sunday breakfast

i found some breakfast sausages on discount - i'm always looking in the "mad spild" bin (that means food waste, but it really means not wasting food) and i decided to institute a new habit here in 2023 - we're going to do sunday breakfast! i made a dutch baby pancake over christmas and realized how easy it was, so i whipped one up this morning to go with the sausages (forgot to photograph them). great way to start the day! here's hoping it's the start of a 2023 habit.

a rainy sunday afternoon

it's raining at last, after an entire month of sunshine. we've never had an entire month of sunshine in a row, so it was very welcome, but so is the rain. the rain has made me slow down - i can't be in the garden, picking strawberries or weeding or mowing or hoeing, so i'm in the plant-filled front entry with a cup of creamy coffee, a book, my journal, my camera and the kittens. i must admit it's bliss and precisely what i needed. i've been reading some more of knausgaard's small autumn essays. it's a book i've had on the nightstand for some time - you can just pick it up, read one or two as you wish, and then put it down again for some weeks. it lends itself to this slow way of reading it; each essay is shining, deep and luminous and i must get the rest of the seasons to savour as well (as you might guess, there are four volumes in all). they are small musing on single words - words like badger, war, labia - very diverse - written by knausgaard to his unborn daughter, as they awaited her. they're not exactly micro-memoirs, which i've also been pondering since hearing about them on the bittersweet life podcast, more like little perfect essayistic musings on being human. in looking for more small, perfect essays, i came across brevity, an online magazine filled with them. check it out if you're looking for something to read on a rainy sunday afternoon.

the view from sunday night

a luxuriously lazy weekend - sleeping in, leisurely tidying up, sorting and throwing out a bunch of old papers (what a relief that was!), hanging with the cats, and husband, watching netflix (altered carbon = meh due to odd casting, dirty money = too distressing, comedians in cars getting coffee = just what i needed), baking bread, making spelt "risotto," because it's what i had in the cupboard, roasting a chicken, getting all the laundry done, catching up my 365 tumblr, planning husband's birthday dinner, photographing the first snowdrops - in the snow, no less, making and keeping a vow not to get dressed all day, cutting out and painting pages of an old book, reading a frivolous and unserious novel. it was, in other words, exactly the weekend i needed.

we are so pressured these days to make sure every moment has meaning, but sometimes, what you need is to slow down, stay in your pajamas, read a rather trashy novel (carl hiaasen's skinny dip, in this case), light some candles, drink coffee with extra cream, snuggle with a cat and damn any guilt feelings over any of it. down time like this is as important as all of the things we chase and the hours we work to make and do things that are important to us and/or our jobs. and i would do well to remember that. 

maybe allowing yourself a shouldless day* is the best way to take care of you and give yourself the mental space for the rest that life offers. and by you, i mean me. but i do also mean you. 

* * * 

collect all the books.

it's good for you.

* * *

the case for reading bad.

* * *

some cities are just better for revolutions.

* * *

magazines - collected.

* * *

lovely, lovely audio stories (in danish) by julie thing.

* * *

what you leave behind when you immigrate.

* * *

*shouldless day - from the episode of death, sex & money with ellen burstyn. 

the view from sunday night

the view from sunday night is of one of those dinners that i love best. it's when i rummage around in the refrigerator and throw together something that will probably never be repeated, not because it doesn't taste good, but because i'll never have that particular combination of ingredients lying around at the same time again. this was marinated turkey breast, cauliflower, onions, sweet potatoes and half a bag of fresh spinach, stir-fried together and then i added a jar of apricot-coriander tagine sauce (store-bought). i served it with my new favorite starch - bulgur with vermicelli. it was pretty delicious.

my minfigure collection had a bath today. this house is very dusty - the soil out here is very sandy and we almost always have a west wind blowing - so they definitely needed a good spring cleaning. it took me over an hour. i've got to find a better way to display them, either that or get a cleaning person. tho' that project motivated me to do a lot of other dusting and tidying and vacuuming getting down to the business of pairing up the socks in the sock basket. it has turned a bit cold and grey, so it was a good day to stay inside and do such things. i also baked a banana bread since we had some old black bananas. i always feel both virtuous and in touch with my grandmother when i make banana bread, as it's her recipe i always use.

