Fall break at the summerhouse

Last week was fall break for the school kids. My mother made the trip down to the summerhouse Tuesday by train and bus with the two grandkids. I arrived an hour early to get the fridge and heat turned on in the house. It wasn't cold at all, it was around 15 centigrades most of the time. My sister joined us a few days later. We got some things done, we mowed the lawn and burned a lot of fallen tree branches. We used the fire to grill sausages. This weekend we actually bought a pumpkin and carved eyes and a mouth in it. We placed a candle inside and put it out on the deck in the evening. It's not a Swedish custom, but the kids here are taking after the American Halloween traditions. They sometimes also go "trick-or-treating". (And I can see why).

My father came to visit to play with his grandkids mostly. He had been in Stockholm to help getting my 100 year-old grandfather into a permanent care facility. My grandfather, who celebrated his big birthday in May, fell during the summer and broke his hip. He was in hospital for a while, and then in a short term facility. Now my father and his sisters were there to clear out his apartment and divide the items between them. They found lots of old photo albums, some of which my father brought down to give me. It was a real treasure, there were lots of photos depicting many of my father's ancestors. Many photos of his mother I had never seen before. There were also photos of Olga. It seems like her own photos and a scrapbook had ended up in my grandmother's possession. It was great to get all this, but now the book about Olga will be delayed, because I have to add information and images.

For me, the visit to the summerhouse ended Saturday. We went to the cemetery to put flowers on the family graves, and we met a relative there (a living one). My mother's cousin, I hadn't seen him in probably 20 years. He remembered that I was interested in genealogy. After this, we went to a nearby town for afternoon coffee at my mother's friend's place. Then I took the train back home. Sunday I picked up a parcel (these days you most often go to the grocery store to do that). I didn't know what it was, but guessed it was a prize in a consumer competition and I was right. I had handed in the flyer in a store, and won a picnic basket and some gift certificates.

The research for the books I work on continues. I visit my workplace so often that many of my colleagues now think that I have returned to my job, and I have a hard time telling them that I'm only there to use the databases and the scanner. It will take quite a while to get all those photos scanned.

And I almost forgot to write that two weeks ago I joined some of my colleagues to go bowling in Malmö. It's an annual event arranged by the social club. Dinner was also included, the food is great there. A very nice evening.