I spy with my little eye....

I turned on the internet earlier this week at the stuga so I could have a look at the cameras and the weather station. It's been quiet, no moose or snowstorms, but I still get a kick out of looking at our house from far away:

First snow of the year

Nice and quiet on the inside

Glad to see my indoor radiator is working as designed.

Until we can get back out to our little house, this is the next best thing!

Happy Julafton!

I've posted plenty of times before about the Swedish tradition of watching Kalle Anka on Christmas Eve. (Click that link if you don't believe me!)

This Julafton, I thought I'd post something a touch classier. The Financial Times commissioned a new Christmas carol, with lyrics adapted from Scandinavian rune poems.

It's beautiful, and the video certainly does it justice. I'm sharing it here as a tiny present to my readers.

Merry Christmas and God Jul, everyone!

An inflatable hot tub

I mentioned an inflatable ferry earlier this month. Today I present another inflatable, one that may well end up in our home one day: a hot tub!

This is the Bestway 4-person tub, their "Miami" model. It can be assembled/inflated within 10 minutes, and has a circulating pump, 81 air jets, a timer, and a 40°C heater all included.

It would be fairly easy to tote it out to the island and set it up, perhaps on our new deck, on a local flat rock. Sitting under the stars on a cool evening would be wonderful!

The biggest problem would be to fill it up with 800 litres of water. I'm not sure I would want to take that much out of our well, and moving it from the ocean wouldn't be that easy, either. Something to think about...

Lucia in London

I had hoped to come to the Swedish church for Lucia celebrations today, but I found out too late that it's the hottest ticket on the expatriate social calendar. Next year, I'll buy early.

Thankfully, we found something even better: Skandilicious, a Swedish pop-up restaurant nearby in Chelsea.

We had a fantastic time; all of the staff were Swedish, so we just chatted the afternoon away, being adopted Swedish ex-pats ourselves.

Most importantly, the food was absolutely delicious. Let's just say that we skipped dinner tonight!

A portable ferryboat

I've recently read about an inflatable ferry from a Slovenian company. When folded, it's portable, easily inflatable, and can carry up to 5,000kg, which is a heck of a big vehicle!

The company also says their boat is "practically unsinkable and incapable of overturning", which I think was also said about the Titanic. Of course, there aren't any icebergs in the archipelago, so it should be safe.

I certainly wouldn't have use for such a vessel, but it might be handy for some ad hoc construction projects around the islands.

Swedes in London

We've been busy getting settled into our new life in London. Only recently have we been able to start visiting further afield.

When we lived in the UK before, we went to Marleybone and visited the Swedish pub in 2010 to watch the Melodifestival live. Sooz went back to that part of town today, and brought me back a quart of my beloved filmjölk! (Here I am smiling at breakfast this morning.)

She also reported all sorts of restaurants, stores, shops and general Swedishness in the neighbourhood. It is fun to think that we are so close to a proper Swedish enclave, and we will definitely take advantage of it.

The Swedish Embassy runs a great page of information for Swedes in London, as does the Swedish Church. There are lots of other online resources, as well.

I have bookmarked all of these, and I plan to keep a close eye on nearby Swedish events!

Thanksgiving

Time for my seventh annual Thanksgiving address. Looking back, quite a bit has happened. We lived in London at the first posting, then moved to Texas, and now we're back in the UK. Grant's graduated high school and college, and moved to New York. Ollie, though, is still with us. Today marks seven years on his repaired back. Although he's slowed down a lot, he remains (just like Sooz and Grant) handsome and happy. That is plenty to be thankful for today.

World Toilet Day

Today is World Toilet Day, as set by the United Nations.

I realize all my postings about toilets are half in jest, but the issue of sanitation is serious business. Over two billion people don't have access to any kind of toilet facility at all. 

WaterAid, a worldwide charity active in both the UK and Sweden, is working to raise awareness (and money) for toilet construction in the third world. As they say, "having access to water and toilets transforms people’s life chances, leading to better health, education and economic opportunities." Every dollar (or pound, or kronor) spent to improve access to sanitation and water provides 4 timereturns in economic and social benefits.

I am choosy about the charities I support, but there's no question I'll be donating on World Toilet Day, and I hope my readers, do, too.

House prices in Stockholm

They're pretty darned high, and only going higher. The Economist has a good (although slightly technical) article about the problem and the difficulty of addressing it.

Between these issues, and the huge growth in Varmdö kommun, I'm glad we built when we did!

Dark Danish Prefab

Here's a pretty cool-looking prefab from the Danish design firm Vipp. Better known for its all-black designs for the kitchen, Vipp has branched out to an all-black home, the Shelter.

One thing I like about the Shelter is that it's all-inclusive. All of the hi-spec fixtures and fittings are provided for a fixed price of €485,000.

