Tuesday

We got rained out this morning.  Went out and found a good spot just one canal over and set up.  About halfway through the rain opened up and poured down with no mercy.  Everybody ran for the cover of trees and what ever else they could find.  Rick had a small umbrella he held over the painting and I set up my umbrella to cover the easel as best I could.  Within a minute my tee shirt was wet as could be and I had to stand to the side to get in as tight as possible under it.  After an hour the rain let up a little and we were able to finish off the piece as best we could. 

 

It was noon when we decided to head back to the apartment.  We ate a quick lunch and went out again to do a small painting.  As soon as I set up it started all over again.  So now we are back in the apartment.

 

 

Richard Boyer

Sunday

 

Friday morning Victor and I caught the train over to Copenhagen.  Our mission was to meet Lina at one of the suburb train stations outside the city center.  Siwert showed us the way to Malmo south station, where we parked the car and bought our tickets.  Five minutes later we were traveling over the bridge connecting the two countries.  The train tracks are actually under the four-lane highway.   We of course were late meeting up with Lina and Sigrid, the mother, who was in town for a funeral.  Our train was delayed when they discovered some non-paying passenger on board and had to call the police to have him removed.  They told us the ordeal put them off schedule, so they would only run the train to the main station.  Victor and I looked for the next train to continue on and went to the indicated platform.  Three minutes before the train was to arrive, they switched track numbers on us.  We were wondering why the platform seemed rather empty; naturally we missed the connection and had to find another train twenty minutes later.

We finally met up with Lina and thanked them for waiting, nothing like being late for a funeral!

The temperature was climbing up to close to 30 degrees, with the humidity not far behind.  So we decided to try for a boat tour of the city; at least there we would be close to the water where it’s cooler.  We grabbed a bus and rode it a few stops down to Nyhamn, their word for New Harbor.  It was anything but new; in fact one of their oldest houses was located there, along with Hans Christen Andersons house.  The small harbor was filled with old wooden boats, something I just love to paint.  So I have a feeling some painting will coming out from this trip. 

We bought our tickets and were the first to board.  Vctor and Lina headed to the back of the boat to get away from the crowds.  At least there we could take pictures off the back of the boat without other bodies in the way.  I’m glad we did this, being so close to the water was quite comfortable and we enjoyed an hour-long tour as they winded through some of the canals of Copenhagen.  Some of the areas looked quite similar to Amsterdam, where I am writing this now.

We finished the boat trip and did lunch in the square by the harbor.  There was a long walk back to the main train station we had to do, so we decided to start heading in that direction up the main shopping street.  It was a pedestrian only street filled with street merchants and artists the whole way up.  Before we knew it we were back at the main station, across from Tivoli, one of Europe’s first theme parks.

Yesterday was the long nine-hour drive back up to Osthammar and today I caught the flight down to Amsterdam.  Its game night tonight and the town is one giant party, all expecting Holland to win in the World Cup.  I do hope they win, as they have never done this before, but after seeing Spain play……I don’t know!

 

Richard Boyer

Thursday

 Every day we seem to have a dinner planned with some relative or another and it’s getting to me.  Just once I would love to kick up my feet on a couch and watch some television in peace and quiet. 

Tonight it was fish cake at Erik & Inge-Briet’s house just down the road a few hundred feet. Erik, who is 86, is Elsie’s oldest brother.  So at six o’clock sharp, everybody shows up.  First to show up was our group, Victor and I, along with our hosts Elna and Siwert.  Elna is Elsie’s younger sister.  Literally thirty seconds behind was Elsie and her older sister Bittan with husband Lennart.  Swedes are very punctual! 

Yesterday it was dinner at Elsie’s youngest brothers house.  We were all there at exactly the invited time of 6:30.  At least there we had an excuse to kick back and watch the soccer match between Spain and Germany in the world cup, with Germany loosing 3-2.  

 Tonight it was a tuna fish cake with mayonnaise, covered with some kind of cream and shrimp.  Yes, I know, if you were trying to loose weight this wouldn’t be the right food to eat.  We had some @#%# Gallo wine for the dinner, which I’m not going to get into for now!  (Why, why, why can’t people learn about the differences in wine?  They live their entire life drinking the cheapest of wine wondering about the headaches they wake up with the next morning.)

But, the conversation is what I found interesting. 

Maybe this is the topic for many over the age of eighty and Elna, who isn’t at that age bracket quite yet wanted it to change the subject, a change to something more lively.  The topic for the evening was what sicknesses or ailments fellow comrades had.   Maybe this is a popular topic for those in this age group, but for those who are not, it can be a little depressing to listen to. Especially when they start going into the cancers this or that person died of!    Elna and Siwert voiced their opinions about the subject to deaf ears and walked out to get some fresh air.  The dinner was good but very filling for me, I feel like I need to burn a few thousand calories off soon here. 

