The promised forecast was right for a change and I woke early Saturday morning to grey skies, rain and fog. How unfortunate that this has happened on the one day that John and Emily are free to come out sailing. For us, it usually doesn't matter too much as you tend to accept and deal with whatever weather conditions you get. But when you only come out for the one day, it is so much better if it is sunny and bright.

By 8.30am it does look much better, with the clouds beginning to break up and the sun peeping through. I've prepared food for the day and we have discussed a route and plan to sail around and have dinner at Lidö. However, I leave it to Lars-Göran to arrange with them if they still want to come, given the cooler weather. As it turns out they want a bright, hot summer's day of sailing and so we take a raincheck for now and will plan another day when the weather is forecast to be hot.

We still have to be around here tomorrow afternoon to pick up Madde and as the weather is clearing up we decide to sail to Lidö anyway and have a look around. This island is around two kilometers long and is run by the Archipelago Foundation. It was settled in medieval times and used to have a thriving farming community. In 1630, a stately baroque-style castle was built on the island, but in 1719 when the Russians came through, every building on the island was burned to the ground, the animals slaughtered for food for the invaders and the castle was demolished. Fifty years later, the stones from the castle were used to build the beacon at nearby Arholma.

Matt Holmes (a retired captain from the East India Company) built a manor house on the foundations of the old castle. This manor house has been restored and today houses a well known restaurant and conference centre (Lidö Krog) where diners can look out across the water at the passing traffic.



To the right of the manor house you can see the old post mill next to the ferry pier. We sailed around to the nature harbour on the eastern side of the island and came across a beautiful bay with many, many boats tied up to the rocky cliffs and several lying by anchor. We dropped anchor inside the bay and as it had warmed up considerably and the sun was shining again, we set off to walk around the island.



The pine trees here are over 200 years old and the undergrowth is rich and varied with rose hips (nypon), snowball trees (olvon), alpine currants (måbär) growing along with many types of flowers like bear's garlic (ramslök), Solomon's Seal (storrams) and Coral Root (tandrot). I even saw lots of thistles with their pretty purple flowers.



Between 1920 and 1945, Lidö had Sweden's biggest mink farm, but these days there is no farming of this tiny animal, though I imagine the descendants of the farm's escapees are still around the place. Today there is an effort made to keep the old archipelago agricultural practices alive, so that the open meadows survive. To that end, grazing animals are used as natural lawn mowers. On Lidö we saw some sheep in the distance as well as a healthy herd of cows.



The sheep were in a far meadow, but closer to the guest harbour there were horses in a paddock. And across the small bay were several fields full of summer flowers with the occasional small crofter cottage still standing.



Along the pathway towards the manor house we saw other small cottages that used to house workers on the estate, but are now hired out as summer houses, set deep in a flowery world on one side and flanked by views across the water on the other.



The forests and fields were alive with birdsong, dancing, colourful dragonflies, busy bees flitting from blossom to blossom and small flocks of butterflies feeding on the blooms.



It has been a lovely, peaceful visit to the island and we are now looking forward to a few days out and about with Madde.

I know one small, white, fluffy dog that is going to go crazy when she arrives....