the difference sunshine makes

my winter-weary spirit got some much-needed sunshine this weekend. it was clear and cold, but the sun shined gloriously and continuously.  i feel renewed and uplifted by it. it's amazing how that works. husband and i went for a walk down around the lake. we planted a couple of oak trees in the oak alley to replace ones that hadn't made it. then we had some fun with another young tree, tying its branches into curved shapes and attaching some of the stones with holes in them that i collected last summer - turning a tree into an ongoing art project. it was nice to work on something together again - we can each get focused on our own projects and forget to have projects we work on together. it started with my back troubles two years ago - i wasn't able to help with projects for some months and spent a long time afterwards scared to injure my back again, but now that i'm back to normal, it was good to find my way back to working together on this huge project that is our home. it made husband happy too.

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this must be the coolest airbnb on the planet

you rent it and you get to run a bookstore!

and it's not even expensive.

truths right now

you reach a point, perhaps very soon after you turn 50, when you start to think about the truth. and about telling it. and a list begins to pile up...and you have to get it out...

~ you don't have to like everyone.

~ and it's ok if everyone doesn't like you. life would be boring if that were the case.

~ it's great when you can have a gossipy conversation with husband on the phone about the state of the energy industry in denmark. seriously, i mean this, tho' it's hard to imagine gossip about electric and oil companies. however, it's a real thing.

~ i'm a bit jealous of a 5-floor office building with 77 meeting rooms (says she who is constantly booking meetings at the last minute and wishing there were more meeting rooms where she works).

~ it sucks when your mother is being erased by alzheimer's.

~ i'm totally cool with the no more periods part of menopause (especially as difficult as those menstrual cups proved to be), but the memory blips part is a bit disconcerting in light of the above.

~ the new s*town podcast by the folks at serial and this american life is an amazing snapshot of today's united states. and over far too soon.

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spring has shown itself since i started this list a few days ago and it feels like things are shifting...not just the season. i decided to go lighter with my hair again after nearly two years of not coloring it. it feels like exactly what i needed right now - rather fabulous, actually. if i were to scan on an inner level and give a status assessment for this moment...i'd say awake, hopeful, energetic. i'm sleeping better and stressing less about the cheeto. life feels enjoyable, not hard - both at work and at home. i have an inner sense of bubbling anticipation. i don't know what it's about, but i'm looking forward to finding out.

100 happy days :: day 49

sunshine. blossoms on the mirabella tree. oh, and have i mentioned sunshine!! 

so welcome!  so much happy!

angry unikitty?

i took angry unikitty with me in my pocket this morning when i went out to do animal chores. it's a clear, bright, frosty morning. despite the frost, it's still very springlike. i think it's because the trees are full of joyous bird song. and maybe that's also why these photos of angry kitty just don't look angry to me.  i know her teeth are showing and her eyes and all closed, but it somehow looks more like a yawn than an angry meow to me.

even in this one, with her cool shadow, i cannot make her seem angry in my head as i look at it. i guess my own mood is too happy. a few days of sunshine, a few things looking up and beginning to happen, and all that bird song seems to have had a transformative effect on my mood (and possibly my life). or maybe that #100happydays project is working on me.

and even tho' i have a persistent sore throat - so much so that i actually dreamed about drinking warm tea and even in the dream i could barely swallow, i just can't make angry unikitty seem angry.

what do you think?

at least someone's floating on air

after a horrendous european parliamentary election yesterday, where an actual convicted racist from denmark's xenophobic party (the so-called danish people's party) won the most personal votes of anyone ever, the part of the country with functioning brain cells is reeling. i guess tho', that an awful lot of the country cannot be said to be sensible, but instead insular, protectionist, fearful, racist, xenophobic and easily fooled by a smooth talker. hmm, sounds familiar somehow...

but in the garden, the sun was shining and sabin was levitating and somehow that made it seem like everything would probably be all right in the end.

