the view from sunday night

some time spent with sharpies. as a person who is utterly unable to sit down and meditate, the adult coloring books are the next best thing. precisely what i needed late friday afternoon.

frieda, with her eye on a bird out the window. she brought in two live ones, one dead and also released a live mouse in the house. she's very thoughtful and so hopes that pretty soon we'll catch on ourselves and she'll have to stop working so hard.

on saturday, betty went her new home with a young girl who appreciates her. it's always good to know you've found a good home for the horse. with the child away at efterskole, we decided we'd go out for dinner. we tried the newly renovated kro in billund and it was brilliant. totally unexpected for billund, but they have apparently hired a real chef and they made truly delicious, exciting, innovative food that delighted us and made us think and prompted conversation. this photo above, however, is our sunday night dinner at home - steak & halloumi tacos using authentic corn tortillas from the mexican food truck that now comes to...you guessed it...billund (it's like billund is almost a real place now) on thursdays. with mild temps and some sunshine, and a whole afternoon moving hostas (20 of them), i feel rejuvenated by the weekend. and maybe just a small bit of that spark i've been missing is creeping back in.

scenes from a weekend

husband built a very tall lifting device. 

we hosted awesome couchsurfers from france.

they harvested wheat from the field next door.

it appears to be a bumper crop.

we harvested 45 kilos of honey. from just one hive.

they don't call them busy bees for nothing.

there were beautiful skies.

one little kitten went WAY too far up a tree and nearly gave me a heart attack.

frankie didn't help.

husband convinced the child to try out his lifting device.

she was less than thrilled.

we had gazpacho for dinner. and homemade bread toasted in the oven with mushrooms on top.

sabin put avocado on hers and used the gazpacho as a garnish.

molly played in the sunshine 'til she was exhausted.

*  *  *

i laughed when i read this. 

and thought deep thoughts after reading this.

and was sad to finish this all too quickly.

scenes from a weekend

we had a lovely weekend at the yearly crayfish gathering in sweden. we get together with husband's swedish siblings and the danish cousins for a mountain of crayfish, aioli, homemade bread, lovely quiche and tarts and salads and loads of snaps and beer. the danes contribute the alcohol and the swedes do the rest. and it's always an evening of high spirits, interesting conversation and laughter.

such a weekend leaves me feeling fueled to face the week...i hope yours was great, wherever you were.

taking shape

thank goodness husband's shoulder is feeling better

part of the 10-year plan for the country house is a new and improved (yes, better than the blue room) garden structure in the backyard. for one, the backyard is much bigger than at the old place, so there's much more space to work with. and for another, we learned so much from our last project that we are even clearer now as to what we want and how we want it to look. so down at the bottom of the garden, we're planning a garden house. it will be a long, rather narrow structure, a bit like something diarmuid gavin once made.

bad nighttime picture of inspiring page from diarmuid gavin's outer spaces book.
because i can't wait for proper light.

the building will be made of recycled materials (husband didn't tear down that house up in vildbjerg for nothing) and will serve as a quay of sorts. up to the quay, we are creating a ship made of a hedge. in the midst of it is a picturesque old apple tree and we will also place the grill table we had made. the grill table will have a mast in the middle so that it can be turned to avoid that pesky old smoke in the eyes.

the shape of the ship (ship shape?)
grill table frame is in the middle w/a plastic swimming pool draped over it.
nothing was tidied for the sake of this photo.

last sunday, we tilled up the form of the ship and planted a whole lot of little baby beech trees to begin the hedge. we hadn't gathered quite enough on our trip to the forest, so we're not done, but we got a good start. and it was a lovely afternoon.

the stern of the beech hedge ship

so many sources of inspiration for this...viking ships, viking excavations, my time in the maritime world, garden programs, nature, thinking about the way in which we live in our surroundings and ways of coping with the reality of our rather unpredictable weather. the structure itself will be a chance for husband to practice various old building techniques and a chance to use recycled materials that have loads of soul. strangely, tho' it's not a structure that we NEED, it may be one of the first things completed in this project. but on the other hand, who is to say one doesn't need a retreat and a place to get away from it all. and it will definitely be that.

and i must find a way to incorporate this:

oh how i love this bit of rusty metal.
and how it reminds me somehow of what's important. and substantial. and of what's not.

stay tuned for updates...

monday wonderings or where is global warming when you need it?

monday wonderings...

~ why are weekends only two days?

~ how did we not notice that the house is crumbling to dust in places?

~ will i survive another day without internet at home?

~ why do i still need my winter coat in may? (aka where is the global warming when you need it?)

~ what are we going to do with all those strawberries when they come?

~ how did we live without a horse for so long?

~ will i ever truly be done with the laundry?

~ why do people drive like insane maniacs on country roads?

~ why does the coffee around here taste like dishwater?

~ how/when did nokia so lose the plot on phone design?

~ who knew matilde was such a glorious jumper?

what are you wondering this monday?