the view from sunday night

it was the kind of weekend that happens all too seldom. still, sunny days, not too warm, not too cold, just hours and hours of glorious sunshine. we spent as much time as we could outside. me, fighting with the lawnmower, which for some reason is puffing out billows of smoke. we briefly thought it was because we had accidentally put diesel in it, but it seems not. it's going to have to go to the lawnmower doctor if i can find one that can be trusted. when i couldn't mow, it meant i had more time to go for a long walk and to sit in the sunshine with a cold drink and a good book. i've just started salman rushdie's latest, quichotte. just a little ways in and i'm getting a humbert humbert vibe from the main character, though so far, he's exhibited no pedophile tendencies.

the elderberries have all been harvested and i got 8 bottles of dark, deep purple cordial. our blueberries are still producing and i'm not yet done picking them - they're all going into the freezer for smoothies, aside from the ones that i threw together with the last of the blackberries and made into a lovely, jammy dessert that i invented after reading this recipe and this one (sorry, you'll need a subscription to access those).

there was a harvest market at our local little historical museum and someone was selling the most beautiful baskets, so i had to have one - it's important to support local artists, and how could i resist with that hole-y stone attached on the side? paws mcgraw approved the purchase.

these autumn days feel slow and a bit lazy, i poke around in second hand stores,  finding treasures. i'm also gathering and preparing second hand textiles for the rug i'm going to weave for the kitchen. while i'm doing this, i'm still pondering what's next. i'm not sure what it is, but i'm starting to feel like i need to figure it out and i'm wondering a bit why i haven't. and feeling a little bit stuck that i don't even really know how to go about it in a more active way.

relaxed and recharged

we have finally had a few summery days and i had the most wonderful weekend with ten other creative women in a lovely place in a charming town - eating good food, laughing a lot, painting and talking and drawing and walking on the beach together. i am recharged and relaxed and ready for a visit from an old friend. well, not quite ready - i've got to vacuum and get the linens changed on the bed tomorrow morning - but there's time for that. and after such a lovely weekend, time seems to stretch into exactly the amount i need. there was even time this afternoon for a little nap. (i took the day off, you see.) these sort of moments are something we allow ourselves too seldom, so i'm luxuriating in mine and hoping to hold on to a bit of it for the next time it all seems to be too much.

a beautiful mess of a weekend

what a weekend. it was full of laughter and gin and playing cards and making good food and father-daughter time and travel plans. and while we laughed about trump's remarks on a fictional swedish terror attack, we mostly stayed away from the cheeto's latest antics, for the sake of our sanity. and it was good. it was a beautiful mess of a weekend. and we all needed that.

* * *

how much do we now love the (former) swedish prime minister?
#tweetoftheweek
and more humo(u)r from/about sweden.

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i normally don't think much of these "reduce your stress" lists,
but this one made sense.
and in these times, odin knows we need to reduce our stress.
it might have helped that it was in harvard business review.

* * *

i'm not sure what i make of this.

it seems a bit like left-leaning conspiracy theory.

but on the other hand, it also seems plausible.

* * *

i must say that i think buzz feed was right to publish the russian dossier.

* * *

dangerous and nasty. that's what we get with the cheeto president.

* * *

andrew sullivan on the madness of the cheeto.

notes to self

just leaving a few things here, so i remember them...

• do not leave your tweezers at home for a whole week. your eyebrows (and possibly those around you who have to look at you) will suffer.
• that organic california chardonnay you bought was a bad idea - it tastes like oily peaches compared to the lovely, crisp south african whites you normally drink (even molly noticed).
• cat farts are the worst.
• but cats are otherwise the best.
• clowns are scary a.f.
• but not as scary as donald trump.
• they can keep århus (long story).
• really cool content about björk.
• i did some voicing in a real recording studio this week and admit i found it addictive. i want to do more. perhaps that podcast i've been putting off? why have i been putting that off again?
• i wonder who is going to take care of the cats when husband ends up in the folketing and is also in copenhagen all week...
• when the weather is glorious throughout september, i can welcome and love autumn again.
• also, i need to hold onto the memory of the good weather when it gets grey, dark and rains throughout november.
• gilmore girls makes a great background to a rainy sunday afternoon.
• thank odin for netflix.

pink martini and painting

my to do list is full of photoshoots and video shoots and salmon and the english channel and iPhone covers and terminals and ideas! idea for stories i want to write,  to produce, to make as a podcast. i need to learn more about photoshop and indesign and premiere pro and recording equipment. i need a more zoomy lens. i signed up for a yoga class tomorrow - one that should be gentle on my back, but for which i am so ready. the laundry is done (as long as everyone keeps wearing the clothes they currently have on). i sorted three bags of clothing from my closet to donate. per marie kondo, i thanked them all for their service to me over the years and released them. it felt enormously freeing. surprisingly so, in fact. the bed is made, the bathroom is clean, the kitchen tidied. and now there's even time for a little bit of afternoon creativity - listening to pink martini and painting. just how a sunday afternoon should be.

