a trip to Mellerud, a parcel and a prize!

Hi all, a quick update,
I've been very busy this morning, at 11am this morning I drove to the nearest large village and spoke for almost 2 hours to a small group of teenagers from the Youth Club there, who will be going to Mellerud, Sweden for a cultural visit at the end of August. A friend of mine had spotted a small notice in the local paper, the Limerick Leader, about the group going to Sweden and possibly needing some help with translation, basic phrases etc, so my friend told me, I called the contact number and there I was this morning, spouting forth on Sweden, the food, some of the traditions, etc. I even had typed out some basic phrases and how to pronounce them phonetically.
I go back again next week and will meet with a larger group, 20 more children and their group leaders to possibly give a similar presentation and to do some translation.
I have even found a reference to the visit online, see this edition of Melleruds Nyheter
Very exciting!
EDITED TO ADD: the link to Melleruds Nyheter seems to go to the most uptodate version of the newsletter, and so the bit about the Irish visit has already gone, but I'm leaving the link up, as at least one of my readers and possibly 3, are nterested in what happens around Mellerud!!! (L i Vänersborg, S i torpet, och K i Killaloe)

The postman arrived this morning before I left, with 2 parcels for me! One was a spindle and some gorgeous yarn called Northern Lights 3, (how could i leave that behind me, with a Scandinavian name like that?), which I had ordered online from THis is Knit in Dublin.


Ashford spindle, top-whorl, and Northern Lights 3 wool, to spin on the spindle...


The other was a skein of incredible hand spun wool which I won , yes , repeat that, I WON, in a competition on Ullmaja's blogg, see the link down to the right...

the wool is partially hand-dyed, you probably can't see this in the photo, but there's a lovely dusky pink in the yarn too...

Klipp från själva blogginlägget....
Andra garnhärvan från vänster är ett entrådigt, tunt garn, helt i egen ull, delvis färgad.
Hamnar hos Liz, på Irland!
Jag blev överlycklig när jag läste att jag hade vunnit, jag har aldrig vunnit nåt på bloggen förut, och nu tycker jag att av alla de saker man kunde vinna att hemspunnet, hemfärgat garn är det bästa man skulle kunna tänka sig!
Tack så mycket säger jag till Ullmaja! Jag ska verkligen sticka mig något roligt med detta garn!
Now I need to get the camera sorted to take some photos, but it's raining outside and I'd prefer to take the photos outside for once.
regards
liz