Bathing suits, sunscreen, mosquito spray are packed. 4 different kinds of herring are pickled and layered in goodness in their mason jars. I’m drooling for strawberries and cream. Off to dance around the midsummer pole! It’s hot! I’m melting! Yay Sweden, for finally coming through on summer! Wonderful, Wild and Wooly Birthday Wishes to verian!
Poor Carl Linneaus. Only one of the greater scientific minds of the 18th century. You slog and slog through ACRES of vegetative organization, discovering new species, naming them, figuring out a complete naming system, fer chrissakes, make such a reputation for yourself that your name goes up in lights across scientific history marquees everywhere as the Father of Taxonomy,…and then you’re doomed to be referred to by 7-year-olds in 21st century Sweden as “gubben på hundralappen.”* I will really miss Swedish money when the colorful but soulless Euro comes to town. I already mourned the demise of Holland’s pretty currency,...
Places I Do Not Live: Fly or Flyvbjerg, Denmark Fly, Flybacken, Flyeboda, Flykälen, Flymen, Flyn, Flyeryd or Flygfors, Sweden Flyford Flavell, England Flying Point, Flying Mountain, or Flynns Lick, USA Flyugovka, Russia Flyverfjord, Norway Other Places on the Same Latitude: Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia The Bering Sea Ketchikan, Alaska Hudson Bay, Canada Glasgow, Scotland Things You Might Not Have Known About Sweden: It’s the fifth largest country in Europe It’s roughly the same size as California or Japan* Since 1814 and the Napoleanic conflicts, Sweden has not actively taken part in any wars** The average temperature in Malmö during...
I’m very sad about this weather. After 8.5 years in Sweden, you’d think I would have grown used to this sort of disappointment, but to be honest, the weather here has such a hold over people’s lives and moods, it’s hard to get away from it, and after last weekend, with its sunshine and warmth and buzzing bees, it’s doubly hard to deal with WINTER WEATHER IN JUNE. Again. A 3-day weekend is looming, since Monday is a holiday here. Sweden’s National Day, which they finally gave themselves OFF after nearly a hundred years. June 6th has been Sweden’s flag...
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in my life as I did this weekend. As we all did. Emily and Martin had prepared enough food for an army and there were only 6 of us, plus 3 kids and a baby who ate very small portions, mouse portions, BEETLE portions, in comparison to what we consumed. It was ALL so good, though. For dinner there were grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon, grilled ribs, grilled pork filets, grilled beef tenderloin, brown rice and zucchini risotto, 2 sauces to go with all the meat, and Martin never even got around...