Åsa och Martin

Åsa and Martin got married in Vaxholm, a couple of months ago.
They had the luck of enjoying both a beautiful weather and their young son being in a top mood that day!

Emma and Martin.

When i left Stockholm to go to Lidö, near Norrtälje, in the early August, i got almost depressed.

I had met Emma a couple of times, long before their wedding day, and i had heard her talking so enthousiastically about the planned wedding ceremony near the water!

When i left Stockholm that morning it was raining. The more i drove (from the approximately 100 km) the darker it became. In the middle of the way it was so heavily pouring water that i could hardly drive with 50 km/h in the highway and visibility was just a few meters in front of me...

But when i got just a few kilometers away from the harbour to take the boat to Lidö, it was as if somebody drew the black curtain away. Wonderful summer weather with people sitting by the water, enjoying the sunshine and eating icecream.

I met the couple and their guests on the island. 

It was a beautiful, relaxed feeling all the time, from the preparations of the bride with help of her friends, during the ceremony, and even afterwards. 

Exactly as Emma had told me at our first meeting, long before the wedding; "we shall not have extremes, everything will be very laid-back".

(somebody was not fast enough to congratulate the just-married couple!)

My pilgrim journey to the Holly Mountain Athos, in Greece.

   That was the 10th time i visited the monastic community in Greece and as always it was a great experience.

   I visited the monastery of Filotheou where my friend brother Gabriel was waiting for me.

  As soon as i arrived with some other visitors, we where wellcomed by the arhontaris with the traditional loukoumi and tsipouro (some kind of jelly sweet and raki).

The weather was not particularly good but the autumn colours where just stunning.

The next morning, after the service, we headed to the monastery of Karakalou, some half an hour walking through the forest.

There i met another friend, brother Arsenios, who kindly showed me the monastery.

We went to the cellars where they still keep a huge barell from the 16th century, where they used to store the wine that the monastery produced.

It is so big that the height of the ceiling was not enough and they where forced to dig in the floor so that a part of the barell would be in the ground...

Leaving the monastery on our way back to Filotheou, we came across the fields where the monastery grows its olive trees. 

It was the harvesting time. 

It's the monks themselves who still collect the olives in the traditional way.

If you wish to learn more about the monastic community in Athos, visit the link;

http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/Athos/

If you wish to see more of my pictures from previous travels to Athos (to different monasteries as well) please visit the link;

http://orasisfoto.smugmug.com/Travel/143825