Fog Horns and Bell Chimes

We had a friend of mine from California visit us for ten days and yesterday morning, very early, shortly after five AM or so we brought her to the train station in Helsingborg for her return trip to California via Copenhagen airport.  David and I both had developed a cold so we were "snorting" and "hacking" and David had a fever.  Had to regretfully also cancel a dinner invitation with our neighbors across the field!   So the train made for a faster and shorter trip than we could have provided by car.  The price of the ticket was also amazing,  perhaps due to the early departure.  It was way, way less than it would have cost to drive since gas is upward of eight dollars per gallon here.  Our visit was good and hopefully our guest has learned a lot about Sweden.

In just a few days we have actually lived here for three years!

You have NO idea how MUCH  we have learned!  Yet we know so little.
During these last three years we have gone from euphoria to despair.  From love to hate.   From delight to disgust and back again!

Having had a visitor was great.   Being a tour guide allows us to rediscover  just how very special this place truly is.  It really IS special!  Fabulously clean, green, roads with no pot holes, flowers everywhere, clean air, parks and green spaces like no where else.   We can walk any where we want, as we have what is called "Allemans Rätt" here, something uniquely Swedish.   A rule, a law, where all people can walk and/or have the right to go anywhere!  The list for the good things could get very long.

When I have my "grumpy" days some of those things are hard to see.

Today was one of those days when I was so happy to live here.

Morning walk on the hill behind our house with our dog in the mist like in Brigadoon!
Foghorns blowing!

Quiet foot steps on walkways and paths covered with newly fallen damp leaves.  Smells of mushrooms, molten leaves and dry damp grass.  It is so quiet!

And those spider webs!  Hundreds and hundreds of spider webs suddenly become visible in the mist. Showing off the amazing, various intricate patterns of the spiders fanciful art work, otherwise invisible.   If it was not for the tiny drops of mist hanging on to those gossamer threads, you would not know those webs had been spun.

We can hear distant sounds of farm equipment loading sugar beets on to trucks via conveyor belts,

Then in to town for a quick shopping visit.  "Art In The City" is on!   A nine days tribute to ART in many of its forms.  The weather has been spectacular (after the fog lifts) and today was no exception.

The city was at it's very best.  Among other things a scaffolding had been erected around Magnus Stenbocks statue at the square right below the Kärnan Tower.  Inviting us to climb up on one side and down the other.  What a neat experience it was to pet this awesome beautiful horse and to see the square from THAT perspective.

Giving City Hall an entirely "new look".   Then viewing a band of marching Marine Club Members down below on the sidewalk  from a different vantage point.  All of it very special.

Every Saturday at one o'clock in the afternoon the bells in the tower in City Hall chimes and plays music.  There is of course a person playing those bells, they don't play by themselves.  Classical music, folk songs as well as popular tunes.  It is a delightful sound to my ears.  The church bells also produce a  delightful feeling for me.  There are so many churches  here, chiming the time of day as well as chiming for those who are being buried.

So starting the day with fog horns and ending it with delightful chimes, who can argue that perfection?

Then as an additional sinful pleasure, splitting  a banana split with my husband "for lunch", made the day even better.  What a great way to get some fruit and dairy (for the bones you know) into our diet! Yum!  Have not had one of those in forty two years!