More changes

Today's my birthday, which is always important to me as an Aspö resident. A key reason it that it falls around midsummer; sometimes it coincides exactly with the holiday. I like to think all of Sweden is celebrating my birthday with me! The other reason is that our house had its coming-out party on my 50th birthday, and that remains one of the most special days I've ever enjoyed.

Today I have another announcement to make regarding our life on Aspö. Over the decade I've been writing this blog, I've moved from London to Texas, left my job of 31 years, had a period of semi-retirement, and moved back to London with a new employer.

Recently, Sooz and I have decided to actually retire for good and move into the next phase of our lives. I will stop working at the beginning of next year, and Sooz and I will spend next summer at our stuga. Our plan from now on will be to spend summer months on Aspö, and the remaining months someplace warm.

For the rest of this year, there wan't be much change for us or this blog. But starting in 2019, there will be an increase in activity. Visiting our house for a few weeks is a lot different to essentially living there for a few months.

We have been thinking about some of the things we will need to do, but I am sure there will be lots of things we haven't thought about. We'll share the journey as the blog moves into its next decade!

Glad Midsommar!

Wishing a happy holiday to everyone from London this year. We've decided to wait a bit and spend our summer vacation later in July this year.

It looks like we made the right call, too. As every Swede has feared, the seven consecutive weeks of nice weather ended just in time for the big weekend. Typical rainy and chilly weather has prevailed for the dance around the maypole.

Let's hope it warms up for our visit!

May's weather

There's been a nice warming trend all month. The bigger story, though, is how dry and sunny it has been. Since the rain of May 4th (ironically when we were visiting), Sweden has enjoyed blue skies. It has been glorious, true, but this dry period is starting to be worrying. 

Especially for us island residents, the dry weather can become a problem. There are fire hazards and stress on flora and fauna. More personally, we all rely on our wells, and a long dry snap will stress our water supplies.

Let's see what June brings us. Odds are historically high that it will rain over Midsummer!!