our local art group had our spring exhibition this weekend - this was how our pieces ended up. i say our because they were pretty equally husband and me, tho' the talisman one hanging on the wall was mine and if i'm honest, the driftwood man in front was mostly husband. i laid out all of the pieces, but he's a genius at putting them together. there was a slightly funny story with the talisman one - i was turning it in and there was a woman writing it into an excel sheet on her computer. i said it was called "talismans" and she actually questioned my english, suggesting that the plural should be talismen. not exactly a dumb idea, but still. and even when i said i was sure it was correct with an "s," she and her boyfriend tried to argue further with me, informing me of how the plural of man is men. and i'm the one who is a native speaker. i wasn't sure whether to laugh or slap them, but you have to admire their cheek. it was a very interesting and well-attended exhibition. i'll share some more photos tomorrow. my internet is quite slow this evening. that happens on sunday evening when everyone down the road must get online as well. it's just one of the "perks" of living out in the country.

i told myself i wasn't going to go for the simpson's minifigs, but always, i couldn't stay away. i didn't get any of the ones i really wanted (marge, lisa) in the first round, so i went back to the employee store on the way home. despite carefully picking a bunch of different bump codes, to try to avoid duplicates, i got several more scratchy and ned flanders. grrr. still no marge and lisa. i think they're onto us with those bump codes and they just don't work anymore. the figures are really pretty cool and i did used to watch the simpson's quite regularly. i think in the states, there's a special lego episode on this evening. i've only seen the trailer, but it looks quite cleverly done. i'm looking forward to seeing that, tho' i don't know when it's going to surface here in denmark.

and that's about it...nothing big or major, just an ordinary weekend.

a day of nothing much at all

it's that time of year again. the rapeseed fields are in full, buzzing bloom. it's that yellow that makes you feel a bit dizzy if you look at it directly. they speak the language of danish summer. short, fleeting, but intense.

today was filled with slow tasks. picking violets to make violet cordial. getting enough of them takes time and there's no way around it, you just have to pick them, one at a time. it was cloudy, but still and warm, so picking them was a pleasant, rather meditative task. it worked rather nicely to clear my mind and funnily enough, i didn't really think about anything at all in particular. some days, that's precisely what you need.

at the beginning and at the end

the day started like this.

and ended like this.

in between, we drowned a rat (not as easy at you might think), planned a radical change in the living room, picked up our child from her weekend away, knitted, watched utter crap (read: toddlers & tiaras) on TLC, processed some photos, uploaded them, discovered a funny (but not brilliant) program called black books on netflix, found some hilarious old photos and uploaded them to facebook and just generally enjoyed a lovely sunday.

hope you did too.

except for the part with the rat.

that wasn't that much fun.

just another rainy sunday in june

raindrops on the terrace roof.
a special quality of light - summer light, even tho' it's cloudy.
it has a greenish cast to it, as the trees drink in the needed rain.
kittens racing around, tumbling.
a mug of steaming tea and a fresh, light bun slathered in butter.
a moment of quiet contentment. 
the day hasn't yet really begun.

i need this moment.

the days start to feel busy, rushing headlong into one another.

as my calendar fills up.

in a good way, as the projects are now of my own choosing.

a photo class for kids at the library.

helping shape a new school.

writing about travel.

editing a book.

sharing a bit of my culture.

being part of creating new surroundings for the culture where i live.

just being more solidly where i am.

and always time with a horse.

it's the healthiest time.

and the greatest gift you can give your child.

because you can't fool a horse.

it knows if you're scared.

or if you're trusting.

or if you're bluffing.

they can just see right through to you.

the real you.

you can't hide from a horse.

and as always, dreaming of what's next.

a refuge in the garden.

a long, narrow, rustic building,

where the light floods in from windows along both sides.

but a safe, dark cocoon in which to work at one end.

and room for a long table.

where we could have meetings,

and not be ashamed to invite people from outside.

reshaping what an office means.

i'm unused to a full calendar.

and that means i mess things up sometimes.

like yesterday, when we showed up for a wedding at 2 p.m.

and found out it had started at 1 p.m.

and all that was left at the church was the rice on the ground.

i was very surprised and a little embarrassed.

but i find myself laughing about it now.

if you throw a whole lot of balls up in the air,

you're bound to drop a couple of them.