further proof of a world gone mad

cross-processed expired slide film in lomo fisheye2

this morning when i took sabin to school i heard a woman on the radio enthusiastically talking about her new book. i missed the title of the book and the woman's name (ya gotta cut me some slack, i've got pneumonia and my brain is bruised from all of the coughing), but the premise of the book was that Sex in the City has indelibly changed culture. in her words, the bible had ten commandments, but sex in the city has only one: "be fabulous." it was a given, to her, that this makes sex in the city vastly superior.

she went on to argue that the cultural seachange wrought by sex in the city was one of the cool, hip independent woman who doesn't need a man. i may not have seen every episode of carrie and her cohorts, but in those i have seen, the age old striving for a man and a relationship has been pretty much the main focus. that and shoes. and freakishly thin women with a lot of issues. and i'm not sure how that has really advanced us (women) as a species. other than perhaps upgrading how we look upon shoes, which frankly was already pretty much a priority for many of us even before they came along. but according to this woman, it's got something to do with a hip new yorker attitude. blah, blah, blah.

what is wrong with the world where someone can get PUBLISHED and go on the radio with such an absurd premise? the next thing you know, sarah palin will be president....

a little bit country

as some of you may know, i grew up in a very small town in the upper midwest. i know i seem like this dazzlingly cosmopolitan, sophisticated, traveled european woman (NOT), but really, i'm a small town girl. so it's not all that surprising that i find myself twenty-odd years after leaving for the city (if Iowa City counts - ha!), back in the countryside.

but having lived in orange county, phoenix, chicago and copenhagen for two decades, there are some things i forgot about country life. things like...

~ flies.

~ livestock grazing in fields (see flies above).

~ wind sweeping across with nothing to stop it.

~ that comforting sound of a horse crunching its grain.

gratuitous jumping shot, because i love this picture.

~ neighbors dropping by to chat - and to try to sell you a tractor.

~ riding lawn mowers.

~ trading for things instead of buying them.

~ having a BIG vegetable garden - instead of a dozen strawberry plants, we've got more like 150.

~ birdsong filling the air. and i mean filling the air.

~ the general intensity of the presence of nature. and spiders.

~ deer darting in front of your car on a winding country road.

~ people driving like complete maniacs on winding country roads.

~ getting stuck behind a tractor on the winding country roads.

~ a feeling of having loads of space - both physical and psychological.

~ pollen allergies from hell that turn to sinus infection and then a sort of asthmatic bronchitis which only more steroids than lance armstrong used in the last tour de france can cure. (i know, i know, he supposedly doesn't use any. yeah. right.) case of pneumonia which leaves you feeling even worse than you did because now it's been assigned that word.

life in the countryside generally has a completely different rhythm. after dinner, we go over to the horse - to ride her and groom her and spend time with her. as a result, we're watching far less t.v. this can only be a good thing. there's always something to be done outdoors - weeds to pull, seeds to sow, lawn to mow, a walk which beckons. we definitely feel much more the pull of nature. it feels healthy and good for us. it clears our heads of a day spent in the office or at school. but i guess i appreciate it that much more for having been away from it and lived in cities for a time (half my life, actually). it's nice to feel things slipping into an easier rhythm, one that feels more in tune with nature.

we got stoned at the beach

not that kinda stoned, silly. but it got your attention, eh?

i'm sick - allergies turned to sinus infection which has turned to the hacking cough from hell - so i give you pretty pictures of the stones we gathered at the beach yesterday, posed in little zen, fetching arrangements...

this is beach glass

some of the 24 heart-shsaped stones i found

more hearts

i'm crawling off to curl up in front of the t.v. and watch something totally mindless now. happy monday one and all.

SIAM CAM: Sophie Contemplates Time Management Strategies

my cousin has a siamese cat named sophie and she's trying to bring her up to be a productive member of society. let's check in and see how that's going....

a day at the beach or bundle up folks, there's a reason they call it the north sea!

so that summer thing just lasted the one day. today dawned cloudy and got windier as the day progressed. determined to defy it, we packed up our wellies and headed for the west coast of denmark, which is now only about an hour away. it was cloudy when we first got there, but we (being me and sabin) were dressed for it (husband wore shorts, trying to prove his viking-ness, i guess). but the sun did eventually come out.

i love the beach.
todays haul: 24 heart-shaped rocks, 7 rocks with eyes, 9 pieces of beach glass

a bit cloudy, but the north sea is fantastic nonetheless.
it can literally blow all your cares away.

bonding time. he was probably making up some story or other. 

there was a big group of kite surfers on the ringkøbing fjord

have i mentioned that i love the beach?

since summer is so unreliable in these parts, you learn to take what sunshine you can get and do stuff anyway, even if the sunshine isn't there. we were so glad we went to the beach today. the sound of the surf and the wind whipping your hair is just good for the soul.

more tomorrow of all the stones we gathered....

the blogger you have reached is not available...

...you see, the sun is shining and there are picnics to had:

and naps in the garden to be taken:

we'll be back to regularly-scheduled blogging when the sun goes back behind the clouds....

by popular demand - i give you the house (at least from the outside)

people keep asking me to see The House. i suppose it's mostly because i keep talking about how it's crumbling around us and we have to tear it down and how i've generally been going on (undoubtedly to all of our dismay) about moving. this evening, it was gorgeous and sunny, so i took a lot of photos, so i give you, for now, the outside...

this would be the bit with the crumbling bricks.
made, via the miracle of lightroom, to look far more romantic than it actually is.
so much for that intentionally balkan look

the house - this is the bit we're going to keep.
it used to be the barn.

the inside of the barn/garage - where my eventual shop will be.

this bit is the barn/furnace room/garage/workshop
my new blue room will be upstairs in here. - 100m2. cool.

on the left - the garage/workshop bit
on the right - the original house.
we're tearing it down. 

this was originally a barn.
we learned from our neighbors that the owners they knew
did the improvements slowly.
which explains the 7 different ceilings.

the view from the back yard.
that middle bit will be torn down.
and we'll be building an addition instead at the end of the part on the left.
this is why it's good to have a guy you think of as your architect.

the best bit of the house as it currently is is this terrace.
however, we'll be tearing it down.
but it will make a magnificent greenhouse

the garden - loads of goodies planted here.

yes, there's a flag pole.
we're thinking of designing our own flag.

this barn belongs to the house next door, but was sold to them by the owner of our house in 1971.
we're renting it back for now. eventually we want to buy.

beautiful red maple in the garden.
it stays.

they left a dozen rhubarb plants. yay!