Christmas Day

View from kitchen window

So I went for the earley Christmas-morning service this morning at six a clock. Oldest daughter are part in a tradition for the Scouts to march this morning out to this church in the countryside with torches and read the Scouts peace-note as the opening. I thought that this year would be suitable for me to visit the service and bring her home afterwards. I haven't been to Christmas-morning service for over twelve? years. It is rather cosy just to sit in the church with hundreds of candles burning and listening to the choir singing. You feel warmth inside of you.

The priestess looked rather good when she stood in the pulpit, I didn't really listen, thought more about how it would feel to hug her.. O yes she mentioned the phrase climate-sharp, sort of modern word today.. Afterwards she stood and thanked the visitors but now she did not look so hugable.. I spended eyes on the female choir instead..

Outside the church they had an open fire and offered warm Glüh-wine (non-alcoholic) and the choir sang a little more. A man stepped forward said that this was such a wonderful morning with the choirs from the angels and all this warmth you can feel not only from the fire and Glüh-vine.

Now back home I would spend the rest of the day inside the warmth just reading and doing nothing.

A real Christmas present

Nock on the door this evening and this turned up. I've seen a lot of misjudged presents over the years like flowers and cards but this was in another league.

Home-smoked Salmon Trout just brought up from the lake and laying on Juniper (as it also was smoked with) all in a bowl made of concrete!

Hey this is the best Christmas present for years :-)

In the darkest hours

It was cold outside in the morning with -20 outside.. this the darkest of days in the year.



Rather handy when you have the Christmas decoration hanging in the bedroom window all year and just have to pull in the plug to get it lightened


Took a walk outside in the afternoon before the sun dissapeared completely. No this is not a Christmas tree it's a..



Juniper tree


Couldn't resist and had to start this up and listen to the sound, just smiled when rewwing up the twin and listened to it, who needs a Telly?



Sound magnified inside was gorgeous!

And then the sun dropped as it does and have done for thousands of years before..



Snow under the feet was moaning, as it does when it's really winter and not just some snow drifting past.

Lightly

So we are in this season when light is rather rare. Some brighthead(!) at work has made a room for therapy with light. Yes they have clothed it in inside with white linien and have these special light-lights and when using it you should also dress in white sheets whith a hole in for your head. Then the thought is that you should sit there for an hour or so and let your mind brighten up..

Rather interested when I tested it today with the white sheet on, stepped inside and felt.. lightened..

Thunder Can

What looks like an exhaust system is only a mock-up


Started this morning with my latest project. Or it all started when I talked with a guy sometime in August and promised to buy one of his bikes. Well time is something who consumes a lot of energy.. so I didn't pick it up until last week. He had bought it together with some spare parts for other motorcycles and since it is an odd model that only odd people care about (this will be my third :-)) he had just stuffed it into a corner and newer even tried to start it up. I took it home on my trailer and of course was kind a curious if it would run at all.

So this morning I started with changing the flat front tyre, changing front brakes that where obsolete, a new battery, spark plugs, oil and filter since it had been drained for some suspicious reason.. and then on the starting button but responses where slow so I used the old Dr Frankenstein method that really can waken up the dead, Ether gas.. And it bursted into life, left cylinder first as they always do and then it woke up with a gigantic rawl!! What an enormous sound, there wasn't just some minor leak from the exhaust, there seemed to be no silencer at all. The sound was this typical V-engine sound almost like a Dragster although this has only two and not eight cylinders.

Of course I had to take it out on a short trial on some of my unpaved roads. Really had a tremendous sound and I thought about that I'm lucky that there is no neighbours complaining out here in the woods. Big smile on my face, it really had that "lock-in-your-daughters" sound..

Now this evening I have changed the exhaust systems, the one who followed with the bike looked like a strainer with holes from rust everywhere. The bike must have been standing outside in rain for a long time...

With a much more civilized approach I put on helmet and leather suit for a test to see if it would run on high speed, this is the Achilles heel on many old bikes of this odd type. Ahh.. yes it had that sound and feel and it had.. that unfortunate fault that makes it unable to rev above 3000 and so restrict the speed to 90...

That's probably why it had been sleeping for ten? years. The problem is not expensive to fix, just change a coil that brings electricity to the ignition, problem is that you have to pick out the engine and tear it apart because that coil is placed behind the flywheel. Those engineers who did this is probably in some Japanese old-peoples-home now and use to laugh about the thought of that job and if there are any fools who still runs what they designed for over thirty years ago.

I bet they are kinda oddballs..

Luleå revisited

Icebreaker Ymer waits for her wintertime work.

Went up with youngest daughter last weekeend to do some work and also visit mother on her birthday. Met my two brothers, we only occasionally meet all three together at the same time. Got some interesting talk about sailingboats and motorcycles and I will do one more crazy trading with one of them involving some old cars and perhaps one or two bikes.

