Merry Christmas from Kappelshamn, Gotland!

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Here you find a Christmas greeting in the shape of a fairytale written and illustrated by me.

When Mr Polar Bear took a vacation (pdf)
When Mr Polar Bear took a vacation (epub)

Because it is an international fairytale, I started to write it in English, which is particularly smart considering Swedish is my natal language… but I guess everything started with a certain map which made its’ way into my brain and out came this idea. Who wanted to be created. That is why this story was originally written in English and then translated to Swedish.

Robyn – Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2010

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I like Robyn. I admire her integrity and creativity. She started her own record company when she was very young. She is deciding over her way to express herself.
I think she has been a good role model since she started her career. Especially when you compare with other singers like Britney Spears. Robyn stands for important values.
In this video from the Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2010 she starts with singing an old swedish song.

Christmas Market at Bläse

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Today we have been at the Christmas Market at Bläse Kalkbruksmuseum. It is a good way of get som christmas feelings and buy gotlandish handcraft, bread, smoked meat, cheese and candy.

This lady had a lot of small ”tomtenissar” to sell.

I like these grey ”tomtenissar” as well.

We have plenty of snow as you can see in this picture of the old railway at Bläse. And there comes Santa? Can it really be Santa or Jultomten?

When we came back home we made coffee and enjoyed our saffron buns and ”rullrån”.

First Sunday of Advent on Gotland

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Today is First Sunday of Advent. We lit the first candlelight in our four armed candelabras. We place advent stars in our windows. We taste the first ginger bread and saffron bums. As the days passes by we get closer to christmas.

On Gotland the tradition with Christmas markets started last weekend in Visby. This weekend there is Christmas market in for example Bläse which is situated right across the Kappelshamns bay where I am living. We will go there today to pick up some christmas spirit.

Snow in November on Gotland?

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Even if Gotland is a swedish island and Sweden is considered to be a snowy country, Gotland is not known to have a lot of snow during the winters. People that are fond of white and snowy winters prefers to live in the norther parts of Sweden.

A typical gotlandish winter contains roses blooming in the garden in december. Snow can start to fall in november, but it will be gone the next day. Sometimes we have snow for Christmas, but we are more used to green Christmas.

But this year we got snow on the 24th of november and it stays and the experts says it will stay for weeks! I don’t like cold weather. I don’t like to have to dress up to meet freezing temperatures. Everything I do seems to take longer when it is cold.

And they talk about the climate effect… 2070 we might not get any snow on Gotland at all. ”We”? Well I have to be really lucky to stay alive for that long – but who knows? Anyway, if we are going to get green winters, why not start right now?

If you want to see winter pictures from march 2010 you can click here.