Care to lounge a bit...?

Finaly got one thing sorted. Now we are looking for a table and chairs to match the new sofa. It took us ages to decide but when we saw this setup in the shop it clicked straight away that this was IT. We also have to finish off the wall in the background but that will be a doddle since the blokes who built the decking prepared it well so it is just for us to put whatever we want to the wall. Still deciding if we want small or wide striped planks.
Oh and the big green pot is going to get some grass or a bamboo planted in it. There are 2 more big pots as well but we are putting japanese maples in those. It will really look nice when everything is done. Thing is the weather hasnt been very forgiving for planting things, still quite hard frosts at night with -4 at the lowest. And that is a lot for being May. But weather forecasts say that we are getting some russian warmth now and you can relly tell it is getting warmer even though it is pouring down with rain. But rain is good! Makes everything go poof once the heat arrives as well.

Btw, have you ever noticed there arent enough hours in the day for everything you want to do and need to do? I am noticing big time at the moment.

This is the BIG To Do List that is sitting on the fridge at the moment
Got seeds to pregrow, potatoes to plant, onions to plant, dig the compost out, sow the other vegetables, move all the perenials from two flowerbeds made out of doorframes to their new bed along the decking, move strawberries to their new doorbeds, choose roses for the decking, get windowbox for herbs by the kitchen window,  find nice climbing frames for a couple of climbingroses for the decking, split some plants to give me more to bulk out beds, organize the new long flowerbed by the street that we dug last year i think various bushes and rhododenrons will do it, dig and prepare greenhouse made out of old windows, move dried wood into woodshed,.... Plus of course there is everything else to do, cleaning, laundry, doing my walking, working...., sewing is put a bit on hold, that will have to be a winter thing or a rainy day thing.

You see now how it is impossible for me to go to work today and for at least 2 months ahead? Wishful thinking..... I have to go in about 45 minutes and try not to be bored out of my mind. It is really pitiful how slow things are at work since the new refurbished shop next door opened again. Sigh...

We got a new boss as well. He seems very energetic and full of ideas. Hopefully he will last the distance and get us up and running, if not the future looks a bit bleak.

It is snowing!

News

Spring is springing!
I have been busy outside in the garden digging 2 new flowerbeds but had time to finish Jamies grandmas birthday present anyway.
And here they are, a pair of pillows for her new sofa set

I had a totally different color scheme going (pinks and pale greens) but I couldn't get it to work since I really didn't like the colours myself... I know its odd but if I dislike it I just cant make anything nice out of it so I had a change of plans and used some of the stars I'm making for our new bedspread and they turned out much better then I thought. I even ended up using one of the original pink fabrics for the flower border around the star, so it wasn't a total loss.

Also the digging of flowerbeds are progressing. Slowly but surely they are getting done. My mum came over yesterday and helped me plant all the seeds I got from James' dad so they are on the go. It is a wee bit too early to grow my beans and squash, am going to wait with them until middle of may. It has been a very cold spring and it is officially 2 weeks later the normal so everything is put a bit on hold until warmer weather appears. At least I got the potatoes pre sprouting in the utility room. Little knobs of greenery on each potato. Ahh I wish it was warmer!

 Progress at Lasts....

Sniffle

Yes once again i got a cold. And i hate it!
No energy, but still got to go to work and it is mayhem there at the moment since the big supermarket next door is closed for a refurbish and we got a truck load of new customers but no new staff!

Quilting

Yes, the blanket is now ready and I have completed my other project. A multicolored  heart in gold, red and blue. 

It is sitting waiting to be quilted together with the backing. It is a wall hanging and I will put it up in the hall since I think it will do best with a white background.

