Late Summer Fun

After a whole week's gray weather and terrible rain storms, we finally had two days of sunshine and warm temperatures.



So Durox and I went out on our mopeds and enjoyed a picnic breakfast in the woods on the island of Southern Djurgården .... Some birch leaves have already turned yellow, which reminded me that summer was near its end. But a bright red dragon kept on coming to our picnic table and reminded us that it would be a warm day--at least for that day.



And indeed it was. We were overjoyed that the weather turned out to be so wonderful. In fact, the whole of August had been so yucky that I thought the summer was over already. But not yet. We went to explore new places with our mopeds (one of which is newly acquired). We came to a place called Lilla Skuggan (Little Shadow), and found many bulls, cows and calves. Unfortunately my camera batteries went out so there is no photo to show. But the next day, when we came to Stora Skuggan (Big Shadow), we found a flock of sheep, whom I believe belong to the King of Sweden. The berries on trees have just started to turn bright red.



As we went further, we noticed a beautiful "house" in the distance, across a small lake. After crossing a red bridge, we came to this structure which is actually a dance pavillion that can be rented for special events. See how exquisite it looks with reflections of the sunlight from the lake.




The lake is actually a man-made "dam," but it is a haven for many kinds of birds, ducks and geese. This place is so magical and solemn, and not many locals actually know about it. We fell asleep under the sunny sky by the lake.

To catch the sunset, we went to the harbor, where we met our seagull friends and fed them. If you click on the photo on the left to enlarge it, you can see one of the seagulls holding a piece of Swedish crispbread (knäckebröd) in his beak! A gigantic oceanliner from Finland came into the harbor and unloaded its passengers to a nearby hotel. Durox loves this place because it reminds him of the Adventures of Tintin and gives him an international feeling.



The day ended with a glorious sunset with hot-air balloons across the sky. Today is another gray and rainy day, but memories of these wonderful sunny days will keep us content for a while.