midsummer

we may be having the coldest summer on record, but for a scene like this, you can don a sweater and your wellies and just get out there and snap some pictures, even if it is nearly midnight.

and breathe in the cool, still air. 

and feel the stillness and the quiet.

and be at peace.

100 happy days :: day 98

trying to take a fetching photo of my summery lunch when along comes frannie to help.

scenes from sankt hans - a scandinavian midsummer celebration

a midsummer celebration with pagan, hedonistic roots. burning a witch, a ceremony that once meant something positive and strong and feminine, was turned negative and anti-woman by, you guessed it, christianity. we talked about taking it back as a precisely a positive, strong, feminine act. i will no longer hold myself back from the fire, for fear of being sent to bloksburg (where ever that may be). embrace the witch, i say. and the light. and the long, midsummer nights. even if there was as little bit of rain, it wasn't enough to douse our pagan fires. it's a couple of days after the solstice, but it must have originally been in celebration of that. and here we are, still embracing the light and the sense of ceremony.

the weekend thus far

the very first strawberry.

new gin.

scandinavian summer. personified. (depicted?)

a visit from a fox.

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.

chasing light

it feels a bit like all i do these days is chase light. i'm either longing for it, or when it comes, i'm following it around the yard, looking for the best angle. i guess that's what photography's all about...a heightened sense of light. when it finally comes, it's spectacular and worth the wait.

let them eat lego

the weather makes a very huge difference...on saturday, it would have been easy to sit around moping about how our visitors couldn't come after all. but somehow, because the sun was shining, we didn't let it get us down. on a whim, we decided to drive over to visit our best friends near the lake where they live over on the so-called devil's island (shh, it's the one where copenhagen is located). we needed to go check our house over there anyway, so we decided to go a day early.

i packed up a jar of rhubarb syrup, a bottle of hendrick's (polly, please bring more when you come in july!), a loaf of freshly-baked bread and a bowl of hummus and we were on our way.

we arrived just in time for dinner and to enjoy the last few glorious hours of sunshine on what was simply a perfect summer day. we had great conversations, good burgers, awesome cocktails and loads of laughs. husband declared that international aid to promote democracy is wasted until everyone has clean water, enough food, shelter and legos. and we laughed. i think even he was surprised that he had added legos to the list, but we had spent most of last week at hotel legoland, so perhaps it wasn't that surprising.

sometimes it's good to give in to spontaneity. life is short. and so is summer.

ahhh, those summer nigh-hights....

i can't get enough of the scandinavian summer light. you've just got to soak it in while you can. it's going to be a glorious weekend. weatherwise and visitor-wise, since a very special friend is coming by for a playdate. and i can't wait! (maybe i can get her to teach me to crochet a granny square.) all of the photos above were taken after 9 p.m. isn't that amazing?

a bit absent from the blogosphere

it's summer. and as long as we have real summer and not the usual danish summer (read: pissing down rain), i will find myself far from the blogosphere. which is why i haven't been commenting much on your blogs. but i haven't forgotten you and i will be back, i promise. as soon as i feel prepared for my interviews at the end of the month in singapore and the weather really does turn to rain as they've promised. but right now, it's just so glorious outside. and there's so much to do...

like play viking...

help husband put up his tent...(by photographing him doing it)

notice the contrast between me and husband...

covet some kayaks...

and covet these even more...

and watch the sunset...

and make strawberry parfaits

with strawberries from our own garden

and build a dam at the beach...

and again with the sunset...

so i hope you all forgive me and wait for me to come back.

because i will come back.

and i do miss you all.

but as i said before, summer is so fleeting in these northern climes....

summer is so fleeting

the weekend started at the beach at sunset and ended by a crackling fire in the garden. in other words, it was perfect. hope yours was too!

a fashion moment

i totally love this look. just spotted it here in the mail online. which i wouldn't normally read, but got directed there by some huff post link to something else (which may or may not have involved the gorgeous johnny depp). i've always loved the quirkiness of helena bonham carter and although i think of her as someone who wears black, i love that she's wearing white. and that she looks like a normal person going about her life. that warms my heart. and so i had to share.

i guess i've been thinking about clothes for the past week or so, as everyone's summer wardrobes come out and they go a bit nuts, because summer is so fleeting here in these northern climes. and we all go a little crazy in with the sunshine and all that light and tend to embrace it in the wackiest clothing combinations. even me. and helena.

midsummer - sankt hans

10:30 p.m.

11:15 p.m.

jazz clarinet wafting over still water.

a bonfire.

silently gliding boats.

heaven.

on a midsummer evening.

no witches were actually harmed.

especially not this witch.