At 9:00 the group disbanded and headed back home for bed.

Tomorrow it’s Bittan & Lenards turn. They set up a large tent in their front yard for the relations gathering.  The dinner starts at 6:00 in the evening and as usual will wrap up around 9:00 to 9:30; usually the time the crit session starts back home.

 Now I’m back in the basement with a glass of red wine blogging.  Our sanctuary as Quasimodo put it, is the basement of Siwert & Elna’s place.

Tomorrow we are taking the train over to Kopenhamn (Copenhagen) to pick up Lina, who has been visiting a friend there for the past five days.

Richard Boyer

Wednesday morning

We did a little bike ride last night.  Siwert pulled them out from the basement.  Mine had five speeds, Victor had three and Siwert said none of his worked.  We first rode to an old castle ruin just around the corner, where they have summer concerts sometimes. 

We then continued on to a high point in the landscape.  Coming from Utah, the high point wasn't much of any thing, but nevertheless it was a small hill rising up about 50 feet from the surrounding flat plains. What made it interesting was the Viking grave on top of it and the others in the surrounding area.  The burial sites dot the countryside here and thankfully are left alone owing to an antiquities act.  Most would contain the remains of the chieftains long boat and personal artifacts, along with maybe the ill-fated servant or two.

The ride back was nice in the evening light as well !

This afternoon its back to the beach with Victor

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

I wanted to show you a few pictures of the gardens of Bosjo Cloister; they were quite impressive with the rose gardens.  Much of the place is still private residence, so it was off limits to most of the building that would have housed the monks.  In the vaults of the basement they had the exhibition of Liljefors. The few they had were actually for sale, that is, if you had $70,000.  Dollars!

Elsie knew a lot about the history of the place, so over coffee she told us about it.  All of southern Sweden was controlled by Denmark up until the 1600’s.  They had a monopoly on the rich farmlands and fishing industry around the coast there and of course earned a lot of money from it all.  They weren’t about to give it up to Sweden.  The Vikings were slowly being converted over to Christianity, with Denmark being first on the list for Scandinavia.  Around 900 AD the roman church sent up monks to build cloisters and convert the locals to the proper religion in their eyes.  I took a picture of one of the tombstones from 1031 AD.

  Who knows how long this process took, but any ways they build a nice compound, equipped with elaborate flower gardens today. They boast about their famous oak tree garden, which was planted one thousand years ago.

The Benedictine convent was founded in 1080 A.D.   In 1536 the convent activity ceased and in 1560 it became a private castle.  The Bonde af Bjorne family has owned it since the 1500’s.  

Seems like a nice place to call home !

Richard Boyer

Tuesday

Here is a clip from our trip to the beach.  I just wanted to capture the sounds of the coast.

Today the weather is a  little cloudy, so we were going to drive up to Bosjokloster with Elsie and get some cultural experience. It's an old cloister built some time in the 1100-1200's between two lakes. 

They are also have a small exhibition of Bruno Liljefors.  He was an artist friend of Anders Zorn, who did a lot of wildlife paintings and unfortunately had a hard time selling them.  Zorn, who was much more successful use to give him money to make ends meet when times were tough.

Richard Boyer

Monday

Monday

Today we actually went to the beach. Sivert drove us there, which was a good thing. We have gotten lost many a time here in Skane because of the winding country roads that are un-marked. Our goal today was Skanor beach; there you can look across to Denmark. At the very southern tip of Sweden, on the west side there is a natural sand peninsula that sticks out into the water for several kilometers and the summer traffic on it was in full swing. The first part of the drive out there is a nature reserve, with of course nobody there. The very tip was filled with beach goers and sun worshipers, all on summer holiday. Victor and Sivert went swimming and I walked around taking shots of the colorful beach umbrellas. Hey, what can I say, “Its my job!”

We did stop for killer ice cream on the way back at the canal. During world war two they build a canal there to bypass the end of the peninsula, where the Germans had planted minds out in the channel.

I thought it best though, to show you pictures of the countryside. Everyone knows how a beach looks, but where the real beauty lies is in the rolling hills dotted with old farmhouses. The wildflowers are out in abundance and I was trying my best to capture some of the colors. Now the locals here call all the beautiful flowers as weeds that should be eradicated. I kind of laughed when Goran, one of the relatives who own a lot of farming land told me how he is trying to get rid of the wild poppies that grow in the fields. Here I am photographing the beautiful colors of the very weed Goran is trying to get rid of.

Richard Boyer