Hejdo Grimsö!

Unfortunately that doesn't actually rhyme.

In 15 minutes I'm saying goodbye to Grimsö. I feel nervous about leaving this quiet, insular community for the city. After 8 weeks I still haven't even learned how to cross a street safely in this right-side-of-the-road country.

My last two photos of Grimsö:

Next up, Göteborg! This blog may be extended to document the holiday Michael and I are taking through Europe, so try checking it again in a week or two.

Homegrown junk food

My name is Cindy and I'm addicted to chips. Previously I was able to deny my addiction by simply not counting the number of afternoons at uni that I went down to the vending machine and carefully chose between cheese & onion, sour cream & chives, salt & vinegar or original.

Now I have no vending machine, and I have resorted to this:



At least once on every weekend, I scrub, slice and lightly boil some potatoes, then fry them in olive oil and eat them with salt and pepper. It really does provide the same greasy, bloated feeling!

Another desperate food substitution: last night I made an attempt at fried rice with lemon juice and soy sauce. I thought vaguely that it would be nice to add something sweet to balance the sour and salty, but I haven't bought any sugar, honey or other sweet condiments. Then it hit me: syrup from a can of pears! It turned out pretty well, too.

In my isolation I am becoming increasingly obsessed with food and what I will eat when I return to civilisation. Pizza is rating very highly, even though it's not normally a particular favourite of mine.

Yet more photos

Last Tuesday morning I woke up to overcast skies and light rain. As I was eating breakfast I noticed that the rain had turned icy. By the time I left the cabin to head to work, it was snowing! Big, soft chunks, more than 1cm in diameter. It had all disappeared by lunch time.

On the overcast days the lichen on the trees is almost luminous. I've been trying unsuccessfully for some time to photograph it. Here's a couple of attempts from Tuesday:

The sun doesn't set until well after 8pm now and so I've been taking walks sometimes in the evenings. I took these photos on Wednesday:

Today the sun is shining and the unfrozen parts of the lake surface are glittering with its reflection. I originally assumed that the view from my office window was a small field, with a large field behind it, bordered by forest. Turns out the "large field" is another lake!