My aunt Noomi gave me her childhood photo album, for me to scan so that she would have a digital copy of it. I wasn't able to install my old scanner after all, but I've copied a few by taking a photo of them... that explains the poor quality.


My grandfather, Sune Hällbro - he died in 1986 at the age of 65, only a few weeks after his retirement. I was four years old then and one of my first memories is from going to his funeral. He had more than one job in his life but one of them was to be some kind of technical support guy at a high school. He was active in church and has written songs for singing praise and such.


My great-grandmother, Elin Berglund who lived between 1890 and 1964. The photo was taken by a Mauritz Edlund in Stockholm, who moved to another studio in 1914 so I'm sure the photo is older than that, at least. He later became a photographer for the royal family.

Elin married Gustav Karlsson who worked for the railways - they lived in Stockholm for a few years in the 1910's but moved later on to Törnevalla outside of Linköping. That's where my grandmother and her five siblings grew up.


My great-grandmother Elin serving coffee to my grandmother, Gullan. My aunt Noomi is in her lap, on the left is my grandfather's grandmother, Helga Andersson and to the right is my grandmother's father, Gustav.

Helga was originally from Eksjö in Småland but she married Frans Andersson who is from Östergötland and they lived in Linköping from what I can recall of my grandmother's stories. Both Helga and Gustav died in the late 1940's and Noomi was born in 1945, so the photo must have been taken around that time.

On the topic of fika - this carrot cake turned out really well.

Cina opened her yarn store today - congratulations! It looks really good & I'm sure I will pass lots of time in there trying to avoid spending too much on yarn.

I've started on a pair of mittens - they're knit in thick, wool yarn and the needles are 8 and 9 mm's in bamboo. I love the sound they make when they click together, it's very relaxing.


Anna, Sus, Ida and Jess came by for a fika at my place in the afternoon. We all concluded that the best thing with being back in Sundsvall is each other's company.

I've been cooking today! Here's the recipes - in Swedish - one is with salmon and pasta and one is with chicken and rice. If you can't see the whole recipe it's probably just that you need to be a member, which luckily doesn't cost anything.

This afternoon I've had a fika with Sus and Ida at Wayne's - they've re-decorated and I like it much better now. Then we had some kind of introduction at Kåren before the welcoming of the new students - which I couldn't wait to leave in order to stop by at the knitting café. During my half hour there I had a nice chat, knit a few rows and had an amazing cappucino.

Now I'm off to make an apple cake!

Everything is starting all over again. My friends are returning to Sundsvall & today I met Sus in the staircase of our building. On Thursday I have a date with Anna & we have a lot of catching up to do - despite our hour-long conversation on the phone this afternoon.

Late summer & early autumn is my favorite time of the year. It gives me a sense of freshness and the feeling that I have the chance to do it all right this time.

It also gives me inspiration to re-decorate my apartment, get a new hairstyle and buy new clothes - or, as of lately, buy the yarn to knit new clothes - all at once. Maybe getting nicer (as in, too expensive) food will get me started on cooking again?

At the grocery store, someone had taken a bite from probably half of the plums in the box and then put them back with the bite mark facing down, so that noone would notice. That's an idea on how to get free food.

I've started on a new sweater. Most of my knitting readers have already seen it, but I can at least proudly announce that I got past the hard part and as of tonight I've done 17 cms on the second sleeve.

I had lots of fun & lots of work during my last weeks in Gävle. There's one million things to tell and I'll write down some of them eventually.

For now - some of my articles are here and here for a while more. And here's me & Hedda at Wasteland (O'Learys hard rock club):

As some may have figured I'm back in Sundsvall. Anyone else here?

I've been challenged... by my knitting friend Mrs Petersson. I'll pass the challenge along to my fellow journalist students Sara, Sus, Ida and Mika. (Yes, you have to pass along to four people & then let me know when you've posted your answers!)

* What five items are on your to-do-list today?
1. Respond to emails I've been lazy enough to ignore for the past days. (OK, weeks for some... sorry about that!)
2. Drink coffee in order to stay awake to do so.
3. Make my bed.
4. Clean my bathroom.
5. Make a to-do-list for what I need to do before uni starts again... only one and a half week left of vacation!

* What did you do ten years ago?
I was at this big youth camp in Karlskrona, arranged by the church. The days were filled with activities but I can't recall that much of them... except for making friends with Lovisa and Josefin & making out with this cute guy from Israel. I haven't heard from him since & I still don't know if he really did have a girlfriend back home or if he just told me so since he was 23 and found out I was younger than him. Though it was pretty romantic with the whole watching fireworks by the sea thing at the end of the camp.

* In what places have you lived?
Märsta, Visby, Umeå and Sundsvall for longer periods and now Gävle for this summer.

*Five things you would do as a billionaire!
(OK, I'll skip "give food to starving children" and such as that's so obvious...)
1. Travel! Anywhere, anyhow... and bring a much better camera.
2. Buy a good car - I don't care about brand names but it has to be fast, red and with black leather seats. I'd also get a good stereo and a driver's license to go with it.
3. While travelling I would buy a lot of clothes & shoes so naturally I'd have to get a big apartment in Stockholm with a walk-in closet to store them all.
4. Pay back my study loans.
5. Carry on the life I lead now, just with more expensive coffee, going out more often & never even consider making a lunch box.