Oh those glorious memories

When I was a child, I was so lucky. I had a grandfather and grandmother who lived in a house in south of Sweden, just by the coast. There was room enough for both my family and for my cousins family.

We spent our days playing, me and my cousins Anna & Anders. We were in the ocean more than out of the ocean, or so it feels like now, when I am looking back at it.

We had no worries what so ever. We got good food, absolutely amazing bread and baked stuff from the bakery just a few minutes down the street from the houses. We were carefree, careless and never careful. My least favorite thing in those days were the small crabs that I had heard would pinch your toes (in the water, not anywhere else!) if you were unlucky. (I never was nor heard of anyone who actually encountered this...)

Me and my cousin Anna were the same age, but Anders was a little bit younger and we spent an awful lot of time teasing him or running away from him. But he was our little shadow. These days I have Anna on my Facebook but I haven't spoken to Anders for oh, thirty years or so. (he might still be holding a grudge!!)

In the time when we weren't down-south, we were out in the woods around Stockholm, in tents and I was playing with my friend Jeanette (still the bestest of friend you can ever imagine). We played all day longs, doing scout-things or just out picking mushrooms and berries... Never a worry about anything. (apart from parents or leaders trying to make us do proper things like tying knots etc...)

These days we have tics. They're absolutely everywhere! (and specially out in the woods and the nature) They carry illnesses that we had never heard of when we were little. Scary illnesses... It makes me wonder if it has something to do with global warming, I don't know. I do know that they like the warm winters. (Just like me...)

I just had my shot for this year, should protect me a little bit from the worst illnesses but it wont protect me from those little buggers sucking my blood. And them looking horribly disgusting after having done so.

I must say that I do prefer the small crabs pinching our toes.