A visit to Carl Eldh, 6/8 September

On 6 September, I paid a long due visit to the "Ateljémuseum" of Carl Eldh in Stockholm, the "other" famous sculptor of the XX century, with Carl Milles.

The place is a heaven of peace, full of history and emotion. One place not to be missed while in Stockholm!

Yesterday is the same as tomorrow, 1 and 7 September 2019.

Another mushroom weekend around Gripsholm castle in Mariefred area. We went back to the same place where we went last week. And this time, the harvest was even better! Amazing to see how fast are the mushrooms growing as we did not leave much behind us last week. And this time, they were all fresh, young and without bugs!

1 September 2019

7 September 2019

A real pleasure!

A good start of the mushroom season, 1 September

Two days ago while on Stallarholmen in the Mälaren, I had a good boletus risotto, having found few boletus mushrooms along the way while biking in Selaön. We decided for the weekend, to get back to this forest to explore a bit more its mushroom resources...

This is the harvest after a few hours in the forest...

And they proved to be huge!

Back to Stockholm,31 August 2019

Back to Stockholm after ten days of sailing along in the Mälaren. This is closing a three month period of sailing onboard Belisama.

Passing Hammarby lock...

Tough land sickness expected!

A hidden treasure, Stallarholmen and Selaön, 28-30 August 2019

When sailing in the Mälaren, Mariefred and Strängnäs are two of the most visited spots. But in between, there is an opening bridge at Stallarholmen that very few sailors would consider for a visit. Yet, Stallarholmen is the entry point for the Island of Selaön, the largest lake island in Sweden, and a real coup de coeur!

The Överselö medieval church on Selaön

Judge by yourselves! Two decorated medieval churches, one of the largest viking grave field with plenty of rune stones and a stone ship, the Mälsåker castle, and a lot of nature and forest, full of mushroom at this time of the year.

I let you get a look...

A visit to the ancestors, Birka, 21-23 August 2019

Birka, is considered as the oldest city in Sweden. It was founded around 750 AD and abandoned 250 years later. At the peak of its activity, Birka comprised up to one thousand inhabitants. Birka is located 30 kilometres west of Stockholm on lake Mälaren. It is a popular day excursion from Stockholm. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.

Birka guest harbour?

To Nynäshamn, via Sandham and Utö... 28 July - 1 August 2019

New crew this week to get back to Nynäshamn, Sweden, with Gérard, an old friend sailor, who wants the type of "heavy sailing" that his family is reluctant too... Plans are set to sail through Gotska Sandön or even Gotland, but in fact, the excess of wind will make us revise them, as it would not be safe to anchor in Gotska Sandön with 30 knots of northerly winds.

The new itinerary finally sees us going from Mariehamn to Lido's, then to Sandhamn (not Svenska Högarna as expected because of strong northerly winds), then Utö, before Nynäshamn.