Two and a half weeks here and the season changed. It hung on tenaciously but the snow went away eventually. Just two weeks and the slopes are carpeted with small white flowers. If fresh air smells of anything, this is it. My furniture faces the wood burner. Perfectly sensible for a cold winters night. It's facing the wrong way. Turn around and just look at the tree tops bathed in evening sunshine. The forest so lit goes on for miles. The sun also illuminates the hills on the other side of Vattern. Granna is over there and when the sun goes down, and the lights go on, it looks fantastic. You have to walk to the communal grill place for the best views, then you can see Lake Vattern and Jonkoping in the distance. My sun deck has these views also, and step out there and you get the sounds as well. Bird song and little else. Vitared is a sleepy place, certainly at the moment.
Over the weekend people arrived to carry out spring cleaning on their weekend retreats, ready for the new season. Will this place still be so peaceful when the summer people are in residence? I imagine these are the best days. We shall see.
2000Msqr takes some looking after. I will not go short of work to do. I put in a day just dead heading plants and cutting back to make way for this seasons growth. Another day tomorrow should do it. I wheeled out the sit on grass cutter and tried starting it up. I had plenty of battery even after a long hard winter. It cranked over but still wouldn't fire up. I'm not understanding and I never had one of these machines before. I put it away because it was eating into other urgent jobs, and the grass isn't going to need cutting for a couple of weeks yet. Choke? Is there a fuel tap I missed? Tomorrow is soon enough.
The Scandinavian evenings really draw out at this time of year. We must have 2 hours more day light now than the UK. The sun goes down behind the hill and the shadow stretches ever further towards Vattern. Soon my view will be forground only, once the birch have their leaves. I'll loose Vattern until the autumn I imagine.
We explored Hökensås nature reserve just 5 miles (UK) away. Dozens of fishing lakes that deliver just what you imagine Sweden should look like. They are the kind of views that end up on the lids of boxes of chocolates. Miles of hiking trails to explore another day. The queue for service in the fishing shop was long. I didn't need to speak to anyone to get maps and info' in Swedish, English and German. Robi arrives in four weeks, driving from Zurich for fishing and to hang out as guys do.
Before he arrives I will fetch Elsa from England. I have a packed programme. The first weekend is in Goteburg with Anders and crew. Time to catch up. Anders has ferried me from Jonkoping to the airport in Goteburg several times. I am endlessly grateful for his support on the journey that brought me here. Then it's home to blighty to catch up with friends and family that I miss. The trip also includes motorcycle servicing and testing, dentists, solicitors and the barbershop, then on to Immingham to load Elsa on to the frieght ferry for Goteburg. Sue and Allan are coming over and I am literally racing on ahead to get home before they arrive. Their schedule puts them just 12 hours behind me. I nearly wrote that life is hectic right now, but that is not true. I'm sitting in my window gazing at the view of Vattern between spurts of writing this post. It doesn't come much better than this.
I can't purchase a television package without the personnummer I'm waiting for. A blessing in disguise.
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