This comes to you from a friend of a friend of a friend who lives in the south of the country - they found this gorgeous little fawn who lost its mum and took it in. Their dog has been taking care of it and letting it sleep in his bed. Can you STAND the cuteness??




And just in case that wasn't enough, there are two more pictures here and here. Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

We are back today after several days out sailing with the kids. We were lucky to have beautiful, sunny weather which made the time far more enjoyable for them. Today it is foggy and overcast, so I'm glad they are safely home now.

We set off after work last week and went a short distance to Lindskär for the night. On the way, we passed an elegant old sailing ship lying by the guest harbour pier. She is called Najaden and was built in the Netherlands in 1918. These days she is a charter boat, ferrying 32 passengers (for a rather staggering fee!) around the archipelago. She does look quite grand and stately and certainly dwarfs anything moored close to her.



Once safely past the harbour, which was quite busy with ferries from Poland, Ventspils, Visby and Nåttarö arriving or departing at the same time we set sail for Lindskär. It is a very pretty little group of islands.




As it is close to Nynäshamn (literally round the back of Bedarön) it only took an hour or so of gentle sailing to get there. That was a good introduction to Emily who had never sailed before. She was very happy with the little bay we chose to anchor in.




Once lying by anchor, I prepared dinner and we sat and chatted late into the night, before settling down to sleep. Luckily we have sleeping for 6 adults on the boat so there is plenty of space and a degree of privacy.

The morning was glorious - a clear, bright warm summer's day. After breakfast, the kids relaxed and took in the sun for a while, enjoying the opportunity to be out in nature.



As it was too good a sailing day to spend by anchor, we proposed going out into Mysingnen and sailing north to a little island we like to visit outside of Muskö. Joppe was keen to have a go at sailing for himself, so after a few pointers from L-G he steered the boat himself.



And before anyone reports us to the child protection authorities, I swear that we feed the boy. Would you believe that he eats like a horse? Like his father, he has a fast metabolism (much to my annoyance) and never gains weight. Somehow, it's just not quite fair!

After a couple of hours of brisk sailing in the glittering waters we arrived at Lacka and moored alongside several sailing boats in the protected north side of the island



The island itself is very pretty, especially this time of the year. There is a large wooded area full of beautiful chanterell mushrooms to collect, along with masses of delicious lingonberries and blueberries. You can walk across to the south side of the island for a spectacular view of the outer waters from Utö to Landsort. Most of the time we enjoyed sunning ourselves, socialising with the other boat owners and chatting together over a glass of wine. Even the following morning was really sunny as you can see *grin*



It's hard to believe that it's so foggy today after enjoying a weekend like that. But today wasn't a total loss. We went into Stuvsta to pick up a Zodiac dinghy that we found advertised for an excellent price. That made us both very happy as we have missed having the dinghy around. This one is quite a bit larger than our last one and as it has an inflatable keel, it's also much more stable. We can't wait to try it out.

We are also hoping to catch up with our young American friend, Randall, who is about to sail to Morocco. He rang last week to invite us to his farewell party, but we were out sailing. However we've been in close phone and SMS contact with him. The poor guy has been having engine trouble that has delayed his departure a few days, but hopefully we'll see him and his boat "Ishallah" on Friday or thereabouts as he comes this way on his journey south. It's quite a dream he has to sail to Morocco, but he has such determination that I feel sure he'll get there - and learn a lot on the way.