* * *

these make me long for summer!

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this totally made me laugh - a review of what the presidential candidates look like.

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i dare you to read this and not download neko atsume, the cat game.

* * *

does knausgaard deserve to be canonized already?

another successful drink & draw weekend

i had a little weekend getaway with a few friends. one of them has moved over to fyn (the island between us here on the "mainland" and the big island where they keep copenhagen) to an idyllic little village and opened a gallery and B&B. so charming! and she's got a beautiful studio, where she showed us how to do the monoprint technique she's been working with of late. we used "china paper" - a thin, but surprisingly strong paper that can take a lot of layers of paint and texture.

so much fun. we each chose a color palette and after a walk, to gather bits and bobs from nature, we settled in to work. we used a variety of techniques - painting with acrylics, using gel pens, printing with feathers and plants, slowly building up texture on our pieces.

i found myself working with mustard yellow, teal, payne's grey (it looks quite black in these photos) and a peachy color that i mixed, plus the odd metallic gold accent. it was interesting how we were each drawn to a specific palette that i'm not sure any of us consciously knew we had in our heads.

some of my pieces worked and some didn't. some worked for awhile and then stopped working. it was an interesting process and one which i thoroughly enjoyed, but never really felt i had control over.

through it all, we laughed and drank some wine and enjoyed some good vegetarian chili, told stories, shared and laughed some more. we had moments of silence, deeply concentrating on our work, and then more laughter and sharing. it was that kind of powerful feminine medicine that you just need once in awhile.

i was surprised by the direction some of my pieces took - these two got rather dark after i became inspired to use a bit of dusty grey pastels on them, giving them a very different look than my other, bright pieces (underneath, the palette is the same). and some of my old favorite helleristning motifs came out from somewhere in my subconscious. it felt right, like moments of flow always do.

here's the end result of one of the others - i think you can tell that she's actually educated as an artist.

this friend did two rounds of the small sheets of chinese paper, with very different color palettes. she felt the second round went much better than the first. but sometimes it does take warming up when you're learning a new technique.

and our hostess, who had been working with the technique for some time, made some beautifully textured, multi-layered pieces. beautiful to see the individual ways our creativity manifested itself, expressing something utterly unique, using similar materials. magical. we definitely need to do this more often.

scenes from a weekend

glorious, golden sunshine. a quick lunch with old friends. a nice drive and a good chat with a newer friend while getting there. and hours of finishing up a big wall painting at the library (photos of that soon). a bit of lawn mowing (it's weirdly my favorite thing). making 6 liters of mirabella plum juice. freezing a batch of raspberries. oven drying some more of those plum tomatoes. drinking not enough coffee and then drinking too much. wandering the garden with the camera. waiting for the lunar eclipse (it's actually clear here, so i've set my alarm). i'm not going to take photos of the eclipse, but just enjoy it (mostly because the child has my zoom lens and i'm thinking the 50mm fixed won't really cut it). and just generally trying to keep busy while i wait (once again). this time, tho', there is an end in sight to the waiting. please send good vibes my way!

vikings and bunkers and dinos, oh my!

hmm, it seems they can help out if it's for their own end-of-the-school-year party. 

a dino spotting in the pathetically small corn across the way.

it's been so cold, the corn wasn't happy.

but a few days of sunshine and it's already double this size.

husband and my cousin try out a viking game.

i swear i don't remember that many bunkers at søndervig strand.

i wonder if some of them have risen up out of the sand.

and a raptor chomps a flower in the golden hour.

and we wished upon paper balloons instead of 4th of july fireworks.

gorgeous naturally-dyed yarn and fabrics at the viking market.
it was too hot for me to be tempted to buy any.

