Nordens Ark

I think that the highlight of the summer for me was a trip I made, on my own, to an animal park called Nordens Ark. They have a lot of animals both domestic and foreign to Sweden, and their aim is to care for endangered species of animals, to eventually set the free in nature again. Because of this they don't breed animals to be held in captivity, but instead they try to replicate the animals natural habitats, train them to catch their own food and so on, so they are able to cope on their own.

I learned from one of the caretakers at the park that it has been forbidden by law to feed animals in captivity live prey - which of course is how it is in nature. Instead, the caretakers now really try to replicate the conditions without using "live food" for large animals, such as leopards and tigers. They hide food, making the animals dig or tear at things in order to get their food - I found that quite fascinating.

The park is situated not long from the Swedish West Coast and the nature in and surrounding the park is fantastic. I know I kept thinking that I could have spent a day walking there even if there were no animals around, because the nature is so beautiful!

I support Nordens Ark regularly, and have done so for a number of years now, and every other year or so, I get a free entry ticket to the park as a thank you. I had gotten one this year, and it wasn't really convenient for anybody else to go with me - but I didn't mind at all. While it is great to share experiences with others, I am very used to doing things on my own, and I truly enjoy the fact that I can do EXACTLY what I want, without discussing it or thinking about anybody else (I don't think I'm really that egoistic, but still, I do enjoy that kind of freedom).
And this time, I really did enjoy being on my own - I don't always to that!
I got a bit lost on the way there, but since it was just me, I didn't mind.
I took it easy and walked around the entire park, it's quite big and the height difference within the park is quite large. I'm not in that great a condition, so it was nice being able to take it slow and rest often - and it also made me experience the animals in another way.

After having gone through the park once, I was quite happy, as I had seen two tigers up close, one of them kept walking just in front of me, just two fences between us - first time I've seen a tiger that close, so it was quite an experience!!
I had, however, not seen the wolves, nor the snow leopards (they had babies in May!!) and that felt a bit disappointing! They were going to feed the wolves later in the afternoon, and I decided to stay for that, so I took another walk around the park.
This time I got to see the snow leopards - talk about SO CUTE babies!! Unfortunately they were kept in a habitat a fair bit from all the visitors, as they are so young still, but I at least got to see them. The caretakers fed the Mum and Dad while I was there (tied the food in lots and lots of thick rope up a tree, where the animals had to try and get it!), so I got a good look at the adult animals, truly beautiful!!
The wolves were shy though, and didn't come out for their feeding, but when I went around their habitat, I saw a couple of them, even though they were a fair bit away.

I had my "new" (Christmas gift, but not that frequently used) camera lens, which was FANTASTIC, as I managed to get some really cool photos, even though the animals were quite a distance away!!

Here are a few of my favourite photos:

Rottneros Park

Despite the fact that we were very busy toward the end of the summer, one day me and my Dad and his family took a trip to Rottneros Park, a bit north from where they live. I have been there a few times before, but it was a very long time ago, and it was a lovely outing.
The park was built to reminisce of Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf's Ekeby and it is truly beautiful. We spent a few pleasant hours there, and luckily they had quite a lot for the children to do as well, one adventure park (which was, however, aimed at older children), and several other parks with lots to do.

I think we all had a great time there, and here are some photos from the trip:

General photos:




The kids were having a blast:




There were some really cool trolls in one of the gardens! :)




And finally, I discovered they had something called Bible Garden! :) Nobody was really keen on it, so while the girls were playing I went there on my own. It was quite small, but very beautiful, and had apparently come about on the initiative of former Bishop Bengt Wadensjö!

Be Careful As You Go ...

...'Cause Little People Grow!

A very true statement from Les Misérables! :)

My sisters are growing by the minute, at least it feels like it right now. M has gotten so big this summer, it's hard to explain how, but it's in her face and expressions, in her body and the way she moves, her thoughts and ideas on things, it's almost scary. She's starting school now, and while that is a year earlier than I did, it still feels unreal. I have a feeling that she has the potential to do really well in school so I hope it will work out for her. While she has some problems concentrating and staying still for more than 3 minutes at a time (which might be a problem *lol*), she's really super smart!! If she can feel motivated and challenged by school, I definitely think she'll do fantastic!!





I has grown a lot now as well, she's totally adorable and she could charm ANYone into ANYthing, no doubt about it! :) Her moods is quite remarkable, because mostly she's on top of the world, constantly laughing and absolutely gorgeous ... but if she at some point gets in a bad mood, it's quite the opposite. There's no way you can get through to her whatsoever! A cute little thing she's gotten into is that, if she does something she's not allowed to do, and you tell her off, she promptly claims: "The naughty hand did it!" Apparently this little darling has one naughty and one nice hand (and one naughty and one nice foot as well!) - she knows exactly which one is which (she doesn't change them but is surprisingly consistent), and from her point of view, the naughty hand/foot does act completely independent from her! *LOL* It is adorable, but sometimes I get a bit annoyed with it as well, since at some points you need to tell her off and you don't have time to play a game like that! But most of the time, it is adorable ...*lol*




When my Dad and his family visited me, we took a trip to Denmark, which the kids liked a lot. To make it a bit more of an adventure, I took both kids on the train to Helsingborg first, while my Dad and C drove, then we took the ferry over to Helsingör together. Here are some photos from the trip (the first two from the train!):





And finishing off with a lot of other photos! *lol* I just can't help showing off these cuties! *lol* Oh, and by the way - it would be cool to know which of these are your favourites, just out of curiosity ... I have one favourite of M and one of I! :)

Summer 2010

Well, I thought I'd make a general entry about the summer of 2010, as it is about to end soon.
And I have to say that this summer has been a bit different, compared to the last few summers at least.

