Market Day

Today we visited Hötorgshallen - an indoor food market in central Stockholm.  We bought some Oxtail as I am planning to make an Oxtail Potjiekos tomorrow.

The recipe I am going to try out can be found here:
http://funkymunky.co.za/potjierecipes.html

After wandering around the hall we walked around Stockholm for a little bit.  All the streets have been decorated with their Christmas lights.

It was -8C in Stockholm today, so we didn't wander around empty handed for very long.  We went to Chokladfabriken for my favourite of favourite indulgences...hot chocolate made from pieces of chocolate melted with steamed milk and flavoured with a Rum Ball.  Yum...I had a white chocolate one again.  Next time I think I'll have to give the Milk Chocolate one as the OH tried it and was suitably impressed.

Recently

I love my Polaroid simulator :-)

Snow has come to Sweden - and lots of it.  Are we in for an even more serious winter than the last?

Make mine a White Hot Chocolate, please!

We went into Stockholm today.  We wandered around Sergels Torg.  It's amazing that there are still so many tourists in Stockholm...in November.  Always after a day like today I think that we must do it again soon...and then months go by, and the thought of actually going into Stockholm for the day gets less and less appealing.   This time though we will be going into town again soon - we have friends coming to visit and so it was good today to be reminded of some of the interesting sights to show them.


We went to the Tudor Arms for lunch today - Steak & Mushroom Pie - yum yum!  Washed down with a Stella Artois pint.  The place was as busy as ever, but I think the food was better this time than last time.  


After lunch we took a walk to Chokladfabriken (The Chocolate Factory) for a little dessert.  I tried out a White Hot Chocolate - ooooh!  Now I want another one.

All together

Our little kitty curled up in the study with us this evening while we were browsing the internet and listening to music.  He's not completely sold on music yet - his education continues.  Tonight he has been listening to some Swedish Rock courtesy of Volbeat & Johnossi.

All in a day's work

Well, actually two day's work.  Matthew put up a new security light on the outside of our storage room.  And it works :-)

Smug

Grumman, settling in for the night.  

Late post

Photo taken last Saturday. We went for lunch with the family at Ett Glas in Norrtälje. Lunch was a well executed Entrecote with slow roasted tomato and a decadently creamy potato gratin. All in all a great experience - good food and great company.

Snack box

Inspired by www.graze.com

Stunning rainbows

Visitor

I went outside to take some photo's of our complex to send on to the family back in SA. Instead I found we had a visitor in our garden. I love that we live in a place where deer roam freely. In deepest, darkest, wildest Africa I did not ever get this close to wildlife in my garden (unless you count the snakes, spiders, rats, frogs etc).

I find it interesting that, while Sweden is generally accepted as having less wildlife than SA, here it is all free to roam whereas in SA the wildlife is mostly in nature reserves or behind other similar bars. I have had the luxury of going to a few wildlife parks while I lived in SA and I was lucky enough to see lots of animals each of the times I visited a wildlife park. But in Sweden I have seen so much wildlife in my own little area. We have deer that wander through our garden and eat the apples that fall from our apple tree. We have seen foxes in our neighbourhood. We have seen squirrels and even one of the few snakes that are in Sweden. We have encountered moose on the country roads. And we know that there are wolves loose in the vicinity, but we haven't seen them.

Late Summer

Today has been a really beautiful late summer day. The sun shining brightly, the clear blue skies and temperatures of around 15C. We visited Furusund today. We were sailing up this stretch of water last weekend. This weekend we looked at it from the shore.

We parked near the Furusund Gästhamn and took a walk around. We had some "fika" at the Furusund Gästhamn Café. Sadly, commercially bought pastries, but lovely cappuccino. We sat on the deck watching the yachts and cabin cruisers go by. We also spotted the "Galaxy" making her ponderous way through. We checked out the facilities of the guest harbour too. Nice, clean showers and toilets. Also sauna's for the use of the harbours guests.

After our "fikapaus" we carried on walking around Furusund. We walked past the Furusund Värdshus and down to the Public Dock. We spotted several nice places for picnics. Definitely a place to visit again.

So we went sailing

So we were invited to join some friends on their yacht for a trip out into the Swedish archipelago. We were not sure what to expect as we've never been sailing before. On water in other forms of transport yes, but never actually sailing in a yacht. Moving by wind power alone!

I had an awesome weekend, good friends, good food, good wine. And beautiful scenery. The skärgård is not breathtakingly, heartbreakingly beautiful like the Norwegian Fjords. BUT the skärgård is unaffectedly, inviolately beautiful. It's pristine waters, natural, almost untouched islands are charming. The islands speak of simple life - life at it's barest essentials.

In among the simple summer cottages, open fields and bare islands were spotted the houses of the extremely rich. The ornate, the minimalist, the traditional - all alike ostentatious.

The weekend sailing was a strange mixture of two worlds. The rustic bare essentials and the lap of luxury. Sailing in a yacht is seen as a passtime of the rich, but using outdoor unplumbed toilets is viewed as uncivilised.

Yes, the yacht scared me, especially when we had to do some tacking into the wind. But I loved the simpler joys of spending evenings in a cosy space with good friends, playing simple silly games and chatting over drinks to guttering candles. I enjoyed the simple meals that were cooked over a fire, from simple ingredients that we could through together quickly.

I even went for a swim in the rather cold water. It was so invigorating. Not as cold as I thought - and only slightly salty. Quite strange actually, it looks like lake water (so calm and dark), but it's salty. Not so salty as the real sea though. More like a salt water swimming pool.

I ended the weekend with a desire to see more of the skärgård, but not necessarily under sail. I'll rather choose a snug little cabin cruiser if I have any say in the matter.

Time for some pampering

I love little sachets of beauty treatments. So this is quiet a little pamper pack going here.

Just heard we are going sailing this weekend. First time sailing overnight for (a giant ferry does not count). I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm looking forward to a little adventure.

Beach

One week old

These flowers have been in my kitchen for a week now. No wonder they say things look "fresh as a daisy"!

Spent the evening listening to songs from the 90's on Spotify. Now I'm wondering where all the time went.

Even if you can't hear my voice

I can't speak - the words just won't come out right. Even if you can't hear my voice, I'll be right beside you dear. Does anyone else feel this way? Guess so, seeing as Snow Patrol sang about it too.

Do you ever feel the tears welling up inside your chest - even though you're happy & content? Are they tears of happiness? I don't know - maybe I'm just a bit emotional. I'm sitting listening to Snow Patrol (who I've never sat down and listened to until now...hmm...how'd I miss this?). Something about largely piano-based music touches me deep inside, or is it a certain tone in the lead-singer's voice?

I don't know much about anything - but I'm eternally interested in the effects of music on the state of mind. The opening bars of some songs can completely change my mood. At the beginning of this post I was listening to Run by Snow Patrol - now I've listened to several other songs in the meantime. They're a bit average - just a few nice songs.

I'll have to go and find something else to listen to.