Perhaps today it’s time to sell the house. This is the view from my home office today. After several days of heavy raining the meadow has turned into a lake. The wild apple tree cast its beautiful autumn image to reflect in the still water. For those concerned, the cows are indoors already. More rain is expected so I’ll have this for a few days, hope I get some work done at all.
Everything in moderation, ha de Gött!
At exactly seven o’clock the first Monday in September after the 20:th, a splashing sound symphony starts. In the first light of dawn the small boats circling each other to get the best positioning. Cheerful morning greetings are passed by those with the best spots. Grunting replies by those that just drifted a bit too far out of course. With a splash the cage goes in the water. The skill is to gently drag the cage in position on an underwater rock shelf, preferably in front of the lobster nest.
The yearly Lobster fishing season has started. This delicacy from the underwater rocks is on the most wanted list for many recreational fishermen. Yepp, that’s true mostly men. In the past the lobster has been over fished and to keep the population at a viable level there are some restrictions to follow. The shield needs to be at minimum nine centimeters and if a female specimen carries spawn it goes back in the sea. A maximum of six cages per person, that needs to be present in the boat.
The first lobster sold at the fish auction in Göteborg this morning costed 77 000 Swedish Krona, in euros €7 500.
Ha de Gött, we will, got two so far!
I promised in a comment to write about the three additional letters we have in the Swedish alphabet, so here it is. Yes it’s true we have three more letters after A to Z as in the English alphabet. Åå, Ää and Öö. Not to be show off’s, they have these with a different spelling, and pronunciation, in Danish and Norwegian also. Let’s just say it’s a Scandinavian thing.
Lets start with Å. A friend of mine tried to explain this in a London pub when we were young backpackers. “It’s an a with a prick on”, he said. Took a while to figure out why the men laughed and the girls blushed. Dot is in Swedish “prick”. It is pronounced as ooh. Even for native Swedish it’s sometimes difficult to know when to use O or Å.
Moving on to the A with two pricks on, Ä. Pronounced eah. If you have sheep close by listen to them, they go bäää. Use Google translate to listen. Just copy from this text and paste in Google translate. Very common use and a real struggle for all English speakers moving to Sweden.
So the last letter the O with two pricks on, Ö. This is actually also an entire word that translates to island. You just have to listen to this on Google. There is nothing even close in English that I can think of. I think this is a happy little letter. Used to drive my teacher crazy when I made a smiley of it.
Just remember that sometimes less is more, ha de Gött!
Travelling just 30 kilometres east from my home is a large lake named Bullaresjön. To be precise it is two lakes North and South Bullaresjön. The north point of these narrow but long lakes, in total 28 kilometres, ends at the Norwegian border. As a child, up to seven years old, I spent my summers in a small cabin by the shore of the north lake. This weekend I went there to take some pictures. I shot this picture from the small beach I used to play at as a toddler.
Sometimes you have to walk down memory forest, ha de Gött!
Oat (Avena sativa) is a widely cultivated grain where the seeds are used for both human and livestock food. The Swedish name is “Havre”. The oat fields are now turning yellow as the plant matures in the late summer sun. In just a few weeks it is time for harvest. This annual plant grows best in the temperate zones.
I have a condition called “Celiac disease”, commonly referred to as “gluten intolerance”. I cannot eat anything made from grains like rye, wheat or barley with oat being the exception. Oat meal does not contain any of the gluten protein that triggers the disease. So you can understand that I like oat. NOTE! For it to be safe for a coeliac to eat any product based on oats it needs to be produced with special care and be marked gluten free. It’s NOT safe to eat regular oat products!!
Don’t worry there are some gluten free beer available, ha de Gött!
A full year. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8760 hours. 525 600 minutes. 31 536 000 seconds. Since you left.
In the video my son Edvin, who passed away from us one year ago today, plays his own music. I recorded the video just an hour after he finished the composition. A few week later he was no longer with us. I post this to honor his memory. Hope you like it.
Your brain, can be fantastic but also, a pain in in the ass The darkness can fall, and hit you, hard You can decide, but it is sometimes hard The struggle goes on, the struggle goes on The struggle goes on, the struggle goes on Pray, it will be better soon. Hold tight God, will it be better soon. I must be My head, can be fantastic Every day, a pain in the ass The darkness will fall, and hit you hard Run for your life, run far The struggle goes on, the struggle goes on The struggle goes on, the struggle goes on The struggle goes on, the struggle goes on The struggle goes on, the struggle goes on
This song lyrics was written a year ago by my son, Edvin. Just a few weeks before he passed away. It’s a punk rock song where he also written music. It is only partially recorded as he wasn’t fully pleased with this song. Even so, I’ve decided to post it. This was his first attempt to write lyrics so he asked me what he should write about. I answered, try to explain how you see the world and I think this text bluntly expresses his struggle. He did record another song that you can find on Spotify (link). Ha de Gött!
To get to my boat I have to walk through a field with cows. Close to the water there is a few meter with a very narrow passage with rock on one side and a wetland on the other. As I came around a corner I found myself face to mule with the cows. First I wasn’t sure how the bull would react, you see him in the middle, but he’s a very kind fellow. They like to eat from the reed as it apparently has a sweet taste. Guess the cows has a sharp tongue and take no bullshit.
They let me take some nice photos and I could make my way trough the flock to the boat. I just told them “well now, this path isn’t wide enough for all of us”. Not only a blogger but also a cowboy, yiihaa, ha de gött!
Laptop, a bent knee
Desktop, the Sunday roast
Mouse, wire_less
Printer, ink stained fingertips
Bug, on the windshield
Hard drive, hole-in-one
Root, pull the weed out
Library, oh those books
Archive, just in case
File, secret volumes
Keyboard, Ebony and Ivory
Firewall, hot topic
Virus, turns all to zero
IT, Intelligence Terminated
With all those down to earth words how the ….. can it be so difficult? Ha de Gött!
Scurvy-Grass (Cochlearia officinalis) I think it is. It was really hard to find out. As you can see it also has a little visitor. Drawn to it sweetness. Please don’t bug me for the name of that bug. This little plant is eatable and was used to cure scurvy. It is even still sometimes used to make ale.
Scurvy was in the past a fear for all sailors. During long voyages the lack of vitamin C caused the teeth to come out and at worse death. In 1747 the Scottish marine doctor, James Lind, proved that scurvy could be treated with lemon juice.
If I was a sailor back in the day I’d prefer the ale. Hoist the Jolly Roger and ha de Gött!
UlleHaddock 