Friday 31 July 2015

Friday.


I think I've put up similar photos of our double jettied Guildhall with its summertime hanging baskets of flowers a year or two ago, still, it looks really well at this time of year. Walked into town this morning via the Churchyard and took this one. Been a busy week. Motored into Essex earlier this week and lunched with friends. Janet is a second generation antique dealer and has decided to retire, so she 'phoned us, and asked if I would look over her brass, copper, and pewter stock, and buy anything I wanted, as she didn't want to put anything through the salerooms (don't blame her); so we drove to North Essex, which is as pretty, in parts, as some of Suffolk, and bought quite a lot of stock, plus one possible 'keepie'.  Must knock off- being called upstairs for tea, and we have an overnight guest coming soon, so must clean meself up and get changed (am in workshop scruff at present).  Will probably blog again later - or more probably tomorrow.

Saturday 25 July 2015

Saturday.


This blog entry records the last of the Scandinavian holiday snaps. Above is a snapshot of the beach of the 'Swimming Lake' near Nea's farm house. This area of the beach seems to be covered with clover flowers, which, in the sand, give a rather pretty effect.


And, finally, the long journey home. Ruth drove us back across Sweden and Norway to Trondheim Airport. The girls came, too. Above snap shows Swedish mountainous area, with glimpses of snow towards the tops.


Fairly typical North west Swedish Church, with separate bell chamber.


Nea driving into Norway.  The  journey was fairly uneventful.

Thank you, Nea, Lasse, and family, for a lovely break in a lovely country. The time flew past.

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Normal Service will now be resumed :-


This past week has been busy. Our good friend Hilary has had an eye operation. Ann ran her into hospital, stayed with her, and stayed overnight with her on her return home. At the same time I took a taxi, then a train into London, viewed Bonham's Arms and Armour auction then slept at Lizzie's. On Thursday, back to Bonham's  and bid (fairly successfully - seven lots). Then home by train, etc.  Got home about 9p.m.

      Yesterday (Friday) evening,  friends Hilary and Heather, came and had supper with us-thoroughly enjoyed the evening, ate early (6.30p.m. for seven) in view of Hilary's op. earlier in the week.  Party broke up about nine thirty p.m.  so an early night (much needed). Slept well.

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Tuesday 21 July 2015

Tuesday.


To return to mid/North Sweden. The area where Nea lives is, in fact, about a hundred miles South of the arctic Circle. On a map it looks like North/Central Sweden, but is treated by the natives as being  in Northern Sweden. On the photo above is part of a lilac hedge near their farmhouse. We saw several of these, although lilac in full flower seemed strange to our eyes in mid July.


The picture above is taken from the top of what looks like a modern water tower. On top of it is a circular glazed area which contains a very good restaurant (we lunched here three days of our stay- and excellent grub it was, too). We had a window seat looking over the town, the lake, and the surrounding hills. The lake is huge -several miles long. According to local legend it contains 'the Great Lake monster' . He appears to be something like our 'Nessie'.  Animal activity was last observed in the waters of the lake about two years ago.


 Back at the farmhouse, our granddaughters and Nippa, the dog, soaking up the sunshine on the front porch.Should say the young lady on the right is now exactly the same height as I am (or slightly taller), whilst her sister, on the left, is an easy three inches taller than I am, i.e. about six foot two.


One day we drove out to 'the Swimming Lake'. It's a smaller lake (about two miles long) with a beach at one end. We didn't swim (the first year there we haven't, but it was tooooo cold). In a field near the lake I photographed these three cranes, large birds, about three feet high at the shoulder.

I think we're nearly at the end of the holiday snaps; one more blog entry should do it. Grit your teeth. Then it's back to the usual Suffolk scenery.
Hope you haven't been too bored,  Regards, Mike and Ann.

Monday 20 July 2015

Monday.


On our second day in Sweden we drove out to Nea's farm. The above photo shows the river (stream really) which flows about seventy yards from the farmhouse. As it had rained a good deal in the previous week the river was in spate. This little river supplies the water for their farmhouse and all the other houses in the village (all five of them). Good clean water it is too!



This one is of Nippa, the family dog. She is, as you can see, a pure bred Norbotten Spitz (or so I'm told). She is, I think the best natured and most intelligent dog I've ever known. She is now though, eleven and a half years old. She is trained to the gun, and assists Nea's husband when he's out after elk.



Not sure if these are wild roses, although there are several banks of them in the area. For a 'single' rose they have a lovely scent.


The above small building was originally the calf shed. When Nea and husband bought the place, they turned it into a play house for their daughters, who at nearly eighteen and fifteen have rather grown out of it now. There are two swings from the cross bar (a pine tree trunk) in the two silver birch trees, and the swings are still in occasional use.

It is a lovely, peaceful part of the world.

Good night all.

Sunday 19 July 2015

Sunday.


These two extra photographs are for the benefit of Crowbard and Rog (or indeed any of my readers who care to take a guess at last Friday's mystery object.


I think they will help to identify the object's primary purpose, although it is rather a rarity - not the sort of thing you'd expect to find at a car boot sale these days;  nor the sort of thing that any jack of all trades would use.

Hope this helps.
Regards, Mike and Ann.

Saturday 18 July 2015

Saturday.


