30th and 31st July

I tidied up a bit in the morning and put on a couple of washes in the machines. The washing machine had three controls; an on / off button, a knob and another button without label and no instructions. I put the washing in, turned the machine on, chose the program with the knob and nothing happened. I tried pushing the unidentified  button where upon it switched off. I tried turning it on again and it was locked on a 2.5 hour program instead of the 40 minute one I’d asked for. It was however working so I left it. The next wash, I was expecting this so tried turning it on choosing the program and waiting. And waiting. Nothing happened. I tried turning it off and on again. Nothing. Eventually I tried the unidentified button again and, again, it turned off. Upon turning it on again it was locked on the 2.5 hour program again…. bloody machines.

With this one on I  went for a walk  in the woods opposite intending to do the 9Km walk but managing to miss a turning and just to do a couple of others. I did see plenty of wildlife - a big raptor, not quite sure what, it was in the distance apart from any failings on my identification prowess. A Roe deer, watched me for a bit before gently pootling off as I was getting to the point of finding the camera on my phone. A woodpecker and loads of butterflies. In the evening I tried a restaurant / pub in the main square but it had stopped serving food so I just had a beer before going for for a falafel and salad dinner around the corner at a kebab shop - quite numerous here.

Yesterday I assembled my bike and went for a ride along the canal towards Norsholm, once out of Soderkoping, it was pretty quiet. After a few miles the foot path stopped, there were signs for a bicycle ferry but looking at the map there were roads there anyway so I went on road for a bit and cycled to Norsholm where there is a rail bridge and a couple of locks and, maybe worth noting, a supermarket. Riding back I stopped at a hardware shop and managed to buy a  pair of plugs / sockets for the shore power cable. Back in Soderkoping I was in time for lunch at the buffet cafe and had a large lunch although I did have some salad amongst it. Back on the boat I made a lasagne for Jean and Ailsa arriving on the morrow fitted the pug / socket.

In the evening I found some sausages which were a bit beyond their use by date and although not hungry decided I’d better eat them for dinner as I didn’t want to try them on anyone else so  had them with toast for dinner before going for a ride along the canal the other way for sunset.