Looked at some familiar sights and had to feel that special feeling I sense when moving around in this area. It was windy and cold like it usually is in winter. Town is built on a peninsula with cold winter wind running up and down the streets. Sort of makes up for the right feeling, a bit harsh.

I got a serious offer for a job up her and the opportunity of moving back. It is not so easy to decide how to do. No hurry, the job is tailor-made for me and perhaps can wait until next summer. Problem is I do not know how to do. In some way I long for this coast and that special soul you find in people and nature. In other ways I rather move a thousand kilometers south instead, that would be next to the Mediterranean... Living by the ocean is important for me, I'm bored by all these inland lakes. So how should I do, not so easy decision..

To be at the right side

Suutari bay at the northernmost reach in The Gulf of Bothnia


“Fänriken” (The Second Lieutenant) An ill famous reef annoyingly just under the water surface. Back in the old days it was not marked out just something everybody knew about and made a curve around to be safe.

When I was about ten years old me and an older brother borrowed "Ann" our fathers boat, a wooden “snipa” just to go out on a trip at sea. Of course we managed to run aground here.. Hahaha I got scared as.. and it took a lot of efforts to get it off the stones, thankfully without more injuries than scratches below the waterline. We agreed to not say a word to anyone..

Since that I have always had a big respect for this reef when passing. Nowadays it's no problem since it is properly marked out. Feels like “you can't get me anymore”..

Summer breakfast

Fresh and unlawfully fished

Actually closest neighbour phoned the other day and asked if we wanted some crayfish. He had found some cages in the little river they got on their land.. my cages are still in the foodcellar:-) So he took the cages and their contents in custody and they don't eat that stuff..

Not the Sunday dread

Rather strange, I'll not be going to work tomorrow. Last time I had a vacation was in -07 hmm..

So now when I can sleep as long as I want (I'll probably wake up five anyway) I think I just go to bed extra early and read some of my years of MCM magazine, dreaming away on some project..

Lunch break

Last day of July today, last day of work on my official job before vacation. Took a bicycle on a spin at lunch. A stop at the city square and an ice cream. Sat on a bench and looked at the people. It is ever so interesting just watching people and trying to figure out who they are. And women are so nice to look at in summertime..

Many families that looks like they are on a holiday, often looks a bit stressed, many plans and many things to do at so little time. Women who are out shopping, looking smart, expensive clothes. Why do they always have the nose in the air when there is plenty of money in the purse? Young people with small kids in perambulators looks so pleased, really proud and so they should feel. And then there are all this young folks who just hang around watching and being watched, just like me..

I munch on the ice cream tried to look cool.

Monday morning 04:20

A kitten is playing with my ear. It bites and nibble playfully. I listen to its sniffs and thought that this is more effective than the alarm clock.

And funnier too..

Summer evening

Shhhh.. can you hear the silence?

Me and youngest took an evening bath this Friday. She's always happy to go bathing and we were lucky to have this beach alone once again. There are others who also knows where it is but they probably only come here at daytime when sun shines straight on.

Temperature was warm and water smelled good like it does in a warm summer evening when it is totally calm and no wind mixes the air. I thought that this beach, this evening, would have been a perfect place for a loving couple to have a secret bath together. Had to brush up some old memories from my mind :-)

At home we shared a pair of ice creams in the garden and I thought that moment like this is what summer is all about.

Sunday morning breakfast

Although they looks cute and harmless when they are sleeping

Breakfast with Engilsh Breakfast tea (`course) and cheese, Edamer, in that cheese-bread I really like.

These kittens is sometimes given you some high blood pressure. Normally you seldom hear me using any bad words but when I found out that they had again using a place under the coach in the kitchen as a toilet I used some really nasty ones.. loud.. Ok the kitchen looks like a garbage dump normally but there is a sandpit specially for these wild ones. Soon they will be gone.. hopefully..

Toes above the level

Trick is to find a lake where you could bath alone

The heat that has hold a grip with temperatures up to 30 a couple of weeks is moving away and clouds are coming in. Not that I bother so much, use to take the weather as it comes and temperature in water was quite warm this afternoon.

Today when it was more normal outside I took a wrestle and changed generator on the diesel Frontera. Have been thinking on doing it for some months.. Thing is that it is so stupidly built that you almost can't see where it is positioned and you have no rooms for any hands. Got real help from oldest daughter with getting the new one in place where she held it from above and I lay underneath and managed to get the bolts in with the top of my fingers, couldn't have done that without help. We had some fun on the fact that everything has not evolved.. She paid real interest in wanting to learn more about that old art of motor repair, perhaps we should open a shop together sometimes it's a benefit to have small and pliable hands..

