Time goes fast and suddenly it feels as if spring is making an entrance. The snow has melted away and we hear early bird song in the morning. We are still living in the summerhouse in the forest, as it will take a few more weeks before it is all ready but now you can almost see the end result. Considering the costs of renovating you would think that we live in a castle but it is just a normal house. It will be a very nice house though and we hope to have many friends coming over soon! Anyone interested in outdoor activities will find something to do here (sailing, canoeing, bicycling, walking, horseback riding, fishing etc) and for the shoppoholic we offer Gällstad. Gällstad is a small town with 430 inhabitants located 9 km south of Ulricehamn. Each year 1,3 million people go to Gällstad to visit the designer outlets. Do I sound like a salesperson? Well, we just want to make sure that you come for a visit!!!
Each weekend we try to see a new part of Ulricehamn and the nature around here is really stunning. We have now seen deer so often that it is now longer as exiting as it was at first. Foxes are also quite common but we are still hoping to see “the moose”! Though I come from Sweden I have never seen a moose in the wild and Jochem has started to think that the moose signs are only put up to attract tourists. Well, I guess we have to wait and see. This is an area where many people hunt and one of my colleagues has over 100 stuffed animals in his house (including a kangaroo – Sweden is really becoming an exotic country!!).
My next plan is to get a new bicycle with an extension for Nils on the back. Then we can bicycle to school and work. As Ulricehamn is located on a hill it will be easy to go to work and school but hard to get home. I thought the kids would have a hard time living far out in the forest but now they don’t want to move away from there. Each day they go out in the forest and come back with skeletons, large stones and pieces of wood or other interesting findings. In the beginning they complained that they spent too much time outside but now they don’t want to come inside anymore. It is interesting to see how quick things change and how quickly they adapt to a new situation. Now they talk about going fishing and Elsa want to go mountain climbing.
We moved here in search of a new way of life – a life that is slowly unfolding as we live it. To me living here and experiencing this with my family is just as exciting as a wildlife trip in South Africa. Someone asked me why on earth we would like to live in Ulricehamn after living in South Africa, the US and all over Europe! Actually it is not a country as such that makes an experience interesting or worthwhile. Our life in Ulricehamn is very different to the life I had in Lund (which is also in Sweden). I like to travel but it is not the travel as such that is the exciting part of it. The excitement lies in the new discoveries one makes along the way. By trying something new and making a different choice you end up with a new experience and you learn something about your surroundings but also about yourself. Naturally one does not have to go to Ulricehamns to find a new path in life but we just happened to do that.
Lets see where it leads us!
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