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.

life is good, but my memory? not so much.

it was a rainy, dreary day. i had to pull out a warm sweater again when i dressed for work. but despite that, it was a good day. great collaboration with a colleague. good progress on some of my projects. and a general feeling that i am regaining my confidence and getting on top of things. however, i'm not on top of everything. husband went to scotland today and tho' he told me last week, i didn't remember until he called around dinnertime from edinburgh. it's rather worrying that i don't even remember that my husband is flying to another country (tho' i did wonder why he was looking for his passport yesterday).

but at the end of the day, the rain cleared and i had walk in the garden with my camera. all of the cats came out to play, as did the sun, and it cleared my head and left my soul refreshed. despite a week filled with teachers having nervous breakdowns, time that flew by too quickly and cloudy, rainy days, a walk in the garden, accompanied by playing cats and the beauty of the golden hour sunshine on raindrops really truly can make it all better.

monday enthusiasm

i often wake up on monday morning, full of energy, ready to face the week head on. it generally helps if there is sunshine. but monday mornings, i am full of ideas and full of enthusiasm. i always make a list for the week. oddly, i seldom refer to it as the week progresses, but i do often complete the majority of the items on it - somehow the act of making the list hones my focus. and odin knows i need that.

i think my reading of crossing the unknown sea has me feeling especially empowered and enthusiastic this morning. the book is a deep philosophical musing on the nature of work and how it shapes our identity.  i think the writer i can most compare david whyte to is alain de botton and his musings on architecture and travel. his words leave me fortified and feeling brave.

"whenever we attempt something difficult there is always a sense that we have to wake some giant slumbering inside ourselves, some greater force as yet hidden from us. we look for better work by first looking for a better image of ourselves. we stir this inner giant to life in order to find the strength to live out the life we want for ourselves." 

"to wake the giant inside ourselves, we have to be faithful to our own eccentric nature and bring it out into conversation with the world." 

i mentioned this book the other day and how i felt i picked it up at precisely the time i needed the words contained within, and then whyte said that himself, "a time when paths cross at exactly the moment when both writer and reader are ready to know something of the territory through which they have passed and a glimpse of the unknown future which might lie ahead." 

on a sunny monday morning, i feel an incredible impatience and unbearable exuberance for whatever that unknown future holds. and the strength and the will to shape it myself.

clearing my head

it's cold (-18° C this morning!) and snowy, but sunny and glittering out there in recent days. i find i am utterly unable to feel anything other than energetic and optimistic when the sun is shining like this. it's one of those weeks where ideas and just thoughts are popping into my head faster than i can grab them, so i've got to just get some of the more random thoughts out here on the screen so i can settle down:

~ i don't understand the purpose of having an open house if when people come, you're not actually going to be particularly open towards them. on sunday, we went to visit a nearby riding school that's reopening under new management. they had an open house and there were lots of people in attendance, but do you think that any of them talked to us? did anyone say hello? did anyone offer us a bit of paper with a schedule of the available lessons on it? no, they did not. does this make us likely to rush into signing up for lessons there? or moving our horse over there? no it does not. my question is, why bother to have an open house if you don't take the key word - "open" seriously?

~ apparently, saying out loud that you have a good life and that you appreciate it will make people unfollow you. does this mean people prefer strife and negativity?

~ there's nothing quite so relaxing as ironing a big pile of tea towels.

~ why (and when?) did they move everything around in power point(less) and render it unrecognizable and unusable? (and why am i trying to use it anyway? microsoft is so 2003.)

~ i loathe that song city boy by donkeyboy, yet i can't get it out of my head. tho' i think they're actually singing "underneath my skin there's an eagle," it sounds like "underneath my skin there's a negro," which just seems quite politically incorrect. sabin's friend thought it was "underneath my skin there's a meatball," which is more amusing.  and that is a very weird, low-budget homemade video, don't you think?

~ i just had to use a calculator to figure out which anniversary we'll be celebrating on sunday (our 13th).


and that about does it. happy tuesday, one and all!

lovely shining monday

we took a little family outing to the west coast today. as we drew nearer, the sun came out and since it was about 10°C (or 50°F), it was downright balmy, despite the strong winds blowing in off the north sea.

 and the light. oh, the light.

an afternoon of sea and sand and wind and golden light has completely realigned my very soul.

i am definitely ready for the new year now! bring it on!