Goodbye June

I realize today is the fourth of July and these posts are meant for the first of every month, but I didn’t even notice that June ended, to be honest with you. June whirled past and I couldn’t keep up and now July is here and I’m afraid I’ll blink and it’ll be November. Can someone please slow down time a little, please and thank you??

Considering how busy I was in June, I didn’t take many pictures, but at least I managed to find ten to show you so you can see what I’ve been up to. And we’ll start with the best: the darling grandbaby!!

My dearest little W and her parents were here for a visit. W and I hung out on the floor and she read to me, one of her favorite books about ladybugs. She loves reading, just like her Mommo (Swedish for Gramma) and she loves ladybugs. But not as much as she loves seals, she loves seals more 😍

New neighbors moved in across the road: cows! I love them, they’re making me so happy. Early one morning, my doorbell rang and I opened the door to a stranger who asked if it was my cows? When I said no and asked him why, he told me that they had broken out of the pasture and he’d come across them, walking along the road, on their way over the bridge that leads to the nearest little town.

Who said life in the countryside is boring?? 😁

One day, Götheborg of Sweden sailed into the harbor where my office is located. It’s a replica of the old East Indiaman Götheborg I that launched in 1738. It was built using old, traditional techniques, and it’s one of the world’s largest operational wooden sailing vessels. It announced its arrival with a cannon salute, and everyone at the office stood with their noses pressed against the windows, staring at it 🙂

I love cooking outdoors and take every chance I can to do it. Peeling potatoes is much more fun outside than in the kitchen, don’t you agree? I dream of an outdoor kitchen, but it’s toward the bottom of the list of plans for the house. There are so many things we want to do first…

…like renovating the master bedroom. We’ve stayed in one of the guest rooms since we moved into the house (because of reasons), but now it’s time to move upstairs into our real bedroom. But first, it needs updating, so that’s going on right now.

The garden is something else that needs lots of TLC, but it can be a bit overwhelming at times, so one day I needed a quick project that I could start and finish on the same day. So I emptied this iron planter that’s built into the stairs leading down from the porch and filled it with garden cosmos. It didn’t even take me an hour, but it made me very happy! 🙂

One day after work, we jumped on the ferry to Helsingør, Denmark, but we didn’t stay. We did some shopping on the ferry, admired Kronborg Castle, or Elsinore as it’s called in Hamlet, and returned back home.

Nell and Helsingør in the background. I love the smell of the sea.

On Midsummer’s Eve (which is a big holiday in Sweden, only rivaled by Christmas) we went on a roadtrip to visit a dear friend 300-ish miles away, where we celebrated a traditional Midsummer with a giant phallic symbol, pickled herring, and snaps. Two other old friends were there too, and it was lovely. Really and truly lovely.

And finally, on the day after Midsummer, we were invited to another friend’s surprise b-day party 125 miles away from the Midsummer party. She turned 40 and the hubby and I were a surprise within the surprise party: and we performed a song for her, our Party Song Number One (an obscure Swedish song from 1983 that no one’s ever heard except us) and she was so happy to see us she cried. It was nice seeing old friends again even if the party itself was a bit too wild for me. (It was also the first party ever I attended where body shots happened…and no, I didn’t drink any 😆).

And after that, I bet you were expecting a pic of said body shots, but instead I give you this picture from the day after the party when we visited with the birthday girl before we had to start our journey back home. This is the view from her balcony; isn’t it lovely?

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Tell me something you did in June!