The Thousand Islands

I've read an interesting article in the Washington Post about the "Thousand Islands" in the St. Lawrence river.

There are actually over 1800 islands in the archipelago on the US-Canada border, some of which are huge, and some of which are very, very small.

Pictured here is the aptly-named "Just Room Enough" Island.

The Canadian side of the archipelago is a national park, and the area is also a world-renown biodiversity site. Amusing Planet has lots of beautiful photos of the area. It certainly reminds me of our own archipelago!

Modernism in Gotland

The New York Times magazine has a long article about Gotland this week. It touches on Swedish culture, the role of Gotland in the summertime, and a crop of modernist buildings going up in a very traditional environment. It's worth a read!

A possible fireplace?

One thing our recent visit showed us was that we would really need a fireplace if we ever want to spend time at our house in the cold weather. I've written about fireplaces many times on the blog but I've not seen one that made me think "wow"!

Marcia sent me a photo of a fireplace with the "wow" factor. It's by Focus fireplaces, who do a number of high-fashion models.  This one is the Slimfocus, and it's gorgeous:

One company in Sweden sells these fireplaces and I've contacted them for information. My fear is that it will be very expensive, but we'll see. I will report back.

UPDATE: I heard from them. The base model is 117,000 kronor (over $14,000). Installation is extra. I don't think I'll be buying one...

We're back!

We managed to get out of Gatwick before the forecasted snowfall and accomplished a straightforward train-airport-bus-boat journey straight to our house. As I thought, the house was warm but not exactly toasty when we arrived. In fairness, it was a tough task for our luftpump to warm up our house from such a cold start. A few hours with the radiators and all was well.

The house was, as usual, in fine shape. There was about 6 inches of powdery snow on the deck. We were able to sweep it away easily. It was strange (for me at least) to be at the house and not have lots of projects. Fortunately, I had lots of emails to keep me busy!

Friday was grey and miserable outside but Saturday was sunny and beautiful. We had our usually wonderful dinner at Annika and Olle's house on Saturday night, and we watched Melodifestival as well. Before we left on Sunday morning, we watched the Vasaloppet on TV, which was a lot more entertaining than we expected.

I have a photo page of our icy island for anyone interested.