Last week I had a conversation with an Australian woman who has been living in Sweden for the last four years and the subject of Christmas came up. She was feeling torn as she tried to weigh up the prickly and pricey problem of who to send a card to this year.

In her first year in Sweden, she had sent cards to all of the usual family and friends on her Christmas list. Yes, it was expensive as they were all sent at international rates, but she wanted people to know that while she was now living far away, they were still very much in her thoughts. She was a little surprised that so few reciprocated, but she rationalised it to herself and put aside the prickle of hurt she felt. She repeated the process in the following years, including a chatty letter and photographs and asking about how they all were, but again, there were few replies. Last year there were hardly any cards from home, despite her sending out close to 100 of them! A few sent her an ecard, but most sent nothing and she is feeling a mixture of sadness and anger. "Do they think that I have fallen off the face of the earth" she wailed.




I told her that I have experienced exactly the same thing over the years, with cards received becoming less and less. A couple of years ago, feeling in a similar mood, I sat down and asked myself whether it was worth the trouble and expense for so little return and decided that I had to ask myself just why I sent cards. Was it for them or something that I wanted to do for myself? I decided that it was a mixture, so I pared down my list drastically and kept it to sending out cards to those people who I really liked. I'll continue to do this every year whether they reply or not, because it makes me feel good and I want them to know how we are doing. This is the traditional time of giving and if they don't want to share or return that is up to them.

I was reminded of this today when I popped into the post office and saw that this year's Christmas stamps are out. And they are lovely!

The much loved Astrid Lindgren characters of Pippi, Madicken and Lotta are the motifs for the stamps. It is rather appropriate as on November 14th of this year we celebrated the centenary of the birth of Astrid Lindgren, the world renowned Swedish author. The designs on the stamps are taken from the wonderful drawings of Ilon Wikland, who illustrated all of Astrid's "children" so beautifully! So I'll be writing my list and checking it twice over the next couple of weeks.

We had a walk through town today and stopped for a fika at one of the old cafés in town, Gamla Konditoriet, literally "The Old Teashop".



In contrast to the chilly, grey weather outside, it was warm, cosy and very inviting inside. In the front of the shop is a very busy bakery full of a wide variety of breads, rolls, buns, pastries, cakes and ready made filled rolls and sandwiches. Behind this are two large, airy rooms warmed by a huge old fashioned ceramic heater. There is also an outer courtyard, but there was nobody out there today for some funny reason. It was simply, but elegantly decorated and furnished and each table had a tealight candle burning as well as a small vase of flowers. It exuded charm and peace.




We chose a window table to take advantage of the small amount of light struggling through the cloud cover and also to watch the passing traffic. One orders and pays at the front counter, where you collect your chosen bun, cake, pastry or sandwich. You serve yourself the tea and coffee from a servery in one of the back rooms. I had a big steaming mug of vanilla tea (sorry, Kay!) while Lars-Göran had his usual large flat white. Above the servery was this carving which I really loved.




It says "The bells from the Sister's town ring clearly over the wide, swaying waters of Vättern". The "sisters" referred to are not some latter day feminist cult but in fact the order of nuns founded by St. Bridgid of Sweden, who also built the church you see in the carving. The nuns (Bridgettines) still live in Vadstena today and the feast day of St. Bridgid (Heliga Birgitta) is a huge celebration here. Oh and look, the invisible red tower is also pictured.




As you can see, I couldn't resist a highly fattening nice danish pastry to go with my tea. There goes the plan for those skinny jeans - again! The best part of the whole experience was that I didn't have to share any with Lambi! She was home in the warm, cosy flat waiting for our return. It's the first time we've left her there, so I hope she is okay for an hour or so. We are planning on going out each day for a short time without her to get her used to the idea and so that we can fika in peace.

I'm loving November so far, even though it is usually my least favourite month. There have still been beautiful autumnal mornings with a chill in the air and a weak sun casting its beams through the mists which linger over the fields where often I see a couple of young deer grazing. There is a sense of the year winding down, but not one of it being dead.