It was a pleasure when starting up and it charged again, you get a real kick out of fixing that kind of problems :-)

A Leopard doesn't change it's spots

This afternoon I realised that there was some shortage of cars for transportation next week. Not that the yard was empty of cars but it lacked one that both could actually drive by itself and be legally considering that test you should do once a year, our version of MOT.

So instead of trying to fix one that was MOT but did not drive unless you pushed it, I started to look at car ad's, it's so handy when you now have all that on internet. Have to confess to search for motor ad's is one of my big enjoyments.

Of course the price was the big factor so cheap or free was the only obligations and suddenly I stumbled on an ad for a ready to drive Volvo that I realised was from a young farmer I know who is living nearby. I phoned him up on his mobile phone number and he said "hey go and take a look", unfortunately he had gone with his family on a mini vacation (meat farmers have that possibility) "you should test drive it also, I think the car keys is inside". That's one thing I like with living at the countryside you never bother about taking out the car keys.

So I went over to have a look, his two dogs granted me with their tails waving, rather lousy as guarding dogs.. and the car well, It looked like a normal farmers car. Lots of clay everywhere and inside there was even more and also heaps of straw, paper, toys and the windows all with snout marking everywhere. At least it had leather upholstery so it would be easy to clean out the parts where you should sit. The style on the car was this typical youngster mode with coloured spoilers, sports steering wheel and chromium gear knob. When I started up it sounded almost like a Concorde... Just have to fix some dices to hang up in the rear view mirror and then I would feel like I'm eighteen again I thought.

Back home I phoned him up and we made a short wrestling on the price and then I could take it. He said I can come over and pay when his coming home tomorrow evening but it was no hurry.

Hahaha! now I have a real Raggar-Volvo again :-)


Note: Raggar(e) is best translated to young (or those who feel they are) boys and girls who drive around the city square in special style cars, listening to loud music preferable some heavy rock'n roll. the word as an expression has also a meaning of "picking up" :-)

Then what?

Went out for a ride this evening, no special target to go to, just a twist from the wrist with my thoughts on two wheels.

Thought that I feel I'm very productive, like I could do a lot more, no! nothing from job-jar:-) Feeling inspired but don't know on what..

Some other thoughts was on that day it's time to close the eyes for the last time. It would be a bit dull if it was from sickness, or not so bad if it was fast, immediately like a stroke. But laying in bed for months.. no not my style..

Back home I sat with the internet and paid some leftover bills. Woosch.. and then went 10 grand (kronor) out in cyberspace. This feeling of living in a squirrel-wheel is so depressing. It would be a dream to live without having to use any money.. or only a little.. or..

Realised that I've been humming on this all day. Beautiful and rough.. just like me:-)

Sunday again

Normally I use to go for a walk early at Sunday morning but today I just slept and slept having this extended dream with different scenes that fitted together, was rather amusing actually. No nothing important, the story based on my ordinary work and people I use to meet there. Funny how peoples personalities comes to light in your dreams, they appear just the way they are.

So it had to be an afternoon walk and I went to a hill I havn't walk upto before. The lake is not a new one, only this view. Here is where the fish that usually goes to the old cat comes from.

Sunday cat

Just another day in a cats life.




Hey are you following me?



Time for a break and smell on some flowers




Shhh I'm trying to sleep




Can't you pick them up so I won't get wet?

Old lady who followed with the house so the exact age is not so certain they said she was a kitten back in 1984. Has lived outside year around except when she has had kittens. Lived on her own hunting and food leftovers, no Whiskas ever:-)

Her name P***i sounds totally wrong in English ;-) nothing she cares about.. A master of hunting in her heydays, not only rats and some of them the same size as her self but also squirrels and hard to obtain birds like Magpies. Nowadays she seems to have lost her hearing and spend her days in a quiet pace. She really gets happy when you bring in some fish, no problem for her to pick them up from the water. The other cats thinks it's so annoying to get wet..

Days for kittens is over, she got her last kitten a couple of years ago and that daughter still lives here and is a true copy of her but... a complete gangster who blows by like a whirlwind and can take meat from the barbecue when you just make a little wink. Old lady would never do something like that, she just sit patiently and wait for her bones, knows that she always get the first ones.

(this evening she has picked up one of the Perches and ate it)

Roaming some back roads

With a harsh gearbox you get a sore big toe.

In my head the verse was; "They dont give a damn about any trumpet playing band"

Also learnt a new word today.. serendipity.. haha.. that's cool.

Thoughtful Sunday evening

Sometimes it's the right time to take a walk in the woods. Made a long trip this evening pondering about my self..

Searched for the top of a hill to look at the view. Reindeer moss was so dry that it crunched under the feet. Air filled with all that smell from sun warmed forest. Totally quiet, not a sound so you could almost be the last man on earth..

