Report from Söderarm 2009-03-22

HAS SPRING ARRIVED???

I’m sorry to say that I have been worse than bad at writing reports from Söderarm after Christmas, but here is one.
Last Saturday you could feel that spring is coming along. In one off the flower-beds you could see one lonely snowdrop! On the wall in front of me I an see a picture dated from the 21th of march 2006. At that time you couln´t see any snowdrops. The ice was 15 cm thick all the way out from the mainland and we had to hitch-hike with an ice-breaking pilots boat to get out here. The small snowdrop gives you a presentiment that spring might come on the 21 of March. The weather conditions have shifted fast. When Lotta and I arrived on the 11 of march we met this:

It was hard snow walls about 50 cm in high on several locations on the island.
The only thing to do was to shovel snow and hope for our small ATW “Loppan” to manage crossing the snow. It did! I have been out here on Söderarm for 10 years and so far I have never seen so much snow.
When it comes to our activities all is proceeding well. A lot of work had to be done in December. A calm period followed in January. We all took the opportunity to have some time off.
In February and March we have not had so many groups visiting us but on the other hand the groups that have come have been quite large ( by our standards ) and have stayed for three days.
When we have been free from guests we have had a full schedule doing other things. We have rebuilt our sauna, which was destroyed by the storm of the 23 of  November. We have also done maintenance work and small improvements for our guests. By experience we know that during May and juke we won´t be able to do anything but attend to our guests and do the most urgent of maintenance work. Our five main buildings are housing a lot of technical installations which must be attended to.

Now it remains to see what spring will bring. Nature will turn green and our summer birds will return. That we know!
What we don´t get know is how many guests will come. So far it looks good, but in these days you never know what will come out in the end.

Now we will see if I will manage to fulfill my previous aim to write one report a month. I sure will try!
Until then: Have a good time! Enjoy spring! Spring is beautiful.

Kindest regards from Söderarm
Anngret, Christer and Lotta 
( Anngret wrote these lines )

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