It's been a while

Since we last kept you up to date with our life up in the  north. There are several reasons for that. One was a little lack of inspiration. And besides that, we didn't want to tell the same story over and over again.
But now we're back on track......and since it has been about 4 months, I think it's wise to split this post up, and try to guide you through each month separately

Right after the last post we got some visiters from Holland. Our dear friends Wim, Eriko and their daughter Maya came to visit us and talk to us about our move to Sweden and how we live our life here. They themselves have plans to move to Sweden and wanted to learn from our experience. They were so very kind to bring some beloved fooditems from Holland with them, so that we could make our own Peasoup. according to our children the swedish variant is more like yellow cement.......in other words,.... inedible

lovely Dutch Goodies

We had a very cosy afternoon, lots to talk about and when it was time for them to move on, we gave them a few books on emigrating to Sweden and our Swedish course to start  their own new life with.  I can only hope it'll help them making things easier.

February is still very wintery up here, but what I've learnt back in Holland they also found out what winter really is all about. Couldn't help but giggle a few times, reading all the comments on Facebook about it.
We kept feeding the animals outside regularly so that they wouldn't starv, even spend our last money on a bag of deerfood. But it's so rewarding when you can sitt in your kitchen, looking through the window and actually see them eating......

Sometimes the differences in temperatures gives us the most beautiful views, especially in the early morning or in the twilight hours

Of course our kids had their ways of surprising us. For instance Annalena..... she never played a game of chess before, but now that she goes in fourth grade she gets a few lessons in chess, and the next we know they're in a tournament with lots of other schools  throughout the whole country, it's called Schack 4:an.
The first preliminaries were the 18th of february in Hedemora. The whole class takes part in this, so in the early morning they went to Hedemora  and in the afternoon they came back....... all with a golden medal around their necks. They were the best!!! The pride radiated from their faces. On to the next round, somewhere in april in Borlänge.

Every now and then the temperature rises to little more comfortable then below freezing and on these days when the sun comes out, it actually feels like spring al little bit. On one of the last days of february it really felt like spring. Temperatures on the balcony in the shade of a book rose to a nice 16 degrees celsius, and the kids decided it was warm enough to have a lovely lunch outside. While eating  they went trhough a book they got for christmas with   150 swedish birds and their calls. When they saw a bird they recognized, they looked it up en played the call of the bird in question and then waited for answer. Surprisinly often the answer came, and from very close by as well.