Some of Lena's Pictures

Lena subscribes to a different philosophy to photography than myself. She actually composes her pictures. I am more of a "if a monkey types enough it will eventually type a play from Shakespeare" photographer. Anyway, here are some of her photos that may be of interest even if the reason is that I am in most of them.

Sture and I are having a weighty discussion (probably about what's for dinner) on the beach.

Lena captures Sture and me hitching a ride on the boat trailer Lars drives the tractor a km or so down to the beach where the boats need to be hauled out.

Lena had a nice supper party with her sisters, Lota, and Lars invited. It gave me a chance to talk with them, although I did enter into a discussion about women's rights that in retrospect I would have been well advised to keep my opinions to myself.


Lota sat next to me. She works on the island and seems reasonably happy.

See. This is what can happen to you if you actually try to compose a photograph.

Lena's Sisters' Summer House

In the late afternoon on the Sunday, Sture and I went over to Lena's sisters' summer house for afternoon tea.

This is their house. It is quite beautiful on the inside as it had been previously renovated, new kitchen installed (in wood), etc. As Lena said, it was fine as a regular house, not just a summer house.

Eva, the younger sister, was mowing lawn of which their were plenty. (picture courtesy of Lena)

Here Eva is piling up the cuttings, while a Swedish male admires the work.

Swedes express their pride in similar fashion to the U.S, at least as far as flags go.

Lena baked a wonderful blackberry cobbler from the blackberries that we had picked earlier in the morning.

Here are the three sisters. The only one of all of the sisters (Sture's and Lena's) that I didn't get to see was Pea who is currently in London working as a dentist.
Two greybeards, one active and one passive. Thanks Lena for the photo.

It was time for Eva to cut Sture's hair. Apparently, this is a tradition that has gone on for some time.

They are both pleased with a job well done.

Viking Graveyard

On the way to Lena's sisters' summer house (about a km from Lena and Sture's summer house), Sture took me to one of the major historical sites on the island of Tjon, the Viking Graveyard.
Here are a few pictures:

Here is the sign which means historical site.

Only 0.2 km to go

This is what the sign said to us English speaking folk.

Here's what a sign said a bit closer to the graveyard.

Here's a ring of stones around the central burial site.

Here's a central "headstone".

Another ring.

Sture is in the picture to give you a since of scale.

The graveyard is surrounded by a wall of stones. These walls remind me of upland New England.

Sunday Morning Walk on the Island

Sture and Lena took me on a walk on the island to show me where they go swimming when the winds are too stiff to motor out to one of the smaller islands in the archipelago. As I hope you can see from the pictures it was an interesting walk.

We started from a picturesque, "typical", farm house.
There were still some nice lowlying wildflowers, even though it is getting into autumn. On this day, however, it was 20C.
Here's one all Americans will recognize. So far, it is the only one I have seen "in the wild" in Sweden.

Lena and Sture are leading the way.
Here are some rose hips ready for the picking for those who like that kind of tea.

Here are some berries that I have forgotten the name of. But according to Lena, they should be picked after the frost.
Here is the real quarry. Sture found a big bramble of blackberries that you didn't have to reach in very far to pick. He had the foresight to bring a couple of plastic containers to put the berries in. We soon filled them up, and Lena subsequently incorporated them into a couple of nice desserts.

A nice view of a nearby island from the trail.

A beautiful spot along the trail.

Another vista that can be seen from the trail.

Sture is explaining something from a pivotal position.

I can't remember the Swedish name for this device, but in function it is a manless powered drone designed to criss-cross Swedish waters after the end of WWII to explode the heavily mined coastal waters of Sweden.

It's time to cross into another field over this style.

Another scenic formation visible from the trail.

Well, this is the beach we came for. It is a stone beach that is well sheltered from the weather. The little bay off the beach is rather shallow, so the Nordholms usually swim on the other side of the peninsula.

A sailboat passes by, and the cloud cover changes thus slightly changing the color of all of the surroundings.

Sture has made friends with the horse. They first became acquainted in another field. We then walked over a granite ridge where it was difficult for the horse to follow. The horse found a long way around the ridge and joined Sture down by the small beach. Horses are lonely animals, and I guess this one found a kindred spirit in Sture.
Here is a piece of quartz the size of man's head lying by a stone beach next to the trail.


Sture and Lena are one of the very few couples of our age that we have known for some time that are still together. They are very kind to one another.

Captain Rune's Southward Cruise

Well, blogger now let's me put multiple photos in a single blog again, so here goes a pictorial account of a short cruise Sture and I did with Sture's brother-in-law, "Captain" Lars Rune.
Here's a picture of the marina when we left the mooring.
Here is an interesting house built right next to the narrow passage.

Here is a beacon to guide boat traffic.

Obviously, a major watering hole.

A picturesque seaside settlement.

One has to say that this house is built pretty close to the sea.

Captain Lars is laying a stern eye on all of the crew making sure that they do not step out of line. Actually at this point, I think he and I were discussing the differences between how Sweden and America treated witches in the 17 century. Apparently, it was pretty much the same. Dunk the accused witch into a pond. If she doesn't drown, in all likelihood she is a witch, so burn her at the stake.

The black bit of the rock is where Sture and other brave souls in his family dive into the sea. At this time of year, the water temperature was 14-15C. That is far too cold for me to even contemplate going in. Sture had a swim off the boat later on though.

Sture and his family go out to these islands for daytime picnics and swimming during their summer holiday, provided the wind conditions do not make it too uncomfortable.

Here is a granite rock formation with a pinkish cast. I found out later that this is not all the angle of the sun. Sometimes, the granite has some pinkish quartz in it as well.

Here is a whole line of expensive real estate. The front row are boat houses for the summer houses above which run at about four to five hundred Australian dollars apiece.

Another scenic seaside village view.

I think this is a boathouse. In any case, I love these people who are living on the edge. That is the sea, not an estuary or stream in the foreground.

We've put more out to sea now, but there are still interesting things to see.
We're on the way back in from the outer bay. I'm currently using this photo as my Windows background.

We meet a big sailing yacht motoring through the narrow passage before it gets out to sea.

The name of Lars' pride and joy. Lars bought this 40 foot motor yacht when it was dry docked and needed a lot of work. After buying the yacht Lars invested more money, not to mention significant time and skill to making it a beautiful yacht on the harbor. He occasionally takes two or three day cruises amongst the islands, but I expect that it could do much more than that. Anyway, thank you Lars for a wonderful short trip amongst these islands.

Sture and Lars are tidying up things before going ashore. I didn't know exactly what to do, so I just took a few pictures.
Captain and crew are headed back to surface transport after a great little cruise.