Happy summer solstice! Glad midsommar! What a difference a couple of weeks, good medical care, a definite diagnosis, and wonder drugs makes. I’m still easily tired, which isn’t surprising considering I’ve been so housebound and sedentary. I hope to start walking again soon. We’ve had a full week of the most beautiful weather: sunny, blue skies, a little breeze, perfect temperatures, cool evenings. If the whole summer was like this, I’d be perfectly happy.<\/p>\n
Yesterday was midsummer in Sweden, a day off, and one of the biggest holidays of the year. I was up early as has been the case for a few weeks (can’t get back to sleep after I get up at 5 or 6 to go to the bathroom). Anders was up soon after me (he’s almost always first), and I had, of course, a to-do list for the rest of the things that needed to be done before our guests arrived at 5 pm. It was a very low-key dinner party, and a potluck as well. Mats and Annelott, and Maria (Anders’ sister) and Mikael came. My friend Camilla was also supposed to come but she came down with a cold a couple of days ago, and was still not feeling well yesterday. <\/p>\n
I set up the porch, set the table, tidied up the house, vacuumed, wiped down deck furniture and put out all the cushions. And I finally got the shower curtain liners hung up and switched out as well. Anders finished mowing the lawn, and then he weeded EVERYTHING. He took the hard top off the porch, and dug up 3 plants of our new potatoes for dinner. Then he picked our first cucumber and pickled it as well. Our yard and garden look so beautiful right now: the honeysuckle is blooming, there are geraniums in all the pots, the allium in the front is tall and beautiful, and our vegetable garden is going gangbusters. We have one rose so far on the little bush under the trellis, and the rosebush in front is about to explode. I love this time of year. <\/p>\n
I went shopping to get strawberries (which Camilla had been supposed to bring) and eggs, and then had to run to Esl\u00f6v to get a new canister for the SodaStream machine as they were out at our store. I bought WAY too many strawberries. Oops. When I was waiting in line outside the Flyinge Automat for strawberries, a man came up from the other side of the street to get in line as well, and he had a HUGE, beautiful, very talkative parrot in a harness on his shoulder. Too funny to go walking about with your parrot, in Flyinge, of all places.<\/p>\n
After I got home and had lunch, I baked a sugar-free brownie cake (kladdkaka) which turned out really well. Since both Mikael and I have diabetes, I thought it would be good to have something besides strawberries just to be on the safe side. I had also found really good sugar-free ice cream to go with it, so we were all set for dessert. I actually ended up taking a nap for an hour right before everyone came, which was much needed.<\/p>\n
Anders had divided up the food list, so everyone was responsible for bringing\/preparing part of the buffet. Midsummer in Sweden, like most of the Swedish holidays, has a fairly specific menu. It’s usually the dessert that changes depending on the holiday. We had 5 kinds of herring, warm smoked salmon with roms\u00e5s, gravlax with hovm\u00e4stares\u00e5s, hardboiled eggs, boiled potatoes, sour cream and chives, a delicious salad with cucumber, feta, and tomatoes; breads and cheeses, onion sausage, meatballs, prinskorv sausages, and Maria’s taco quiche. WOW! Dessert as mentioned was the brownie cake, strawberries, whipped cream, and 2 flavors of ice cream. I was so full I thought I was going to explode, and I was so uncomfortable sitting after we ate that I kept getting up and dealing with dishes and things. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n
Instead of the usual snapsvisor (drinking songs), Anders had written a bunch of limericks, one for each of us (though he didn’t do one for himself). Limericks are one of his hidden talents. He knows tons of them, most of them filthy, and even his sister didn’t know about this. It was really funny. I’m including them here for posterity. First in Swedish, then (with help of ChatGPT, an English translation keeping the rhyme scheme). Enjoy!<\/p>\n
