Tagged: goodthings

19
Jun
2026

GLAD MIDSOMMAR!

It’s midsummer eve and a public holiday here in Sweden. Midsummer is celebrated across Northern Europe and the Baltic countries, but I think Sweden is the only one that celebrates the eve of it, per typical Swedish custom of celebrating holidays the day before. The actual solstice isn’t until Sunday. After weeks of pretty cold temperatures and lots of rain last week, today arrived HOT and sunny, nearly 30C, which is too hot for me, given that there isn’t much of a breeze either. I slept in, while Anders went early to a fish store in Landskrona where he got...

18
Jun
2026

AND BACK AGAIN

We left The Netherlands behind and drove on the autobahn most of the day through Northern Germany to Lübeck. The autobahn is both scary and thrilling. For most of it there is no speed limit (it slows down to 120 kph near the cities and sometimes slower in construction zones, of which there are many). Anders set the cruise control and was clipping along at 130 kph most of the time, and there were still cars constantly whipping past us in the left lane. They must have been going well over 200. CRAZY. At one point, as we were nearing...

16
Jun
2026

GOLD BEACH, MULBERRY HARBORS, AND LESSONS IN HISTORY

I was a military brat, and as such, most of what I learned about WW2 in high school was from an American perspective. I knew the name of Omaha Beach, but very little else about the D-Day landings or the military operations of the war. I read a lot of books about the resistance, the holocaust, and the lives of ordinary people living through the war, and as an adult have educated myself much further with movies, books, documentaries, and other sources of historical information. I’ve been to Berlin when it was still behind the wall, and I’ve been to...

15
Jun
2026

NORTH TO NORMANDY

The day we left Saint-Malo and headed north to Mont-Saint-Michel was quite cloudy, but no rain was forecast. We arrived at the parking lot on the mainland just before noon, which was later than I would have liked, but we weren’t in any hurry. We knew there would be a lot of people on the island, but were hoping that because it was off-season that it wouldn’t be TOO crowded. You can either walk across the bridge that leads from the tourist center and the parking lots or take the free shuttle that runs every 12 minutes. It takes about...

14
Jun
2026

ROADTRIPPING TO BRITTANY

Brittany and Normandy, or more specifically, Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel, have been on my travel wishlist for a very long time. I first heard and fell in love with wartime Saint-Malo in the book All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. If you haven’t read it, you’re missing out, it’s amazing. Mont-Saint-Michel has been on my list even longer. Having had not so great experiences traveling in France when I was young, however, meant that the Normandy coast was always pushed aside in favor of other destinations. I also wasn’t super interested in visiting the D-Day beaches and all...

11
Jun
2026

SPRINGING INTO SUMMER

Spring has whirled into summer without my permission. We’ve been so busy that I have scarcely had time to catch my breath! And here it is, the 11 of June, and this is my first post this month. To be fair, Anders and I left on May 30 for our roadtrip to Normandy, the day after John and family went the other direction, north a couple of hours in Sweden. We were gone for 9 days, down and up again, and I’ll write some posts about the trip later this weekend (or tomorrow, if I get really motivated). So weird...

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...

June 2026
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