My holiday to Sweden Part 3

I've been trying to think of a way to describe how quiet and peaceful it was out in Sweden, but I'm struggling for a comparison. We're so used to sound being around us constantly that we're not even aware of it. If you were to go out in to your garden right now, I can wager that it won't be completely silent. You might consider it to be quiet if it's night time, but then there will be the noises that we've grown so accustomed to that we don't even notice anymore. Even in the day time, say, when all the kids are at school, it's never completely silent. The distant rumble of cars, a far away siren, a dog barking somewhere, birds singing in trees... it's never completely quiet. Maybe that's why it was so shocking to me, the silence that I heard (if that's the right word?) in Sweden. I'd grown accustomed to hearing all that background noise that we take for granted, that it was overwhelming not to hear it out there. And yet, at the same time, it was comforting. To be able to get away from everything, just the silence of the trees, punctured occasionaly by the squawking of a bird of prey (I discovered that this was why I couldn't hear any other birds!), was an amazing feeling. I'd never been to a place that offered complete escapism before. Holidays before have always been to hotel resorts or to cities. Now, there is nothing wrong with this. In Cuba, at times it felt like there was no one else, just me, the beach and the crystal blue sea stretching on forever. But even there, there was the constant noise of activity in the hotel. As much as I enjoy resort holidays, I have discovered a new love for completely getting away from it all. For the all pervading silence.

And with views like this, who can blame me?

My trip to Sweden Part 2

Here it is, the second installment! To be honest, I don't know how many parts there will be. We'll just see how it goes.

This part is all about Emilia. Edd had told me that Emilia is like a different child out in Sweden, as she considers it her safe place and she's relaxed and happy-go-lucky. Honestly, I couldn't see the difference. I guess this means she's relaxed and happy-go-lucky all the time now. I hope this is the case. I never knew her when she lived with her mum, so never saw her feeling sad and scared and quiet. I'm glad about this as I don't know how I would feel about it. I get glimpses sometimes when she gets upset, but this rarely happens now.

This is one of my favourite pictures. It was taken after we landed and is Emilia running up to her grandparents. She was so excited to see them. If you ever needed proof of love in the world, it's right there.

First day excitement. See those shoes? They're mine. I've come to accept that Emilia will "borrow" my shoes for dressing up. I don't mind. It's rather sweet. The bike is her new bike in Sagen. She has a blue tricycle out there, but she's now banned from using it. Two reasons... 1. She's too tall for it now (she's nearly 4' tall! A giant in the world of 5 year olds!) 2. We've been encouraging her to ride on two wheels. She's learnt on the two wheelers at school, they're big heavy bikes with no brakes and are quite low to the ground. This is the next step. Has she learnt? Read on....

Success! She can ride her bike. And she rides it fast! I had to actually pedal properly to keep up with her! Edd has some better pictures on his phone of the little madam riding her bike, sticking her legs out and looking incredibly adorable. We both felt very proud of her, and her confidence is soaring with it.

Being a 5 year old must be great. Everything is an adventure. Life is full of asking questions. I think we lose that fearlessness as we get older. We don't ask why. We don't ask how. We just accept things are the way they are. Yet, a small child wants to know why things are in certain places, how things work, what's round the next corner, where does this path lead... Maybe the world would be a much more exciting place if we still thought the same way. These pictures are only of Emilia exploring a family friends garden, yet it was still an adventure.

As was meeting this frozen fish!

Yes, this is cute!



You're never too old to throw stones into water!

Now, this is some impressive photography on my part. But I look at it and think, one day, I'll make sure that she can reach the sky properly. I'm going to give this amazing little girl the best possible life.

 My eye mask....

 A trip to the river. There wasn't a lot for kids to do there, but we had a good time. Needless to say, in the heat and boredom, Emilia did get a bit stroppy. But what child wouldn't?! Once she got over her fear of the tiny fish in the river ( I think they were stickleback), she wanted to go in there all the time!

Redcurrant picking was great fun. And when you're 5 you get to be highly selective about which redcurrant makes it in to your pot. None of us were privy to the criteria for this selection process, but we were thankful for the help. We picked 10kg of redcurrants by the end of the afternoon, which is a lot!

We went on the row boat for an afternoon. Well, we did until the clouds came and we had to cut it a little short due to impending rain. Oddly enough, Emilia wasn't scared of this water! I even had a go at rowing, and Emilia kept telling me not to crash the boat like I did the car. She likes reminding me of that.

You see these two right here?

They're my world.

My holiday to Sweden Part 1

So, it seems that weddings are a lot of work to plan. Eeeep. So, I thought I'd write about our holiday to Sweden. I'm going to do it in parts, as I want to talk about lots of things, but I don't want a boring rambly post that goes on and on forever and you want to tape your eyes shut by the end of it.

This is Edd's parents house. That's Emilia standing in the doorway. It's a very nice house, and didn't cost them a lot. It's has 3 floors. 1st floor, ground floor and the basement level which has a gazillion rooms. The houses in Sweden seem to be cheap, at least in the countryside. And they are all in the same style and very picturesque. Edd's parents have a big garden attached to this house. They're planning to build a summer house out in the trees. It'll be yellow too. The house has wooden flooring inside, which was great because the stairs creaked when Emilia was trying to sneak down.

This is Edd on his dad's lawn mower (that's his dad standing in the background making sure he doesn't crash).

See what I mean about the houses? I love the colour of the red on this house, although traditionally the houses are a lot darker red, as they paint them with a by-product from copper factories. This house belongs to Bob and his wife, who are Dutch and their parents run a B&B in the village and own the old train station.

This is me standing on a bridge over the river that flows behind Edd's parents house. There's a special tower filled with chalk next to the river that releases some chalk in to the river every 30 seconds because the water is so acidic. Pretty random. The water is also orangey because of the peat from the earth around it. This river is just full of interesting things.

Just like this! It's a tiny little frog that we found when we were walking alongside the river! Apparently they can grow to be a foot long! Luckily, this one was little. I don't think I would have liked to encountered a big one!

This is the sign for the village. It's pronounced Saw-gun. There are only about 15 houses and it's very quiet. Edd has a picture of it covered in snow. I have yet to go out there in the snow, but I'm looking forward to it. Not the cold though. I'm not a fan of cold.

So that was part 1. Just a general introduction. Look out for the sequel, coming to a computer screen near you.