summer has come at last and around here it's been filled with an end-of-the-school year party, a visit from family that ended up rather viking-themed, a stroll on the west coast, lots of ice cream, playing cards, doing puzzles and drinking wine until the wee hours. oh, and a few dinosaurs, just for good measure.  and boy, have the strawberries started to come on! they were clearly happy to have some sunshine and warm temperatures as well. i've been juicing and freezing and quite literally spent hours today picking. luckily, i had a helper - molly the garden cat.

tho' things tend to slow down during the danish summer, the week ahead promises good things. and even more strawberries.

the view from here

the last of our long spring holiday weekends is winding down. we got our fair share of most welcome sunshine. after a nice dinner (another of those south dakota beef roasts that have strangely been available in our local grocery store), husband and i took a walk down to the lake. the wind, which had been blowing quite intensely all day had all but died down and we had a quiet moment on what's left of the fallen tree (husband has been hard at work turning it into firewood). birdsong and the smell of verdant summer were all around us as we gazed at the peaceful lake. it was a good way to end the day and the weekend. 

i've had need for peaceful moments of late...needless strife and conflict with my sister has zapped my energy. why are we hardest on those we love the most? i have been reminded that words are sharper weapons than actual physical blows and healing from unwisely chosen words takes longer than a recovering from a physical injury. i wonder at times if you ever really get over the most hurtful accusations? especially if they are bewildering and incomprehensible. i've also realized that losing a parent makes you feel and behave in strange ways that make you unrecognizable, perhaps even to yourself. grief is a journey.

but working outdoors in the garden, or indoors on the new kitchen, or even cleaning, tidying and doing laundry - things where you see the tangible results of what you do - really does help. it eases the mind and soothes the wounded spirit. and so does a moment by the lake, breathing the quiet, letting it penetrate your very pores. 

it will eventually be ok in the end. and if it's not ok, it's not the end. 

* * *

this made me laugh.

"i went paleo and now i hate everything."

* * *

check out the amazing 1917 chalkboards they found under some other chalkboards in oklahoma city.

100 happy days :: day 23

a really good cup of coffee. 

a mug that fits perfectly in my hand.

pretty afternoon light.

birthday weekend catch-up

it was a fun-filled birthday weekend. i don't usually much care about my birthday or make a fuss, but this time, with a visit from my first cousin once removed (that's my first cousin's child, if you want to know), we made a festive weekend of it! good food, plenty of wine, lots of laughter, accidental dressing alike, a trip to louisiana, a scavenger hunt to find my birthday presents, more good food, more wine and more laughter. oh, and cake, delicious cake, that i didn't have to bake myself. even tho' the weather turned colder again, it was a lovely weekend.  i collected lots of happy days, so i've got to catch up on my posts for that as well!

i'll be back soon to process all of the weekend's experiences...but now, it's finals week on australian master chef and i've got to watch it! i don't follow much television, but australian master chef rocks.

* * *

i love these beautiful photographs of prosaic soviet-era locations in siberia.

100 happy days :: day 22

my birthday presents from my family - a chemex coffee carafe, organic coffee and four new coffee cups made by a nearby ceramics artist named nina lund (i wrote about her atelier here). best of all, these were all purchased locally. the coffee carafe in a little interiors shop called bark interiors where the owner has just got great taste and has gathered an awesome collection of beautiful things, beautifully displayed. the coffee from a brand new little organic shop that just opened in our little town. and then, ceramics by a local artist. it makes a big difference in your community when you shop locally. (my dad taught me that.) and this was definitely one of many happinesses on my birthday. not least of all because my family put together a scavenger hunt for me to find the presents - it involved invisible ink, a long, long string, a climb up into the treehouse, a couple of maps and a brass bucket hoisted up in the rafters. a most happy (birth)day.

100 happy days :: day 21

that magical feeling of infinity in yayoi kusama's gleaming lights of the souls at louisiana. if there hadn't been a long line outside of it, we'd have stayed in there much longer. it's utterly magical.

100 happy days :: day 20

homemade food, made together with other people while laughing, telling stories and drinking wine. definitely today's happiness. and these sweet potato chips? delicious dipped in garlicky aioli.

the view from sunday night

these two precious kittens went to their new home earlier in the week. both the people in this house and their mother have missed them quite a lot. loke (now luke) and lucy - they are special cats, but they will be loved in their new home. and sometimes you just have to let go.

we have chicken weirdness at our house. ever since the fox came into our henhouse earlier in the summer, all of the remaining chickens really don't like to be in there. i had these three locked in for several weeks (there is a fenced-in outdoor area as well) and this week we got a new hen with ten half-grown chicks. then, after a day or so, i found three of the chicks pecked to death and i opened the door so everyone could go out, thinking they felt too cramped. and also thinking they would come back in at night. they did not. and they're all back up in the trees at night. we have feral chickens at our house. and husband is talking about tearing down the henhouse and starting over.