Talking about white. I do like these trendy and cool white interiors you can see so many of in glossy magazines but I don't think I could live in one. Every time I am to choose what color scheme I am to use I tend to go very colorful instead of smart and cool..... And bland I might add... I go to this quilt course on Tuesday evenings and all the others are very careful in choosing their colors. You know, pastel green and pink together or white on white with a hint of beige... Some times I actually think what the point is when you cant see the actual pattern of the quilt because everything has the same tone and color...And then there is me... I stand there and then come away with bright red and greens with black! Not to mention my last project with 12 colors of red, gold and blue. I am just like a kid in a candy store faced with the wall of fabric in all kinds of color and cant wait to put them together, ALL of them...

So what will I do next?

Decided

Unlike me I have decided almost straight away how to do something instead of ponder away and dither until the ends of time. And this is how i decided to do the quilt. All i got to do now is do the quilting and I've chosen a soft black fleece as the backing. It will be really nice and snug to have it in the sofa on those colder evenings.

Decide or not to decide...

So now it is all stitched together but I will have to think about finishing it off. Big border around it? Little one? Add some of the colour that I've used in the blocks or just a black one? All things considered I am quite proud of it. It is made of 80 blocks and I have kept at it and done it in one go instead of losing interest and going on to make something else. Decisions decisions... Me will ponder about it for a while, any suggestions?

Half way there...

This is why

I am busy!

Atchooo!!!!

Yes I know. Not a pretty picture when you sneeze on your screen without holding a hand in front of your mouth. But I didn't have time ok! *wiping screen*grumble*grumble*
I hate having a cold! No, I hate even more to have a fever. You dream really weirdly all night and cant get comfy because either you're too hot or too cold. At least you can take some aspirin. Sigh...
What do you do with yourself when you are too perky to go to bed again but don't have any energy to do anything in particular and there is only sport on telly at the moment because the winter Olympics are on?

Well of course you come here and blog a bit and make no sense whatsoever. And you look at property for sale over at
hemnet. And you try to make a fire without the use of starter sticks and give up and try and make some starter sticks of the bigger logs that all have knots in them so the knife gets stuck in EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM when you try to hammer it through! And no I'm not going out to get the ax. I will just make a hole in the floor if I do that in my state!

Thank the gods Jamie will be home soon so I can pester him about cups of tea and water and tissues and and and and. Well you know it is very hard work being sick! I got to lay down now...

Another cup of tea...

I am turning English!
I've never been a big tea drinker but now a days I am actually almost keeping up with Jamie. It is all due to that I have discovered loose tea and all the flavours you can choose from when going into a coffee/tea shop. I mainly like black teas. But not the very oddly flavoured ones. I like Ceylon tea and Assam tea and the spicy chai tea mixes. But don't bother me with the very heavy perfumed flower or fruit teas, yuck! I still got to discover Rooibos and green teas...

We had a bit of a surprise at work today. Our new Lady boss said she will be leaving us. Not straight away but within six months. Well we always knew she was just a short term solution since Mr. A wanted to leave as quickly as possible when he did go but it still feels a bit sad. She is really what our shop needs to get going and now she will leave. I'm sure I don't need to mention that Mr. B had a smile on his face all day. I myself had a feeling of dread, you know what will be coming along, another new young pup will take over with no experience of having had a shop before and look how well we did last time... sigh. But I suppose you never know, it might be a good one that comes along. Just got to keep our fingers crossed eh.

A cup of tea later...

Ahhh... yes i have just had a cup of tea. Been working late tonight so did get home just 20 minutes ago. It is really horrible to work late and then have to get into a cold car and drive home in the ice and snow. Cant spring come soon!?

I am really looking forward to spring so we can plant up the new borders that will go along the new deck. I got loads of plans and am saving money for new plants and roses and bushes and and and and well you know. The garden is really getting there now after soon 5 years of backbreaking digging up the lawn.

I really like my pink border by the outhouse. But some plants needs moving. And i might be able to split a few more. That is very satisfying when you can get more plants of the same to bulk it out or plant somewhere new.

We grew a lot of vegetables last year. We are just getting round to eating the last spuds and beans. I always look forward to planning what we are going to grow for the next year and get to think of what worked and what didnt do so well.

