Christmas 2017

Christmas 2017 spent at home at Lilldalsvägen 22. A fun day with presents and Hannah and Emma came round for a full Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings.

Christmas gingerbread house production 2017

Time to start our gingerbread house said Neela. Well Nicholas was into helping too, and with a little help from Dad, we made a plan. The house was designed by Neela. It was then just to cut up the stencils, roll out the dough, cut, bake and stick together, Easy!

Quince jelly 2017

This was the result from 5 quinces. Cooked to quince jelly and filled in 3 jars. The kids love it on bread and that makes it all worth while, not that its difficult. I like it too!

Preparing for Halloween

Neela and Nicholas try to help with the pumpkin carving, with some success and a little help from Dad. End result, not bad.

Neela’s 7 year birthday party

Neela turns seven and had quite a fun party, with only girls this year.

Autumn mushrooms

Nicholas was the only one who wanted to join me on walk in the woods behind the house in search of mushrooms. We found quite a few "höstkantarell", a popular Swedish type I know well. Lots of very pretty ones you can't eat too. Those were not picked, only photographed.

Neela and dad

A selfie taken outside a shop in Stockholm.

Liams team win 4:3

The team won 4:3 in one of their matches today and this made a big impact on Liam's confidence
in his goalkeeper position.

Hannah and Marcus wedding in Visby

The happy couple in the church in Visby. It was a great day and a big success with the little children who dressed up for the occasion and loved every minute of it.


This is the hotel where we all stayed. The reception party was also here after the wedding.

Liam's football team. A 2:1 win in one match helped boot morale today

Cooking with Grandma

The kids climbing together

2nd week in Italy

 For our second week we moved to a new cottage in Castelfiorentino, not far from Florence. Another very nice location in the hills and part of a vinyard with castle and all. We took day trips in our rental car to Florence and San Gimignano. The cottage had access to a shared pool just accross the small lane through the farm. This is where Nicholas learnt to swim on his own with arm floats.

This was the view from the front of the cottage out over the viyards of Tuscany, lovely!

1st week in Tuscany, Italy

 Our 1st week in Tuscany was in a cottage just outside a small village called Pietraiva. The place was great and had fantastic pool in the garden. Shared by just a few other appartments on the farm, we had it almost to our selves most days. Great day trips to Siena and other mountin villages.

It's been so cold this year, but the apparent end to frost has prompted me and Neela to plant some seeds, at last!

Tidy up Day at Nicholas's Playschool. He was a very involved lad

Caroline exhibits in Salem's library

Seeds planted. Easter weekend

Skiing with Liam 2017