For once, I left for the summerhouse rather late, around Midsummer. This did happen last year too (if I remember correctly, but usually I have gone to the summerhouse a bit earlier than that. Also, I didn't feel so great in June, and I ended up stressing like an idiot before being able to leave (Actually, I wrote the last 4 pages on a New Testament paper and sent in on the same day that I left for the summerhouse!!).
My Dad and his family was on vacation when I got up to the summerhouse, which was also something new. They try to take at least one vacation trip every summer, but they've never been away during Midsummer before. This meant that I spent the entire Midsummer weekend with my Mum, and it was a long time since we did that! She came to me in the summerhouse and stayed the night, which was really nice!

Then I had a couple of weeks in the summerhouse, both alone and with Dad and his family, and that was pretty much as usual. I'm amazed at how the kids grow - but I'll make a separate entry about the girls later! :) - and we spent some quality time together, as well as got some necessary work done!

In the middle of July, Zorro and I went back home - and that is very unusual ... I can't even remember when that happened last! :) We took the train (and a replacement bus *sigh*), and I do feel very grateful it is possible to take Zorro like that, because it certainly makes things a lot easier for me! I do feel bad for him, because I know he doesn't like it one little bit, but at least it's possible, he is able to rest and almost sleep for parts of the trip, and I guess that's the main thing!
Unfortunately, there was a pretty extreme heat wave when we were here ... I had high hopes of getting a lot of things done, and I ended up on my couch with a great big fan and lots and lots of ice and no energy whatsoever. I know this must sound pretty ridiculous, but I really truly hate heat ... I can stand normal summer temperatures - even though I don't like them - but when I can't get below 30 degrees inside (86F) at any time, I just feel truly sick!!!
So that trip didn't exactly end up the way I had hoped!

After about two weeks here we went back to the summerhouse, and when we arrived it turned out that my Dad's girlfriend (will call her C for her initial, it's easier!) had gotten a really nasty insect bite that really looked bad - so we ended up doing some emergency packing and cleaning, I went with them to their home (and left Zorro in the summerhouse) and borrowed their other car, and went back to Zorro that night!

I got some alone time in the summerhouse, which was nice, and my Mum and I were also able to take our annual West Coast trip, which was grate!!
I took a trip, alone, to a major animal park called Nordens Ark, but I will make a separate entry about that ...

And then I went to my Dad and his family, taking Zorro with me. They're redecorating one of their bathrooms and needed an extra adult, so we took turns doing that and being with the kids, and it worked out pretty well, although I find it being quite intense living with them - as I'm used to living alone.
I also got to see my Mum a bit, which was really nice!
After a while my Dad and his family, and me, and Zorro went to the summerhouse, to make it ready for the autumn, meaning clearing all the land as well as thoroughly cleaning the house - and when we were done with that, we all went here and my "summer" was over. They stayed for two entire days (three nights) and I think it worked out pretty well, though it's obvious that an apartment this size isn't meant for three adults, two kids and a cat! *lol*
The good-byes are always difficult, and this was no different ... I am truly enjoying my life down here, but it is very hard to say good bye (and more so to certain people ...).

It turned out that I had lived with my Dad and his family for almost two weeks in a row when they left and while it was hard when they left it had been pretty hard for me to be so close to so many people for so long ...

Since the left I haven't done that much, I've been going through a LOT of photos and get that in order, I've been doing some sorting and rearranging here at home, and I'm slowly finding my way back to the fall semester! :) Though this fall is still very uncertain, so I'm going to make a separate entry about that as well!

Finish off with a few photos from the summerhouse!

Back on Track - Hopefully!

While I have been back here for a while now, I haven't quite felt ready to start up the blog until now. My Dad and his family left on Friday, and good-byes are really not something I cope well with! The weekend was really really slow, I was very tired and had no energy at all. Since then I've tried getting back to routines and my life again after this summer, mostly fixing practical things, such as various errands, rearranging a bit in the apartment, doing a lot of cleaning and sorting through things etc.

My fall is still very uncertain as I haven't heard anything about anything (will make a post about that later on), and I find it a bit difficult to know what to focus on, as I don't know what will happen.

I will try to make a few 'come-back' posts - with photos! :) - tomorrow and I very much hope I will be able to update this blog on a daily basis, despite the intensity of what lies ahead (it will be intense no matter what, but in different ways!), as that was the way I started this blog ...

Hopefully I'll see you here tomorrow! :)