Trick or treat!

Interment & Börstorps Slott

We laid to rest Madeleine's grandmother's ashes in a graveside service at Enåsa church outside of Mariestad yesterday on a crisp and clear fall day.

A number of the older generation came to pay their respects, and then we all went to nearby Börstorps Slott, where Anders spent the first years of his life before the family sold the farm. 

Elizabeth had come home for a course, and was able to participate.

We had smorgåstårta and coffee in the large ball-room.  Those who remembered said this room was reserved for festivities.

Climbing the stairs to the tower...

End of October

Already here we are at the end of the month.  It's cleared up for a couple of days and we had a beautiful sunset the other evening.

We baked pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies for Bea's daycare...

And today we went to Universeum.  Here it was, a beautiful clear day in GBG, and it was "raining" inside, in the "rainforest."

...And an older digital camera arrived from buddy Luke in the States, which gave new life to my collection of  Nikon glass, including this f1.4 which I like much better in this field of view...

Abc

Ochdärsvaldebeatanden

Rainy couple of weeks

The lousy weather continues here in GBG, so we've been doing a lot of indoor activities...

Like voting.

And baking-experimenting. Guess what happened here...

On Saturday a classmate of Bea's parents called us up as they were on the way to the seafaring museum/aquarium.  So we met up there for a couple of hours.

And Saturday evening celebrated neighbor Christian's 40th birthday.  They'd booked a little hall and had a catered dinner, but I made a batch of brownies for dessert on request.  With caramel and pecans.

There was live music by a band and, here, the neighbors themselves...

And Helen and Anders returned from a just-as-rainy continent and picked up Hubert.  Was nice having a dog around again.

Legos and other activities

Bea wasn't feeling 100% at the end of last week, so she stayed home with me.  During a trip to a grocery store she saw this Lego kit with a rocket, sattelite, and van.  The models reminded me of the space Legos I played with as a kid, so of course she got the kit.

And then she built her own spaceship.

I taught her solitaire.  She knitted that scarf herself (though sadly it's now disappeared- the wind!)

On  a Sunday walk in Slottskogen we passed by the "Nappträd", where children hang their pacifiers when ready to move on.  All these years later we found Bea's distinct pacifiers!

And we had Alice for a visit yesterday.  Bea helped feed her lasagne.

End of September

By some amazing, unexplainable phenomenon we have reached the end of September.  Though the rain keeps us mostly inside, I can see through the drop-speckled windows that the trees are taking on some warmish hues, so it must indeed be fall.

Still, there has been some playing outside:

And being fortunate to have a birthday fall on a Friday, I took the opportunity to invite over a bunch of people and make a big pot of Friday soup: clam chowder.

We had about 20 guests plus kids.  I had ordered clams from a local deli that could source big cans from Italy, and ended up making about 12 liters I guess. 2 kilos clams, a potato per person, 1.5 liters whole milk and 1.5 liter cream... It all adds up.  The difficulty of sourcing clams has been a major hindrance to chowder-production, but now that I've got this deli on my side I'll have to whip up a batch more often.  I also made laugenbrezel, (traditional lye-dipped pretzels) and a couple of apple pies topped with cookie-cutter leaves.  I had a case of Lagunitas Pale Ale to hand out...

A good party all around!

On Saturday we recovered, and tidied up, and helped Anders and Helen unload a trailer full of furniture.  It got late, so they stayed for some pizzas and salad.  And as they're off to the continent, we took delivery of Hubert, who inspired us to get out and do a lap of Slottskogen.  Something we realized we haven't done for a while, being without dog.

He's made himself at home.

Then there was time for pedantic lego-organizing.

And as always time for drawing and crafts.  Here a robot princess cavorts with a bunny.