This month was a lot of activity to try and close off summer projects, to develop the garden further, and to prepare for the coming winter. Summer Crop We got a good crop from the strawberry patch which was a relief as I’d let all the plants send runners everywhere to let them establish more […]
Digging work and gravel Down the side of the house we have had an awkward area to make useful. It was shady and slightly damp. Plants and grass didnt thrive, and there was seemingly always mosquitoes waiting for you. So I made a plan to put in a gravel area because the gravel perimeter has […]
Family came to visit this month and we managed to squeeze a fair bit into a week despite a lot of rain. This included Sometimes it’s good to get visitors just to push you into taking a break and doing things that you might not otherwise make time for. Fika on the Water We got […]
The major things this month were getting the newly purchased car repaired, helping my wife build up driving experience, and preparing for the start of the growing season. A secondary fun project was finding a small electric piano. Car Repairs The car we purchased last month went for a major service and repairs. The entire […]
This month I looked hard for a car for my wife. She passed her Swedish driving test in the automatic category and our current car was a manual transmission. I wanted to get my wife driving fairly soon after the test so that she could build on the received training, as opposed to leaving it […]
Weather It’s got sunny about a month earlier than normal here. The snow is melting on the fields and around the buildings, with icy patches in the shade. This might sound good but it also means all the winter sports have stopped early with the melting snow. It was still between +2C to -8C each […]
I spent all this month with an overuse injury on my legs related to skipping. Being unable to continue skipping was frustrating and I’m not good at resting. I likely need to wait another month because I got too eager and tried to exercise again too soon. I was able to do other activities, that […]
The Swedish sometimes ask me what it is like as a foreigner learning Swedish, and if it is difficult. The Swedish and English language share a common north Germanic origin and learning Swedish from English is easier than learning other languages but it still takes time. It’s possible to learn in many different ways but […]
Warmer Winter Normally the first week brings extreme cold temperatures and a lot of snow. However this year the first week was only about -15C. That’s not a difficult temperature to work with as it is also very dry. I had time to get out and enjoy the snow before the first week of work. […]
A short overview of our town in northern Sweden. I’ll try to improve this article over time. In summary our town is about one thousand people which is large enough to have some facilities but small enough the the residents know of the major happenings in the town and can support each other. Landscape The […]
I did some final house repairs, it got cold this month and the first winter snow-storm came, I got sent to Spain, I tidied the garage Gravel Apron I finished placing the last of the insulation and gravel around the house, just before the snow hits. I had to dig out some old bushes by […]
This list is mainstream Swedish artists that have been fun to listen to while learning Swedish. It doesn’t include some good bands that sing fully in English – for example I hadn’t realised until a Swedish teacher mentioned them that Millencolin were Swedish. There’s probably some fantastic niche bands but I don’t yet know how […]
There was some flooding this month. Significant projects were mouse protection, general winter preparation, and some basement work. Heavy Rain October opened with unusually heavy rain, prompting flood warnings on our phones. It kept raining and we told tell from experience that it was unusual. I went down to the stream and saw the water […]
