27th June 2016. Lindby, Mid Öland, Sweden.

We went out for another bike ride before we started the usual routine of working and trying to catch up with the blog.

This time we turned right out of the lane and cycled for a few kilometres before I found it necessary to turn back to Lindby Boden because my behind was so tender!

We popped into the Butik for a restorative coffee and cake (and ice cream) and a chat with Viveka, which was becoming a daily treat.  She told me she’d found the saddle and showed it to me.  It was just what I needed, larger than my saddle and sprung and it was brand new!

She also told us that she’d had a note to say that our parcel had arrived at the pickup point in Borgholm and that she would go and collect it for us, which was very kind of her as that was a 20 km round trip, she said she needed to do some shopping so she’d collect it then.

We went back to the van to see whether the saddle would fit my bike.  As we passed the hives beside the loppis I was intrigued by the sound coming from the hives, the bees seemed to be very busy today so I had to stop and take some photographs.

While we were rummaging around in the boot of the van I remembered we were carrying around a jute laundry basket that we’d bought from Lakeland but which had turned out to be cumbersome so we had replaced it with a Lidl bag which was smaller and didn’t need to be hung up, we thought we’d donate it to Viveka’s loppis but instead she took 20 Kr off the price of the saddle and sold me my lovely saddle for 50 Kr (£4.24) which was very generous of her and I am sure I will be grateful to her every time I take my bicycle out.

We went back to the van to do some more work/blogging and Darren suddenly called out to me to look out the front of the van.  As he ‘wittily’ said afterwards, a hare came ‘haring past’ the front of the van and seconds later another one followed it into the field we had originally parked in.  To add to our entertainment, moments later, a rabbit nonchalantly hopped down the woodland track towards us then disappeared into the other field.  He appeared to be completely oblivious of the two hares, momentarily, the minute they caught sight of him they chased him back out again!

I don’t know what the hares were on but they spent an awfully long time just racing round and round the van, sometimes adding in a circuit of the field for a change of scenery!  We thoroughly enjoyed watching them but it was quite puzzling behaviour nevertheless.

Unfortunately for me, in the excitement of witnessing this bizarre event and from my ungainly vantage point, hanging over the back of the driver’s seat, I only managed to get a few tiny, slightly out of focus, photos of the hares chasing the rabbit off.  I did manage to get a photo of one of the hares leaving though.

Not long afterwards Viveka and her husband returned with our parcel from home, it was a relief to receive that (replacement bank card) and we were very appreciative of the effort Darren’s sister Paula had gone to on our behalf.

While we were working we kept seeing farm machinery going into the field we had originally camped in so I went over to see what was going on.  The farmer was harvesting his crops.  It was interesting watching the machines at work and the seagulls swooping over the ground as it was dug up.