Something to remember

I just had to post this picture of my little cherub Sofia.

Funniest thing - I was looking at her smile and realised that by this time next year she will probably not have those teeth any more. And she will not be gloriously 4 years any more but a really big girl at 5 years.

4 is so wonderful - they are getting out of the troublesome threes (or is it terrible twos?) and have all these ideas and thoughts and musings that are so incredibly wonderful to listen to.

The other day when Rickard was walking home with Sofia from daycare to pick up Isabel at school she wouldn't stop talking for a second and among others was the little gem I posted last week.

"Sometimes when it's quiet and I am thinking it's as if someone is talking inside my head. .. I'm thinking a lot of things. All the time."

Wonderful 4.

What took me so long?

I saw a bike like this online about two years ago and I managed to track down a dealer in Sweden who could import it for me at a decent price.
My old bike was ok but a bit uncomfortable for my back and neck.



When it finally arrived it was a bit too small for me - or rather it was too low and I couldn't stretch out my leg properly while biking to get the maximum cycle stroke. The bike stood in our shed until a few months ago when we tried to find a new pipe for the seat - not sure why it took so long.

A few weeks ago my FIL took pity on me - we had been to a bike shop and they shut me down and said it was impossible to find a pipe that was longer than the one I had.
He called shenanigans and contacted a proper hardware store that had a pipe cut and lathed for me.



I need to have the pipe finished some how - I'm thinking chrome - because it will rust.
The bike is a dream to ride now with the longer pipe. It has no gears so it's a bit tough to get into cruising speed but once there it just rolls along.

I have also checked back with the web shop that sold me the bike and found a gorgeous light, bell and maybe a bike rack.

Rickard cut up an old wire bike basket I had that didn't really match the bike and kept the "chassi" and instead attached a cane basket to it with ties.
The web shop have gorgeous baskets too, but I'm really keen on the bike rack. I have e-mailed them to make sure it will fit my bike too.

On the Fence

One day in Rickard's last vacation week, he and his father built us a fence.

Our driveway is adjacent to a bike lane that leads into our communal back area and sometimes the kids coming from the playground cut across our driveway.

This isn't a problem, they do no harm but we plan to put down gravel of some kind there soon and we want to more clearly mark this as ours.

There are also plans to lay down asphalt on the bike lane and we wanted a clear boundary on anticipation of this.

We also have loose plans to build a car port some day and the plinths will then serve as foundations for that roof.



The ground where the plinths were going in were riddled with large stones and it was packed really hard so Rickard had his work cut out for him.

The girls loved to watch and hung out there quite a lot. At least until it started to rain.



Sofia enjoyed keeping an eye on the men at work.



And she did her best to help as well.



This is from day two. You can tell because all the plinths are in, and the edging stones too.
And it's raining.

The day before I took the girls to the grocery store in the afternoon and then we swung by and picked up grandma so we could all have dinner together. When we came back Rickard and his dad had finished work and been driven inside by the torrential rain. Rickard was soaked through. His right sock was dry on the heel otherwise he was wet through and through.

The next day they were better prepared for the weather and it only rained in the morning.



This is the result by early afternoon on day 2.



Here they are building the gate for the fence so we can exit near the house and not have to go all the way around.
Sofia decided to try out a saw as well. She did really good.



Next year she might help us fix up the attic for her and Isabel?

Beware the voices

Sofia: Sometimes when it's quiet and I am thinking, it sounds as if someone is talking inside my head.

Different candy

We had a parcel in the mail on Friday from the lovely Melani. It had fabric (for me) and candy (also for me - just kidding).

The girls were very interested in the Pop Rocks, and I was curious to try it after having heard so much about it through Mythbusters. (That episode where they (fail to) blow up a pig's stomach with pop rocks and soda was hilarious - and gross).



I saved the candy until Saturday evening when the girls get to eat it, and I had Isabel try it first.

She was expecting a lot more "explosion in your mouth" after seeing the package but after that initial try she had some more and thought it was a lot of fun.

Thank you Melani!!

RIP Hat

I came across this picture today and I have to say that even though I disliked her colour choices, that hat was really pretty!

I think I'll have to sneak a denim one in the sewing list before fall. The white one I made her is a bit sensitive to dirt.

Kivik - The King's Grave

One of the last days of Rickard's vacation we drove south to Kivik on the south east coast of Scania*.

My father has family not far from there and when I was little we often drove there to visit them. These days we mostly drive down there because it's a beautiful place to be.

In Kivik you can find all the usual trappings of a touristy place (in fact we managed to drive down there at the last day of the big Kivik Market) but a little bit outside the village there is an Bronze Age grave site called The King's Grave.



It is a circular mound of rocks some 75 meters across and 3.5 meters high. It was believed to have been almost three times as high when it was finished, but over the centuries people have plundered the stones to use in constructions elsewhere.



The grave was discovered underneath the mound in the 18th century and quarrying stopped.
But it wasn't until the 1930's that a proper excavation was done.



Inside the tomb are 9 slabs with petroglyphs on them. The chamber was constructed after the excavation and it is possible to enter and look at the slabs for a modest fee.

When the grave was first discovered it was believed to be a King's grave because of the size of the slabs. It was later discovered that the grave site contained two graves and markers indicated that it had been used as a sacrificial site as well as a grave, and the bodies found were all in their teens rather than the middle aged King you'd think was buried there.



Near the grave site there is an old mill that has been transformed into a café and we stopped there to have some ice cream and home made apple cake.

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*Scania (Skåne) is the province where I live. It is the southern most tip of the Scandinavian peninsula and we used to belong to Denmark in the Middle Ages. In 1658, Scania was handed over to Sweden at the Peace treaty at Roskilde.
Our dialect still has many sounds and words in common with Danish.