Winter has come.... in full force!

Now it really is winter. We are having between 25 and 30cm of snow, temperatures are well below 0 during the day and at night hit the - double digits, with a forecast -25 on monday and tuesday!
I have to admit that I am left in awe a bit by the sudden appearance of King Winter and the way he claims this part of the earth. I am so glad that we got our kids all new wintergear in time. They really needed it. And even shopping with the whole family did not turn out to be one huge drama!

After 16:00 one can still play outside

 

And when you wake up the next morning, this is the view.



Getting the newspaper

We had a nighttimewalk with torches in the woods nearby, organised by the local friluftfrämjandet. It was one of the best walks I ever had. The winterly circumstances, the torches casting a golden glow over the snow, the silence, even allthough the group was 44 strong!

Friluftfrämjandet

 

I have been cutting and splitting wood for a while and I really hope we can cope with the circumstances. Luckily we can get some wood from Esther's parents, so we do not have to buy as much, especially since I got the news that from januari 6th all my worktime has been cancelled, leaving me practically unemployed with no help from social services. All we have is the few hours Esther has left, because not even she is getting the additional hours, that she was told she'd be getting. Great news a month befor the holidays..........
Also one of our cats got sick. Ed, our black one, did not move for 2 days. He just slept, looked unhappy and unhealthy, ate and drank very little and did not want to go out at all. We all really hoped he'd get better soon and not just because a vet's bill is the last thing we need right now.

On the other hand had Annalena had her birthdayparty, which was a slumberparty. This was a huge success. A handfull of girls, snacks, soda, a movie, blankets and cuddly toys......
We also had Elsa's utvecklingssamtal (developmentstalk) with one of her teachers. She is doing exceptionally well. So well that they sometimes forget she is not Swedish!  And she's not just a little sunshine at home, either.

And, as icing on the cake, a large kettle of real Dutch peasoup, thanks to Ruud, one of the parents from the school, back in Holland. he's the one who send us a box full of split peas and Dutch rookworst (smoked saucage). Tack Ruud! It was awesome to have that again.

And today, after the kids went to school and the householdchores had been done, Esther and I explored the area around the house. We walked to both lakes to see what winter looks like here. Temperatures were about -18C, but with no wind it was wonderfull.

The lake Nedre Klingen next to the house

The Dammsjön, across the street

 

The overflow in winter. It was a bit weird looking at the frozen lake, than turn around and see the water coming out with force, while steaming.

 

 

me....

and the Mss

 

Vårt eget liv.....



While the garden has been tranformed into a mudbath, we got busy getting settled as good as possible. We did not do any serious redecoration, painting or anything; we just moved in our stuff and began unpacking. There's boxes and stuff everywhere. Chaos has taken over what is going to be our home ..... one day.....
The first night in our house was, of course, a little on the odd side, strange noises and smells, which makes that you actually can't sleep at all. Except for Ron and the kids; they slept well. But hey, what did you expect.
The very first homemade meal made by ourselves was a big kettle of puzstasoup. And boy, did that taste good. Right between two spoons of soup Sven turned silent, after which, with a deep sigh, he kind of blew my mind with the words "Vårt eget liv" wich means:" a life of our own." Quite a deep thought for an elevenyear old I think. But that's exactly what it feels like right now.
Bit by bit, the pile of boxes is shrinking and we are getting a little more space to move around. Some things change place several times before they get their final destination and slowly but surely our house begins to look like a home.
Of course the kids have to go to school and on one of these schooldays Sven has a lesson called Hemkundskap, something like householdeducation. He is going to cook. He liked it the first time and we agreed that everytime he has this class, he cooks the same meal for the whole family in the weekend after. Luckily for him that was also his homework.  So on saterday he went shopping with me in Falun and bought all the ingredients to a pastameal. Back home he started...



Cooking in the new kitchen

 

The result of hard work and boy did that tast good 

Between working en sleeping we kept ourselves busy with unpacking and getting settled. The next weekend we thougth we might have an opportunity to meet the locals. There was a little festivity by the lake, Ljuskväll,(candle)Light Evening . The whole road up to the lake and beyond was lit by candles, there were candles floating on de lake on little rafts. There was hot coco and coffee and ... of course........ grilled sausage with bread. You can take a walk around the lake and after have a nice warming hot coco or coffee. And warming we needed, it was a bit on the chilly side.

 

Lots of beautifull little twinklers on the lake; the full moon, a chrystalclear night with more stars than we ever saw and everywhere candles.



Korv med bröd (in other words grilled sausage with bread)

We're starting to get a bit of a normal everyday life now. Sometimes we do realize that we have a little bit of luxury though. We haven't had a bathtub for 9 years, so you can imagine the joy when they may hop in. Especialy the girls are having a great time together.

 

 

 After a week of having to listen to agonising catmiaws, we decided it was time to let out fourlegged friends meet the outside world. As excited as they were, they took their time just to leave the doorstep, but once they did...... . I could only hope they would find their way back.

And they did........... after several hours. Kareltje, the red one, had the courtesy to bring back a giant mouse. A little thank you gift, I suppose.

They just can't wait

Finally!!

puzzle picture, find the cats

Eventually they ended up in the tree right in front of the door. The reason? Ed, the black one, was being chased by a big local grey striped cat!! And Karel... he joined just for the fun of it.

ore and more boxes getting unpacked  and more and more things find their way to where they're supposed to be. Like books on bookshelves, allthough sometimes books find their way to the children. Miraculously even Annalena seems to like one off our own old time favorites, Asterix. She hardly ever reads a book, but this she seems to like, and it's a great way of keeping up her Dutch skills. So, during weekends it is cosy on the couch......

