Time with the girls

 There are many reasons to visit Sweden:  beautiful nature, excellent cycling on trails everywhere, nice gardening weather, great places to have lunch, and while I am enjoying all those aspects of the country, the real reason I am here is to spend time with family, specifically two little girls.  With adults whom you have known for a long time, video chats are OK to keep in touch, but with little kids, they need a physical presence to really get to know you.  Tova and Rowan are 8 and 6 respectively and it has been 21 months since we were last together.  My what a change!

So tonight Richard and Jennie are off at a country inn for mountain biking, dinner, overnight and breakfast.  The two of them have not had a night away together since 2017 and I was delighted when they accepted my offer to take care of the girls for an evening.  We had frozen quiche for supper, chatted with their Toronto cousins then made cookies together, and decorated them.  It was a wonderful time, enjoyed by all, especially the sampling!

In addition, I am taking each of the girls by themselves for an afternoon with Oma.  We go for a snack of their choice  and then shop for some clothing -- their choice.  Rowan picked her favourite chocolate and marzipan confection and then a 2 piece bunny outfit.  I take Tova tomorrow and she has already indicated that what she needs are black pants.  It is so nice to be able to concentrate on each one individually as they have very different personalities and so my relationship with each is very different.  For me that is very important to get to know each one better.

Never a dull moment

 So the excitement of the morning was the badger in the trap.  The hens had been safe in the garage, but the badger, came for the third night in a row and this time was lured with honey, dead chicks and plums, into the trap supplied by the city.  And the city's VildVard officer came with his handgun, dispatched the beast with two shots and took away the carcass.  The trap remains here, baited again this evening, lest any other badgers have heard about the chicken dinners available here.

After lunch we scooted out to the cottage.  Very handy to have your cottage on an island and it takes less than half and hour to get there.  Some went in the motorboat while Jennie and I paddled the new canoe out to the island.  It is a lovely place to sit on the dock and do Soduko puzzles.  The sauna was on and everyone, including me, did the sauna cycle of hot and then into the cold lake.  Eventually after about 4 cycles, even I swam around off the end of the dock, but it was a very short swim and then back into warm, dry, clothes.  Pizza on the deck for supper meant no one had to cook and we were back to Gavle in good time for the girls to head to bed.

There is a lovely community event which has been going on for 20 years, where the town puts out candles along the water in the evening and people stroll.  Jennie and I followed the lights along the river, thoroughly enjoying the lovely evening.

It was a day with lots going on -- never a dull moment.

Cleaning

 I hate cleaning.  Perhaps I should clarify:  I hate cleaning my own space.  When I clean in someone else's space, it is, for me, no longer cleaning which is the main focus, but doing something with or for someone else.  And that makes all the difference.  Also, cleaning at home is a never-ending chore.  When I clean somewhere else, it is a task which can be completed and is appreciated -- win/win.

This last few days, I have been here in Gavle.  The garden needs weeding and I have been tackling the grass.  Gardening is something I love intrinsically, so it is a delight to see how this garden is developing, having worked in it for many years.  Unfortunately, with Jennie laid up due to the snake bite, it has received less attention than usual, and so working even a short time, makes a big difference.  There is, fortunately, a very large garden waste bin available, so the cleanup is easy.

But the focus of yesterday and this morning, was clearing out the garage and the workroom into a 6m x 2m storage container.  No one I know has as many bikes or skis as Rich and Jenn.  And, then there are also all the accessories to go with them.  Thankfully, the unit has lots of shelves and we had lots of boxes and bags.  The only thing left to move now is the upright freezer and that will come out into the carport at the last moment.  The walls need to be removed as there is water in the plasterboard to a height of 1m -- mold potential -- and the floor sanded and sanitized.  Once that is done, the freezer can go back in to the garage and wait for probably 3 months before the reconstruction is done.  It will be a long fall, but the camping stuff is at the very back of the storage unit, while Christmas stuff is closer to the front -- have to be organized.  Going through all the stuff is a great thing to do, but I don't really want a flood to be the impetus for doing it at my house.

Mother Nature's wild side

 Tomorrow it will be two weeks since Mother Nature dumped 17 cm on Gavle Sweden overnight.  Not everywhere flooded, but Richard and Jennie got 1.5m of flood and waste water in their basement.  Walking around the town today, the evidence of the devastation was still visible.  The normally quiet river is still roaring in rapids, the erosion under the bridge has not been fixed, and new waterfalls into the river are still draining the grass by the Konserthus.  

