Tagged: wonderfulworld

10
May
2011

RAMBLING

A jackdaw perches on the corner of the playhouse. I can hear the summer sound of children laughing and bouncing on the trampoline as the sun slides into shadow at the end of the day. A tiny spider dangles by a silken thread from the edge of the porch roof, legs wheeling frantically as it motors upwards. All the greens have evened out, darkened into summer shades; the neon edges of newness no longer vibrant and jarringly alive. Today is only Tuesday. For once, the week seems to be strolling through the days; no frantic sense of time slipping by...

05
May
2011

BIG BITS OF TID

Every day when I come home after work, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck: SO TIRED. I’m not tired at work. I just seem to collapse and deflate as soon as I get home, and I can’t AFFORD to: there is still stuff to be done. Example: today, when I came home, I dealt with Karin’s salami selling (yes, again), got Martin off to piano, got dinner on the table, took Karin to soccer practice, went to the grocery store, put the food away, watered the pots and garden, planted nasturtiums, updated the AWC calendar and...

30
Dec
2010

ICE ICE BABY

I suppose it’s that time of year again. To look both backward and forward; to make resolutions and promises and open your eyes wide to the wonder of what will come next. This morning, the white world was whiter: covered in thick hoarfrost, fat and full and frozen. Chickadees flock to the frozen feeder, grabbing seed and flinging themselves to the top of the bird cherry. From the bedroom window I could see a bird with a very red body and strained to make out what it was; there are no cardinals here and the red-breasted robins aren’t that red....

23
Dec
2010

THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SNOW BUSINESS

This has been a cold and snowy winter so far. It started snowing in early November and it hasn’t let up yet. In fact, it’s snowing now; it’s been snowing all day. We’re supposed to get another foot or so, which brings us up to at least 3 feet, at least. And with the wind sculpting the snow into wild white piles, some of the drifts are up to my waist. I love the snow—you won’t catch me complaining. It brightens everything up…there’s no way I’d trade this brilliant brightness for another rainy dark cloud-covered Skåne winter. And even with...

01
Dec
2010

BLIZZARDEK

Staring into hyperspace snow for 40 minutes while simultaneously trying to keep the edge of the road in sight is VERY nerve-wracking. Why is it every time I have to drive somewhere in the evening it’s in white-out conditions? I keep hoping that the constant wind that is piling up drifts of snow will eventually blow it all out of the driveway and I won’t have to shovel. Or that I can at least put it off until Anders gets home on Friday…muahahahaha! Extremely aggravated that my husband’s car is nice and toasty and UN-ICED-UP in the garage while the...

06
Nov
2010

HOME AGAIN

Italy is beautiful even in the pouring rain. And in the fog, and in drizzle and under cloud cover. We didn’t manage to meet up with Bethany, alas, alas, but we had a great five days of fun exploring in a whirlwind of foccacia, walking, rainclouds and tourist traps. The sun came out the last 2 days and lit things up with a stunning vengeance. O! Bella Italia! My phone died the second day and our travel charger didn’t work at all so we were without phones for most of the week and without internet access for all of it....

29
Sep
2010

CIRCULAR

It’s colder out than I want it to be. Not window-scraping weather, yet, but I can feel it’s coming. Geese are flying in v-formations low across the sky. Recently, there was a lazy circle of storks flying over our neighborhood. They looked so weird, alien, almost. Then they turned in unison and flew north. The storks we have here were supposed to be raised and then released to migrate to Africa each winter. Instead they stay. Every stork I see reinforces a feeling of wonder about where I live. It’s crazy season. Can you feel how fast everything is going?...

23
Sep
2010

THINGS YET TO DO

I have lived in Sweden for nearly 14 years. Is that right? Did I count correctly? I moved here in January of 1997, so if I take my gloves and shoes and socks off and wiggle my toes and ignore Mr Numbers’ malicious grin and start on my pointer finger with January 1998 and add 99, 2000, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11…it means that when January 2011 rolls around 14 years will have gone by since we moved to Europe. We’ve done a lot of things since we moved to Sweden. We’ve been to...

14
Aug
2010

STARS & (ZIGZAGGY) STRIPES

Two days ago we had a rattle-bang thunderstorm come and sit on our heads right as evening was falling. Karin is scared of thunder, though I think part of it is just attention-getting, and I keep trying to coax her out of it, because thunderstorms are, mostly, awesome (in the true sense of the word), even when they’re frightening. The thunder kept rumbling and the lightning kept flashing up around the house like an enormous strobe light. Karin and I got blankets and went out on the porch. We moved the two chairs together, facing each other, and then she...

26
May
2010

UNDER ATTACK

I don’t know, it’s one of those weeks. A woeful week, in which I have had sort of sad, or at least shaking, news from a friend and, with another friend, flailed helplessly in the face of her grief, though trying my darndest to avoid the chin-chucking and it-will-be-fining, because in her case it WON’T and all I can do is try and hear what she is saying and keep reiterating that sometimes horrible things happen and it’s not your fault. It’s a week of work-drowning, where the waves keep pulling me under and I keep trying to bob up...

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