Tagged: goodthings

29
May
2026

WHIRLWIND WEEK

Well, that went fast! John and family arrived just in time for dinner on Saturday and we were going full throttle ever since. We had absolutely perfect weather the entire week as well; Sweden showing off its best side. The lilacs are in full bloom and our yard is looking beautiful thanks to Anders. We played lots of games including Yardtzee (coined by Karin), 0-100, Uno, City-Country-Idiot, and lots of Trivial Pursuit questions. The kids were great, and Lola was the most well-behaved dog ever. We went to Lund’s Pinball Academy, and the Moose tour, and played mini-golf. We had...

23
May
2026

PREPPING FOR HOUSE GUESTS

My brother and his family get here in about 2 hours, for a week-long stay, and I am ready! Well, the house is ready. The yard is ready (apart from planting cucumbers and tomatoes and a little bit of weeding needed under the trellis, which I can’t do because of my stupid knees. Anders took a garage-load of stuff to the dump this morning, and I’ve been cleaning and organizing since I got up. It’s a very warm and humid day, and I just had to wet my hair down because it was being crazy. It’s too short to do...

10
May
2026

ZOOMING FORWARD

I may have to do some rethinking about my new year’s challenge of writing a letter a month. I’ve been struggling to decide who to write to for May. I wrote a short list of people (that haven’t already received a letter), and it made me realize how little contact I have with old friends and relatives these days. Social media just doesn’t cut it. Friendships that I once would have said were solid have become tattered and unraveled over the many years. In some cases, I haven’t seen a friend except once or twice since we moved to Sweden,...

01
May
2026

DOUBLE RABBIT RABBIT RABBITS!

Two days in a row where I’ve had occasion to say “Rabbit rabbit rabbit” …that only happens once a year, if at all. Today is May 1st, a holiday here in Europe (it’s Labor Day) and yesterday was Valborgsmässoafton, or Walpurgis Eve in English, which isn’t a day off, but is cause for a traditional celebration here in Sweden regardless. That makes today a double holiday as it is also the feast day for Saint Walpurgia, who would probably be astonished and gratified to learn that her name is still a part of the calendar and that many parts of...

26
Apr
2026

A BIRD IN THE HAND

I don’t consider myself a birdwatcher, though I very much enjoy feeding the birds that come to our yard through the winter, and watching them. I’m always thrilled when we get one of the woodpeckers, and it’s exciting to see a chaffinch, a new bird that we hadn’t seen before. Normally we get blue tits, chiffchaffs, European robins, blackbirds, and tree sparrows. We get wood pigeons and mourning doves, and the aforementioned woodpeckers (Great Spotted). We get pheasants. And we get the big “blacks” including crows, jackdaws, ravens, rooks, and magpies. I scare the jackdaws and crows away when I...

08
Mar
2026

PARTY PALACE POST-PIE PONDERINGS

Our house is such a perfect party palace! Pie Night was another smash success, and this year all 26 attendees were on time and we had the perfect division of dinner pies and dessert pies. For dinner we had brie and mushroom pie, sauerkraut and sausage pie, spinach and broccoli quiche, gluten-free shepherds pie, 2 taco pajs, cheese empanadas and chili beef empanadas, and tuna plait. One family also brought a spinach salad and carrot and celery sticks. For dessert we had 2 fruit pizzas, 2 blueberry pies (one gluten-free), key lime pie (also gluten-free), boston creme pie, berry crumble,...

16
Feb
2026

THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE A FRIEND IS TO BE ONE*

I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship lately. All the different kinds that I’ve been privileged to be a part of and those that have stayed and those that have disappeared and why. I think my delight in landing on writing a letter a month for 2026 was partly fueled by a need to reach out to friends that I feel distant from and, probably, remind them that I exist. Even if I say I don’t expect an answer or a letter back, I’d still like to think that my reaching out might awaken an answering call in people that...

07
Feb
2026

PRETTY THINGS AND QUIET TIME

It’s the beginning of a relatively quiet week for me, since Anders left this morning with Karin for a week of skiing in Italy. I dropped him off at the station in Lund, then went and parked behind the station and walked over to Espresso House to have breakfast and sit and read for an hour, while waiting for Clemens Antik to open. I was determined to beat Martin there to get that vase, and I DID! HAHA! I WON! He got to work just before 10, but checked on Find My iPhone where I was, and knew I was...

03
Feb
2026

THERE, THEN BACK, THEN UP, THEN DOWN

What a mixed bag of a day. I got up earlier than normal but didn’t stress out about getting ready as I knew I’d need to let my morning bathroom routine take precedence as I did not want to be worrying about finding a restroom on my way to Malmö in rush hour traffic. I got disentangled from the sleep apnea test equipment (went fine, no problems, as far as I know, though we’ll see what the results say), showered, and left the house at 7:30 AM confident that 2 toilet visits would see me through. Wrong. Almost to the...

25
Jan
2026

IF YOU WANT HAPPY ENDINGS, READ COOKBOOKS*

We get a physical monthly magazine from our local Swedish grocery store chain that is chock-full of recipes. It’s named Buffé and it is, indeed, that, in terms of instructions on putting food together. Neither Anders nor I cook much anymore, though he’s much more likely to whip together a tomato and onion soup if we have crushed tomatoes in the pantry. I think about cooking like I think about posting here…a great deal of it happens only in my head. I just spent an hour going through the backlog of magazines in the basket, with the intent of recycling....

May 2026
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