted us and showed us to our room.

As soon as you set foot in the hallway of the hotel, you cannot help but know a lot of love went into the creation of the place – it’s just really beautiful and filled with atmosphere! After we freshened up, we went downstairs and had a look around before dinner.

Every detail in the pretty hotel has been tended to carefully – from the beautiful wallpaper panels to the furniture and the colours. After looking around on our own for a while and being shown around by Peter, Jessica’s husband, we sat down for dinner. Though the host couple were totally sweet with the children, it didn’t take Mads and I long to agree that this would probably be a place we would be more likely to go without children. The girls loved the acoustics and space of the hall and the restaurant – does that tell you anything at all? Calming them down was rather difficult – good thing we were the only ones in the restaurant that evening… Dinner was amazing, by the way!

The girls fell asleep late, and Mads and I stayed up talking, seated in the soft couches. Next morning we had breakfast before Peter took us on a tour of the rest of the site which is used for events of different kinds, and it just showed us once more that everything is so well accomplished it’s hard to believe. It would be a truly great place for a company event of some sort or a large party.

After the tour we borrowed a canoe, so that Mads and I could take the girls out for a little while. We both weren’t too optimistic about how that would work out, expecting the girls to not be able to sit still for more than a little while. We were soooo proved wrong. After a little while the rain started pouring, and we got out the raincoats for both girls.

At this point things could have been way more challenging than they were – the girls were singing most of the way, and in fact they just seemed to really enjoy our quiet trip down the stream – and so did their parents. Mads and I have been canoeing in Sweden quite a few times before we had kids – now I think we may just try a few days trip again soon.

When we got back, Peter was there to meet us with umbrellas and while we got into some dry clothes, Jessica made us a cup of tea. After that we said goodbye and went back to Denningarums Gård to have lunch.

Finally, we were all tired and ready to go home after a great weekend of Swedish impressions – this cool bus is what you see close to the town when you go there – but don’t believe what it’s saying (Helvetets Port = gateway to hell), because Östanå definitely has something to offer.

And now, we’re so off to Mallorca – see you when we get back!

After a two hour drive we arrived at Denningarums Gård in Skåne. The sun was low in a blue sky, and everything looked wonderfully idyllic! The girls immediately ran off to the nearby playground, and Mads and I were welcomed by the friendly host couple of the farm. They showed us to our cabin, a primitive wooden cottage with four bunk beds, facing the stream. We unloaded our luggage, and while we had a look around the place with the girls, they lit the barbecue and brought us baskets with barbecue-ready meat, salads, drinks etc. – mmmmmm.

We had a delicious dinner on the cabin terrace in the evening sunshine.

It sounds almost over the top, I know, but it was great. The girls left the table to go play when they had finished, and Mads and I enjoyed the tranquility of the place. After a while of playing by the stream, we all went to bed early after a long day.

Next day after breakfast we went out on the stream on one of the roofed rafts. We brought a basket with coffee, cake, and juice for the girls – Ulf (the owner) gave us brief instructions, and then we took off down the stream.

We were out sailing for a few hours and it was absolutely brilliant! The girls brought sticks and spent a lot of the time “fishing” – actually, come to think of it, they spent most of the day splashing sticks into water someplace or another.

The rest of our Saturday there, we did nothing but relax. The farm has pet rabbits, emus, llamas, pigs, ducks, and besides all the animals they have a very impressive fruit and vegetable garden. The girls loved the place, and really it’s just a great place to get into a slower pace than what is usual for a family with children like ours.

So far the weather had been slightly chilly, but still very nice. However in the afternoon, when we had gone out for a walk, it began to rain, and as the girls were also starting to show signs of tiredness, we decided to say goodbye to Ulf and Karin for that day and head on to Pappersbruket, where we would be spending Saturday evening and some of our Sunday. More about that in my next post.

The girls had a pool in the garden – they started out like this, and then they ended up soaked, jumping around in the water with absolutely no inhibitions.

Nelle, Frida, and Ronja at dinner in the garden. Nelle’s parents and her younger brother were there as well, and we had a real summery evening, barbecueing in the garden in the warm weather.

That’s just not possible this weekend. It’s been raining pretty much since this morning, and the guests we had over for dinner this evening just had to stay inside and imagine a summery dinner at the garden table. We had a cosy evening all the same, and Mads made some yummy lamb shanks for dinner.

Next weekend we’re going to Skåne in Sweden – my family and I have been invited by Tourism in Skåne to try out some of their offers for tourists, and of course we had to happily accept. Mads and I have taken a number of canoe trips in Sweden years ago, and we generally love the Swedish countryside, so it was an easy call to make. We will be going to Pappersbruket, and Denningarums Gård (sorry, no English version for that last one, but I hope it’s as beautiful as in the pictures – see “Bilder” in the menu on their website). I’m really looking forward to it!

Pappersbruket

Denningarums Gård Surroundings

Tomorrow, however – we will just be relaxing at home. Which is needed after a lot of running around lately – let’s hope for a bit of sunshine.

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