The more it snows..

I am looking out at a veritable snowstorm. The news predicts that 30 cm of snow will fall during the day and night. That is a lot even for Sweden! We have had to postpone James birthday party since the traffic report seemed very ominous and they were telling people to stay home unless there was an emergency and that isn't often they warn about being Sweden and that we are used to driving in snowy conditions.. My sister would have to drive here from Ludvika over the mountains so we called it off. It was apparently bad enough yesterday when she and Hasse was on their way back home from Hasses parents who live in Falun and it had only barely started snowing then. Better to be safe then sorry we thought.

Christmas has been lovely but a bit exhausting for us both since we managed to get a cold, it was me who got it first and then in the spirit of Christmas I shared it with Jamie so he got it as well. Everything seems to be have been done in a bit of a daze and I didn't really feel like doing much more then the absolutely minimum. The big Christmas dinner was a success though and it was a very relaxed and nice evening with lots of laughter and pressies under the tree. I was still reeling from the chock of getting a Kitchen Aid from my sister and Hasse when I opened my present from Jamie. I got half a camera, but what a camera, a Nikon D5000!! It is a shared present whit Jamie but what a present! Uhm...don't know what to say actually, still in chock. Have another chocolate marzipan ball, it might help...

A new start

Yes I know. It seems like this blog has gone on a very long break but there simply haven't been any time left to indulge on writing on here. I've barely been able to keep up reading the few blogs I follow.

It has been a bit stressful since my mum unexpectedly got time for a hip replacement surgery in October instead of the planned one in January and she then came to ours for her first month and a half of convalescence. But it went really smoothly even though James thought it a bit stressful at times having the Mother-in-law here all the time. But we coped very well and she didn't interfere at all but was very good.

Otherwise life is running along ever so quickly. Especially now when it is soon the silly season. It is only two and a half weeks left until Christmas! At least all the Christmas cards are written and ready to be sent off. It is a dwindling pile of cards though, it seems every year there is one lesser to write. Well the pile really went from big to smaller when I decided just to write to people who wrote one back. I did that a couple of years ago and I think it is time to do that again. I like receiving Christmas cards and the thought that someone wants to send one to me. That's why I like sending them as well.

I really miss getting letters in the post. You know these very old fashioned paper letters that people actually write by hand. I used to have pen pals when I was younger but just lost touch when growing up. I know I know, it is so much easier and quicker with emails and sms and all that new stuff. But I still like letter written by hand where you can see how people write, you know.. it makes it more personal then any email.

I had promised new pictures showing the new decking and windows so here they are. Finally..

New view

We didnt need an ark in the end but it was close for a while... Now we have very nice autumn weather instead. Bit warmer then usual but i think this is the new usual weather..

At the moment i am waiting for my lunch to get ready and then i am off to work my evening shift at the shop. And for once i am looking forward to go to work. It has everything to do with that we have a new boss. A Lady Boss, whos is extactly what we need at our place i think. The one we had before was a real donut, sweet and nice but bad for you.

It is also our last chance as a shop. For now it seems we have untill february next year to prove we still have it in us to keep the shop going and improve or else i think we are up for the chop. It seems at least that the new Lady Boss is doing everything she can to get us going and keeping Mr B in check and on a very short leash. Not a minute to late i might add. She is well aware of the amount of money he has squandered away on bad deals and bad pricing so this is a refreshing start and the rest of us are going around smirking at his new position at work, general cleaning and maintance...... We SO do love our new Lady Boss!

An Ark, A kingdom for an Ark?

Yes that is what we need. After a downpour of biblical proportions yesterday i think that is what our new decking is meant for, a mooring place for the boat we will be needing after todays forecasted rain. Yesterdays downpour was just a warning of what to expect and it wasnt nice. We had to go out in it and rescue our house from being surrounded by a mote from all the water gushing out from the drainpipes! We had also a little lake growing on our drive and lawn, i kid you not it was a foot deep! They had to close down all bus services in Borlänge and they closed down several roads as well since the drains couldnt keep up with the volume of water. The drain lids simply floated away south apparently...

