Tagged: obiterphotos

20
Sep
2015

BUSY BEE

Crazy season is starting. I can feel things revving up. I have a full day tomorrow that includes meetings at work and outside of it, plus a doctor’s appointment. Tuesday is a goodbye party for an American colleague who is moving back home, and Wednesday Barky gets beautiful again (thank goodness). Friday, Camilla is spending the night as we are leaving super early in the morning to spend the day in Gothenburg at the Book Fair where we have tickets to see Laini Taylor speak twice! I hope she won’t think it’s weird when I come up to say hi...

01
Aug
2015

RENEWALS

It was a purely lovely day today, filled with nothing much to do. I realized not so long ago that there are more and more of these “no plans” evenings and weekends happening. I used to be so busy! I remember feeling overwhelmed sometimes with how much I had going on and now there are whole weeks where I have no plans at all. Of course, there are still plenty of weeks where there is something every night, but I think it’s evened out quite a lot. And, after all, it IS still summer…the kids have nothing much going on,...

26
Jul
2015

CHERRIES, CHILLS, AND NOTHING MUCH

The kids and I climbed up the little ladder and the big ladder and effectively emptied the cherry tree tonight before dinner. It was our fourth foray up into the branches and we filled two big bowls, bringing our total of big bowls filled for this harvest to 7! I have no idea how many liters or quarts or pounds of cherries we got, but it was a lot. I brought two big containers into work last week and the five of us who are working snarfed them down. I gave away 2 big bags to neighbors and 1 big...

22
Jul
2015

HAPPY TOGETHER: CROATIA (PART 3)

Vacations, for me, aren’t just about the places we go and the things we see. They are, in a big way, about the people I am with. Family vacations are the best kind of vacations, where we get to see loved ones that live too far away for frequent contact…and that is pretty much all of my family, except my husband and kids. So, it was a REAL bummer that John wasn’t able to be with us and participate in the week. We had a good time and it was fun, but it would have been so much MORE so...

21
Jul
2015

COOLING DOWN: CROATIA (PART 2)

On the third day in Croatia, we found a great way to beat the heat. First we drove for 2 hours (aaaah, air-conditioning!) through twisty, windy, wiggly mountain roads until we reached Plitvice Lakes National Park. John and Simone had been there years before and raved about it, and they told us it was easy hiking, gorgeous scenery and above all COOL temps under all the trees. Sounded perfect, and so it proved. The only drawback was that everyone in Croatia had the same idea to escape the heat…the paths were literally lined with tourists and hikers. Still, you didn’t...

20
Jul
2015

HEATING UP: CROATIA (PART 1)

We had plans to do a lot more while we were in Croatia, but the heat flattened us. Okay, okay, it flattened ME. I knew it was going to be warm down there…intellectually, but I wasn’t really prepared for just how hot and humid it actually was. The day we arrived it was 38 degrees Celsius (damn hot). Barky promptly curled up and died. The other thing that flattened us was my brother’s ambulance ride to the hospital during the night of our arrival. I don’t think our heart was in Croatia. I know mine wasn’t. Maybe someday I’ll go...

19
Jul
2015

PALACES, PARKS AND POMP: VIENNA

We didn’t give Vienna a chance, really. I don’t know if we just weren’t in the mood or what. We spent three nights there which equaled 2 full days and we barely scratched the surface. No one wanted to pay the money to go see a concert (and frankly, it was only me that was really interested), and the Spanish Riding School is closed for July (drrr) so no dancing Lippizaner horses for us. After Prague’s lovely candy-colored and Old Europe impression, Vienna struck us as too big, too modern, too OVERDONE, somehow. People there were rude to us for...

18
Jul
2015

REST IN PIECES

I imagine it must be pretty peaceful at night when the doors are closed and the lights are off and the line of tourists has ebbed and gone but it doesn’t strike me as much of a RESTING place, despite the fact that it’s estimated that the remains of more than 40,000 people are interred here. We left Prague on Wednesday morning and headed toward Vienna with a little detour in mind: the suburb of Sedlec in the town of Kutná Hora. The Ossuary Chapel attracts over 200,000 visitors annually. The bones date all the way back to the 14th...

17
Jul
2015

COBBLESTONES, BRIDGES & SPIRES: PRAGUE

We tried to plan a trip to Prague several years ago. I’ve always wanted to go, though I’m not sure why. Prague doesn’t have the same call for my heart the way Edinburgh does, but I’d heard so much about it, all good, that it was high on my list of destinations. The kids were much younger then and the more research I did, the more I realized that the Prague I wanted to visit wasn’t necessarily one that my children would want to go to…and we ended up changing our plans that year. But, it’s always been in the...

14
Jun
2015

ING*

Reading: Re-reading golden oldies…Diana Wynne Jones’ YA fantasies. She was amazing. Listening: The last artists I found and added to my Spotify list are Jess Penner and Natalie Prass. Melodic and delightful! Thinking: About writing to-do lists, haha! Smelling: Nothing. I can never smell anything because I am apparently permanently stuffed up. *sigh* Wishing: The pansies would last even longer but I’m guessing it’s about time to start re-potting. Planning: The things that still need to be taken care of before our trip. Wearing: Capri pants and no-sleeve shirts (even though it was really too cold for them today). Loving:...

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