Bjuröklubb today
Sun, blue sky, +2 °C, but very windy: 15–18 m/s in average.
Farewell Skelleftehamn
Sweden. Somewhere in the north. A little town called Skelleftehamn. A small street called Tallvägen. Street number 35. My house, that I named flygelvillan. The large living room. The left half with the grand piano and the computer. That has been a central place to me for many years.
At this place I wrote most of the blog articles of way-up-north.com. I worked. I planned my travels. I communicated. I looked out of the window when it snowed. I played on my grand piano. I rehearsed with a jazz trio and an opera singer. I composed and arranged for big band and chamber choir.
A central place.
Two days ago, on 15 May 2020 I left my house for good. It’s still mine but I’ll sell it this year.
Two days ago at 8 o’clock the large moving lorry arrived and five people started to carry all my belongings into the large car. First some furniture, then more than 150 boxes, pulka, kayak, skis and large bags with sleeping bags and down jackets. And finally my Yamaha grand piano.
The whole move took less than eight hours. Then my grand piano stood erected in the living room of Annika’s and my new house by the sea.
Shall I be sad because I left Skelleftehamn? Perhaps I should, but I’m not. The positive feelings about living together with Annika and having found such an extraordinary place to live dominate. I really have been looking forward to this new life and now it has become reality.
Diezeborg
The cargo/container ship Diezeborg has been anchoring behind the island Gåsören for some days. This evening I took my telephoto lens and tripod to finally take a photo of the ship in the blue hour. The ship is approx. 8.5 km away.
Past – present – future
About ten years in Sweden and what will happen next
← Past
Have a look at this photo. It’s a special one:
This photo I took the morning of 23 April 2010, exactly ten years ago. It was the very first day of a new chapter in my life: Living in Sweden.
So today it’s my tenth Sweden anniversary. What a great life I’ve had all those years!
I’m especially grateful that I got to know Martine and Lasse right from the beginning. It was the balcony of their former house in Skellefteå where I took this photo from. Lasse and Martine not only gave me a room to stay for the first weeks but much more. They introduced me to many great people and showed me the surroundings, among others Skelleftehamn.
When I took these photos on 24 April 2010 I didn’t know that I would buy a house in Skelleftehamn only a month later and move there in summer 2010.
☉Present
The month of April uses to be the month between winter and spring. It still may snow intensely but the snow won’t last. And so it is this year, too. The rivers are mostly open and only the lakes are still covered with old ice.
But this April is special. Although the weather is really fine I’m inside quite a lot. It’s not because of corona or work but …
… because I pack my things. I’m moving. I’ll leave Skelleftehamn after almost ten years! The removal van will come in three weeks and I have a lot of stuff. The 35 banana boxes on the photo are filled with books and I didn’t even start to pack my winter equipment. Down jackets, sleeping bags, pulka, skies, winter boots …
→ Future
I’m going to move 148 km south. Annika and I have bought a house in Obbola near Umeå, the largest town in Northern Sweden. In two weeks Annika and I will finally become sambor. Sambo (sam = together-, bo = to live) – is the common Swedish term for people in a relationship living together without being married. Oh, how I’m looking forward to live together with Annika after years of a weekend relationship with many car rides on the boring E4 between Skelleftehamn and Umeå.
I’m also looking forward to something else. The house is located by the Baltic Sea. It’s only sixty metres from our terrace to the shore and I’ll be able to see the sea from my “office room”. There will be no excuse why I shouldn’t take a ten minute kayak trip before breakfast, when the weather is nice.
It’s hard to make photos from the future. The photos below I made three weeks ago.
The photo I couldn’t take three weeks ago was of the mink strolling along the shore. Wrong lens …
A winter’s comment
Today I felt honoured. Winter himself commented on my previous article Farewell winter 2019/20. He did it not in the comment section but in real life by bringing cold wind and 10 cm of fresh snow to Skelleftehamn. Some photos of today.
Farewell winter 2019/20
Hej winter,
Nice of you to present a preview already in October, and got really started in early November, but in January you were much too warm. Fortunately I could realise two fantastic ski tours in February and March, but back home in Skelleftehamn I needed my rubber boots more than a winter jacket. So for my taste you – winter – was much too short!
Before spring takes over Annika and I decided to make a short trip to Solberget in Lapland. A good place to isolate oneself in the times of Corona, since we lived in a cozy construction trailer. It was only two full days we had there but we got cold sunny weather (almost -20 °C in the morning) and a lot of snow in the forests and on the bogs. Perfect skiing conditions.
The other day we skied to the old farmyard Slättberg that still has an owner but slowly goes to rack. A pity since the place is so nice. In 2013 I had dared to enter the main building, now the floor is partly gone and I kept outside.
In Skelleftehamn we had some warm days with +10 °C and almost all sea ice has gone. Only in sheltered parts as the boat harbour Tjuvkistan or the sound at Storgrundet some ice is left. But I do not dare to enter it any longer.
So I’ll thank you for the season, winter. But next year you’re welcome to send your (c)older brother.
A promenade by the coast
Heralds of spring 2020
Another sunny day with temperatures round 10 °C. Today I spotted the first tussilago flowers – two weeks earlier than usual. And even the first butterflies – small tortoiseshells – fluttered around today.
The photo of the butterfly is a bit out of focus, but I didn’t want to disturb the little fellows that probably enjoyed the sun as much as I did.
Social distancing in Skelleftehamn
Meanwhile in Skelleftehamn
It has been already a week, since I returned from my winter journey. I already blogged about my first ski tour with two German friends, soon I’ll blog about my ski tour with Annika, too.
Today the weather was sunny and quite warm. Due to the corona virus I try to avoid crowded places. Fortunately such places are nearby. One of them is the island Storgrundet, less than 2km from home. The ice between island and coast is thick, but on the other side there’s open water because most of the sea ice has vanished.
This is a nice place to enjoy the sun, ice and water.
And since I had my drysuit with me I could take that photo of a small ice cave standing in the sea.
Total time: 90 minutes. Recreational value: high.
Do you have such lonely places nearby? When did you visit them the last time? I’m looking forward to your comments.