What did i say about rain...?

It has been raining for 2 days...
Our little working gnomes haven't turned up today. Either they are busy somewhere else or they thought working in the rain wasn't such a good thing to do today and are hiding in their little gnome houses. They have started to lay down the decking and you can now appreciate it more how the finished deck will look like. I am just impatient now. Want to have it done! But cant stress it I suppose. They weren't meant to come until august anyway so anything done before then is just great!

Eh..what is that thats landed in our garden?

Yes well you see I think we might have been a tad on the cautious side when we discussed the size of our new decking and instead we went ballistic...It is HUGE! It is being constructed as I type and every time I look at it I think it must be shrinking because first when they dug all the holes for the supports it looked like we were building another house but now when the frame is up and the posts are getting there it doesn't really look that big anymore... Until you place our current patio furniture on it and then it looks like a cavernous dancehall with some kiddie furniture in it. So we have been looking at new furniture, obviously, just to make it feel smaller! We might get some this year depending on what the bank (James) says. Also I think wee need to see it completed as to understand just how much space we have.

Summer, you'd think it would be typical Swedish summer, rain, cold and more rain? But no, it is a very balmy +31, light breeze and no clouds after this mornings pitiful little attempt of ruining summer with a bit of rain. It hardly wet the ground for more then 10 minutes before it all had dried up again. Well its my weekend off so Im not complaining the least, I think James might differ but then again he is a penguin and don't approve of hot summer weather. I didn't like it before either but since I shed some weight it doesn't bother me as much and that irritates James no end since it is only him now complaining it is too warm. But I do agree there could be too much sun, we are running out of water for the garden! Well rainwater that is. Somehow I think it is such a waste using drinking water from the tap to water a garden. But don't despair they have actually predicted cooler weather with rain on Sunday onwards. Will do my vegetables some good if it did rain some more.

The garden is looking better and better. Considering we've only lived here for 4 years and all that we started with was a lawn and some apple trees I am amazed at how it looks like now.

Keep on walking

I am just back from my walk this morning. There is something very relaxing and meditative about walking. There is nothing better then walking in nature and mulling things/problems around in your head. Any problem doesn't seem nearly as bad as after you've thought about it during a walk. Me and James have our best discussions during walks. I'm sure there is some scientific explanation to it all but I don't need that to know that a walk is good for you. Not only for your health but also for your mind. I'd like to go on a hike somewhere scenic before the really warm summer sets in. Got to ask James if he wants to do something before we go visit Al in late may.

In other news:
We now got a quote from the window people or rather two, one with windows and one with just the patio door. It is scary but not too bad. We also had a third company come by early this morning to have a look. He did the quote while talking to me so we now know more about what ballpark we are talking about. This guy is a local one that the window person recommended and got in touch with for us. We still have another one coming on Monday but then that's it, we have to make a decision or else we will be really late into autumn before they can start build! At the moment it looks like any of them cant start build until mid July anyway. But it is our own fault, we started looking too late really.

Spring is sprung

Ah what a lovely day! And it is my day off as well. We've had a bit of rain during the night so the air was all fresh and lovely when I went out to pick up the newspaper. Just one of those things you realize you've missed during winter. A fresh spring morning...

Well another thing I haven't missed is just how stressful it is to hire someone to do a job for you. We've had 2 builders here to have a look and give us an estimate of how much our decking plans would cost. I am still not sure who to give it to so we've called a third company and they are coming next Monday to have a look. Also we have a man coming here today to give us an estimate about new windows and a new patio door. There is just so much to think about, what you want, when you want it, how much is the topp end cost we can afford or want to afford. But mostly, who will do a good job?

