We were only in Ireland for a week, but we did a LOT of things and saw a lot, and ate a lot, and I took a bajillion photos. If you are going to turn 60, Ireland’s a fun place to do it in. It’s as green as promised, and the people are lovely. We stayed in AirBnBs, all of which but one had a million stairs, which was a bummer, since I am still in a knee brace, but I managed. We flew to Dublin on Wednesday, August 7 and stayed right down in the city center near to...
Ermahgerd, it’s August! Yesterday, Debbie and Camilla took me out for the afternoon for an early birthday celebration because I’ll be gone over the weekend of my actual birthday. I left work at 12 and picked up Camilla, and then we drove out to Slättarps Gård, which was a lovely location out in the middle of absolute nowhere. There was a café/restaurant, outdoor seating in a garden bower, an art gallery, a florist, and a little boutique. We had a delicious lunch, sitting in the shade of the trees, with beautiful weather, blue skies, warm and breezy summer weather. They...
Yesterday, Karin turned 25 years old. She’s an amazing young lady and it’s a pleasure to watch her make her way through the world, with the spirit and influence and drive that she has. For some reason it’s not as weird to have my youngest turn 25 as it is when my little brother hits milestone birthdays. I am already sufficiently boggled at my own age; my daughter’s doesn’t seem to make it worse, which is nice. She’s barely been home for 2 weeks, first working a week at the music festival in Roskilde, Denmark and then working every single...
I actually really enjoyed the AIC BBQ party on Saturday despite being completely wiped out afterwards. It felt like a real return to the 4th of July parties of the early days of the club. We were 55 people total, with about 14 smaller kids (no babies though). The bouncy castle was a huge hit, and the kids pretty much stayed on it the entire time, when they weren’t eating, throwing a beach ball around as well. Nice because I didn’t have to get Martin to take them over to the playground, or come up with other games or activities....
How is it already the last week of June? How is it already 2024? How am I possibly going to be turning 60 in a little over a month from now? The mind boggles. It’s been a mostly relaxing weekend, with one beautiful sunny warm day and one chilly, rainy grey day, though the skies have mostly cleared now at 8 pm and the sun is shining again. Yesterday, I had a to-do list that consisted of housework: defrosting the freezer, lots of laundry, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, emptying garbage cans. I got it all done and had plenty of time...
Eesh, there is nothing like working on an inventory of ALL your stuff to make you realize exactly how MUCH stuff you have. Years ago, I started an “inheritance inventory” of our belongings, designed to be a list for my children to know the history and provenance (as much as possible) of all the items in our house. We have furniture from my grandparents, from my parents, from Anders’ parents. We have art and knick-knacks and figurines from all over the world. I read about this somewhere and my little organizing-devil OCD mind thought, “oooh, what a great idea!” I...
Things that mean spring: pied wagtails, forsythia and lilacs, opening the windows, cleaning the porch and oiling the deck, a slew of Swedish holidays, walking outside round the village, the return of the light, cleaning windows, baby birds, Eurovision, semlor, tax time Things that mean summer: putting up the sun umbrella and hanging out on the deck, tall glasses of ice water, popsicles, growing vegetables in the garden, the growl of lawnmowers, honeysuckle and roses, sleeveless shirts, gelato, ripe cherries, Swedish strawberries, perfect artichokes, vacation Things that mean autumn: sugar beets on the side of the road and the sugar...
Things that are good right now: Spring into summer in Sweden: sunshine, perfect temperatures, cooling breezes, green growing things, flowering trees, wild daisies along the roads, birdsong, bumblebees and butterflies, the sounds of children playing in the neighborhood (and lawn mowers and hedge clippers) My family: being celebrated for Mors Dag (Swedish Mothers Day) with double rose bouquets, chocolates, and a Lego peacock, spending time together and eating delicious dinners that Anders cooks, planning a birthday trip (with Anders), crosswords from Martin that blow me away, Karin’s enthusiastic drive to do odd jobs around the house for money (and her...
I’m back! 3 weeks in the US went at the speed of light. It was, as always, great to spend time with my sister and my mom, but a bit disheartening to see my mom’s memory issues up close and personal. Karin was the perfect traveling companion. Thankfully, I was recovered from the stomach bug and traveling wasn’t an issue. Our plane from Copenhagen was delayed and then delayed again, which was fine with us, as it meant we could sleep a bit longer before leaving for the airport and it also meant our long layover in Toronto was shorter...
Holy rabbits, Batman, how can it be April already? Yesterday was a holiday here in Sweden since it was Easter Monday, which was a shame, because it meant we couldn’t pull April Fool’s pranks on our colleagues in the office. One of the big Swedish newspapers had an excellent joke article on their main page, mentioning that Ven, the island off the coast of southern Sweden, was going to have to lose 500 meters worth of land in order to accommodate NATO warships. I saw some funny ones after the fact today. One worth mentioning was Dulux Paints Instagram post...