summer holiday winding down

just a day and a half left of my three week summer holiday. it's been a rainy, rather cold summer and it would have been nice to go somewhere with sunshine, but it's also been really nice and relaxing to be at home and really great to have sabin at home. we worked on the outdoor terrace, i sewed and i worked with sabin on a cactus mural wall in our bedroom. 

i'm sad my holiday is ending and i've got low grade dread going back to all the work i have to do in the next couple of weeks. and i'm sad that sabin will head back to school at the end of the week. i'll miss having her here. we've been watching real housewives of orange county and relaxing. it's been good and hopefully all the rest and relaxation will carry me through the busy autumn. 

sunshine scenes

we attended sabin's best friend's confirmation on friday. sabin took this shot of her in the sunshine at the party. tho' i do have my doubts as to the significance of this whole confirmation thing in this day and age, it does somehow seem nice to celebrate these young people as they stand on the cusp of the difficult teenage years and then all of the responsibilities that lie ahead of them. a day where they are the center of loving attention and where they get to be beautiful seems ok.

after the party, we went to see old friends and this is where we woke up. one of our favorite places in denmark. buresø. and it was a glorious morning indeed. sunshine will do that.

later the same day, we had a walk along amager strand park in copenhagen. this is just an iPhone photo and while cameras have improved, they don't necessary do that well at a distance. but i like how the tanker looks like it's up on that sandbar. it's not. and those kite surfers aren't really dancing on top of it.

sunday found us back home. apparently rain had come to copenhagen, but here on the mainland, it was a beautiful, sunny day. perfect for a bit of reading on a quilt in the garden.

the air was saturated with the scent of lilacs and so i had to bring some inside, as i could't bear to leave it. lilacs are my favorite flower. they're so fleeting, but i think nothing smells better, so i try to relish that delicious scent all i can while they last. even frieda seemed to enjoy the smell. 

* * *

you know me and my sense of immediacy.

it's driving me a bit mad that the great bulk of the photos i took today

need to stay a secret for a little while longer.

*sigh*

* * *

amy komar's new work is just exquisite.

a grey and lazy saturday

the child is sick. the weather is grey. it's been raining off and on all day. and windy. it's best to stay indoors. and bake. and do laundry. and surf the interwebs, curled up with a cat and a cup of tea, season 2 of fringe going on the iPad. during one pause in the rain, i had a little wander, looking for the latest spot the hens are laying their eggs. i noticed that the nettles are already up, so it won't be long 'til we have nettle pesto and nettle gnocchi. i guess i can take a little rain if it brings spring with it. but i didn't find the eggs. i found one, but it was the new little red hen the pilot brought the other day, not the ones who are hiding theirs. but i guess one is better than none. and now husband came in and says he fears he's getting sick too. so i guess i'll make some more tea for everyone and make them keep their distance from me.

* * *

here are a few of the interesting articles i found while surfing around:

*  what lego and apple have in common.

*  the best 404 error pages.

*  a linguist claims to have at least started to crack the code of the voynich manuscript. i thought it might have been an exaggeration, but then i watched the professor's video on this site and he sounds pretty for real.

everything is awesome

it was a beautiful weekend.
it surely helped that it started already on thursday evening.
we had time with friends.
fun at lego world.
time spent with sabin (eating sushi and wandering a bit in copenhagen).
a family saturday night of dinner out and the lego movie.
sunday at home making soup and baking paleo "bread" and photographing cats.

everything is awesome.
(that's a quote from the lego movie, by the way.)
and surely also holds portents of the week ahead.

* * *

are cats better at predicting the weather than weathermen?

* * *

it seems as baby boomers get older, it gets easier to talk about sex.

and also to have some. 

i find that encouraging.

sex after seventy.

in for a tune-up

do you ever feel out of alignment? unfocused? out of sync? 

if so, i suggest that you go get a quilt (it's ok if your bunnies have chewed a few holes in it),
spread it in a shady spot (but not too shady) on the lawn,
fetch a couple of pillows and a good book
and maybe a tall glass of iced tea.
talk the cat into curling up at your side (oddly enough, he'll do this for cookies).

now proceed to spend the entire afternoon right there.
and don't feel guilty about it for a second. 

i guarantee you'll feel like a new person.

what might seem like wasted time to an outside observer is likely to be the best time you'll spend all week.

you'll be rejuvenated, realigned, refocused and totally in sync.

so what are you waiting for?

reflections on the lake

last evening - reflections on the lake

why is that having a view is so important to us as humans?  there was a time, not all that long ago, when it wasn't. here in denmark, the older houses along the harsh west coast have small windows and you can see that people weren't concerned about seeing the sea. they were more concerned about keeping out the wind and the sand. in the laura ingalls wilder books, there's only one passage about how pa got a real glass window for one of the houses on the prairie and it was a tiny one. there was a time when people living along canals and rivers did their best not to see all that dirty water and waste flowing by and those living closest to it were the poorest. today, the most expensive properties brag about their view and their proximity to water. when did our view on having a view change? is it the fault of creative real estate agents? or do we as humans crave the horizon as our horizons have expanded?

we've noticed since moving out to the countryside that our neighbors who have lived here for 40 years have what to us is a curious lack of a seating area outside. if the weather is good enough (and sometimes even if it isn't), we eat outdoors. our neighbor is likely to be mowing his extensive lawn during those early evening hours when we're trying to enjoy a meal outside. but we want him to sell us his barn and a bit of land at the back of it eventually, so we don't complain. we've realized it's just a different view on what activities happen outdoors. to our neighbors, long-time farmers, outdoors is where you work and in the house is where you relax. we work indoors all day and so we want to go outdoors to relax.

we move our table all around the lawn, taking advantage of spots of sunshine (or shade) and wind directions (if we're grilling). and tho' the view of our lake isn't from the table in the garden, it's important to us that it's there. we are drawn to it and seek it out, most often in the evening, during the golden hour when the sun is sinking in the sky. an amble down to the end of the pasture to spend a few moments gazing at the lake in the quiet of the evening makes us feel restful and relaxed. the view is important to our mental well-being. 

i think as our work has taken us farther from nature, we naturally are drawn to it in other ways, so we have larger windows on our homes and we move many domestic activities - like eating - outdoors when weather permits. i surely hope it's not just the manipulation of conniving real estate agents.