thankful thursday

homemade blackcurrant soda

homemade blackcurrant cordial

a beach scattered with <3 stones and an old ball jar to put them in

a variety of flowers in the garden

flowers - the one good thing left behind by the old owners

a bit more sunshine today. it helps.
i hate that i've become one of those people.
those people who obsess about the weather.
but i need regular sunshine.
cloudy days just don't do it for me.

i promise to blog about something else soon.
but first, a dose of sunshine.

finding meaning in stripes

working on a scarf for sabin in soft, colorful cotton

i've made my own striped scarf as long as i want it to be and have only to go down to the local knitting shop and have the nice lady there show me how to join the two ends and then it will be finished. in the meantime, i have turned to one for sabin. she had to have an identical basket to mine for the project and we gathered all of our soft, bright cotton yarns into it and i'll make a colorful scarf for her like mine. she doesn't get along too well with wool, so we thought the cotton was a good solution and it was a way to use some of a stash of yarn that i had acquired out of addiction to the acquisition of colorful, soft things rather than having any project in mind. being an inexperienced knitter, i wasn't sure at first if i liked the cotton, but now that i've gotten a little way in, i do like it and it will be nice for spring, which has finally shown up.

snowdrops - a welcome sight, spotted in the woods at the new house
(and we just officially received word that they've agreed and it really IS the new house!)

last week, i spent time with an old friend who i used to work with and who i will work with again, starting april 1 (convenient to start a new job with 3 days of paid holiday and a weekend, don't you think?). i had my knitting basket with me and was knitting on my stripy scarf. i also mentioned that i had two more weaving lessons left before they were over. he laughed uproariously and made fun of me for indulging in activities that, in his words, only a 90-year-old woman would do. and oddly, that didn't bother me. because i know better. for one thing, i bought my loom from an 80-year-old woman who wasn't going to weave anymore because she was now painting, so there goes the age theory. and for another, craft is cool. here we all are, crocheting granny squares, knitting, sewing, quilting and embroidering. we're outfitting rooms of our houses to accommodate these hobbies. and we're not feeling any shame about it, just because they are homely pursuits (in the sense of home, not ugly).

i've done a lot of thinking about why this trend is so prevalent at the moment and have a few theories. one is that in the face of economic crisis, people simply are doing more around the house - not only are they taking less long-distance vacations, they're thinking about making a cover for that mixer rather than buying one. so the popularity of craft is partially from the desire to spend less, tho' i can vouch for the fact that sewing and knitting are rather expensive hobbies. even more, i think that as so many of us are information workers in one form or another, spending our days in offices, using computers, making elaborate powerpoint slides and excel spreadsheets, we have a longing to make something tangible and real, rather than all of that virtual ephemera. knitting, crocheting and sewing satisfy that longing. plus, we're so removed today from the production of things, that we have a desire to return to the simpler times of our forefathers and -mothers, where people really know how to do things with their hands. a quilt is much more tangible than a powerpoint presentation when it comes to it, so we simply have a desire to have something real that we made with our own two hands.

that dark chocolate brown stripe doesn't entirely fit

of course, i'm not above assigning deeper meaning to the things i've made. when i started the scarf, i consciously decided not to rip anything out and start over, but leave the small imperfections as markers of a learning experience and hopefully, to lend their own charm.  i've been looking upon the stripes in the scarf as a series of events, just as life is made up of event upon event. they build upon one another and the shades of the different events play off of one another. sometimes they clash and other times, they harmonize. towards the end of my scarf, i felt the need to introduce two new colors - a dark chocolate brown and a darker turquoise. interestingly, the brown doesn't work. it doesn't ruin the scarf, thankfully, but it jumps out in a jarring way, just like some of the things that happen in life. also interesting was that i couldn't see it until i had gone past it and added the next colors, so it wasn't until later that i realized how it didn't fit. just like life. but having vowed not to take out stitches once they were in, i have left it, as a learning experience. in life, you don't get a do-over.

in all, i'm pretty ok with the ribbing that i'm doing things a 90-year-old woman would do. those old ladies know how to do stuff and they've seen things. and i'm just fine with that.

earth mosaic 2009

it's earth day and there's a marvelous flickr group--earth mosaic 2009--that's collecting pictures taken on this day from all around the world. i just geotagged and submitted mine. shots taken right here in my little town in denmark on this glorious earth day.

it's fantastic

it's been sunny. it's been still. trees of all sorts are in full bloom. as the sun sets, the still air is heavy with the scent of blossoms. it's like the whole plant world is overtly having sex. and it's positively glorious. i hope spring is springing where you are...

and to my south african friends, i love fall just as much, so i hope it's glorious too! it's just not overtly having sex like spring is...sorry about that. :-)

spring, glorious spring

this is why i'm not writing a real blog post today...

