Today is a very special day at Chez Nordström. Yes, it's Lambi's birthday and she is the ripe old age of 14 today, which in dog years is .... too many years to count.

Actually, that's not really true. I looked at an online dog years calculator on the internet and according to their sums, Lambi is 69 in human years. I'm not sure how reliable this is, but it has to be less dodgy than the simple "seven human years to a dog year" caper that would put Lambi at 98 years old!

It still does not take into account the breed of the dog, which is important as we all know that many of the larger breeds mature earlier and have a shorter life expectancy. And then there are some dogs (looking very pointedly at the small white fluffball curled up on my lap) who never mature and will probably live forever. At least that's our hope.

It's been a good year for her, with the move to a new town and of course the launch of her t-shirt range! But she is still full of beans and very interested in life, so she doesn't seem like an old dog. She even learns new tricks (when it is to her advantage of course!)

We tried to make a big fuss of her at breakfast, but being a smart dog, she became suspicious of our exuberant cuddles and enthusiastic cries of "Happy Birthday!" She had her slightly worried "I'm-not-going-to-the-vet-am-I?" look on her face, so we cooled it a bit and just acted normally instead.

I have woken up today feeling the effects of a sore throat, which I'm hoping is a temporary thing as Lars-Göran thought we ought to take a trip up to the nearby town of Askersund, where we saw a lovely old café when we were there last year. We could stop for afternoon tea, was his suggestion. I looked at him and asked where the dog would be while we were in the café and he grinned and answered "In the car", which seemed a bit mean on her birthday! But he promised her that we'd bring her a bit of cake and take her for a run in the park afterwards.




Askersund is just over 50 kms away, heading northwards on highway 50. Most of our side trips have been southwards so it was a good opportunity to see this part of the lake while we still had fine weather. We had hoped to take a look around Stjärnsund manor house, but it was closed for the season, so we had to content ourselves with the cows in the fields and the magnificent avenue of trees in their autumn colours.




It was very quiet and pretty everywhere. We also enjoyed seeing it all from this angle as last time we were here we were out on the water, trying to negotiate the narrow channel past this very point. However, our plans to wander around the town on foot were soon shelved as I was starting to feel much worse, with shakes and chills. It was also zero degrees outside! That sunshine is so deceptive - you'd think it would be 20C looking at the blue skies and the ducks happily swimming in the water (how can they stand it?), but it is in fact freezing with a rather stiff wind blowing.




The town itself, as is the case in much of this region, is very old. Settlements here date back to the bronze age and was certainly around in the viking times. The name Askersund originates from the word “aeske" or “aska" meaning an ash grove. The hamlet was situated on a sound or strait that was surrounded by ash trees and therefore became known as “ash grove by the sound" and eventually Askersund.

The current town dates from the late 1700s, as on the 6th June, 1776, the whole place burnt to the ground. Ae fire started at around lunchtime in a barn. In addition, there was a stroke of bad luck in that the weather conditions were appalling with near hurricane strength winds blowing. Sadly, there was little that anyone could do to stop the voracious appetite of the fire and by the next day, the whole town, consisting mostly of wooden buildings was destroyed. It took ten years and a lot of hard work to rebuild on the site of the old Askersund.

One of the first buildings that must have been built was the one which houses Café Tutingen, located in the main square and whose sign proudly says Established in 1784. That's four years before the First Fleet landed in Botany Bay!




This was one of the cafés we wanted to try, so we parked the car in the sunshine, left the birthday girl fast asleep on her cushion on the back shelf and went inside. They have recreated the same atmosphere from the eighteenth century, with period furniture and beautiful ornaments, painting and china ware. There were a choice of table settings as well. You could even lounge on a sofa if you wanted to and there was a good distance between the tables, something that I miss in Sweden where many cafés have you practically sitting in your neighbour's lap. It was very quiet and discrete and in many ways reminded me of the quaint atmosphere of Sturekatten in Riddargatan in Stockholm - one of my very favourite cafés.




There were a tempting array of appetising food on display and it was hard to choose just what to have for a birthday afternoon tea. In the end, I chose a lovely looking pie, which resembled a classic lemon meringue pie in appearance, but was made with peaches. Absolutely delicious - and very soft and moist. We sat by the window with the afternoon sun streaming in, enjoying the view of the pocket handkerchief courtyard and a steaming cup of lemon tea. Hmmm... you can see that I look a little flushed, as the cold I've caught was worsening at a rapid rate.




We've decided that this café is worth a return visit when I'm feeling a little better. It was so relaxing and the service was brisk but very friendly. I also saw a café (Lilla Cafét) across the square in the old mayor's house that looked quite inviting as well. As did Café Gavregården, which I spotted down a side street. So much to still discover!




The building you can see across the harbour is Sofia Magdalena church. This was built between 1778-1780 to replace the 1651 wooden church that stood on the same spot. It was a victim of the fire I mentioned earlier. Gustav III's wife, Queen Sofia Magdalena, paid for most of the building, thus the name. We had hoped to look inside today, but it was closed so we admired it framed by the autumn golden leaves.




I like this pretty little town, with its charming atmosphere radiating out from the main market square and from the small shops, the cobbled streets and the herbour. But as it's so bitingly cold and I'm not feeling that flash, we have left off walking around and decided to go towards home again. On the way back we stopped over the big bridge at the sound at Hammar to look at the islands that make up this northern archipelago and we tried to see just where it was that we anchored when we were here fifteen months ago in our boat.




The suspension bridge over Stora Hammarsundet is 550 meters long. It's 22 meters over the water as well and I recall how great it felt to sail under it, though I have to admit that the view from up here across to the islands and out onto the main lake is fantastic.




We made a detour part of the way home to look at the area around Medevi brunn, which is the oldest spa in Sweden. The settlement itself looked fascinating, but was not made really for cars traffic and we really didn't want to get out and walk around today, so we have filed it away as a future excursion, possibly in the spring. We did take a small road down to the water's edge to see the lake from this point. There was a little harbour here with a pier and a small clubrooms, plus tracks leading through the woods. We got out to let Lambi have her promised runaround and watched the water come rolling in from outside of the distant reef. Obviously Lambi realised that it was far too cold to be outside as she tried to get in someone else's car when they opened the door! A great outdoors type she is not.




This must be one of the harbours that club members have mentioned to us as a good anchorage in bad weather - depending on the wind direction of course. With westerlies it would be impossible, but perhaps quite good on a calm, sunny day. Today it was just nice to be able to get back in the car and drive away and not have to worry about what the wind would do overnight. Now home to heat up some tea and honey and wrap myself (and the dog) in a warm blanket.




So it's been a nice sort of birthday for Lambi, spent draped over us, just how she likes it. Happy birthday, little one. Let's hope there are many more to come!