The Content Reader

I have been on Mallorca. It is a lovely place, all the year around, but especially in the autumn, where the weather here in the northern part of Europe is grey, rainy and depressing. We had a wonderful time, and apart from two days of rather windy shores, beautiful sunshine and t-shirt weather. We visited all our favourite places, since we don't know when we will come back next time. I brought two books with me, already started, and thinking I would finish them. And so I did. It was Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd and Burning Bright by Trace Chevalier. Mostly read at the flat, but managed to read also in beautiful and favourite places. I recently read Brazzaville Beach  by William Boyd, highly recommended from my brother-in-law. Really loved the book, so eager to read another one. This I had on my TBR shelves. It is not in the same league as Brazzaville Beach. Totally different setting, this time starting in Vienna in 1913 where Lysander Rief, an actor, comes for a psych...

It has been a busy month for me, so as a consequence, the blogging has been suffering. First my parents were here for two weeks which was very nice. We don't meet that often. Then we were preparing documents for the sale of our flat in Mallorca. Last week saw us there, emptying the flat and finalising the sell contract. A lot of work! At the same time it was sad to leave this wonderful apartment, but it was too big for us and a lot of work. Next time we go to Mallorca we rent something and just enjoy this wonderful island, where you always discover something new. View from the Cathedral in Palma Reading has been a little bit slow as well, but I have managed to finish a few books in March. I also wrote four reviews. Reviews will come for the wonderful The Sage of Waterloo  by my Brontë group friend Leona Francombe, for an interesting audio book on Che by Björn Kumm ,  as well as What Maise Knew  by Henry James. It is not that easy to review his novels, since, once yo...

I would like to start by thanking you all for visiting my blog in 2015. It is always a pleasure and interesting to ’talk’ to fellow bloggers out there. To read your blogs and get inspired. I hope you will continue to visit my blog in the coming year, and I hope to develop it further in 2016. The end of the year was spent in lovely Mallorca. The weather was fantastic, with sunshine and around 20 degrees Celsius. Already George Sand and Frédéric Chopin enjoyed ”A Winter in Mallorca”, and I really love the winter here. The climate is fantastic, off tourist season so everything is quiet and peaceful. The sunsets have been amazing in all it colours. Sunset from our balcony ...and the sky a little bit later Reading in 2015 I have read quite a lot of books in December, although it has been a rather busy month. The last days I have spent on the latest book in the Outlander series. I have kept it on hold, because I know that it will take some time before book number nine is o...

Christmas is over for this year. We had a quite Christmas here in Mallorca. Beautiful Christmas mass in the Cathedral of Palma to get a little bit of tradition to an otherwise rather untraditional Christmas. At least for a Swede. No snow here, just lovely sunshine, blue sky and around 20 degrees C. As you see from my December reading I have managed quite a few books this month. I also got two books for Christmas; Blå stjärnan by Jan Guillou - the fifth instalment in Guillou's family saga of the 20th century and from my geology studying son, Fossiljägarna  (The Fossil Hunters) by Björn Hagberg and Martin Widman. One of the big mysteries of evolution when and how 'the fish went ashore'. I love these kind of books and have already started reading it. Have a look at the wonderful book marks, also a present from my son. I see many of you have already done a summary of your 2015 reading. Since I expect to read at least one more book before the end of the year, I will p...

Yes, you read it right! I have downloaded a couple of e-books to enlighten my stay in Mallorca. I am going there tomorrow. Being alone for the first few days, I will enjoy the freedom to read most of the days. Having been busy lately with visitors, I have not been able to read as much as I would have liked. So, promise that there will be a few reviews coming up here. So, what has inspired me to buy books again? First, having started to watch the BBC drama Poldark , based on the books by Winston Graham, I had to buy the first four books. I read the first two, when I was young (many years ago now, and quite forgotten, although I remember loving them). The first four are Ross, Demelza, Jeremy and Warleggan. I also found for free from Endeavour Press , To Be a Lady: Biography of Catherine Cookson  by Cliff Goodwin. I remember reading a lot of her books as I was younger (!!don't worry, I am not going back to my childhood memories yet, although it might seem so). Also found on YouTub...

I still have to read up on your close up for 2014 and your goals for 2015, as well as doing it myself. Having been away from home during Christmas and New Year, the blog has suffered. I promise that from next week I will see you more regularly again. Celebrating this time of year in Mallorca is a treat. The weather has been fantastic, sunny and around 18-22 degrees C. Some rain and storms in between Christmas and New Year but now we are back on the sunny side. Christmas here means a stroll through the wonderful town of Palma, some tapas and then head for the cathedral which is open for a Christmas mass. As usual wonderfully decorated. Afterwords back to the flat for some Swedish Christmas buffet. This year we celebrated with our parents so the house was full. Now back to the quiet times and we are enjoying the nature here with walks. Martin is taking a walk over the mountains while I am enjoying a nice lunch here in Port de Pollenca.

Els Calderers We have been to Mallorca regularly for about 12 years. Still, after all this time, we find places, houses, restaurants, beaches and much more where we never visited. This time we made an excursion to Els Calderers. It has been on my list to do for a long time. It is a manor house that has been in the same family for many years. The present building is in the style from around 1750. The family has now opened the house as a museum and for that we can only be grateful. The office (I am envious of course!) It was once one of the largest wine estates in Mallorca. As so many other wine farmers in Europe they were caught up by the wine louse, phylloxera, which came from the United States some time around 1860. The vine had to be taken away and it was replaced by more traditional farming. The inner yard in autumn colours The tour around the house is lovely and you are transported back in time (even if this is not the Outlander ). The furniture and the traditiona...

I am in Mallorca this week. We had a friend come to visit so we did a nice walk and some nice restaurants. Now it is time for some serious stuff. We decided to go north-east to do some trekking. Unfortunately, we choose a day which was sunny where we are in the south west to go north east. There the clouds we getting very dark, thunder in the distance and when we were ready to go for our walk the rain started to come. We saw a wonderful rainbow though. Looking where the sun was we decided to continue eastwards. It seemed that once we reached the places it was getting darker too. However, we started on our tour over the mountains (hills my husband would say who is Austrian). Once on top of the first one, with a heavy wind, which you can see on the picture below, it started to rain. Just to go back again. We decided to take a break in a nearby restaurant. Some tapas helped us gather new energy, and once they were done, the weather improved. I could see the tower we wanted to visit...

Raixa Raixa is a manor house that traces its beginnings back to the Islamic times when it most likely was a farmstead. The development of the house came when the first count of Montenegro, Ramon Despuig i Rocaberti, bought Raixa in 1660. It then became a family home. The house was expanded over the next century. The most important persons to the development of the house were the brothers Joan and Antoni Despuig i Dameto . Joan (1735-1813) was the fourth count of Montenegro and the seventh count of Montoro. His brother Antoni (1745-1813) followed an ecclesiastical career and was appointed Cardinal by Pope Pio VII in 1803. He was the one who had ambitions for Raixa and was a patron and collector of art and antiques during his stay in Italy. He also sponsored excavations near Rome. With the finds, which he transferred to Raixa, he established a museum in the house. He is also the man behind the carved, terraced garden that lingers along the hill on the back of the house. It was dec...