is the name of the little fishing village on the west coast of southern Sweden where I return whenever I can to spend time with my cousins and friends from my teenage years.
'Fishing Village' is of course rather a misnomer- there is not much fishing going on, the little harbour is full of pleasure boats and well-healed summer guests.
The walk by the beach is an olfactory treat as roses mix with the seaweed and salt water to create a heady happy scent.
My cousins regaled me with a garden barbecue on the night of my arrival:
and I finally handed over to Pelle, my oldest cousin, the leather briefcase which was a present from Dr. Faira and the cataract team that come to Djenne every year. It is Pelle and his wife Nanni who have sponsored these free operations in Djenne for many years now.
The briefcase also contained an official letter from the Djenne Mayor, extravagantly stamped and conveyed in a ceremonial eighteenth century French with Islamic touches which expressed gratefulness and wished happiness and the eventual safe conduct for them both into Paradise and the bosom of Abraham.
There were boating trips and there were picnics and cycling trips- there were memories of endless childhood days spent on the jetty crab fishing:
And yesterday I crossed Skane- the southern tip of Sweden to reach the Baltic eastern coast and my big pal Eva the former Swedish ambassador to Mali in her ravishing coastal village of Brantevik!
Not a cloud in the sky today. Picnic by the sea tonight- picnics seems to have become the preferred means of having fun all this summer- even here, although the Swedes never shut down their restaurants..!
Wonderful photos!
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