Let me introduce the contenders. First guy drew a very nice first draft on his computer when here to see what we wanted. He's now come back with a more detailed draft that we said was what we would like so he is going to come back to us this week with a quote. We can call him Baldy (because he was, completely).

Second guy is more of a jack of all trades kind of guy. He came by on Sunday and had a quick measure up and came back with an offer later on same day which we were surprised about since we thought he would be a cheaper option. Maybe he is since we haven't got any others yet to compare with. We can call him Jack.

Third guy was very VERY nice on the phone but we haven't seen him yet. But I got to say that someone who has manners over the phone has an advantage.

I hate talking to builders, plumbers or whoever who cant see past the fact that yes I am a woman and yes it is me you will have to deal with since James thinks his Swedish still is too poor for such contacts. And I will NEVER EVER hire anyone who talks past me or treats me like an imbecile just because of my gender.

I'll keep you posted.

Stalkers...

I've just learned I have a follower.... Yes I haven't been blogging much and I have recently come back to blogger after a short visit to live journal but I have just seen that I have 1 (one) follower. Thank you Eleanor for making my day :o)

At one point this blog had quite few followers but then I got slack and didn't blog much and now most of them have gone away... boohoo.. People today haven't got any staying power! They should have stayed around because I do blog, just not that often anymore... well.. not at all looking at my record of the last 2 years actually... Oh well but there might just be a change in that. Pigs can fly now cant they?

Seriously though, I once took great pleasure in blogging but there is just so much you can talk about when you are a bit limited in the language. I am playing around with the thought of writing in Swedish but then no one of my followers would understand.. erh..follower. I am actually a bit miffed I don't have more followers! Me brilliant young woman(cough yes young) deserve a wider audience then I have at the moment.

My stereo have decided to pack it in. Did you notice the very abrupt change of subjects? Cunning isn't it...Now read on. Its just been to be repaired since it stopped spinning up but the nice man at the shop said there are no replacement parts made to my kind of stereo anymore so all he could do was clean and re-oil the wheel that spins the cd and tell me that when it breaks again it will be the last of it plus he charged me 400kr for looking at it. And it just went. Sigh. I really liked my stereo. The sound was outstanding for being such a cheap one bought at half price at a sale ages ago. And now I suppose I have to look at these space machine looking things they call a stereo today. Me don't like one bit! I like sleek, clean, easy-to-use, very good sound, preferably black stereos if there is a color choice. I DO NOT like these bombastic, gadget filled, blinking both here and there for no purpose kind of stereos whit speakers the size and shape of Gods know what I have been seeing lately. I know there are my kind of stereos out there as well but usually they are way out of my price range. I am going to be grumpy for a while now. Excuse me.

Going wireless

Thanks to Jamie and a little bit of hinting from me we now have a laptop and wireless internet. We went and bought the wireless router today and Jamie started to set it up but got stuck so I helped him out with the few tweaks that was needed so now I am sitting downstairs in our lounge and blogging a bit and surfing just because I can . It is a bit of getting used to having a laptop. But I can see the appeal of being wireless compared to a stationery computer. It still feels like a toy though, the new computer that is. It is small and the keyboard is nice to type with but am not used to the cramped style of the keyboard. Not to talk about the touchpad. I am still finding it hard to make the cursor go where I want it to without opening everything it is hovering over for a bit too long.

The main reason for us going wireless is so we can get rid of the big desk we got upstairs in the little hallway where we got our stationery computer at the moment and free up some space for a nice little reading corner with an armchair a small table and lamp. If I was able to do exactly what I wanted I would take away the little closet as well and make the hall twice its size for a really nice minilounge.And put in a door where the window is now and make a balcony to sit on top of our porch which is directly under the window. But considering the amount of work to be done to do said things I don't think I can convince Jamie that this is a GOOD idea...well maybe not this year since we have decided to get our decking done this year and putting in a double door( depending on cost) from the lounge out onto the decking. We have someone coming in 2 weeks to give us an estimate of what the door would cost and as well what it would cost to replace our windows to new high spec insulating ones. That will probably be a project for next year but it is always good to know how much pain it includes when paying for it.

