Reunion party and The Big Island

Thursday night I spent some hours with my mother's sewing machine. She bought a new one this year and of course I've been longing to use it. I made a little top or whatever it's called out of the cherry fabric that I bought in Kichijouji in Tokyo. I didn't use any pattern but it actually turned out quiet well. I was wearing that top yesterday when I went to the neighbouring town Skövde to a party at my old friend Tove's place. She has a new really fancy apartment that she has decorated by herself in Indian style. It was so nice. High five. Many of my friends from my junior high school times were there (Tove and Sara at the picture) and it was nice to see how everyone was doing and what they have been up to over the years. It was also nice when Adam fooled me in to calling all of his anime nerd friends to talk to them in Japanese. Confusing but very entertaining.
Today, my sister and her boyfriend Uncle Scrooge (or Joakim as he's sometimes called) came by train to spend the weekend at our place. The plan for today was to go to Storön, translated the big island, where we have our summer house. Me, those two, and my father took the car for about 40 minutes to a little tiny village called Otterbäcken. I think that this little village had its economical peak at the 70's or so when half of the town's people worked at the same successful factory. The people working there got little summer houses at the island of Storön in the lake Vänern, on which shore the village is situated, and when the factory was shut down some years later they sold the houses to the public. My father and uncle bought one of those together and since then they spend their holidays and weekends renovating it. Anyhow. From Otterbäcken it takes about 20 minutes with our little wooden boat (about 5 if you have a normal one) and once you reach the shore of the island you have to walk for maybe 15 minutes. At this island there are not too many things to do actually, at least not if you don't like hanging in the nature. If you do though, there are mushrooms and berries to pick and a very big lake to swim in. We hunted mushrooms for hours today, but managed only to find inedible suspicious ones. We found some berries though and this season is perfect for blackberries. They don't taste very well raw, but if you make yam from them and eat it with a buttered toast, you're in heaven. We also found smultron, forest strawberries. But only a few.
At walking distance from our little cottage there are nice cliffs that you can sunbathe on. If it's not too cold you can also swim a little. My sister tried to swim but looked quite terrified when she stuck her foot into the water that might have reached a temperature of maximum 17 degrees. I was at peace with just sitting at the cliffs listening to nothing but the waves (and occasional cry-outs from Stina.) Today was actually the first day since my return to Sweden that I could enjoy the landscapes and the silence of the countryside. It might have been because of the blue sky or because of the fact that Tomoya is coming in only 2 weeks. I survived one, and I hope it will be no problem to wait the rest of the time aswell.