Meeting My Hosts in Söderhamn

Heike, my hostess, and her daughter Alisha picked me up at the bus station in Söderhamn and we drove to Ljusne (Use-na) to Ljusnefors Camping (Use-na-forsh).  Swedish is a complicated language.  I hope that I am able to pick up some phrases.  Martin and Heike speak English, German and Swedish, French, Italian, Czech.  Their children speak German and Swedish.  Heike hopes for me to teach them some English.  The other volunteer is Marion from Lucerne, Switzerland and speaks, Swiss-German, French and English.  She is 24 and adorable.  Did you know there is a difference between German and Swiss-German?  I didn't!  We are staying in a bunkhouse for the workers.  Each has a separate room and communal kitchen and shower.  We eat all our meals at the main house, reception and restaurant, but the kitchen is available if we want.

Monday, June 6

It is a holiday in Sweden, National Day of Sweden (Sveriges nationaldag).  Prior to 1983, the day was celebrated as Svenska Flaggons Dag (Swedish flag day).  At that time the day was renamed to the National Day by the Riskdag, the national legislature and supreme decision-making body of Sweden. 

Here are some pictures of the Ljusnefors Camping Grounds.

Main house

 Dining room

View from front door

Dock

View from dock (left)

View from dock (right)

 The Baltic Sea way in the distance

Map of area

The Hoffman Family:

 Alisha (10)

 Erik (9)

 Enno (8)

 Yari (7)

Ambra (3)

Freya (stray cat)

Martin and Heike chatting with guests having coffee and cheesecake

Beginning a New Adventure!

Here I am, at Dulles International Airport waiting to board a Turkish Airlines flight to Stockholm, Sweden via Istanbul, Turkey!  Yes, that is completely out of the way, but that's what happens when you buy a cheap ticket...I don't mind, it will be an adventure to see new things, new people.  

I am going to Stockholm where I will take the train to Soderhamn, about 2 hours north of Stockholm.  My hosts will collect me and drive me to the small village of Ljusne on the eastern coast of Sweden to Ljusnefors Campground.  I will spend about 6 weeks here working at the campground.  I signed up with workaway.info to participate in a volunteer and cultural exchange program and be able to experience other countries.  Here is the website for the campground, Ljusnefors Camping.  I contacted the owners, Martin and Heike Hofmann and signed up to be one of their volunteers.  I had a Skype interview with them both and we decided we liked each other, so here I am.

I actually get to Stockholm on Saturday, June 4th and I will spend the night near the airport.  I am spending the day in Stockholm on Sunday, June 5th before taking the train to Soderhamn.

   

I will keep a weekly blog and I'm looking forward to a great adventure!


Friday, June 3rd

I had a wonderful seat mate on the first leg of my trip to Istanbul.  Her name is Nadia and she is Bulgarian, but has lived in the US for 26 years.  She is married to a physician and has one daughter.  She is going to Sofia for a family wedding.  She reminded me so much of my cousin, Candace Price.  She was fun and so nice to talk to.  She guided me around the Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

It was so hot in Istanbul and not everyone visiting the Turkish city uses antiperspirant
so heat and body odor were an interesting combination.😂

Saturday, June 4

I arrived in Stockholm about 10:30 pm, we were about 30 minutes late.  I had booked a hotel by the airport because I knew it would be late when we arrived.  PS, it was still 
daylight!  I stayed in a hotel called the Jumbo Hotel but I didn't have any idea it was actually a jumbo jet!  It was really cool!  The rooms were basic, could sleep 3 which would have been crowded and the facilities were down the hall, a really nice WC and shower.  A nice hot  shower felt soooooo good!

