that's my dinner potatoes grilling on that grill in the middle of that table. and i've just put steaks on...so i've gotta run. they're filet mignons...

scenes from a wedding

i think the pictures will suffice for now...

random wednesday

i love the rainbow-colored S-train. it makes me happy just to see it. they're usually just plain old red, but a few of them are rainbows. almost makes you like the public transport. and speaking of public transport, i started off my first week of birthday resolutions by speaking to a stranger on the train. in denmark if people speak to someone they don't know in public, they are either drunk or mentally...ahem, shall we say...diminished...in some way. true to form, the woman who spoke to me, while high functioning, was clearly not all there. but, it still counts. even tho' she initiated the conversation.

* * *

gerber daisies were 3 bunches for 50 kroner (that's less than $10!) at magasin. it made it feel like spring or even summer, even if the wind was pretty biting today, despite the sunshine. they look perfect in my ktichen, tho' they got a bit droopy on the long train ride home (made longer by some signal problems that meant we sat between the main train station and dybbølsbro for an inordinately long time):

* * *

i ordered some acrylic waterfast inks from dick blick art supplies in the US the other day, a big whopping $20 worth and they sent a quote on the shipping today (thank goodness they actually sent it for approval). they have the skills of a fence post in finding reasonable shipping. their offers were $38.08 for fed ex or $29.75 for the slow boat USPS (2-3 weeks, they said). all for something which can't weigh more than a few ounces. are they completely mental? do they think they can just take advantage of stupid foreigners who don't know any better? who are they trying to fool here? i'm positive that it wouldn't take more than $10-12 to ship to me and it could be here in a week to ten days with regular international mail.  i think it is a really crappy way to do business, making up what are perhaps too-low prices on the actual items on shipping costs. madness. i'll harvest some squid myself, thanks. 

* * *

sabin's big (half)sister has been hanging out here all week. normally she comes only every other weekend. she's 17 and you'd think it was a pain in the patootie to have a teenager in the house, but with husband in north carolina, it's pretty good having her around. she's made dinners and snacks because she wanted lessons in making The Pasta dish, hummus, and spanish omelette. so lessons she got. easy peasy for me. and she's a sensible, good kid. i hope sabin's this easy when the time comes. 

* * *

that's all i got today, folks. turns out this going to work on the train and sitting in an office all day is kinda tiring. hope your wednesday was less random than mine.

a perfect autumn day

i arrived home very early this morning. another of those jarring transitions from 30 degrees, high humidity and smog to the clear, crisp, sunny fall weather in denmark. it's about 15 degrees, light breezes and sunshine. THE perfect weather for donning my new gap sweatshirt (from the boy's section, why don't they make non-zip hoodies for women anymore?), some walking shoes and going mushroom hunting in the forest.

i had to take some pictures of the last of the summer flowers using my new macro lens. there was already frost once while i was away, but in the greenhouse, it only got down to 3 degrees, so the dahlias are still going strong.

i doubt the melons will really get a chance to be ripe before the real frost comes, even in the greenhouse, but they look pretty now anyway.

the hydrangea are finishing up, but i absolutely love them at every stage. they're wonderful!

the chocolate cosmos look so autumn-y:

the little japanese acer is a blaze of color:

and the rowan trees are loaded with their berries. i love to pick these clusters and make an autumn wreath for the door and this year it feels like i have the time and energy to do things like that again.

but first, a whole mess of these are going into the freezer so we can have an apple pie at thanksgiving:

i just love fall, don't you?

i love my lensbaby

buzzing

just because this was getting a bit wordy...

reflections at the close of the week

beauty, stillness, morning sunshine, paper thin petals

color, light, still air fragrant with the scent of green

vibrancy, life, profusion, rush of color

these are the things i'm thinking of this morning as i wander my garden with my camera in hand.  there is a jumble of thoughts in my head.  so many experiences this week.  it was a week of return to a place i loved, but which has changed--both in reality and for me. things don't stay the same. there is an impermanence in the world.  an impermanence to the world. flowers bloom in a blaze of luscious color, then fade and move to the next stage.  and this is as it should be.

i realized this week that i too have moved to the next stage.  and it happened in one visit.  it happened without my knowing it needed to.  there are times when we don't really know where we're going until we get there.  i am healed and whole again.  the tribulations of the job i left at the end of last year are really truly behind me now.  i am wholly able to see the good and the lessons learned and have let go of the exhaustion.  

sometimes it takes going back to be able to move on. that experience is part of me now, integrated into me, forming part of my whole.  and i am at peace with that at last.  now i am able to bloom and feel my own full vibrancy again.  and that feels wonderful.

happy weekend everyone!