*cough cough cough*

Oh don't mind me, I'm just covered in grey dust from sandpapering the plastering I did earlier in the upstairs toilet. It is looking nice and smooth but will need a bit of touch up before I paint.

James surprised me the other day by suggesting we should change the carpet as well while we are doing the rest. I was genuinely shocked that it came from him but I did as I was told and went hunting for a fabulous new carpet instead of the a boring bland magnolia one that is sitting there at the moment. And of course the carpet I wanted only came in a 4 meter wide roll which is a bit unnecessary since our toilet is 1,19x1,07. So I asked if they knew anywhere else I could look as well and there was this place that was a bit further up the road that specializes in carpets and they might have off cuts as well that would fit. But when there I was lucky enough the be at the right place at the right time. You see there was a salesperson in showing the new carpet selections for this year and I asked if he had any nice ones in either white, grey or black. So he showed me a very nice one in a tile pattern in dark brow/black which I thought was nice but then he creped up behind me and showed the absolutely most wonderful new one he had just started to sell. It just said click and now we are getting one that twinkles in black. There is an optic illusion in it so it twinkles slightly when you move around looking at it. It might sound a bit tacky but it isn't actually. Its like coin size irregular flecks of glitter that are dark or muted and then shine and sparkle when you move and the light reflects differently on it.

Hopefully they can come and take the old carpet out today and do the underneath plastering because then I can paint and wallpaper this weekend before they come and put the new carpet in next week. And then its just to phone the plumber and the electrician to put the final bits in and it is done.

Spring in the air?

Currently playing Creed - Higher

I'm looking out at a wonderful sunny day where last nights snow is melting ever so slowly away. It is dripping from the roof where the sun has got to it already even though it is early morning. I've started to buy some seeds for this summers flowers and vegetables already, am getting the itch to dig and plant and see things grow and flower. I never used to look forward to spring before but now I am. I wonder if it is because I now have a garden to spend the time in and I really miss it when winter goes on too long.

I am going to get started on redecorating the little upstairs toilet. The electrician is coming later on this afternoon to have a first look and see what it is to be done. Got to phone the plumber and ask as well when he can come and get the sink and cabinet in place as well as change the piping to a nice chrome finished one to match all the new stuff that is going in. We've already decided on a wallpaper for a section and I am going to paint the other walls a soft white. The colour scheme is black and white with chrome. I like to decorate and make it look nice from ugly and scruffy. So now there is only the rest of the house to fix up...

The more it snows a tiddeli pom..

Oh yes! A lovely 30 cm of the fresh white stuff was dumped on us in the last couple of days. And now it has gone cold. Seems we are having a very normal winter this year. But I could have done without the cold though, my hands and now toes are aching even though I try to keep warm. Oh well there is always something isn't there? But never mind that now!

An old friend has re-appeared! Say hello to Mary over there in Personally Me, its been an age but we always look forward to hearing from her. I hope you are serious about taking me up on my challenge in the earlier post, but you know what you need to do... My mind boggles in excitement thinking up something to make for YOU, so go on.... put the post up!

Did I ever tell you that it is because of Mary that me and James met? Well no? It is true and she put on a very lovely party when we met at her place in Dublin for the first time. If I remember correctly it included some wild brats from Wales as well that ended up in the er the first night...

Oh I still have that video snippet you took of us all Mary... and the photos... is that enough to blackmail you into putting the post up? ;of)

Up for it? Go on, I know you want to..

The first six people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to each of those six who respond first.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (Although let me know if you have any allergies)
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix CD. It may be a short work of fiction, or a poem. I may draw or paint something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal/blog as well, if you expect me to do something for you!

Idea found at Peel Me a Grape.

Happy feet Happy feet!

Yes Yes Yes!!

