What a beautiful summer! Part 1

I JUST LOVE SWEDEN!
I've never lived on a place where so many different (wild)flowers grow and in the part of Austria, where I grew up, we did not have the chance to watch Canada Geese raise their offspring...

As the days and weeks progress...

...we manage to proceed in making a cosy home for us and our animals.

Today we count the eleventh day since the move.
Honestly, it feels like we've been living here for months!
We enjoy good night sleeps and and happy days.
The house feels kind, the weather gets better and warmer every day and more and more things get unpacked and installed.

Like the outside antenna for our internet connection and the satellite dish...

We bought a ceiling lamp and carpets, bought a wardrobe for the bathroom and installed an extra shelf in the laundry "corner".
We put out a little bird bath, bought some flowers for the front entrance area and planted some herbs behind the house.

Cleo has been busy with rolling in the grass (or a dead worm) and chewing away a few pig ears and bull sticks... which is hard work for her.
She is 10 now but her teeth are still doing a perfect job! *lol*

Aaron also gets to chew on bones and ears. He also gets visitors from time to time... The cows who live  on the property with us (summer pasture) are very curious and when we are outside they come and stop by for a visit...
In the beginning the cows were a bit worried about the safety of their calfs, followed Aaron's and Cleo's every move, but now they are cool about the big shepherd and the small terrier :))

What we still need to buy is a wardrobe for the bedroom. This sounds like an easy task, doesn't it!!??
Unfortunately it isn't. Even in "IKEA country" it isn't.
Especially when you live in an old house where the ceiling height is not at nowadays standard.
We came to the conclusion that our only chance is to buy a used, maybe even antique wardrobe.
We'll see what we can find... wish us luck!

Another project I am working on is an extra shelf in the kitchen, for the microwave oven, to create more working space on the kitchen counter.
In the meantime we also have to finish the fence around the house. We still don't have gates installed, we use simple metal gardening panels as "gates" at the moment.

This afternoon I cleaned out the old workshop that served as a temporary storage and got started with moving my workshop-moving-boxes into the workshop in the bigger barn. I first had to swing my besom there as well, of course!
Next step will be installing a couple of shelfs and then I can finally unpack all my tools again.



Last wednesday I got started at my new working place.
Same company, different location. It feels good :))
Växjö and it's vicinity are gorgeous.
The city of VÄXJÖ is also called
"Europe's greenest city"...
and it fells to be true when you drive through it's different neighborhoods.
Beautiful!


Well, again it's time for bed...
Here some more photos I took the other day, on a walk together with Cleo. Enjoy!

View from the south (also photo below)

Ditch alongside a forrest road

 That is moose poop, just in case you wonder  ;-)

Kingcup or Marsh Marigold 

Northwest corner of the backyard - Cleo's favorite place to dig for mice :)

Take care everyone!  :))

Feeling right at home!

We spent our second weekend on Södratorp. We went up north (again with a full trailer attached to the back of the car) Saturday morning (and got back this afternoon). 

Saturday the sun was shining at first, but then the wind picked up and a lot of clouds showed up on the sky. 

It was rather chilly when we continued to work on the fence and later in the evening it even started raining a bit. 

We went to bed early and the night was calm and silent. We all slept like babies, the dogs are adjusting really well to the new home. 

We are thankful to have the chance to introduce them to new place gradually. 

(The cats will not get so lucky, but we'll do anything to make the transition as easy as possible for them.)

The first weekend we stayed overnight Cleo was still acting like "when are we going back home folks?"

This weekend she was already more settled and started to play on her own in the living room while we were sitting at the dining table in the kitchen. 

Aaron found a plastic cup in the yard today and was playing all enthusiastic with it.
He acts like a clown when he gets the chance to put his teeth into one of those...

And Cleo enjoyed the sun, she (the sun) showed up again after lunch today.

It's nice to be able to REALLY live in the country again after two years in a rather noisy environment. When I walked with Cleo this morning I only heard birds sing, and the church bells rang down in the village - I realized that I hadn't heard church bells for a very long time!

We don't live far away from the village here, but I never heard the church bells. I wonder if it is the traffic noise  that we have gotten so used to hear all day, a noise that tends to superimpose itself on everything else.... I definitely prefer church bells and singing birds, let me tell you that :)

One of our new neighbors came by to extend a very warm welcome to us, in her hands she had a beautiful bunch of tulips! Look!

She told us that they are originally from Denmark and that they work there, but they come to Sweden/their house here every Thursday and stay until Sunday... all year around. So practically, they live one half week in Denmark and the other half in Sweden!
Well, "it's only about one and a half hours drive" she said. That's really not much, I agree, but I don't know if I would do that every week. Anyhow, we are looking forward to get to know all our neighbors.
Two more weeks!

:)

Södratorp - our new home!

***

Yes, it's a trailer. A moving trailer... with furniture in it!

We'll be moving soon, we are actually already in the middle of it. 

We found a great house, bigger then the one we are living in now, much cheeper in rent, recently renovated and surrounded by gorgeous nature! 

We started renting the new place from 1st of April, but will be living in our current home here in Åhus until end of April. 

The advantage of that is that we are having a whole month to move the entire household and personal effects - piece by piece almost, meaning trailer by trailer. 

Our future home is located about 2 hours north of here, so we are mostly using weekends and time off work to drive back and forth, with the trailer hooked up to the car.

Last weekend we made our 5th trip AND stayed overnight for the first time. It was a great weekend! 

Very good friends of ours helped us to build a fence around the back yard... too keep the dogs IN and the moose, rabbits etc. OUT...

We are not done yet, but we got really far! :)

We worked hard all day, but as you can see we didn't forget to rest in between! :)

Aaron has a new girl-friend... Her name is Bessy and she got the most beautiful brown eyes you can imagine - no wonder that Aaron fell for her in a heart-beat! 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

After a round of playing Aaron got to "cool off" in the back of the car and Cleo and Bessy teamed up for a round through the yard - searching for rodents. 

The "ladies" at work! :))

And in the following photo you see Cleo thinking...
"are they REALLY building a fence here??? How can I get to the rodents if they build a fence?? Those humans... they don't get it, do they!!"

We'll be driving up again on Saturday and spend the weekend there. It feels really like going away on vacation for a weekend, the scenery is beautiful and !!! - it's really quiet there, almost no traffic.
All you hear when you wake up in the morning are the singing birds!
HEAVEN :)))))

SPRING REALLY DOES GET A DIFFERENT MEANING WHEN YOU CAN ENJOY IT IN SUCH A ADORABLE COUNTRYSIDE...
Space to be, Space to breath and feel alive even more :)

...to be continued!

♥

When you change...

When you change the way you look at things, 

the things you look at change.

by Dr. Wayne Dyer

One of my all-time favorite quotes! 

:)