And then, at the end of October, we suddenly have a second "teenager" in the house. Annalena celebrated her 10th birthday. It was her wish to have her birthday in our new home, so.... wish granted. Another one of her wishes was a chocolate/strawberry cake with whipped cream in her favorite colors, being green and blue, covered in multicolored sprinkles. And again..... wish granted. What more can a girl want........

 

 

If one wants to make his house feel like a home, one needs to go out and try to find homy things. One can find things like that very well at the local second hand store, or Loppis, as they call it over here. So yesterday Ron and I drew ourselves about 5 km from our house to Arkhyttan. We knew there was a loppis there, because we pass by there everyday when go to work. Time to take a look inside. Okay, it's not the cleanest place in the world, it's cold and a little bit of a chaos, but we sure found a lot usefull, practical, nice and even homy things, all at the same time. All in all it took two days to get what we liked and wanted. Our "loot"; 7 floormats (trasmattor), 2 cast iron skillers, an alarmclock, a copper walllamp, a large box of shoepolishgear, 2 breadforms, a pair of boots for Annalena, a ceramic honeypot, 2 wallcandleholders, a metal teapot, one of those things you put a tealight in to keep the teapot and contents warm, 2 small pots of skiwax, a pair of womans boots and 3 pairs of trousers for the Mss, curtains, and fabric to make curtains, garn, lots of decorating band and a strange candleholder with candle (plus a refill)... total "damage" around 1450sek (=162 euro's)!!! Woohoow!

 

Now who can tell how this is called????
candlesqueezerholderupperthingy??

All in all I think we had quite a bargain ......... Guess they were happy to see us as well. Just a case of supporting the local economy........ And we have more things to keep us going in case of a powerout.

First impressions of winter

The first real nightfrosts we had were on october 25th. Esther and I had some time together after the kids went to school, so we went for a little walk, just to get some fresh air.... The frost and moist air had cast a crispy carpet of white over the landscape.

 

A glorious sunrise... right in front of our house.



The still relatively warm water of the lake made it steam in the morningcold.

 

In the distance one of our "neighbours" was firing up his stove, but the cold air above the ground trapped the smoke and prevented it from drifting upward.

 

And a few days later King Winter gave us a little taste of what will be coming soon with more frosty temperatures on to the 28th.... with nighttemperatures going as low as -7 degrees.

 

And a few centimeters of snow on the 29th!!

Some serious snowfall resulted in about 8cm of the white stuff.

The first snowman of the season for our kids.

 

Too bad it didn't last long and within two days the white beauty had turned into a dark brown misery on the ground and grey in the skies....

 

Moving... a moving movement...

The day of the actual move came and much faster than we had anticipated. There was some much to be done and so little time to do it in. Besides the packing we still had to work. We also had to look around for necessary things we did not have yet. We lacked kitchenequipment, we had no beds or a sofa. Closets we did not need, because these were part of the rooms. Thankfully things like a refridgerator and an oven are standard parts of a house here. A nice bonus were the two freezers in the basement!
Again we had help. One of our colleagues, Susanna, had some surplus kitchengear. It turned out to be a bit more than "some". She gave us pots and pans, glasses and mugs, cutlery and kitchenutensils. On top of that we received loads of towels, curtains, a livingroom table, a kitchentable with chairs, coffeemachine, toaster and watercooker. And all she wanted in return was a homemade pie.... We only had to come and collect the things. When we did, we got an additional bonus. There was a single bed, a desk and a small loungechair for our youngest daughter, a tv, a large pile of bedsheets and covers, lamps..... We were stunned, surprised and really happy. Another colleage, Lena, helped us too by offering us a bookcase and a desk. We figured that these would be great for Annalena. Our employer Malin granted us permission to us the Priolevacompanyvan to get and transport things to our house, previous to the actual move.
Before all this we already had been given 2 rockingchairs, a bedsofa, a matras for Annalena's bed and a large bookcase by Esther's parents.
For some of the larger pieces we needed we searched a national sellingsite blocket, where we found a bed for us, a bed for Elsa and our sofa, all dirt cheap. These were moved into the house to. For the actual move Per-Åke offered the large van from Roslunds potatis to us. Again the community came to our aid....

The day we moved, saturday 20 october, was a miserable one; it was grey and rained... the entire day... and Hans, Esther's dad, helped us. The loading of the van went smoothly, the unloading however a lot less so. We had to struggle uphill with every single box or handfull and the path to the house quickly turned into a mudslide. What a mess!
Luckily we have a small shack at the bottom of the hill, next to the "road", so many of the heavier boxes were temporarily stacked there. But the damage had been done and remains to this day.
On the bright side, we did see a moose, while driving here the first time! So this move was in 2 ways similar to the previous one; lots of rain and a moosesighting. I consider the latter to be a good omen.
After we had unloaded the first load, we went over to Lena's place in order to get the bookcase and desk. These turned out to be 2 real nice wooden bookcases and a gorgeous wooden desk. We were not expecting this at all..... Luckily for us did Annalena not like the desk, so it has become a centrepiece in our livingroom, behind which I am typing right now.
Esther's mom had made dinner for us all here and took care of our kids all day. She also tested out livingroomstove and that one does give of plenty of warmth!! So no worries here, when winter comes.

We can not say thank you enough to all these people!!!

After a hard day's work, we turned in early for the first night in our own home......

Nothing, but pictures.

Well..... almost nothing. Because uploading pictures was a real drag last night, I tried again today and with a lot more succes (read speed). So I'll show what our house looked like and give a little explanation when I feel the need.  

 

Our bedroom

guess.....

the view from the balcony (and livingroom)

This is what you see, when looking up from the (future vegetable- and fruit)garden

The lake only a few hundred meters from the house. There's another one on the other side, too.

The very first residents

The first furniture that arrived. I'll tell you more about that in a later post.

Sven in our backyard