2019

2019 is coming to its end. Summer has finished and temperatures are dropping to zero. Now and then even a bit of snow... It was a nice, good year. We met nice people and are playing music again. Ytje on cello and I on piano. At this moment we play in two small ensembles. One a trio which plays old Swedish dancemusic and other nice music for violin, cello and piano. The second ensemble is playing barockmusic. Basic ensemble consists of two violins, a cello and a piano. Now and then an extra instrument, like for instance flute, plays along. We have had a few concerts already. Very nice!

Summer has been a bit wet. Lots of rain, thunder and wind. Not like the other years. In spite of this we did quite a bit in the garden and around the house. The extra room we build has now a working wood stove and is really cosy.

2019 begint aan zijn laatste maanden. Inmiddels is de zomer wel voorbij. Temperaturen gaan richting vriespunt en af en toe sneeuwt het zelfs. Wel heel vroeg dit jaar. Het was een mooi, goed jaar, waarin we leuke mensen hebben ontmoet en nu ook in kleine samenstelling muziek maken. Ytje is lekker bezig op cello. Ik speel mee op piano. Op dit moment spelen we in twee groepjes. Een is een trio waarin we oude Zweedse walsen en andere leuke muziek spelen. Bezetting: Viool, Cello, Piano.
De tweede groep is een barokensemble met als basis 2 violen, cello en piano. Af en toe een extra aanvulling, bijvoorbeeld een fluit. Inmiddels samen al een aantal kleine concertjes gegeven. Erg leuk!

De zomer was een beetje nat, met veel regen, onweer en wind. Niet zoals we de afgelopen jaren gewend waren. Toch best veel in de tuin gedaan. Ook het huis begint steeds verder af te komen. Inmiddels is de "wintertuin" bijna klaar. Er staat een houtfornuis waar we op kunnen koken en het is er heel gezellig.

Some Ideas

At this moment, halfway march, I am thinking about thing to do in the coming months. Hopefully the snow will be gone in a couple of weeks and then I can continue finishing the new part of the house we started building last year. I need to make the inside walls and install a chimney for our wood stove. We need to go up the roof and that is on this moment impossible with half a meter snow.
Well I need to have some patience and adjust to the Swedish life 😉

I have an idea to attract some people to our place with a day or weekend with a music experience and demonstrations free for all people in the region. I am thinking about setup all my percussion instruments so people can see, hear and learn about them.

Of course playing them will also be part of the day. We can also open our house to people who would like to learn more about singing and using their voice in a good and musical way. Ytje can give them tips and practice with them. We can give a little house concert in our living room for instance.
Hopefully we can interest the local paper, Veckobladet, to wright a little piece about this and attract the people to come. We will see.

When the weather is improved we can start with the garden again. Hopefully grow some vegetables and of course herbs. It is always hard to do this here because of the short summer. We have to start as early as possible.

I started to build a second greenhouse last year and I want to see if I can finish this next month so we can use it this spring/summer.

So we have a lot to do and hope the weather will help us.
Last year was to hot and dry. Hopefully this year will be better.

January 2019

As you can see I have not posted a new item for a long time. At this moment it is January again, but now in the year 2019! Outside is not much different than on last post: snow and cold...

Must say we had some changes in the last year. We made more music, also with new Swedish friends and the building of the new part of the house is almost finished. Just some painting outside, adding walls inside and finishing the construction for the cooking stove.


As soon as the weather makes it possible we will install the chimney on the roof.

This summer I hope to make a carport and a compost toilet. We shall see…