Stayed at our Cottage Sunday, 23-Feb-25 21:26:15 CET

Monday, 03-Mar-25 21:23:49 CET

Covering the foundation of the barn

I worked on the barn this week and went to a Swedish folk music course at Austerlitz.

Monday 24 February

It is a new week with new possibilities. It was a little challenging to get back to work. I worked from home, and DW went to the office, which was more challenging for her.

I got back into the things I had to do, but picking up the threads where I left them a week earlier takes some extra energy. In the afternoon, Merida slept on the platform above the laptop.

I made a film of her purring. Now, if I had pro sound equipment, it would have been easy. I put the microphone next to her, and it was done. Now I am filming with my phone. When editing, I separated the soundtrack from the video. Then, in Audacity, I amplified just the purring frequencies. It was not easy. Years ago, I had a sound recorder that was eating batteries. It was a Roland sound recorder. I gave up on it. I had good quality sound, but all the rest was terrible. I decided to try using just my phone. One day, I might look into this subject again. The thing is, I am so glad to keep money in the bank, so I cannot buy equipment that I will not be happy with.

Today was the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you, up until now, ignored my pleas to listen to Ukraine: The latest podcast from the Telegraph, then I will be adamant that you should go and listen to this day's episode of the podcast. Europe and the world are currently in a historic moment, and if you want to understand where we are right now, then listen to this team of journalists.

Today, two documents were presented to the UN condemning the war in Ukraine. One was written mainly by Ukraine and the other by the US. The latter was softer on Russia's role in the conflict. There was a vote about these two documents. The US and Russia voted against the Ukraine version. It is the first time that the USA is parting with an aggressor of the free world—a sad moment. It is not easy to understand what the outcome of it all was. Still, the unmistakable thing is that the US voted similarly to Russia against a document presented by Ukraine.

Tuesday 25 February

Today, DW worked from home, and I went to the office. There were few at the office today, but we had a great day. A cake was left for me in the freezer!

I played my songs to colleagues today, and the conclusion was that the Swedish version was a tad better than the English version. I do agree with that. The syllables flow better rhythmically with the music.

In the evening, I shared the raspberry chocolate muffin with DW. It was delicious! The muffin was provided in a double layer of colorful paper. DW asked me how to cut the muffin in half, but I still had two papers. It was like magic to her.

Wednesday 26 February

It was supposed to be overcast today, but that forecast did not hold up. It became a sunny and beautiful day. For the first part of the day, I worked from home. DW also worked from home, although it was her day off.

After lunch, she did not have any more meetings. She found Tussilago flowers at the side of the road on the south side of the barn. The spring is in the air.

I worked on the sheet metal at the bottom of the barn's foundation. I finished the right part of the south wall of the barn.

In the evening, I noticed that less reputable news agencies over the last 5 days have been running the story from a Facebook post saying that Russia gave the current resident of the white house the codename Krasnov 40 years ago when they hired him as a Russian asset. A US writer, Craig Unger, has written two books on this subject, reported by Kyiv Independent. Craig was not sure about the authenticity of the Facebook post.

Thursday 27 February

Today I worked from the office and DW worked from home. It rained a lot today. When walking in a corridor, I tried to see if the kitten was there, and I was so busy looking into an office when I had a frontal collision with a glass door to the canteen. That is both embarrassing and it hurts. I had no damage to my head or glasses, but my feelings were hurt. I tried to laugh at the incident and be cool about it, and I was convincing, but if I could disappear backwards into a green bush like the Simpsons, then I had done that.

Friday 28 February

Today DW worked from home and I had a day off. Outside is 5°C and inside it’s 22°C. I decided to work on the sheet metal of the barn this morning. On Wednesday, I applied one sheet and although it looks nice from a distance, I’m not happy with how I made the corner. Last Wednesday I used a block of wood. Today I will try to make the corner differently. First, I thought, could I have a stone at the corner? However, any stone I cut to the precise size will break into small pieces. That’s not going to work. Then I thought that I got plenty of cement board. What if I make a thin strip of it to cover the wood. Let’s try that! I cut a thin strip of board and drilled two holes in it and fastened the strip with two stainless steel screws in the woord. It looked excellent!

I finished the corner on the left side of the door of the south wall. I could also put up the first board of the west wall around the corner. I did a better job of this corner than the previous. The big doors are on the other side of the west wall, and that corner also has a thin strip of cement board. With this, the metal sheet project of this week was finished.

Now it was time to pack the bags again. I was heading off for a weekend to learn to play Swedish folk music at the course in Austerlitz. It is just a 36-minute drive, but it feels like two hours. This year the teacher was Henrik Wikström from Jämtland. I appreciated having a teacher from Jämtland because I grew up in Jämtland.

We learned three 4 new tunes this evening. Then it was possible to play freely and many people did. I went to bed around midnight, after blogging for a while.

While I was playing music, there was a historic public shouting meeting at the Oval Office when Donald Trump and JD Vance made fools of themselves. We, the people in Europe, are in utter shock at the undiplomatic behaviour of the American administration. Donald Trump could not close the mineral deal with Ukraine. He appears to be an unsuccessful businessman. It was disgraceful to treat Zylenski this way, a lack of respect for democratic countries. It was a diplomatic disaster. Zelensky stood up for bullying. The free world, Europe, will line up behind the back of Zelensky and the people of Ukraine.

Saturday 1 March

It was cold outside this night. I had put a window ajar. It is necessary to get fresh air, otherwise you will wake up feeling unwell, and we would not like that to happen. Early in the morning, a flute player played the wake-up songs. I went to the showers and the water was sufficiently warm. The building has two shower rooms, and on the right side of the building, the showers were not warm enough.

We repeated the songs we learned yesterday. Then we learned a new song. With that, it was time for lunch. I got pain in my left hand because I held the violin incorrectly. I have not practiced sufficiently, that is evident. This afternoon, my stamina was not on top; feeding the brain with this material was challenging. It was not more challenging than other years, it was just brutal. I liked the tunes, but my left hand hurt.

During lunch break, I had a walk. I wanted to take a picture of a woodpecker and that succeeded. This is the regular woodpecker. I was with a professional bird watcher, and he had spotted a black woodpecker the day before. We did not see any such bird this time.

The song counter was on 8 new tunes at the end of the music classes today. We had dinner and then the guests arrived. They wanted to dance Swedish dances. It was enjoyable. We played informally, which was great. In the late evening, a friend and I played some tunes together. Then it was time for him to return to the hotel he had booked for himself. I decided to bring him in the car, and he was grateful. It spared him from a walk in the pitch dark through the forest of about twenty minutes.

At midnight I went to bed. I am a little simpler; I have no hotel booked for this music weekend. That is also easy: go to bed and sleep in the same building where we had the lessons.

Sunday 2 March

I slept very well. Outside the window, a robin tripped around. It is easier to sleep well when you are tired. In the morning, we started practicing the tunes from yesterday. At noon the course was over.

We had learned 10 new tunes. I took on the honorable task of writing down the data about the tunes on the blackboard.

The teacher was brought to the airport and we started packing bags and cleaning the rooms. It was marvellous weather this afternoon.

When I came home I was tired. I did not finish the blog this evening. The blog was 1683 words this week. That is not that much. Next week I can gather more words. Welcome back next week!