Tourists

A friend of mine, a mother of my god son, had a birthday on Saturday. Our community assosiation (a grand term, a small group) was planning a trip to Stockholm, so we decided to go full tourists. We attended to city tour with a guide - I've been in Stockholm before, but for me it's always been a huge spidery lump - I just haven't got a grasp of it. We had a four hour bus tour around the old town and some of islands, as well as short walks aroud sights.

It was very interesting, and educational. Poor guide tried to tell the unfortunate story of Wasa ship for two hours... Our bus driver was VERY professional driver - we didn't hit any cyclists OR cars (the city was basically one huge road construction area which is why I will never ever drive myself in there apart the suburbs).

Of course two nights away (with buffet breakfast!!!) wasn't so easy with a dog who's got serious separation anxiety (but she is safe and happy now that I'm back) - and I haven't been berry picking (bilberries) OR in my garden or in my plot, so it all waits me tomorrow - after a (train)trip to the capital, again... Oh dear. At least forecast promises some water later on. We'll see.

I did however pick a handful of runner beans while I waited for 'Suma's business. I thought I will not get any beans this year because of late planting, but they are loving this hot weather. I need to check my pickling cucumbers asap!

Savings - even if in tiny fragments

This has been an abysmal year so far - not only for us, but for most people who pays their own electricity, gas, gasoline, food... whatever. And we don't have a war here! At least not yet. Pessimist will not be disapointed?

Well. My car broke down, I lost half of brakes in winter but half of them were working fine. Then something else broke, because we have huge potholes in all of roads. I hit few of them few too many times.

Ok, I bought a car that is working. It's manual, so it took me two days to re-learn how to drive it. And then it took me a week to re-re-learn how to drive an automatic gears. But my car is just what I wanted it to be, low mileage, modest, roomy - I can fit a bicycle inside it. I can tow a trailer with it.

The hb's car broke down. So he's been driving os's small car without aircon and it's been killing him. He works in a freezer (there's quite often days he spends hours in -30C) so anything warmer than +10C is way too much for him. So it's literally been killing him these few weeks driving that small oven.

I found him a car he didn't want even to look at. I persuated him to go and see it, and I he bought it right away after a test drive. It has a moderate mileage, it's roomy and it's four wheel drive so he might get through thick snow banks during the winters to come. He works shifts, he often leaves house before 5am rcomes back home after midnight and roads are not neccessarily ploughed at those times - or they are plouhged but wind has blown another half a meter or more of snow across roads half an hour later. And it's got airconditioning!!!

Because of the low mileage we are about even with car payments/gas! But now we have two wrecks at our yard... Eventually someone will buy them, but for the foreseeable future I have now five vehicles in premises 😒

On happier news, potatoes are here! Last week I made a salmon soup out of the very last few potatoes from root cellar, and from now on we'll eat only freshly digged new potatoes. They are very good, you really don't need anything else but a bit of butter to eat with them. Or pickled herring (ask Swedes about Abba... it's not just a pop band).

And zucchinis. First one didn't grow, they just rotted  from the flower end, but now we have a plenty of zucchinis. I've made fritters, roasted veggies, fried zucchini, grilled zucchini... But it's ok, it's nice to know there's something more than enough!

And chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms. For today's dinner we had boiled new potatoes, butter fried mushrooms, chicken nuggets and pickled herring - and sourdough rye bread, but that't what we have every day. My mother brings us bread and there's always rye bread - which is a good thing, because our kids like it.

It's been week since I made any food shopping. So far I'm not out of anything else than pickled herring😆  No, that's not true, there should be at least one jar left in the fridge!

Foor prices have gone up. My stable buy, cheap spaghetti, was 0,39€/kg last summer. The price got up to 0,49€ in autunm, then by Christmas it was 0,69€. In February it was already 0,89€ and now it is 1,09€. I went to Lidl and bought 10 kilos of spaghetti for 0,89€/kg. I know it sounds stupid, but with three teenager/young adult boys in the house I can easily cook a kilo of that stringy carbohydrate thingy and all will be devoured in 24 hrs. Thank goodness for new potaoes...

Cheap cheese was 3,95€/kg last summer. Now its 5,65€/kg, at some supermarkets it's 5,99€. Carton of 15 eggs were 1,79€, now they are 2,69€. It's not just 10 cents here and there, it's an euro or two everywhere!

And don't get me started on electricity... I might need to ask for instalment-free period for mortage for maybe six months, because I don't know how I'm going to be able to pay my electricity bills otherwise! I hate to do that, because I have only five more years on mortage and it will be totally paid off. But not if I need that money to pay electricity.

Yes, we have fireplaces in our house, yes, I will cook more on my log burner stove, yes, we will live in colder house, yes, we will use less hot water... but still.

Oh well. At least we have water for free.