While we were in Germany, we did lots of things (despite the weather). We toured a castle and we went to playplaces and we played card games and we attended a wedding and we hung out and we went to the theater and we ate lots of pork products and we went to Legoland. And while we were there, we JUMPED THE SHARK! Our kids, and my sister’s kids Rachel and Bryce, and then even Anders tried to get in on the action…
On Thursday night we drove 4.5 hours north to Sotens Fiskeby, a little sommarstuga village on the rocky western coast of Sweden. The coltsfoot are blooming, faking me out with their dandelion-like faces, and all the willows, large and small, are full of pussywillows. There were maybe a handful of other people there, since it is well before the season starts and it was very quiet in the village. We explored the next morning and climbed the rocks behind the cottage up to the highest point on the island. We went to Nordens Ark, a lovely and wonderful zoo that...
from Liz, Anders, Martin & Karin (she’s a chick in an egg, in case you are wondering)
Spring hasn’t quite sprung, as the grass isn’t riz, but it’s surely on its way! See the egg in the 2nd picture? That’s EXACTLY what color the sky was today. Friends for dinner cancelled due to a sick child (theirs), so we took a leisurely day to enjoy the sunshine. The whole neighborhood seemed to ring like a bell with the shouts and laughter of children wearing fleece instead of heavy winter jackets and the sun was warm and welcoming. We went up to the nursery and brought home a flat of pansies, now proudly planted in the front-yard pots....
How do you live in a head that’s divided? I used to know who I was, I used to step firmly, moving forward, arms swinging freely. There might have been obstacles in my path but they were of no moment. I passed them easily, dodging blithely, skipping past, taking them in stride. That person that I was, she’s still there somewhere inside, but she stumbles now, hands forward to feel the way, patting each obstacle thoroughly, wondering if the best way past is over or under or around. I stand with empty hands, with empty mind. Everything has already been...
Food For Thought: The Case For Impeachment (thanks to ravengirl for the link)
Often, I find, there is more beauty in the things that are fleeting than the things that have substance and staying power. That certain things end and return, end and return, is always a source of awe and amazement. The wheel of seasons, the crisp outline of sun on snow, the fragile tissue-thin pattern of a lacewing’s wing, the blaze of glory in a winter sunset sky, the new green of spring buds, the glad flash of color before the fall. Every season breathes a renewed sense of circularity through me, I breathe it in and let it out again,
Whoa, Nellie! Why suddenly now do I feel that there is no one at the reins? The image of myself as a runaway horse makes me laugh, but I’m not so sure this cutting down, trimming back, saying no thing is working out so well for me. I feel totally at loose ends. It’s starting to stress me out. HAHAHA *snort* It’s not exactly stressing me out, I admit, but I DO feel at loose ends, at least a bit. Every weekend that we have few or no plans finds me teetering back and forth: Sleep in…NO! Get things done!...
Lo. sifted through the winds that blow, Down comes the soft and silent snow, White petals from the flowers that grow In the cold atmosphere.* It’s snowing and blowing like crazy. All day long the flags have been overworked, stretched out to their snapping points, straining in the stiff breeze, ends fraying. This snow is so different from the last stuff we had. Then it was fat and wet and lazy and perfect for packing. This is more like diamond dust. It’s dry and granular and it blows up against everything in great drifts and piles and ridges of frozen...
With Great-Grandma Beebe, January 1965 Is that a smile, Mom, or a grimace because carsick-baby is about to puke all over you? April 1965 during a roadtrip from Lake Tahoe to Reno, Nevada