I'm not sure about the black-on-black esthetic, though. In a sunny climate, it would likely be damned hot, and in a Swedish winter, I think it'd be pretty gloomy.

That said, it is a very good-looking structure!

Another webcam

When I visited the house a couple of weeks ago, I left behind a second webcam to go along with my moose-cam. I set one high up on a shelf so I can have an eye on the inside of the house. Here's a recent look at its view.

There's not much to see, really. At night it's ghostly grey. Frankly, it mostly makes me pine for our little stuga.

More practically, though, I have moved my Netatmo weather station into the bathroom. Now I can have a check of the temperature of my 'warm room' over the winter. I suppose the next step will be the ability to actually change the temperature after I check it. I will look into that.

A harsh winter??

Olle told me that he had read that the upcoming winter was going to be a harsh one.

I found a couple of articles that backed him up. First was an accuweather forecast that said cold air would "build over Scandinavia" this winter.

The Local also repeats the accuweather news, with additions of their own.

They point out, however, that such long-range forecasts can be inaccurate.  Last year's forecast was also for a cold winter. In the end, it was one of the warmest ever recorded in Europe!

A quick weekend!

It's Tuesday evening, about my first chance to update after going to Aspö this weekend.

Everything worked out just as planned; I caught Norwegian Air right after work and made it to Marcia & Rutger's house in time for Rutger to make me a tasty hamburger.

I took the mid-day boat to Aspö on Saturday. The weather was spectacular: mid-50's, and sunny.   Olle and Annika had me over for another usually wonderful meal, and I rode back with them from Stavsnäs on Sunday afternoon.

My Norwegian flight back on Monday morning was smooth as well, and I was in the office well before 9.

The only snag is that I came down with a terrible cold as soon as I arrived in Sweden, so I was much lower-energy than I would have liked. I managed to pack up all the food and close up the house, but not a lot more than that.

I did manage to take a bunch of photos, thanks to Annika's encouragement, so an October photo page is now up.

This is our last trip for the year, but we'd like to make a winter visit early next year. Stay tuned!

A quick update

We are all in London now; I started work recently, and Sooz and Ollie have made the journey from Texas safely.

Our belongings arrive next week, and the weekend after that, I'll be taking a quick jaunt to Aspö to close up our house for the winter.

We had hoped to perhaps spend a longer time there in the fall, but our London life is already pretty full these days. This will be a good test of the "quick flight over on the weekend" plan we'd like to use in the future!

Stay tuned for photos and updates in a couple of weeks.

"How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain"

An interesting scientific study recently found that time spent in nature can make positive changes in one's mood and well-being.

I've certainly found this to be true in my time on Aspö. My connection to the environment around me there is much stronger than I've experienced before: what flowers are blooming, the different birds flying about, the crunch of a moose's hooves in the distance.

Perhaps the connection to nature, and one's fellow island residents, pushes away the stresses of a more fast-paced urban life?

That makes sense on an emotional level, but now we have scientific proof as well.

The Robot Garden

I written about a little device, the Click & Grow, which I bought to see if I could grow fresh herbs at the stuga. In 2014, I had a bit of success growing coriander.

I was going to grow basil this summer but I had a problem with the device. I was sent a new growing cartridge, but it arrived too late for me to start this year.

The Click & Grow people are working on a new product, called the "Smart Farm". The idea is to grow a whole lot of greens at once, in theory feeding a whole family.

I really like this idea. Sooz could have an extra countertop surface in the kitchen, and we could have a whole bunch of fresh greens year-round!

Right now, though, it isn't practical. We're back to spending just a week or two at a time at the stuga, not the longer periods we've spent the past few years, let along the whole summers of our retirement.

Another drawback of these products are the grow lights. The LED's used are very power efficient, and great for the plants, but they are bright. We one in our Texas home, and it's been banished to the laundry room as it fills the whole downstairs with light in the evenings. I'd probably have to keep it in the guest house, or the shed, which is a bit besides the point.

I am sure this technology will improve in the next few years, and it will be easy for me to become an indoor gardener!

Västerbottensost

I read an interesting article recently on the BBC website about Västerbottensost, a very special type of Swedish cheese.

Because I love my cheese, I'm disappointed to say I can't remember ever having any. It sounds fascinating: a cheese that can be made successfully in only one specific location, for reasons unknown to science. Plus, it apparently tastes delicious!

I will make sure I find some västerbottensost the next time I'm in Sweden, and I'll report back to the blog.

Runmarö in the New York Times

My friend Rob forwarded me a fantastic article from this weekend's New York Times.

It's about the entomologist Fredrik Sjöberg, a longtime Runmarö resident, and unlikely bestselling author of books about native insects.

The article also describes Runmarö and its neighboring islands beautifully. I defy anyone to read it and not long to spend a summer in the archipelago!