More personal damage was, of course, at Rich and Jenn's house.  The basement has been cleared of all items.  The dehumidifiers (3 of them), have been working non-stop for almost 2 weeks, and tomorrow the construction company comes to tear out all the interior walls in order to disinfect.  The garage and workroom are also on tap to be completely redone inside, so there is a big storage container coming tomorrow and we will empty those two rooms in the next few days.  Gardening and applesauce on hold!

And just when you thought you had seen everything

 There was a sudden severe thunderstorm about 8 pm EDT last evening.  No problems with a light show, except that airplanes don't fly through them.  Our Icelandair flight was rerouted to Ottawa and there it stayed till about 10 pm.  Yes, we were supposed to leave Pearson at 9, but as it happened, we didn't leave till after midnight.  It was a great flight, especially since I was in Saga class with a very comfortable seat with no one beside me.  The only problem, with the long delay, I missed the connecting flight to Stockholm.

Icelandair takes care of its passengers.  We got hotel for the night, all meals, and all transfers to and from the hotel, and seats on tomorrow's flight to Sweden.  It took about 1.25 hr to get from the airport to downtown -- there was a need to change buses at a station.  The countryside is bleak, rocky and very black.  The volcanic action of the past is evident everywhere.

Downtown is a strange mix of new and old buildings and there is huge variety in both types.  On the bus into town I met a Canadian lady who now lives in Sweden and in the same situation as me.  We ended up at the same hotel, and so decided to go to lunch together.  She needed another COVID test as her first had expired, so we wandered and finally came to a clinic which was doing the rapid tests this afternoon.  She got her negative result and we had a nice (but chilly 11 degree) walk back to the hotel.  

I wandered down to the waterfront and was amazed by both the natural landscape and the designed skyline.  We are headed to supper early as we are exhausted -- I did get about 1.5 hr of sleep last night-- and the wake-up call is for 3:30 am to catch the 4 am bus back to the airport.  I truly hope to be on the 7:35 flight tomorrow.  I have been waiting for this visit for a long time.

Trying to think of everything

 So I am sitting here at Terminal 3, with my mask on, waiting for the counters for Icelandair to open for my 21:00 flight to Reykjavik.  I  have two huge suitcases, a small backpack, and a piece of art 24 x 30 inches.  I have my passport, my ticket information, my COVID vaccination certificate (hard and soft copies), my Results of Antigen test from this morning, and my health card.  I have done my online checkin but not printing of baggage tags.  I have registered for arriving in Iceland.  I think, I have thought of everything.

It has been 18 months since my last trip -- when we got back from the Azores in February 2020, we were asked if we had been to China.  That seems a lifetime ago, and it is a world-changing pandemic ago.  Only passengers are allowed here in the terminal.  Everyone is masked and seats are kept open to ensure social distancing.  But, I must admit, I have not been severely impacted by COVID.  It has kept me home for more than a year, but I have been healthy, financially secure, and not very inconvenienced by the safety measures.  Mostly, the problems have been in not being able to see other people -- specifically the little people who are so important.  There were two multiple month stretches where we did not see the Toronto kids, and of course, it has now been 20 months since we saw the Swedes.  

Getting back to what we have missed!

Unprecedented

 In a world of media hype, adjectives such as 'unprecedented' are  frequently misused to try and emphasize an event in the world of sports or other entertainment.  However, the last 9 months of 2020, truly are unprecedented.  Never before have whole societies shut down as they have since the middle of March.  School children had a 6 month 'March Break'.  Churches, gyms, malls, and restaurants were all closed.  Everyone stayed home, including me.

I have not been affected in my financial situation, as I am retired and on a nice fixed income.  I still go for walks and rode my bike all summer.  My garden benefitted from my being home much more than usual.  Both Ian's and my health has been great.  No one in the family has been infected.  It would seem that I am virtually unaffected by the pandemic.

But choirs and volunteering are off the table.   There is no singing at supported living homes.  And there is no travel.

For someone who loves to go, this is really hard.  Being almost 70, there are only a limited number of years for carefree travel and I am losing one to this COVID19.  I know that many people are losing much more and I am very fortunate, for which I am grateful.  Earlier this week there was an announcement of a potential vaccine with 90% effectiveness.  I will be in line when they start to give it out in a few months.  And the first place to go will be to the little girls in Sweden.  Internet conversations are fine, but can't substitute for the real thing, especially with the young people.  

There are more adventures waiting.