Trelleborg is a short distance from Malmö.  We took a short ride there last summer.  I thought we might all enjoy looking at pictures of warm sunshine.  Not hot mind you, but warm.  (Hey, this is Sweden!)

 

A welcome from the road. 

 

I don't know why there were roosters strutting about, but there were. 

 They were really lovely.

It was hard to know which  picture of this wonderful fountain was the best. 

It's a great fountain!!  I have to say, I thought of our kids when we saw this!!

I can't tell you anything about this place, but its name made me smile.

Speaking of vikings: This is the wall of a reconstructed circular viking fortress.

... and the gate.

An image of the original "blue tooth".  Don't ask me why, but the modern technology 

was apparently named after Harald. 

I wouldn't have wanted to see what...mischief...these tools accomplished.

These musical instruments are made of bone. Our conversation went something like this,

 "John, here are instruments you don't have."  

John's response, "Yet."

Music

When we moved to Sweden we did not expect to find that bluegrass and American country music are popular.  OK - so maybe not actually popular, but I think bluegrass might be more popular here than in the U.S.!  (Which frankly is not hard, but that is beside the point.)  There are fans here.  Enough so, that when Swedes hear John play his banjo, more than one has said, "Wow!  That was great!  I always wanted to learn to play the banjo!"  Really.  They really say that.  Except of course they pronounce the word banjo differently.  Swede's pronounce the "j" like a "y". 

On Sunday night we were talking to some friends.  They were deciding whether to go to an Irish pub to listen to some live music, or to go to a concert being hosted by a church, featuring Hank Williams material.  They decided on Hank Williams, and we went along. 
I don't typically listen to country music, but it was fun.  It was also fun to hear how well the Swedes mimicked the southern twang. 
And so, for your listening pleasure, varsågod!  ("here you go!).  (Let me apologize for the poor video quality.)

And yes, more candles.  These were at the end of the pews. 

Mil and mile

As previously mentioned, Swedes use the metric system.  So when I heard Swedish friends speak of distances, and they referred to what I thought were "miles", I assumed that they were using the same term Americans use representing 5280 feet.  Nej.  They were not.  They were speaking of the Swedish "mil".  Although, at least to my ear, the two words sound the same, they represent two different things.   A Swedish mil equals 10 kilometers.  This could have been a  problem if I had agreed to take a 5 mil walk...

Baking

You might assume that baking is pretty much the same everywhere.  Oh, if only it were true!  I consider myself a good home baker.  I am not a professional, but I bake most items from scratch with good success.  Not so after moving to Sweden.  Although some recipes have turned out well, some results have been pretty sad.  So, as I figure out some of the problems, I thought I would share some of the fun with you! 

1)    Metric.  Metric is not a problem.  I am familiar with using the metric system.  But it does add another layer of thinking when baking and cooking.  The oven temperatures and volume and weight measurements are all in metric.  Thus, if I need 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and am baking something at 350 degrees, I have to transpose all that to 2.5 dl (or 250 cc’s) of flour, 5 cc’s of salt at ~ 177 degrees C. 
2)    Pan sizes (“forms”) are different.
3)    Flour is different.  This really threw me for a loop.  I have baked many biscuits in my day, but the biscuits I have baked here have been leaden disks.  I couldn’t understand it.  It finally occurred to me that maybe the flour is different.  With the help of some Q and A posts found online, I came to realize that the flour is heavier.  The suggestions I read were :
Treat the Swedish flour like bread flour from the US... use about 2 Tbsp. less per cup…don't over-mix once you add the flour to a batter/dough, thus preventing gluten development…add air by creaming the butter and sugar more…separate the eggs and make a meringue, folding it in to make the cake lighter.  And finally, trying looking for lighter cake based flours in the supermarkets/shops, as they are better for non-bread and pastry items.
So I did all that and had good results.  Whew!
4)    Oven:   Our oven, like most ovens here, is smaller than ours was in the U.S.. Our Swedish oven internal measurement’s are 17” W x 13” H x 17” D.  [Or: bredd: 43cm., höjd: 33 cm., och djup 43cm.].  Interestingly, the ovens here come with some grates, and with some solid metal shelves that one uses for cookie sheets.  That is convenient since our U.S. cookie sheets do not fit into the oven! 
5)    Reading:  first let me say that I love love Google Translate (GT).  It has saved my skin.  But it is faulty and sometimes the mistakes it makes are laughable.  Last night we were trying to figure out the directions regarding the different oven modes.  So, when all else failed, we took out the instruction book.  Our first step to understanding was to realize that the instructions were in Finnish.  Then we went to our old pal, GT, to see what it had to say.  The oven mode I had picked was “Tasalämpö”.  GT described this as “DC heat”.    ..Whatever… The short discription read: Tasalämpö valinta mahdollistaa uunin käyton normaalina tasalämpöuunin.  GT suggested that the meaning was “Gender Selection Heat the oven during normal use of a warm oven.”  Who knew?!  ; - )

Well, John and I are back in Sweden.  We had a lovely Christmas vacation visiting with our friends and family.  It was especially wonderful spending extended time with our four children.  (Love you guys!!)  But all parties end (even for me!) and so here we are back to what is, for now, "our real world".

After a nap, we ran out to a store to pick up a few things.  While there, John spotted kicksleds for sale.  He took a photo, but for whatever reason, the blogsite is not allowing me to post pictures right now.  So here is a link which shows pictures of, and explains, kicksleds.  I have not seen any of these used locally.  Maybe because we live in town, but probably because it is too warm here to get much snow accumulation.

http://www.kicksled.com/Frameset1.htm