happily, we don't have feral cats, as this wild bunch is as tame and sweet as can be. one of them went to his new home as well - he was a special one, with a bit of frankie factor about him. but i also know he'll be loved and cared for very much at his new home. now there's only four to go.

games were played in the waning golden hours of indian summer sunshine. and elderflower champagne was drunk as well. and my child must have inherited her father's strong nails, as those are her real nails and they're all that long and never break. it's infuriating, actually.

i'm doing my best to enjoy the last four kittens while we have them. i haven't actually put an ad up for them yet, as i want to hold onto them for a few more weeks. they're at the cutest and most playful right now. but molly is showing signs of growing weary of them.

maybe it's because when they all want a drink, that's an awful lot of kittens and there's scarcely room for her in the chair!

the weekend also held an evening of drink & draw. we're down to four regulars and we talked about lust as a theme...lust for life, lust for food, lust for well, lust. it was 3:30 a.m. before we even realized it! and that is precisely how a friday night should be.

i found myself partaking of the garden bounty on this sunday, which seemed to stretch to all of the time that was needed...time for a batch of pear-ginger-vanilla jam with the last of the pears that the wind has blown down from the tree. and a batch of fresh raspberry scones with the next-to-last raspberries from the garden. the leaves are falling from the trees and it was a bit blustery today, but overall, it's been a gorgeous indian summery weekend. and i feel fortified for the week ahead.

* * *

does the hyperfragmentation of our lives make us bored?

* * *

the truth about wonder woman.

* * *

ahh...those stormtroopers.

the view from sunday night or what a week it's been

it's been a full week. there have been tiara-wearing kittens (that got a whopping 252 likes on flickr, which is the most any of my flickr photos have ever gotten).

there were days of rain, and blustery winds, but also glorious, golden light spilled through in between showers, making it ok that it went from summer to fall overnight.

there were more photo sessions with kittens, where i came to understand why they say you shouldn't try to herd cats. they are at their most lovely and irresistible right now. i'm enjoying every yummy minute of them.

there was a bit of early access to the series 12 minifigures, which won't be in stores until october (hence the blurry photo). i've got 13 of the 16 and can't wait for them to be released so i can get the other 3.

there was teenage mutant ninja turtle homework to do. i do love the kind of homework i'm asked to do at my workplace, even tho' tmnt aren't my favorites. this little spaceship was mostly an upside down build, which was new for me. it's also quite a lot sturdier than it appears, which is cool.

we harvested the last batch of honey - boosting our total harvest for the year up to 90 kilos, a much better harvest than last year. now we just need a big box of new honey jars so we can fill them up and maybe even sell some.

and when we weren't eating shark burgers, the weekend was spent discussing the school options. we visited two schools on friday and both have their own advantages. so much so that we've not had a gut feeling that one is a better choice than the other. that's been a bit difficult for me, as i normally rely on my gut to tell me things and in this case, it's told me that we should definitely find a new school, but it isn't obvious which one is the best choice. the child, on the other hand, is sure which one she wants, so pending a couple of questions tomorrow morning, we are going to go with that one - she is, after all, the one who has to make the switch. it's up to us to make the logistics of it work and to ensure that she keeps her social circle intact, as well as building a new one. that one, we're not really worried about so much. probably, we'll ultimately choose the public school, because we pay an awful lot of taxes and education is something they should just get right. and the new school gives a good impression of getting it right (of course, we're currently easy to impress in light of how bad things are at her current school).

and the weekend ended with a long walk with husband in the forest. the rainy weather has been good for mushrooms, both the edible and the photogenic kinds (these are the latter). a long walk has a way of clearing out any last vestiges of restlessness and discontent. and now i'm ready for the week ahead.

* * *

molly has been on a roll (of awesome posts) lately.

* * *

me, probably not making all that much sense, 

in danish, on the radio last wednesday evening.

talking about what danishness is.

(hint: full calendars, booking people two months ahead,

being able to talk to the boss no matter your level in the org. 

and being afraid of conflict)

* * *

i'm liking stuckinplastic

what's not to like? minifigs. life philosophies. lemonade. gratefulness.

* * *

a heartwarming story of love that finally happened after 60 years.

* * *

has amazon gone to the dark side?