Tagged: obiterphotos

15
Apr
2025

WHOOSH—I’M BACK!

Back from the USA, and still jetlagged. I was gone for 4 weeks and did I blog once? No. No, I did not. What a lame-o. I did think about it. At least twice. But was too busy the entire time to really be motivated to write anything here. Sarah and I spent the first two weeks working on organizing and cleaning up the rest of her home after her move of her entire family and nearly every room. Her family played musical rooms, which eventually left my mom the space of a 2-room suite, plus bathroom, plus half-loft where...

09
Mar
2025

SO MUCH EFFORT, BUT THE PAYOFF IS PIE

We ended up being 34 people for Pie Night yesterday, which was perfectly manageable. We have a party palace of a home. I was bummed about a couple of the people who dropped off the list, as I was hoping to see them, but one was sick and the other couple had something come up. We didn’t even have to borrow chairs from Lisel, as I was an idiot and completely forgot about the fact that we have 6 chairs on the porch and a further 2 cafe chairs from the swing patio. Anders spent the majority of Saturday morning...

26
Dec
2024

THE THREE RE’S: REST, RELAX, RECHARGE

It’s the day after Christmas. Boxing Day in the Commonwealth. Annandag Jul in Sweden. It’s a holiday here, too, though lots of stores are open. We had a lovely Christmas. The kids were both home for Christmas Eve. We watched Kalle Anke (which is obligatory in Sweden) at 3 pm with glögg and cookies, then opened one present from under the tree. Then we had julbord, which Anders fixed most of. All the trimmings: 3 kinds of herring, cold smoked and warmed smoked salmon, homemade hovmästarsås, romsås, brunkål, rödkål, and creamed kale (from our garden!), smoked sausage, liver paté with...

19
Aug
2024

ERIN GO BRAGH – GoT AND THE END

A long afternoon of traveling by bus and train from Belfast landed us in Dublin again. We had a new AirBnB, but it was also up 5 flights of stairs (ugh), but had a magnificent view of the River Canal right outside our window. One room to share, but only for one night. We rested for a bit and then went out for surf and turf for dinner at a place called Beef & Lobster, which was excellent, with a very engaging waiter. Afterwards, we walked back into the Temple Bar neighborhood and had dessert and drinks first at Little...

18
Aug
2024

ERIN GO BRAGH (NORTH) – BELFAST

We arrived quite late in Belfast, after spending most of the day traveling both by train and bus, and then walking about 15 minutes to our AirBnB, the only one that was ground floor with NO stairs. The next morning, we got up early, found a café for breakfast and then met our bus for the day’s excursion. Ériu (today more commonly known as Éire) is the Irish name for Ireland – named after this powerful female goddess. Skinny building along the canal in Belfast Waiting for the bus Our guide was named Harry and despite his magnificent mustache, he...

17
Aug
2024

ERIN GO BRAGH – GALWAY

Waking up in Galway on your birthday is a good way to do it. Or rather, being awakened, as per the usual Swedish style. We had to get up early to catch our daytrip bus, so of course the kids and Anders woke me up even earlier with singing, hugs, and a new iPad (yay!). The next morning we walked through Eyre Square on our way to the hotel where we were meeting the bus. And Karin ran into someone she knows! Because of course she did! She knows everyone! Someone she went to school with, who had actually been...

16
Aug
2024

ERIN GO BRAGH – DUBLIN

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...

10
Mar
2024

POTTERY, PINK, AND PIE

Last week was really busy, so I’m kind of looking forward to this coming week, which isn’t busy at all (at the moment). Anders leaves for a week in Italy tomorrow morning, which also means I’ll be alone every evening entertaining myself with my book, iPad, TV, crossword puzzles, and a new jigsaw puzzle. Last Thursday I organized another pottery painting evening for the AIC, but it turned out to be just Lisel, Kirstin, and I, with Lisel’s 2 daughters, Martin and Theo, and Martin’s friend Thea. I painted the outside of a bowl (cereal-bowl sized) with a bird and...

31
Dec
2023

THE STORY OF THE FROG LAMP, NEXT LEVEL

The saga continues. If you have never heard the story of the frog lamp, stop what you are doing and read this first: The story of the frog lamp HIlarious, no? Definitely yes! Cut to pre-holidays 2023. The frog lamp, technically Sammy’s, has not been seen in some years. John and Simone moved to a new house 7 years ago to accommodate their growing family and at some point the frog lamp was relegated to the attic. I do not understand how anyone could bear to hide away the awesomeness that is the frog lamp, but apparently not everyone has...

30
Dec
2023

FULL UP

We drove down to Germany on December 10, staying in a little unmanned hotel outside of Hamburg. It was a long drive and good to break it up, especially since we drove down in a rain and windstorm that lasted 4 days. We had a wonderful week in Hopferau, at my brother John’s house, warmly welcomed by the entire family. The week included Jakob’s 10th birthday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day (with Karin!), a walk into Füssen to see the town and the church and castle, a walk around Schwansee, and exploring the village on the sunny day before we left....