life is good, but my memory? not so much.

it was a rainy, dreary day. i had to pull out a warm sweater again when i dressed for work. but despite that, it was a good day. great collaboration with a colleague. good progress on some of my projects. and a general feeling that i am regaining my confidence and getting on top of things. however, i'm not on top of everything. husband went to scotland today and tho' he told me last week, i didn't remember until he called around dinnertime from edinburgh. it's rather worrying that i don't even remember that my husband is flying to another country (tho' i did wonder why he was looking for his passport yesterday).

but at the end of the day, the rain cleared and i had walk in the garden with my camera. all of the cats came out to play, as did the sun, and it cleared my head and left my soul refreshed. despite a week filled with teachers having nervous breakdowns, time that flew by too quickly and cloudy, rainy days, a walk in the garden, accompanied by playing cats and the beauty of the golden hour sunshine on raindrops really truly can make it all better.

wordless wednesday: look up

happy easter!

what's better on easter than your very own basket of easter bunnies? we have a bit of a hard time keeping our bunnies IN the basket, but that's another story. it's been a lovely easter weekend - we've had family visitors and loads of good food and time spent outside - where it was sunny, if a bit cold.

goat cheese, chorizo and asparagus

i've actually been whipping up a whole lot of pinspiration for the past few days while we've had a houseful of guests. oddly, i neglected to photograph any of the finished products. yes, it's true and i'm afraid it's all gone now, every last crumb, and the dishes are all done, so i can't even photograph mournfully empty plates. but i made these bars, this dish (to which i added chorizo for extra zing) and this one too. and i made gnocchi with nettles, again.  it was based on the gnocchi recipe in this pin (tho' i added nettles). and i made the ricotta myself (easy peasy) from this recipe. i can highly recommend all of it.

homemade ricotta - a jar of whey for bread baking

i have this odd feeling when i'm cooking for a crowd...i'm quite stressed out when it first begins and even as i'm planning the menu, but once i settle into the groove, i quite enjoy it.  chopping, combining, sizzling, the aroma of sauteed onions and crispy bacon, the magical alchemy - like when you pour a few tablespoons of vinegar into a pan of hot milk and watch it separate and become cheese. there are few things more satisfying than a good meal coming together, unless it's knowing that your guests enjoy eating it.

here's hoping you have all had a lovely easter. we've still got tomorrow, but we can feel the holiday winding down.

just in time for easter

one perfect little black baby chicken was peeking out from beneath the broody hen this morning. clearly one of the swedish black hens sneaked her egg onto the nest, because this is definitely a swedish black and not a little brown danish chick. mama has two more eggs that she's working on. i've moved them from the flock into their own space with a heat lamp. and here i thought that hen was too stupid and unfocused to make it work. nature is pretty amazing.

one of these things is not like the others

i'd like to introduce you to some of our neighbors...

i met a most charming cow yesterday.

she told me her name was molly.

apologies to the real molly.

she had a friend named polly (apologies to the real polly).

and a couple more named dolly and madge.

and across the road? this guy. we'll call him will (with apologies to bill).
i do wonder, with all those cows around, whether he knows he's a camel.

have you met any of your neighbors lately?

out skating

we all got skates for christmas, and we have our own lake, and it's cold and beautiful with the finest dusting of snow falling, so i'm afraid i can't be bothered to blog right now. i hope you are all having a wonderful holiday!

light, lake, lilypads

we celebrate midsummer here in denmark on june 23 - sankt hans aften - i'm not sure why we don't celebrate on the actual solstice, but hey, i'm up for any opportunity to celebrate the light. and celebrate we did this evening. our neighbors had saved loads of sticks and old hay and had a most spectacular bonfire, which is a traditional element of sankt hans. traditionally, a witch is burned on the fire, but we skipped that bit (and i kept myself at a safe distance, just to be sure no one gave me a little push).

afterwards, we headed down for a little sail on our lake. this time, we found pink waterlilies. and although i just shared waterlilies yesterday, i had to share them again. making hay while the sun shines, as it were. or lilypads while it's light, perhaps?

thank you all for sharing the places where you get away from the world on my previous water lily post. i love how many of us are drawn to water and nature in general. having grown up on the prairie, i'm also drawn to wide-open spaces where i can see forever. and speaking of that, i'll be headed there on saturday! i'm looking forward to watching a good thunderstorm or two come rolling over the prairie. and of course, to seeing my family. that bit goes without saying. but i'll admit i'm starting to wish they'd just come here and hang out with us and the lilypads.

a little bit country

as some of you may know, i grew up in a very small town in the upper midwest. i know i seem like this dazzlingly cosmopolitan, sophisticated, traveled european woman (NOT), but really, i'm a small town girl. so it's not all that surprising that i find myself twenty-odd years after leaving for the city (if Iowa City counts - ha!), back in the countryside.

but having lived in orange county, phoenix, chicago and copenhagen for two decades, there are some things i forgot about country life. things like...

~ flies.

~ livestock grazing in fields (see flies above).

~ wind sweeping across with nothing to stop it.

~ that comforting sound of a horse crunching its grain.

gratuitous jumping shot, because i love this picture.

~ neighbors dropping by to chat - and to try to sell you a tractor.

~ riding lawn mowers.

~ trading for things instead of buying them.

~ having a BIG vegetable garden - instead of a dozen strawberry plants, we've got more like 150.

~ birdsong filling the air. and i mean filling the air.

~ the general intensity of the presence of nature. and spiders.

~ deer darting in front of your car on a winding country road.

~ people driving like complete maniacs on winding country roads.

~ getting stuck behind a tractor on the winding country roads.

~ a feeling of having loads of space - both physical and psychological.

~ pollen allergies from hell that turn to sinus infection and then a sort of asthmatic bronchitis which only more steroids than lance armstrong used in the last tour de france can cure. (i know, i know, he supposedly doesn't use any. yeah. right.) case of pneumonia which leaves you feeling even worse than you did because now it's been assigned that word.

life in the countryside generally has a completely different rhythm. after dinner, we go over to the horse - to ride her and groom her and spend time with her. as a result, we're watching far less t.v. this can only be a good thing. there's always something to be done outdoors - weeds to pull, seeds to sow, lawn to mow, a walk which beckons. we definitely feel much more the pull of nature. it feels healthy and good for us. it clears our heads of a day spent in the office or at school. but i guess i appreciate it that much more for having been away from it and lived in cities for a time (half my life, actually). it's nice to feel things slipping into an easier rhythm, one that feels more in tune with nature.