Tagged: goodthings

25
Jul
2013

AT THE TOP OF SUMMER

The lawn is crispy crunchy underfoot, every grass blade seared and sun-brittle. No one here wastes water on lawns so the whole neighborhood has a sere look to it. In the fields around our village, wheat and oats and grasses are tawny beige as well; harvest-time is nearly here. The only thing still blooming outside of pots around our house are the roses which are still going strong. The pots add dashes of color: pelargoniums, flowering succulents, begonias and some sad blasted pansies that weren’t quite done when I was repotting summer flowers some time ago. Tomorrow is 7 weeks...

08
Jun
2013

SPOILED

We’re getting spoiled over here. Spoiled with summer. Spoiled with sunshine. And spoiled with long weekends. There are a lot of them right in a row during May and June here in Sweden. The weather has been fantastic and even though I’m not necessarily out in it all day, I’m enjoying it so much in my own way. It’s nice to feel like the zoom button on my life has been turned to low for a bit, even though I know it’s only temporary and part of me was freaking out completely just the other day over the fact that...

16
May
2013

BLOGILICIOUS

OMG, how good do these peanut butter brownies look? NOMNOMCITY! I had to confess to The Things I Don’t Drink again today, this time to 3 colleagues during a training course I was at. They all boggled at me. I couldn’t decide which one each of them was boggling at me most for which beverage…as they seemed to be equally divided, all three. Yeah, I don’t drink coffee. I don’t drink tea. And I don’t drink alcohol. “For health reasons?” …no. I just don’t like the smell. Or the taste. Here in Sweden, most Swedes can’t decide which is worse:...

12
May
2013

BABY, IT’S NICE OUTSIDE

It’s true I love my job. I’m good at what I do and I like doing it, and every workday when the alarm goes off, I hop right up (albeit a bit more slowly than in younger years) ready to start the day…but after a long weekend like this? Retirement sounds pretty good. It’s nice to relax, spend the day doing the things I feel like doing, getting things done at my own pace, having time to set chores and projects down and just read for a while. Time to sleep in, go to bed late, plan excursions and enjoy...

04
May
2013

SHEEN OF GREEN

The best thing about spring isn’t the flowers. It isn’t the clear robin’s egg blue sky or the puffy white clouds or even the warming temperatures. It’s the sheen of green. The sheen of bright, neon green that blooms on every living surface…every bush, every tree, every field, every hedge. It transforms the whole world, just like the hoarfrost does in the winter or the first snow. Today was so clear you could see forever. It was the kind of day when the hot air balloons come out, though we didn’t actually see any. I cut back last year’s growth...

30
Apr
2013

A GOOD GOOD DAY

Tomorrow is May Day. May First. Labor Day (for us Europeans) and a day off. It’s the first day of the FIFTH month of the year. How does that even happen? I mean how does it happen so FAST? The sun has finally decided, after a long sulking morning, to come out and play…though there are still an awful lot of white blobs bumbling around up there. It’s still quite chilly and I suppose my hopes that it would warm up a bit so I don’t have to sit outside and freeze tonight by the bonfire (I know, but you...

21
Apr
2013

WALKING ON SUNSHINE

The sun is shining, though it’s still a little chilly out, and for some stupid reason I am inside. I have a bad headache, which is part of the reason, because I know if I go outside before the headache is totally gone, the sun will pierce through my eyeballs and my brain will spontaneously combust. I was out in the sun a bit yesterday…you have to ease into these things when you’re a troglodyte homebody like me. Karin and I whacked down the dead long grass in the front garden and removed the pine branches from the bed under...

12
Jan
2013

HAD TO BE DONE

The other day I beat my husband home from work by only a few minutes. I had just sat down on the couch when he came in. It’s cold again here in Sweden after several weeks of rather warm for winter temps and rain. We had a dusting of snow last night and I’ve plugged the car heater in each evening for making sure I could start it in the mornings. When he walked into the living room I tipped my head back and said, “Hey there.” He responded by putting his hand on my forehead. It was ice cold....

31
Dec
2012

RETROSPECTIVE

e left snowy Sweden a week and a half ago, when the snow was melting and the rain was coming down…to come to Michigan for the holidays, where it was relatively warm and still green. A couple of days after we arrived, the snow came, too and it’s been a real winter wonderland ever since…a true white Christmas. My sister and her family joined us at my mom’s and the festivities included a huge party 2 days before Christmas with many of my cousins and other relatives, 2 college friends and their families and one friendly internet psycho (hi thehula!)...

29
Nov
2012

EVERY POST SHOULD HAVE COOKIES & BOOKS

I just wrote down a list of every day between tomorrow and the day we leave for the States and nearly every day has something scheduled. I don’t feel ready for the holidays at all. I’ve barely bought any presents and we still have to figure out when to celebrate with Anders’ family…it will probably have to be beforehand, but it feels too early and I’m not ready! How will I find time to do Christmas cards and a Christmas letter and presents and then we have to pack! Eek! Everything is zooming along, every day zooms from start to...

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