Sweden 2012 - part 1

I am back from our holiday trip, lasting 3 weeks and 2,000 miles.
Thank you very much for your good wishes and concerns. I am not a mobile blogger, so my pictures have been stored in my camera, waiting to be downloaded and sorted on my return.
I will try to share some of them with you. As I am using my blog as a journal, bare with me.

It is a late afternoon, 31 May, and after some 200 miles drive to Harwich, on the east coast, we are waiting to board an 18 hour ferry to Denmark, final destination: Sweden. As we are no longer able to take a direct ferry to Sweden or Norway, this has been the only route to reach Sweden from UK by car for the past few years.

The crossing was bad, by anybody's standard. The nearly empty breakfast restaurant was a proof of that, with most people preferring to stay in the comfort of their cabin, me including. DH is much better at this then I am.

By midday we arrived in Denmark, to a windy and a cold drive across, stopping only when necessary. Early evening, a short ferry crossing and we are in Sweden. A couple of hours later we are there, our holiday home for the first week of our stay in Sweden.

This little wooden cottage, dating from  around 1920, is being lovingly looked after my the owners, Erik and his wife, who live by the lake across the road, in this small settlement.

Some pictures from the inside of the cottage.

This area, in the southwest of Sweden, is called Halland, an area we have not explored before.

It has a long coastline, with some spectacular and empty beaches, seaside towns like Falkenberg and Halmstad, but also, like in most of Sweden, forests and wild flower meadows. And, by our standard, empty roads.

Lots of Viking history, some of it right here on our doorstep.

And of course, some shopping. One of our shopping trips is to a small town of Horred, where Ekelund, the famous weavers, are based. In their lovely shop I stocked up with some of their beautiful table linen.

Soon our first week was up, it was time to move on. 

I am taking a break from blogging and lots of other things.
But I will be back, so keep stitching! I will come and check!

Summer arrived this week to our part of the world, at last! Slowly our garden is coming to life and showing some colour.

Relaxing under the plum tree, all I can see is a blue sky.

Second part of Fernhill BOM arrived today.

While I was waiting for it to come in the post, I started another design by Lynette Anderson, a cushion cover.

Small stitcheries for hot hands.

wallflowers and terracotta people

When I went out into the garden the first thing this morning, something was noticeable straight away - it wasn't cold! After weeks of cold weather, could this be it? Spring at last? And I could smell the garden, the freshness of summer mornings. Good time to have a day out, a repeat visit to my favourite National Trust property, Barrington Court.
You have been here with me on previous occasions. I love their flower garden, every time I come here it looks different.

Our garden is very "green" right  now, with very little of any other colour. Here at Barrington Court, in their sheltered walled gardens, it is awash with wallflowers, all shades mixed together.

 On a warm day like today the scent is overwhelming, mixed with scents of lilac bushes and azaleas.

But there is another reason why we visited today.

Unusually for historical properties, this one is empty of any furniture and fittings.

That means that National Trust can stage various venues here, like the Christmas Fayre you came to with me last November.

At the moment there is an exhibition of Antony Gormley's  ( of Angel of the North ) "Field for the British Isles", collection of some 40,000 clay figures, made by a community of families in Merseyside, spread over the floors of 3 rooms of the house. For this work Antony Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994.

Unfortunately no cameras allowed, but you can see lots of pictures here and read about it here.

The 40,000 tiny clay figures are all different, all shapes and sizes and colours, just like we are.

The picture changes with the change of the light and sunlight coming in through the windows.

And when you are standing there in the doorway, they all seem to be looking just at you.

Art is a different thing to different people, and although there is an original message behind this work of art ( a different way of looking at human presence), it is up to us how we interpret it. We found it quite touching, it was like seeing real people.

There have been several other "Fields" around the world, made by local communities.

"Fields for the British Isles" has travelled around UK, and now we are lucky enough to see it here in Somerset. If you are in the area, don't miss it.

For me of course, no visit here would be complete without popping in the plant shop,

and Barrington Patchwork shop,

although my purchases were very controlled today, just some thread for my current projects.

sunshine Saturday

Cold nights, still possibility of frost, clear sky. This morning we woke up to a wall to wall sunshine, at last! To make most of it, a quick walk across the Common before breakfast, picking some wild flowers on the way. Cold north wind in our faces on the way back.

            Last night I finished the first stitchery of Fernhill BOM. Second one should arrive soon.

More sunshine due tomorrow, but back to rain on Monday (so they tell us).

Enjoy your weekend!