Tagged: obiterphotos

02
Aug
2009

SOC’ IT TO ‘EM

Karin’s been torn between soccer and karate all this past year. She had karate class 2 nights a week and soccer practice 2 nights a week and inevitably one of the nights held both and she ended up having to choose each week which one to go to. For various reasons, soccer began to win out and it’s been more and more dominant since the spring. Her team was in a league which was too advanced for them; they ended up dead last, having not won a single game in the entire season, which was very hard on the kids...

27
Jul
2009

WALKING, WATCHING, WINDING DOWN

Walking with a large dog tugging at the end of your arm is quite different from the easy-sway, arm-swinging stride you normally produce. We are dog-sitting Max, the border collie that lives next door, for 2.5 days while his family is on a mini-vacation. We know that having a dog around the house makes the dog-longing worse, but none of us can resist any chance that comes up, far and few between as they are. Max apparently walks much the same round that I usually do, as he was ahead of me the whole time and never missed a beat...

16
Jul
2009

MEETING POINT

The place we stayed at in the Netherlands is in a little dangly bit of the country that hangs below the rest of Holland like a pom-pom poodle tail. To the left is Belgium and to the right is Germany and about 3 kilometers up the road from the apartment is the place where the 3 countries come together. It’s called Drielandenpunt, or “3 Country Point” and it has its own website (though not in English), and is located at the top of the highest point in the Netherlands, Mount Vaals. The hill is just over 1000 feet high (322...

14
Jul
2009

CASTLES & CAVERNS

I like castles a lot. What’s not to like? Oh sure, they’re often drafty, and probably a nightmare to maintain and let’s not even mention the heating bills, but imagine! Living in a castle must make you feel like the aristocracy whether or not you actually have any drop of royal blood running through your veins. When we lived in Europe and traveled all over the place, we always visited castles. When we visit my brother in Bavaria, invariably a castle sneaks on to the agenda. In Wales for a week while Anders went to a class, when Martin was...

12
Jul
2009

THE BEST ANTIQUES TO COLLECT ARE OLD FRIENDS

The last day of vacation was both a lazy one and a busy one. I slept in super late, after waking briefly around 9 a.m. and then dozing off again. The sun was shining most of the day and it warmed up nicely in the afternoon. Martin and I completely cleaned out his room in preparation for Anders to start the re-decorating work. I went to the grocery store, did a load of laundry and baked & decorated a cake. Tomorrow is a crazy day: I’m sure work will be frantic and stressful, though I hope it’s not too bad....

11
Jul
2009

SWEETER FOR THE EATER

Our cherry tree is the second one we’ve had; only 4 years old. The first one died after a year and we were a bit worried about the current one last summer as it had a bad bug infestation which my mom and I treated with soap and water. Two of the branches are dead and need to be removed. Last year we had a total of FOUR cherries. But this year: BUMPER CROP! We had to put blue net up and everything and the crows and jackdaws and magpies made concerted efforts to tease out the dangling rubies through...

03
Jul
2009

THE REASON IS YOU

I know just how blessed I am. It’s not the time away, or the weeks off work, or the downtime reading relaxation. It’s not the wind or the water or the rocks or the little fishing villages with their red houses all in a row. It’s not the things we’ve seen or the things we’ve done. It’s not even the sunshine. Okay. It IS the sunshine, at least part of it is. But mostly it’s these: Photos of Karin, Anders & Simone by John Slaughter; Photos of Martin and John by Anders Ek Cracking Me Up: Where the wild things...

02
Jul
2009

WIND & WATER

Since I was in college, I’ve always liked canoeing. We went on several canoe trips with all our floormates from Akers Hall, and even after graduation, dispersal and my move to Chicago, we continued to organize weekend-long canoeing trips in Michigan for several years. We’ve only gone a few times since moving to Sweden…the local river is a fairly easy one and we’ve only rediscovered the canoeing bug now that the kids are old enough to paddle as well, and we also have access to the canoes that belong to the local Scout troop, which we’re members of. On Friday,...

01
Jul
2009

SOME MORE THINGS WE DID

Busy every day but in a leisurely way with time to sit in the sunshine and read books and walk along the piers of the little fishing towns. On Thursday, we drove north to Tanumshede to see the bronze age rock etchings that dot the area. Apparently there are more than 10,000 boat drawings alone, scattered around Sweden. They are colored red in order to be seen better by tourists, as in their natural state, they’re scarcely noticeable and many have eroded badly due to pollution and weather. The world heritage site at Tanum included a replica bronze age settlement...

30
Jun
2009

SOME THINGS WE DID

We crammed in a lot of activities during our week up north. Even though I could have easily turned into a slug, something about the early early sunshine got me going much faster than I would normally have liked managed. Simone was up in the early yawning every day, doing pilates on the cliffs and she and Anders took turns biking into town for fresh bread and breakfast rolls. We did most of the things on our list of things to do in the area, though we never did actually make it to Smögen. Uri the Amur Tiger at Nordens...

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