In search of vacation mode

Not easy...
Apparently it's not all that easy getting into vacation mode, after a long year of unbelievably hard and demanding work. Hardest ever, in my case.

My mind cannot wrap around it. I'm off - it's day three (writing this)  - and I feel only emptiness.
I guess I need to get utterly bored in order to feel creative in that vacation mode creative state of mind that I always get in?

We've been doing some work in the garden (well, we equals hubby in this case, due to my darn finger that's still black and still four times its regular size) and I've rearranged furniture and done some cleaning. But I feel stressed and I'm guessing there's no getting around the fact that the first week of vacation is needed for winding down?

Pre vacation kind of fun, visiting a sight here that I haven't seen in the last 31 years, or so...!

Yay, I manage to notice the detail, the small thing and it makes all the difference!

Damn straight!!

Well, sitting on the couch watching a pensive sky outside the garden door, looking at the pics I've taken during our friends' visit, sure ain't half bad. It's turning out to be a good warm up for a vacation less mind.

Roger that. I'll obey!

My friend Penny and I got our hubs in order, at long last.

I must say that it was worth our wait!!

The sweetest guide totally entertained us taking us around the oldest 

and best kept fort in Scandinavia.

Childhood memories revisited

I went to this place as a child. I went there with my class at grammar school and for some reason I never forgot it. Naturally everything looked smaller this time, like it always does, but apart from that it was all that grandness that I remembered. 

My dear sweet childhood classmates meant the world to me and going back now with dear sweet friends again was very fulfilling for me.

It was childhood revisited and it was good.

Picturesque.

Even I felt it, I admit, it reeked of summer.

Those old forts were dark inside, since they needed to be secure from intruders.

Summer's here. This grey pensive day allows me to not rush out and take the opportunity to do all those things I really ought to do. Which is good. I vow to drink wine and BBQ tonight and watch a good movie, or two.

After all, it IS vacation!

Vacation means happy bathing in a mildly tempered sea.

Brave kiddos. My boy sure impressed and surprised me!

The time has come to enjoy the loved ones and the cherished ones as much as I possibly can.

And so, that's what I do.

I'll let this pensiveness fly away and I'll cast all diets aside and allow myself to taste the cupcakes we baked and maybe have some cheese with the wine.

This weekend I'll enjoy welcoming yet another guest: a good girlfriend who was our very first guest in this house last summer, is coming back for more!

Have a grand weekend all of you! 

I think this weekend will be the days to grasp that vacation is here.