Monthly Archive: July 2009

29
Jul
2009

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Are you all the time noticing things, seeing things that others maybe don’t see? There are things to notice all around you, all the time. If you keep your eyes open and just watch where you’re going, you won’t believe the things you see, sometimes. Mostly it’s little things, the little things that seem to be beneath people’s notice: the way the feathered grasses grow in wavey patterns when there’s a whole field full of them. The way the flowers burst out again when the weather has been cool for a week. The funny face that little kid you passed...

28
Jul
2009

JUST NOW

Magic summer evening where nothing is more immediate than the robin’s-egg sky, the white clouds, the warm breeze and the multi-hued horizon where the sun is diving down through whitened blue into rainbow layers of light. A beetle busily crosses the path and a caterpillar moseys along a leaf. Peacock butterflies flit nearby as you head into the over-arching greenness of the snail trail tunnel. The lawnmower is singing in the backyard, scything down the purple and white clover sprinkled over the lawn, and once in awhile a pheasant ratchets a high note harmony. Martin is on the phone with...

27
Jul
2009

WALKING, WATCHING, WINDING DOWN

Walking with a large dog tugging at the end of your arm is quite different from the easy-sway, arm-swinging stride you normally produce. We are dog-sitting Max, the border collie that lives next door, for 2.5 days while his family is on a mini-vacation. We know that having a dog around the house makes the dog-longing worse, but none of us can resist any chance that comes up, far and few between as they are. Max apparently walks much the same round that I usually do, as he was ahead of me the whole time and never missed a beat...

25
Jul
2009

EASILY AMUSED

I think I’ve been in Europe too long. Just now, I changed the default settings on my weather page to Celsius. Good lord! And it’s not like the numbers in Fahrenheit don’t mean anything anymore…it’s just I’m so used to shivering when it’s 10 degrees and boiling when it’s 30 that 50 and 86 just don’t compute quite as quickly as they used to. I still measure things in my head in inches and have no real mental spatial relationship to the metric system at all. I routinely ask people at work to show me with their fingers how much...

24
Jul
2009

AND THE ENVELOPE GOES TO…

Findus, along with Martin and Karin, is VERY excited to announce the winner of the Great Plush Animal Purge Contest 2009! You all have a lot more faith in my ability to get rid of things than I do: reebert guessed a whopping 12 bags! ms_hackman guessed 24 but I suspect she wasn’t really seriously trying to win another stuffed animal. 😀 Lizardmom and hi_from_sheryl got a bit closer with 9 and 8 respectively, but blog lurker Carolina hit the nail on the head with her answer: 5 bags! Yay! The tiebreaker, which wasn’t needed, was 2 kept and 2...

23
Jul
2009

SCATTERED PLEASURES

Feeling a bit scattered this evening, as though the super-focus I’ve been reveling in all week has finally loosened and blown apart a little bit. Some days I think I am just the same as ever. Other days I can’t believe how much I’ve changed. Just deleted several lines of existential angsty garble, most likely brought on by too-rapidly approaching birthday. Be glad. Some things I am thinking about: 2 weeks in the States! Woot! Can’t wait! 2 weeks with my mom! WOOT! My super salads for lunch have done the trick this week: I’ve lost 1.8 kilos. Good to...

22
Jul
2009

RABBITS DO IT TO YOU EVERY TIME

Whilst (whilst!) out for our evening promenade, Martin and I met a large wood pigeon who sparked a discussion about the oversized birds one finds in Sweden, which led to a mention of a red-eyed rabbit (actually, a hare) which Martin had seen in our garden some time ago, and how big THEY are (even the ones without red eyes). I wondered why he had red eyes and Martin said he was moving very jerkily so I said maybe he was sick, and Martin said maybe he was a robot. Which led to the evolution of this tongue twister (say...

21
Jul
2009

PLUSH PURGING & A CONTEST!

The Great Plush Animal Purge of 2009 is over and lo! We have all survived. In the playroom we have a huge round basket. It’s big enough for both kids to get into and hunch down. It was STUFFED full (ha! get it?) of stuffed animals. In addition, Martin had an hanging toy storage unit that was full of stuffed animals in each of 6 compartments. AND both kids have a half dozen or so of their very favorites in their beds. All in all, I suspect we had well over 150 stuffed animals of various sizes and cuteness. If...

20
Jul
2009

YUMMY THINGS I LIKE TO PUT IN SALADS, THOUGH NOT ALL AT ONCE

Leaf lettuce Romaine lettuce Ruccola Pearl tomatoes Avocado Plum tomatoes Yellow cherry tomatoes Sun-dried tomatoes Kohlrabi Black olives Artichoke hearts Hearts of palm* Snap peas Snow peas Cucumber Red, orange or yellow bell peppers (sparingly) Dried cranberries Cold boiled potatoes Hard-boiled egg Tuna Bacon (real bits) Broccoli Asparagus Pistachios Pine nuts Feta cheese Red onion Scallions Parmesan cheese Croutons** Mushrooms Carrots Lentils Seedless grapes** Chopped boiled ham Couscous A little pasta *YUM! Why is it so hard to find them in Sweden? I haven’t had them in ages! **Once in a blue moon What do YOU like in your salads?...

19
Jul
2009

WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON

It’s been really cool and still in the evenings this past week, with clearly defined clouds in the sky and amazing sunsets, regardless of the temperature or weather during the day. Swallows are flying high above the village, darting like maniacs in loop-de-loops and I’m already seeing geese and hearing swans winging by overhead on their migratory airpaths. Even though it is the middle of summer, it feels like the arc is descending, partly, I’m sure, because I’m back at work. For the first time in the 12 years of existence of the AWC Malmö, we had to cancel the...

July 2009
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