Orust; If we

If we

If we all just once …

all of us once,

at least once,

if I once could see what I,

what we are looking for,

what we are perhaps looking for

when we look,

if we look,

if we once could see,

and I,

and all of us, could know

what we are seeing,

if we are seeing,

if we're looking

– looking for,

listening,

if we know, not know,

what we are listening for,

looking for, when we,

if we listen,

if we look,

if we see once – something,

see, hear something, some …,

if we see,

if we hear,

if we all,

if we,

if I,

if ….

Rigmor Haugen Jensen wrote this

From and for her group

Orust 2014

Orust, our home for the week

JC reads an illuminated text...

Orust is an island about an hour's drive north of Gothenburg.  We rented a tiny chalet nearby for some convalescence and bonding time.  The country is sweet and the life simple.

The chair where I sit

Two thirds of cottage, kitchen/diner and wc/shower room, 

The bedroom and one chair room, my sarong protects the window from the 3am dawn, C, erm, reads...again

Gothenburg Gardens

Then at lunchtime we came down to a beautiful city garden, created by the local horticultural society...

Garden and golden Swedish legs...

With a lovely cafe...

Lillypads in the glasshouse...

....in the tropical house...

... a fern bench...

A cactus bed

...with succulent flowers.

Crocodile hunting

Two trees grow as one cone...

Swedish Pilgrimage

We made a pilgrimage to Sweden to be with Yeshayahu Ben Aharon and some Nordic members of his Global Event School ,


First, we took some time to visit Gothenburg (in Swedish: Göteborg, pronounced [jœtəˈbɔrj], I have heard this pronounced, and it sounds much as it looks, so we'll stick with Gothenburg.

Totally Touroidistical, JC stands on one of Gothenburg's canal bridges, a lock behind him

Merchant city, warehouses, trams to the left, as the ground is too marshy to build  underground trains,  and a Padden boat, flat enough to get under the low bridges, so you can take a tour of the city's canal's and its sheltered sea port.

Time for a quick read before we cast off

JC kneels before me, to make sure his head does not hit the 'Cheesegrater'  - Gothenburg's lowest bridge.  Strangely the woman in front of him his half French and half Swedish, note the unlikely combination of profile and tattoo

Ducking under the rusty Cheesegrater

Gothenburg's dockside development and floating ship museum, delightfully not over done

This Danish ship has tall masts which cannot be lowered.  A short time after it docked here the Swedish built a really low bridge between it and the sea, so here it stays.

The St Erik with storm descending

Storm inevitable, the Padden boat owners put up a sort of windbreak...

...and sell us yellow rain ponchos...shortly afterwards the storm strikes and I am forced to put my camera away for its own safety

Please note wet bottom - JC scampers for shelter

And finds solace in a lovely cafe...where he can once more read

Rafting

They go Rafting

Getting in...

The young in wetsuits bob off hugging the rubber sides;  one will fall into the living flow, one will jump off, one will jump five metres down into it for the hell and the heaven of it and be rescued by ropes.  The raft will spin and jump high and plunge under and sail over rapids.  Feet will be waterlogged and numb, and the rafters will grow to love the river and their raft mates for a moment or two.

Falling in...

Hurried goodbye...

Setting off...

...for the open river...

Our Trusty Heros

Rafting KAYAK CLUB à SOUEIX Ariege Pyrenees,

Vatican Country

We stayed at the Villa Tassoni (aparthotel) 20 minutes walk from the Vatican (smallest country in the world even smaller than Luxembourg). The Vatican museum has 2 advantages, readily available reasonably priced pizzerias serving excellent cappuccino and outdoor courtyards, meaning the whole family experienced a blissful day out at the museum alone, a veritable Banquet for the Soul, most of which I was unable to photograph because the camera battery ran out. However, we have some views from the Villa Tassoni, JC enjoying breakfast, R showing me his mandela, and reminding me that the heating was set at 29 degrees.

The only marble I was able to catch on camera was pretend marble painted on the wall.

The golden corridor of the map room, and a detail from one of the Dawn Treader type maps, showing the waves of the sea. R benefited from B's binoculars to admire the highly decorated ceiling from the prone position and JC is uplifted.