As you can see the above photo is of the first railway station out of Trondheim. It is called Hell, whichof cours, gives rise to all sorts of terrible puns, i.e 'We had to go through Hell to get to Trondheim'.........'It's a Hell of a long way to get to Trondheim'.........etc, etc,etc.  I do wish Rog or someone like him who's good at thinking of fresh puns would go to ..... NO, I must reword that ..... Oh well, I'm sure you know what I mean, Rog, although I'm not sure there are any new ones. I asked my youngest granddaughter (who is fifteen) about the name of the place, and she tells me that she thinks that in Norwegian it probably means a large, rocky shelf, presumably on which the village was built.


Above demonstrates the result of prolonged travelling, although I think ten minutes or so did her good. Ann is one of those fortunate people who can drop off for fifteen minutes, then wake refreshed. If I do that I tend to sleep soundly for an hour or more, then wake feeling worse than when I dropped off !


This was taken somewhere near the Swedish/Norwegian border. If you look at the upper part of the picture it shows that, even in July, it's possible to see snow in this area.

More to come - but probably tomorrow, although tomorrow looks like being a busy day. Good night - we'll see.

Saturday.


On the evening of  Wednesday the eighth of July we flew to Norway (Trondheim airport), and met up  with our daughter and her daughters. We slept at the Airport Hotel, then spent the next morning exploring the town of Trondheim. It's a nice old town (I think an old fishing port) and is an excellent place for pottering around. 

 On the small harbour is the above (and below) bronze statue. He is called 'The last Viking'. His present purpose seems to be to collect gull guano  on the end of his nose, and he appears to find this rather a depressing come down.


In the afternoon we caught the train from Trondheim to Ostersund in Sweden. The above  photo was taken from the train a mile or two from Trondheim, and is of the fjord. There is more to come, but the machine refuses to accept  more that three photos  at a time, so I am having to publish this in little bits.

Friday 17 July 2015

Friday.





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Just  after midday today we arrived back in civilisation (well Suffolk anyway) after our trip to Sweden via Norway - Trondheim Airfield. The trip was organised by our second daughter (who blogs as Nea) and Ann. We stayed with Nea and her husband, her 15 and (very nearly) 18 year old daughters.  I have a lot of holiday snaps to foist on my readers eventually; but in the meantime here are some photos of an antique object I purchased whilst in Sweden. I think it will make a very decent MYSTERY OBJECT, in that I shall be pleasantly surprised if any of you can guess its correct (well - primary - purpose). It is made of wood (I think straight grained mahogany), and is just over ten and a half inches long. See if you can tell me its purpose, date and country of origin. In view of where I purchased it the country of origin should be Sweden, but even that is a little doubtful in that the only illustration I can find of a similar one states that it was made in England!

I will eventually publish more photoes to illustrate its purpose.  It is lovely to be home, and I wish you very happy guessing.
Warm regards  - Mike and Ann.

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Tuesday.


The garden gate, entwined with honeysuckle and columbine.

 Corners of the garden (as per heretofore).


Last year we put this blue-ish, spiky plant into the herb garden. It's doing very nicely thank you, but we can't remember what it is - or even if it's a herb. If anyone can assist identification we'd be grateful. In fact -all contributions (or suggestions) gratefully received.

Got a fairly hectic few days coming up, but will indulge in further bloggery as soon as we have time to spare.

Warm regards to all. Mike and Ann.

Sunday 5 July 2015

Sunday.


Today, after morning service, we motored over to the Quy Mill Hotel in Cambridgeshire, To celebrate Ann's brother Mick's eightieth birthday, which occurs on this coming Tuesday. Mick had hired two large rooms and an area (with table and chairs)  of the river bank outside. Above you see a photo of Ann and meself about to dig in.


The photo above shows the birthday Boy dealing faithfully with a pork pie.
The rest of the photos show  the guests, about a hundred people, all family or old friends, and family friends. All are members of Norfolk families, largely Claytons, Eglingtons, and a handful of  Horners. All were having to recognise old friends, distant cousins not seen for years, having to remember their names, strike up a conversation (or continue one abandoned several decades ago) and make themselves heard over the hubbub of a hundred East Anglians (mainly Norfolk folk) all competing to be heard. As I am known to be deaf I didn't have to compete to be heard, so could get on with enjoying the grub and bubbly, although poor Ann had to field off the more determined enquiries, or gain my attention (usually by hacking my shins under the table) to answer questions. One of the more interesting ones was how old did a clock have to be to be worthy of the attention of an antiquarian horologist (i.e.  ME). We started off with the assertion that the clock which needed attention was of first world war date and therefore had to be a bona fide antique. I pooh-poohed  that one and fought the date backward to the Napoleonic wars, refusing to be interested in anything much after that date. I find it pays to be firm, especially with old acquaintances, and distant relations, who will then argue on much the same terms what is considered to be a reasonably fair fee within a family. This discussion was enjoyed by all, not least me.





Needless to say, a thoroughly good time was had by all of us. In the normal way of things this sort of family get-together-discussion and exchange of news, only takes place immediately after funerals, so it was good to enjoy each other's company at something as cheerful as an eightieth birthday celebration. I don't suppose anyone reads 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' nowadays, but I seem to remember, somewhere in the early chapters, Thomas Hughes describing how 'the old Browns' enjoyed  a good argumentative  discussion at just such a family get-together. People don't alter much over the centuries, do they?


                                    Good night all.