Tagged: wonderfulworld

15
Jul
2023

TIP-TO-TIP: UMEÅ, LULEÅ, AND THE TREEHOTEL!

We got up a bit later and enjoyed the hotel breakfast before heading on north again. We stopped in Umeå for lunch and to walk around the city center and riverfront a bit. They were hosting SM-vecka, which is the national championships week for all the little sports that don’t have their own world championships. We watched several games of 3×3 basketball, which I’d never seen before, but most of the events were scattered around the city and some were in venues you had to pay admission to. Fountain by Renmark’s square in Umeå, designed by Stig Lindberg Anders looked...

14
May
2023

MEDICALLY SPEAKING

We’ve had better weeks. I’m hoping tomorrow starts off a new week with more positive things in it than negative. Even though I don’t write much about the negative things, especially on FB where I write daily good things lists, there are still sometimes unpleasant or bad things happening in my life that color everything else. Even if I can always find good things each day, that doesn’t mean that an accumulation of non-good things doesn’t sometimes take its toll. On Wednesday, I saw the diabetes nurse, and my blood sugar levels were up again. No surprise, considering they were...

15
Sep
2022

BORNHOLM DAYS

There’s something really special about being reunited with family that you love. After a long absence like the one caused by the pandemic, it’s even more special. We drove to Ystad on September 20, with Martin and Karin, and took the ferry over to Bornholm. After arriving in Rønne, we ate lunch in the main square, walked around a little bit, and then headed north to the campgrounds just outside of Allinge which was to be our home for the week. John had arranged the cabins months in advance, and we had two of them: one for 4 people which...

08
Aug
2022

IT MOOSE BE LOVE!

During one of the lulls in the pandemic, my manager gifted her husband with a moose safari for his birthday. !!! I got all the details from her and promptly told my family that I, too, wanted a moose safari! I added it to my Christmas wish list, and the kids got it for me! The moose safari in question was at a moose park in Markaryd, which is quite a distance from us, approximately 1.5 hours north. But last year, when we were visiting our friends Mats and Annelott, we saw signs for a NEW moose park in Skäralid,...

21
Jul
2021

WALKING IN SUNSHINE

Only 1.5 more weeks to vacation and I’m getting a little antsy. I want to stop setting an alarm for more than the two days of the weekend. I want to have long, unstructured days where I can do whatever I want, or nothing. I want to spend time anywhere but in front of a computer for 8 hours at a stretch. I want my shoulders to go down to where they belong and stop being hunched up around my ears. I want to read a book a day. Or play games, or read or watch TV or do things...

16
May
2021

NO ESCAPE FROM REALITY

It’s forecast to rain all day and this coming week but the sun has been doing its best to stay out and I went for a walk around the village, enjoying the sunshine (had to remove my jacket!) and the greenery. The cherry trees and magnolias and spirea are blooming. The magnolias, especially the bright pink ones, are such ridiculously pretty pink popsicles of trees. Columbine and forget-me-nots and pansies are everywhere and every field looks carpet-bombed by bright yellow dandelions. Out in the fields, the rapeseed is reaching its neon-yellow heights. And I saw a pied wagtail! The first...

13
May
2021

MOMENT WITH A MAGPIE

Yesterday, we had lunch out on the deck, in the sunshine. Karin was here for a quick lunch for 30 minutes. It was lovely. Later in the afternoon, after I was done working, Anders and I sat out in the sun for awhile again. I had my book and the sun umbrella up and I just sat and enjoyed the green of our yard, our hedge, the trees, the newly planted seedlings in the vegetable garden, the pansies in their pots. I had filled up the birdbath earlier, and while I was sitting there, I saw a magpie alight on...

11
Apr
2021

AROUND THE VILLAGE WE CALL HOME

Good thing I went for a walk yesterday while the sun was shining because today is freezing: grey, rainy and occasionally snowing. It’s supposed to be like this all day. Yesterday afternoon I asked Anders if he wanted to go for a walk and he said yes and we left about 3 pm with me saying that I wanted to walk at least 20 minutes. There are no good places to walk, really, in our village. It’s all paved for the most part, with only one gravel dirt path (the snail trail) unless you head to the outskirts. Karin and...

03
Apr
2021

A WEEKEND OF MENTAL HEALTH BOOSTERS

I read recently that birdwatching from your home provides a major boost to mental health. The article says, “Researchers from the University of Exeter recently found that bird watching can have a positive effect on mental health. They discovered that people who are able to watch birds from their homes have a lower risk of depression, stress, and anxiety compared to people who live in less nature dense areas with fewer birds.” We have two bird feeders set up at the corner of the deck, one that holds 2 suet balls and one that is 2-sided for sunflower seeds and...

14
Feb
2021

NINE INCH NAILS

Okay, not really, but we had low fog this morning and then the sun came out and lit up the hoarfrost on everything. And who can resist going out and tromping around in the snow that has stayed on the ground due to our sub-zero temperatures for three weeks and taking photos of everything in sight? Not me!