CAMILLA <\/strong>(even though she wasn’t there) A warm-hearted friend from Malm\u00f6 town ANNELOTT<\/strong> A rural dev from southern Sk\u00e5ne MATS<\/strong> A lumberjack out Ljungbyhed way MARIA<\/strong> Our pharmacist found it absurd MIKAEL<\/strong> An electrician from fair \u00d6sterlen and finally, ME!<\/strong> My wife from across yonder way \ud83d\ude00 hahaha! This morning, I woke up at FOUR AM (geez louise) to go to the bathroom and of course, OF COURSE, could not get back to sleep as it was so light already. I got up at 5, carefully closed the bedroom door, and then proceeded to empty and refill the dishwasher and wash the shower curtains and liners, before sitting down to write this. It’s now 7:30 and I’ll eat a little breakfast and take my million pills at 8, and then we’ll see what the day brings. We have no plans for the weekend, which is both nice and boring. I might go buy a new kitchen tablecloth. I might go take my watch in for repair (finally). Or I might do absolutely nothing but read and maybe, probably, almost certainly, take a nap later. It’s another gorgeous day!<\/p>\n Mood: really good Happy summer solstice! Glad midsommar! What a difference a couple of weeks, good medical care, a definite diagnosis, and wonder drugs makes. I’m still easily tired, which isn’t surprising considering I’ve been so housebound and sedentary. I hope to start walking again soon. We’ve had a full week of the most beautiful weather: sunny, blue skies, a little breeze, perfect temperatures, cool evenings. If the whole summer was like this, I’d be perfectly happy. Yesterday was midsummer in Sweden, a day off, and one of the biggest holidays of the year. I was up early as has been the case...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,18,14,27,19],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-americanabroad","tag-borkborkbork","tag-goodthings","tag-holidaze","tag-meandmyman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9501"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9509,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions\/9509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEn hj\u00e4rtlig v\u00e4n fr\u00e5n Malm\u00f6 stad
\nVill g\u00e4rna snapsa och vara glad
\nHj\u00e4rtat \u00e4r stort
\nMen sl\u00e5r lite fort
\nHon f\u00e5r n\u00f6ja sig med avkok p\u00e5 maskrosblad<\/p>\n
\nLoves taking shots and has never a frown
\nHer heart is quite wide
\nBut beats like a ride
\nSo dandelion tea must calm her down<\/p>\n
\nEn landsbyggdsutvecklare fr\u00e5n Sk\u00e5ne
\nTittade upp och fick syn p\u00e5 v\u00e5r m\u00e5ne
\nEtt par snapsar till
\nS\u00e5 kanske hon vill
\nFix EU-bidrag f\u00f6r att anst\u00e4lla en byf\u00e5ne<\/p>\n
\nLooked up and caught sight of the moon, eh?
\nWith a few more shots in
\nShe might just begin
\nTo fund a town fool with EU pay<\/p>\n
\nEn skogshuggare fr\u00e5n Ljungbyhed
\nB\u00f6rjade bli t\u00f6rstig med besked
\nHit med dricka
\nAtt i halsen skicka
\nOch mjuka upp artosen i min armb\u00e5gsled<\/p>\n
\nFelt a powerful thirst one fine day
\n“Bring me a drink
\nThat\u2019s gone in a blink\u2014
\nTo soothe my elbow\u2019s arthritic dismay!”<\/p>\n
\nV\u00e5r farmaceut tyckte att det var kn\u00e4ppt
\nN\u00e4r n\u00e5gon skrek SNAPS P\u00c5 RECEPT!
\nKanske var hon brydd
\nF\u00f6r v\u00e5rt h\u00f6gkostnadsskydd
\nMen detta kan bli apotekets nya koncept<\/p>\n
\nWhen \u201cSNAPS ON PRESCRIPTION!\u201d was heard.
\nShe might have been vexed
\nBy the cost-saving text,
\nBut it could be the new pharmacy’s word!<\/p>\n
\nEN stilig elektriker fr\u00e5n \u00d6sterlen
\nTyckte min syster hade snygga ben
\nLite mera sill
\nOch snaps d\u00e4rtill
\nS\u00e5 kanske alla f\u00e5r njuta av spirorna sen<\/p>\n
\nFound my sister\u2019s fine legs quite a scene.
\nWith some snaps and some fish,
\nHe made one cheeky wish\u2014
\nThat those legs would again be seen!<\/p>\n
\nMin \u00e4lskade hustru fr\u00e5n \u00f6ver-d\u00e4r
\nObserverar med tilltagande besv\u00e4r
\nMina f\u00f6rs\u00f6k att rimma
\nI denna sena timma
\nAtt f\u00e5 \u00e4ta i lugn och ro \u00e4r allt vi beg\u00e4r<\/p>\n
\nSees me rhyming at night \u2014 not okay.
\nWith a roll of her eyes
\nShe just sighs at my tries,
\n“Can we please eat in peace, come what may?”<\/p>\n
\nMusic: Lisa Ekdahl\u2014Vem Vet?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"