Discovering the wildlife

Back at Norrfjärden now. The three days spend at the summer house have been tiring but it was b-e-a-u-tiful by the sea! As we arrived there I was reminded of the loch side lodges in the Highlands (which made me happy). The main reasons we were there were to cut down some trees and to dismantle the jetty. It just so also happened that there were a million and one blueberries there too, so blueberry picking was always a part of our day and meant we ate blueberry porridge every day at lunch : ) .

Dusty blue - like my wellies!

Shoemaker blueberries

I didn’t know this but, like most things, there are different types of blueberries. There are the dusty blue ones we sell in Scotland and then there are really dark shiny ones called ‘shoemaker’ blueberries (because of the shine!) – maybe you know that already.


So Anders and I took away the jetty. It was pretty fun wielding a crowbar and tearing away all the wood. Sounds weird but destroying things, when they’re meant to be destroyed, is really satisfying.


Friday we went to buy fresh fish from a well-known stall nearby. They only open for 3-4 hours so everyone rushes to try and buy fish before it’s all gone! We bought wild salmon and another fish called perch/pearch (supposedly that’s the name in English but I’d never heard of it before).


The stretch of water which the house looks out onto is connected to the Bottnia Sea – more traditionally known as the Bothnia Sea. I took a walk one evening to where the water inlet to the summer house met the sea – it was a cool evening but as the sun got lower during dinner it got so warm!


I also watched there for the first time since coming to Sweden, haha. Anders is a big fan of Battlestar Gallactica! But got too tired and went to bed… On the way home from one of our trips to take away the tree branches I spied a swan in one of the little lakes in the trees. So I set off to find it and perhaps take some photos. Trying to be quiet in a forest full of dry twigs is pretty difficult though so I didn’t manage to get so close but still got some half decent photos. As I was leaving the house too, a little hedgehog scurried across the driveway. I got a couple of photos but looking back at the photos I’ve stupidly managed to focus on the strand of grass infront of the hedgehog instead of the animal itself! : (

The lonesome swan

The past two days we’ve been cutting the wood Marion and France collected over the weekend and doing more collecting and cutting today. The novelty of using a big mechanical saw has worn off slightly. Saw dust manages to get everywhere!!! (Still, like I keep saying, this kind of work is really satisfying even if it leaves you knackered). I’m turning into a proper lumberjack! Haha!


I’ve just made the salad for the evening. The tomatoes are really beginning to ripen and soon we’ll have too many! (like the cucumbers). We also took up lots of potatoes in the morning and had a mushroom hunt in the forest, which was rather fruitful. It’s been a long day! We’re going fishing later too! We need to get some fish to put in cages for crayfish fishing. There’s only one day in the whole year that you are allowed to fish for crayfish here. It was a couple of days ago but we missed it, so we’re doing it tonight instead. Sounds lame but I might give it a miss.


Yesterday we fished down by the river at the end of Anders and Karin’s field. Julien came over in the afternoon and he showed us how it was done! None of the three of us (girls) had fished before – new experience, quite fun. We also had beer to accompany our fish that we cooked on the fire. Julien left today so it was a bit of a farewell.


Sidenote: I just found MORE sawdust in my ear!

I think that’s everything to report...


With love,

Laura


Sidenote Two: Anders saluted me from his tractor today when I opened a gate for him. I feel, somehow, a deeper level of acceptance.