Kitten heap

Fresh newborn and will hopefully be sold when they become twelve weeks old. They are all girls and striped in grey so they would perhaps find a new home rather easily.

Normally the kittens use to be black or striped-grey from this kennel:-) but people usually wants the striped ones for some reason. I think they looks so ordinary, find the all-blacks more interesting..

Sunny afternoon

Wow! it's Friday and sun is shining.

Wonder how many that feels the warmth of it this very moment?

Only thing that's missing is a girl to ride behind me.. except from my daughters :-)

The old road home

This is the old road from time when man first started to walk and ride between their villages. People and creatures has walked here for ages. Surely Nils Dacke (our Swedish Robin Hood) has travelled sometime on this special road in the mid 1500 when on his mission to fight against the Swedish king.

When modern times with car traffic came around a new road was built in 1958 and now the old road lays derelict. If you walk on and pass the corner straight ahead you come to my place.

Monday evening spin

Shuting engine, taking the helmet off. Sounds of warm metal that tickles together with birdsong and that spring sound from the newborn leafes in the wind. Warming my hands against the cylinderhead heat coming through the gloves. No I did not swim this evening, rather cold actually.

Will I dip before midsummer?

Sunday morning

Bedroom view.. perhaps time to take down the Christmas decoration?

Lazy morning in bed, being in that mixture of half awake and still sleeping, just slightly controlling the dreams and let them almost moving by themselves. Subject was motorcycles and women, maby just maybe I have a new bike in my dreams that I can long for. Not a special individual I'vie found but a type that slowly has grown into my mind and made it possibly this years long-to-have motorcycle. The other subject in my morning dreams was more indistinct. Partly on past and things I could have done different, and things I haven't done anything to.. this years long-to women is more obscured.

Today's plans would be a stint out at the field and then a twist from the wrist with the one of my bikes that is possible to shake into life ahh.. should have used all those dark evenings in winter to do that major overhauling..

Flowers in the sky

Cherry blossoms in the sky, delicate female flowers filled with joyful springish lust..

Blue sky concealing the darkness of eternity where all once begun.

World in perspective

Ice has melted away sun is shining a perfect morning to go fishing. Some hours gone away just sitting there listening to the spring birds and feeling good in your soul. Not any bite but that doesn't matter.

Lay on my front looking down through the openings between the planking, a mirror of my eyes in the water and a shadow of the bottom it's tricky to focus on both at the same time. Spent a long time playing with that funny focus phenomenon such easy fun you can have in nature :-)

Cleaning day

First stint with vacuum cleaner on the second floor this year, it's more fun to do the job when it really makes some difference.. engine cough almost dies when it snort up some heaps of dust, good for it to get some exercise and you get a strong immune defence too..

Sun is absent

Thought about the absence of spring this morning when I took a morning walk on the snowy road. Miss the sounds of birds and warm sunshine that use to wake up this time of year.

Back inside youngest wanted cream buns for breakfast and we made them together. She doesn't want marzipan in hers, I think it's the whole quintessence in them. Ate mine in warm milk ahhh so tasty.

Time to go for the weekly visit in the library always expectant to see what you can find.

City feelings

Walking on some half known streets this evening. Everywhere are streetlights for safety and comfort. I pass through a park with trees illuminated from below, looks so interesting, stir your fantasies. A walking bridge over a little pond has some red lights on the railing gives some sort of carnival feeling. I take a break on that bridge looking around at all the lights from the city around, the big church in the distance has its walls bathing in light. Do people appreciate all this effort with lights, to give a nice impression for us who wander around?

Passing bars and restaurants one has candles outside, looking at the people sitting inside through windows. I´m a bit surprised that there are so many going out on a normal Thursday evening guess that is called social life.

It is a quiet city centre with no car traffic just us pedestrians and some cyclists who move around. An open window from an apartment reveals some laughter. All windows are filled with lights from the apartments where people live. This thing about living in a city attracts in some way. To have a café open at evenings or to be able of an impulsive sneak in on a cinema with a show that appeals and all just one block away from where you live. Some part of me would like to have this city life some other needs to live in the woods without any neighbours. Hmm.. think that asocial string in me is stronger, a city is nice to visit.. sometimes..

Woke up this morning windows frosted

-14 and a white blanket of snow on the ground. Thought about spring or rather the absence. First spin seems to be looong away this year, should have bought that snowmobile I was drooling over. Anyway time to slip into the long pants and go to work..

Sun is going up on a new year

First walk in the woods this year.



Birch is sleeping, the Pine is probably taking notice of all the curves when she's undressed...



Sky is so intense blue, can it be called Azure?



This is a wild Cherry tree. The berries can be real tasty in summer but hard to reach without a ladder.



Winter sun always has these mild yellow light.