Mathem.se

Annika told us about a grocery delivery service called Mathem (which translates literally as "food home".)

Like any big-city shopping delivery service, one can select pretty much anything sold in a grocery store and have it delivered to the door.

The cool thing about this service is that they deliver to the archipelago as well. Aspö is within the daily delivery area.  (That cute little photo is from their website.)

In theory, Sooz could shop by clicking online, and her goods would be delivered the next day to the taxi boat dock by our house. I say "in theory," because we were all set to give it a try, only to see a banner page saying their delivery boat was unexpectedly out of service! It was not going to be back operating until after we left, so we weren't able to test the service. (We have since heard that deliveries are back on track, and are working well for Aspö residents.)

Guns Livs will still deliver on the Waxholms boat. We successfully did that over 5 years ago. (I even found a picture of that delivery!) And of course, with our own boat, we can pop over to Nämdö whenever the weather is decent. One difference is that Guns has a limited selection of goods. Mathem  have a much wider range available.

The local Skärgården newspaper had a long article recently about Mathem's first summer. The idea originated last year from a group of islanders who approached delivery companies with the plan to deliver in the archipelago. Mathem, who already deliver in Stockholm, took on the idea. Service started in mid-June and was a huge success. In fact, a bit too much of a success; there weren't nearly enough boats to fulfill demand. The good news is that Mathem already plans to add more delivery boats and have a more robust service next year.

It is great to have a delivery option. I was getting tired of carrying heavy groceries on the bus, boat, and wheelbarrow. Having stuff delivered is a nice break, and it will make it a lot easier for us to go straight to Aspö from the airport without having to arrange an enroute shopping trip as well.

A reply from Vattenfall

Regular readers may remember that we found the power off at our house when we arrived in June. With Tony's help, we found it was a faulty meter from Vattenfall, our electricity provider.

Sooz took careful note of all the food that had been ruined, and we calculated our loss was about 1300 kronor. We sent along our information to Vattenfall for compensation.

I heard back recently, and it appears our work to document our loss wasn't necessary. The Swedish power regulations set out rules for compensation for a power cut. Our power was out for 10 days, which means we are due a payment of 10,600 kronor!

That will cover our lost food and inconvenience quite nicely.

Transition again

It's been over a year and a half since I left my job of 30 years. I have been looking for new employment since then, although it's probably more accurate to say that, by now, I've become more of a retiree than a job-seeker.

I can't really complain so far. It's been different and fun to have no demands on my time, to travel and read and do a bit of volunteering. I could easily see myself remaining a man of leisure.

However, I've had a job opportunity that is just too fantastic to pass up. So... in the next few weeks, Sooz, Ollie, and I will be packing up our life in Texas, and moving back to London!

We are going to live right in the city; our life in the UK the last time around was west of London, outside the M25. Living an urban life will be very different than our time in the suburbs of Texas and Surrey, not to mention the island life in Aspö.

A great advantage of being in the UK is that we'll be much closer to our Swedish home. I won't be able to spend 3 weeks at a time, as we have been doing these past summers, but it will be much easier to take shorter and more frequent trips.

I promise not to clog the blog with English content, but soon enough, we'll be Europeans again!

Kalles Kaviar

I read an amusing article in the New York Times about an ad campaign for Kalles Kaviar.

Kalles is essentially cod roe in a toothpaste tube. It's one of those foods that is specific to Swedish culture.

It's taste, especially to non-Swedes, is also unique. This is the idea behind the ad campaign, in which earnest Swedes offer Kalles to people all around the world.

The ads are pretty funny, so be sure to read the article, or visit Kalles YouTube channel. You'll thank me later!

Swedish wine??

The Guardian ran an article recently about the nascent Swedish wine industry. Thanks to longer growing seasons, southern Sweden is becoming a viable area for viniculture.

A number of wineries have grown up in Skåne over the past years, joining the list of non-traditional wine growing areas.

English wine, for example, has moved from a curiosity to a £100 million industry. It's not just quantity, it's quality, too. English wines are starting to win awards, much like California wines did 40 years ago.

The Swedish wine industry has a way to go, both in the fields, and also administratively. Dealing with the Systembolaget won't be easy, I'm sure. But I hope one day to buy a bottle (or box) of Swedish wine to enjoy at our Swedish home.

Bungenas on Gotland

The New York Times recently ran a charming travel article about a recent resort on the island of Gotland.

A decommissioned military site on the Bungenas peninsula opened a coffee shop in 2008, and over the years, a fine restaurant and a small hotel has been added.

Much of the charm of Bungenas is its effort to maintain the rustic nature of the area. Cars aren't allowed past the main gate, for example, and dinner is served communally.

It looks like a great place to visit. Perhaps we'll make it to Gotland one day to take a look.

Webcam action...

Spotted last night. I love that my phone in Texas can alert me that something is walking by our house in Aspö!