Back in Ol Red

We got back to Oz on the 7 March. Arrived to sunshine and unsual heat this time of year. Quite a change from what we had over in Sweden.

Aww my garden. What a catastrophy zone. I forgot to take "before" photos of most areas but there are some that shows what I have achieved in little stints here and there. Every time I put Josh down I run out to dig dig dig.

This is the front garden.. before..

And after.. It looks bare and horrid but we decided to put down grass here plus a nice bush of some sort. Bit more user friendly than the evil thorny rosebushes we used to have. I like it. Hate to say it but it feels "zen".. haha

That's some of the garden stuff. Won't bore you with more

Good living

Not used to living on the cream shelf of life I found myself wandering aimlessly with garbage yesterday. The rich people hide their disposal sites really well!
I had tried every door of our building in search of a dumpster but couldn't find one. Ended up walking with my trash across town, like a bag lady, to where we used to live. There dumpsters are placed in a stinky alley behind the apartment building, kind of logical.

Asked John where he "disposed" and he showed me the shute!!! Haha, feet from our door was a shute. How fancy!

Oslo

I haven't been able to upload my own photos so I have searched the net for some so I can show what we have been up to.

We live in an awesome part of Oslo. Aker Brygge is right near the water. We even have some water glimpses from our creamshelf apartment.

This image was found at www.johanson.info/bilder

And it really is this beautiful. I only wish i could take photos like this one.

Half an hour walk from our place is Bygdoy. Here you find the famous Viking Ship Museum as well as beautiful naturewalks and beaches. A real treat when you get tired of the concrete jungle. This foto is from http://www.images.travelpod.com/

Josh, mum, Gunnar and I went Chanterell hunting in the forest yesterday and sure we found some mushies but most of all we managed to pick up "moose flies" galore. These annoying flies/lice are almost impossible to get rid of. They crawl into your hair and you may not know you have them for a couple of days. YUCK!! They loved my fleece and are still, today, appearing out of nowhere.



Something much nicer than moose flies is lingonberry. A Swedish cooking staple. It's a small tart berry that is used as a compliment to meatballs, oat porridge, hash browns etc.

Can be found at your local IKEA store : ) if you can't go lingon hunting in an actual forest.

Went for a walk today and saw a tomato plant growing through concrete.

I love that nature is stronger than us (sometimes).

Below is a beautiful view of our city. Not a bad place to live really.

Why I haven't written.. A definite first!

This is Josh, he was born in March 2009 and is the reason I haven't been able to partake in my favourite past-time hiking for a long time. Needless to say my garden is falling apart..

Melbourne

Jag skriver detta pa svenska for ingen har i Australien behover hora vad jag har att beratta.

John och jag akte till Melbourne i torsdags for att spendera helgen i Melbourne och en natt i Inverloch, som ligger en timmes bilfard ifran Wilsons Prom.

Pa fredagen jobbade John halva dan sa jag roade mig sjalv pa stan. Pa eftermiddagen hyrde vi en bil och akte till Inverloch dar John har en jobbarkompis. Det var mycket trevligt att traffa John och Chris igen (ja, det var John, John, Chris, jag och barna Georgie och Curtis).

Pa lordagen vaknade vi till en het sommar dag. Vid lunchtid akte vi till stranden for att ga en promenad men det var sa varmt att vi inte stog ut langre an det tog att ta en fotdopp. Vinden var sa otroligt het att det sved i ogonen och halsen och sa stark att sanden yrde. Jag sa flera ganger till John att "fy vad otackt det ar nar det ar sa hett och vinden ar sa stark, det kanns som luften sjalv skulle kunna antanda". De har lidit av torka i flera ar i Victoria och graset vart man an ar ar helt burnt sa torrt ar det. Jag vet inte vad korna lever av i san torka. De Australiensiska arterna ar val nagorlunda anpassade i alla fall. "Tank om det borjar brinna" sa vi, da skulle det ju sprida sig fortare an man kan springa. Lite anade vi hur ratt vi hade. John och Chris barn som ar 7 och 4 ar grat av utmattning i varmen och vi sokte luftkonditionering vart vi var.

Vi sa tack och hej till vara vardar och korde tillbaka till Melbourne efter lunch. Pa vagen sag vi avstangda vagar och bilar som 'stannat' langs med motorvagen. Vi trdde naivt att det var flera olyckor som hant nar det i verkligheten var motorerna som overhettats. Nar vi kom fram till vart hotell fick vi hora att det var den varmaste dagen nagonsin sedan de borjat mata temperatur i staden. 46.4 grader i stan och 47.9 i Avalon. Himlen var aprikos fargad (av rok) och det blaste lika mycket dar. Pa nyheterna sa dom att brander pagick pa flera stallen runt om i Victoria och 40 manniskor befarades vara doda. Idag ar dom siffrorna betydligt hogre, 126 ar bekraftade doda och de siffrorna kommer nog att stiga, det befars att over 230 kan ha dott. Fotot ar ifran The Age och visar en volontar som sag sitt eget hus brinna nar nar han hjalpte till att radda ett annat hus.

En stad blev odelagd pa en timma, manniskor forsokte fly i sina bilar men sikten var lika med noll med all rok och trad hade fallit pa vagen sa folk bade krockade med varandra eller korde pa hinder och dog i sina bilar. Flera brandar tros vara anlagda! Fruktansvard tragedi.

John och jag skulle traffa en van till honom pa sondag kvallen men hon hade mist tva vanner i branderna och ville sjalvklart inte ga ut. En van till mig kan inte komma hem for en brand ar pa vag mot hennes hus och samhalle.

Detta ar den varsta naturkatastrof som drabbat Australien. http://media.theage.com.au/?rid=45930 visar en rapport ifran lordags, da anade dom inte hur manga som dott. Har ar fler bilder:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/slideshow_ajax.aspx?sectionid=9016&sectionname=slideshowajax&subsectionid=150966&subsectionname=bigfires

Deleting photos..

Thought I'd post some photos before I delete them to hopefully free up space and speed my computer up.

The story behind the skink eating cake picture is quite funny, I think. Annie and I were going for a day hike in the Blue Mountains and being girls that like cake we first went to the bakery and bought a cake that was so full of butter and sugar it weighed an astonishing amount for its size. We set off and walked and walked in this beautiful park and eventually sat down for lunch (obviously this is the abbreviated version..) and were joined by a large skink. For lunch we had fruit and salad sandwiches and the cake we'd packed in my bag to savor later. The skink "walked" right up to my bag, by-passing spilled grated carrots and our apple cords (to be disposed of later in a proper manner of course) and set about climbing it, got inside and started tearing at the paper bag that the cake was in. The skink was in a state likening that of a lady at pms time suffering from chocolate withdrawals. So we gave in a gave him a bit of cake which he devoured ferociously and Annie and I were sure he'd die, if not of choking, then from the effects of the unhealthy snack he'd just had (might well have been a her of course). Anyway, who would have thought that skinks also liked cake more that salad sandwiches and fruit??!

Here are a couple more pictures from that hike, a waterfall from below, cool and refreshing on a hot day.

Here's one of a weird bunch of grubs.. Tightknit whatever they are (hardy-har-har I'm so clever).

This hike started not far out of Katoomba and, as is seen on this next picture, was full of beautiful scenery!

On another occasion when we rented a house in Barrington Tops we found this little green tree frog in the toilet.

And when we were camping at Gloucester Tops we had a nice visitor change (nice change from the leeches!!!) in this small, pesky possum.