Sunday, June 5

I made a reservation before I left home for a boat tour of the Stockholm archipelago, which extends north and south of Stockholm in the Baltic Sea and consists of 30,000 islands and islets.  The boat tour was to be 3 hours with lunch, just around the Stockholm area and started at 10:30 am.  I boarded the Arlanda Express to Stockholm from the airport and once at the train station, secured a locker for my luggage and bought my train ticket to Soderhamn for later in the day.  The lady at the ticket station told me it was a 10 minute walk to where my archipelago tour was to embark.  I left Stockholm Central Station at 10:00 am and headed toward the boat.  I suppose it's ten minutes if you know where you are going.....hmmmm.....I arrived just as the boat was departing.....so I decided to walk back to Gamla Stan, Old Town Stockholm, and wander around.  Lots of souvenir shops to view, I decided to wait until the end of my trip to buy anything!  I found a wonderful restaurant and had lunch.  I was sad to miss the boat tour, but I had a wonderful afternoon seeing part of Stockholm.   

Where my boat left without me😔

Swedish Parliament 

Grand Hotel

Gamla Stan

 Agaton Restaurant

Playing the water glasses
⬅️

Street magician
➡️

Bird enjoying a bite of lunch

I boarded my train to Soderhamn at 2:20 and again, God put me next to the sweetest young girl who decided to take me under her wing, a Swedish beauty!  The train stopped in Gavlë and we were told to transfer to busses because there was work on the track from Gavlë to Soderhamn.  My new friend, Almira helped me understand what was going on and called my hosts to let them know I would be arriving at a different time at the bus station and not the train station.  

A Little Garden Whimsey!

Last spring I posted about starting to landscape the yard at the beach house around the pool.  It originally was barren on one side with a 'hay mat' and just a wild mess on the other.  

←Wild mess


                                Hay mat→

I planted some purple fountain grass, Elijah Blue fescue, hostas, lavender, zebra grass and liriope.  I eventually lost the battle with weeds and it was a mess after the first of July!  I spent a week methodically pulling weeds, but alas, they were back soon and plentiful and my poor arthritic hands barely recovered.  My pool caretaker emailed me that she knew someone that could help me out.  

   

Hay mat gone and plants in place (5/15)









                            The third week in June, the weeds were already taking over

                                                       

←Weeds taking over







I should have taken a picture of the bed in August because the plants were obscured by weeds.  Yikes!  After the landscape person came, it looked better 😄

This spring, 2016, the weeds were back in force, large and in charge.  The landscape person came again and has agreed to keep the weeds under wraps this summer.  I have neglected the opposite side of the pool...the wild mess.   The previous owner had tons of things planted in the area where the pool is now, along with a gravel yard.  All the plants were meticulously labeled with a marker.  When the pool was put in, all that was plowed under and what was left on the far side of the pool was the wild mess.  So I have attempted to bring some order to the mess. 

Before pool

My daughter-in-law, Crystal, helped me last summer put the leftover pilings from the original yard around the curvature of the landscaping to create a barrier between the pool and the wild mess.  

The pool is 'open' even though it is too chilly to swim.  It will warm up quickly as the weather gets warmer.  There are some redeeming qualities around the pool that have grown from the previous landscaping.

 Lavender something, weeds probably, but pretty!

                                               Azaleas and Rhododendron and ?

 Some kind of holly with red berries in the winter and now flowering!!

A lone pink rose.....

Look how lovely the lavender is this spring!

First, I planted some Lantana and Tickseed 'Nana' (Coreopsis) that are both sun-loving perennials.  I also planted some Sedum ground cover in about twenty spots.  I would love for this to multiply and create a nice cover for the side of the pool.

I searched on Pinterest and found some cute ideas that I decided to add to the garden. This is the site I found that I decided to copy:

How to Add Whimsey to your Garden

I bought a cute yellow pot at The Home Depot and found one of the recommended plants at Walmart.  The one I chose was Calibrachoa.  It is an annual that loves sun and should have color all season long.  It has a little transplanting shock in the picture, but should recover soon.

I also loved this idea from the same Pinterest post, to add an old fashioned galvanized watering can.  To make it, I bought the can at Tractor Supply Company, ordered the chandelier crystals from Amazon and attached them with wire to the nozzle on the watering can.  I also bought a shepherd's crook from which to hang it.  Here is how it turned out.

I definitely know that it is a work-in-progress and I will probably add to the landscaping each year, but I'm having fun working on it!