If you want to know anything about celebrities, Swedish or otherwise, then my husband is the last person on earth you should ask. He is completely indifferent to gossip columns, trashy newspapers or commercial tv. I may see a headline on a newsboard about Carolina Gynning, but If I say to him "Who is Carolina Gynning?" he will honestly have no idea, nor quite frankly will he care. It's lucky that we have broadband at home so I can just search for the name and find out the answer to my question without having to endure the withering stare of disapproval for asking about such frivolous people.

However, here on the boat I am at somewhat of a disadvantage with no internet connection. This occurred to me as I was lying in bed one evening this week, reading through Mattias Boström's new book Du vet att du är svensk. (You know that you are Swedish). It's one of those books that outlines amusing things that would resonate with a Swede. Of course, a lot of them are stereotypes but they contain enough gems of truth to make you nod in agreement. A few of the lines caused me to really laugh as Lars-Göran cringed in recognition.

But one of his remarks really floored me and of course confirmed that he is indeed a bona fide Swede. As I said, he never knows who "famous" people are, so when I read a line then posed the question "Who is Elisabet Höglund?", I really didn't expect him to answer. So imagine my surprise when he said that he knew her and so should I as she is a reporter on the State channel. I thought about the women I have seen on the nightly news service and her name didn't ring a bell. He then said "Of course you know her. She's the one with the big hair". I nearly fell out of bed laughing and when he enquired what was so funny, I told him that one of the reasons you know that you are Swedish is if you have an opinion about Elisabet Höglund's hair.

Oops! No escaping from that one, is there? But I promised to keep his secret and not to mention it in my blog, but I had my fingers crossed under the quilt, so that promise doesn't count, does it?

We hauled out the boat and the hull was even worse than we had thought. Despite him cleaning it while we were at Halland's Väderö, there was literally a carpet of growth under the water line. The little buggers were even under the keel. Obviously Fiona is a tasty morsel for them. No wonder she was so sluggish as with that many hitchhikers on board it added both weight and stuffed up her aerodynamics.




Once she was scraped down and pressure cleaned, he couldn't wait to try her out, so we set sail for our club island of Lacka, just a few nautical miles north of Nynäshamn. She was a totally different boat and she ploughed through the water cleanly, smoothly and with speed. She was also so much lighter on the tiller. So much so that we both cursed the fact that we hadn't scraped her off over on the west coast. It would have made her sail so much better and saved us a small fortune in diesel. But then again, it would have cost us a large fortune to get a marina to lift the boat for us, whereas here in Nynäs, Lars-Göran drives the crane himself, so it's free. And you can't beat that price.

At Lacka we were the only boat there, enjoying the pretty golden shower of birch leaves and the peace and quiet of a cool, still autumn day.




People have reacted with surprise when I say that this is my favourite season. I've come to see that autumn leaves are a gift sent to us by nature to remind us that despite the lack of flowers at this time of year there is no shortage of beauty in the world. If you look at the rich colours of an autumn leaf, it is like a painting created by the most skillful of artists. In spring and summer you look to flowers for beauty, in the autumn you look to leaves, in the winter you look to frost. Beauty is all around in any season of the year, if only you choose to look.




It was so very peaceful here and we had a lovely wander along the beach in the autumn sunshine, with the sun on our backs, listening to the waves break gently on on the shore. A little later a light mist drifted over the islands. I really love the autumn in Sweden. It instills a lot of warm fuzzy feelings in me while I long for days when I can wear warm cosy pjs, enjoy crisp bright mornings and sip on fragrantly spiced warm cider that steams in the coolness of the evening air.




When autumn leaves begin to fall and flutter in the wind, I sometimes feel that I’m in a little wonderland of my own where life is a beautiful and colorful musical set to a life soundtrack of Nat King Cole. And the best sensation? When I crunch the leaves beneath my feet like the giant kid I am.