I am again going to see Bruce Springsteen in concert! I finaly got through and could book us some tickets for his concerts here in Sweden this summer. They sold out in 90 minutes and i just got in there in the nick of time to grab me some!!

*doing the happy feet dance*

Christmas Spirit

This years tree is a Swedish one and it was a tall one so we had to trim it a bit. But it looks very nice in all its finery. Observe the fake cotton snow... Jamie thought I was weird doing that when he saw it for the first time but it looks nice and is better to use then the fake stuff in a can...

This years gingerbread houses with chocolate snowman who is not expected to last much longer.. we do have someone who decapitated the last one I bought so he could say it was melting, melting..!

Grumble..

You know I told you last time it had snowed? Well now I am looking out at RAIN! All the lovely fluffy stuff has gone and it is now sort of barely covering the ground. They are predicting colder weather though so there still might be a chance of a white Christmas which we haven't had for some years.

Part from the weather being obnoxious everything is set and ready to go for Christmas Eve dinner with the family. I've made it easy by choosing a pre made ham instead of needing to cook the whole thing myself, all that is needed is to roast it in the oven with some sweet mustard and breadcrumbs sprinkled on top before serving and mum is doing the marinating of ribs and we are not having a big spread of dishes anyway this year so a Christmas made easy it is!

We've had a few friends over before Christmas for pressie swaps and pre holiday fun. We attempted to do marzipan gnomes and ended up doing snowmen and pigs as well that we dipped in chocolate. We had a little chocolate dipping frenzy with dried figs and strawberries wrapped in marzipan at the end. Lovely...

White Christmas..?

Currently playing Bing Crosby - Silver Bells

It has come about 15 cm of new fresh fluffy white snow. It snowed all day yesterday so now everything is perfectly coated and the sun is shining from a clear blue sky. What else could you wish for? Well maybe that my cold would go away. I've been home the last couple of days with a very thick head and nose. At least it is showing signs of clearing up. So it is back to work for me tomorrow.

I've sent Jamie off shopping for some gingerbread house dough. I spent the morning making a layout of the gingerbread house I am going to attempt to build this evening. I hope he remembers the smarties to decorate the roof with! We have a tradition of building gingerbread houses for Christmas. Mum used to make a whole village with houses in different sizes and decorate the landscape with fake snow(cotton wool)and use our plastic farm animal toys. We usually got to help out with the decorating and the icing and smarties. Somehow you ended up eating most of the smarties though..

I am really starting to get a hang of how to get a relaxed Christmas by just doing the things I really enjoy and cut out most of the must-do's that really no one needs or miss if they are not there or done. It is mainly in your head actually these must-do's. I did a bit of decorating yesterday when I was home from work and it is now looking Christmassy in the Last residence. Only thing missing is the Christmas tree which we will probably get sometime next week. I've also sorted through the decorations, did that actually last year, so now I only got the stuff up that I like (Jamie don't mind whatever is up as long as it isn't too tacky..)We have hyacinths blooming and spreading their lovely scent all over the house. My deep red Amaryllis is just starting to open and we got Christmas lights wrapped around the 2 small conifers beside the front porch.

Ahhh sigh...now for a lovely cup of tea with some honey for my sore throat.

The more it snows a tiddeli pom..

Currently listening to Joan Baez - Sweet Sir Galahad

It is snowing. Gentle little fleks falling. I love snow. We went up to celebrate my sister on her 40th birthday this past weekend and it snowed all day so we had perfect snowmen snow. So of course we went out and made a snowman that ended up looking like Mickey Mouse for some unknown reason.I tried to ambush Jamie when he came out to help with the snowmouse but he was already prepared and had four snowballs at the ready against my only one. I also made a snowlantern that we had lit all evening. It was a very relaxing day with lots of good food and laughter. Just as life should be.

Big turned little

So we have finally done the Big Dig. Well it turned out to be a small dig actually since they encountered problems when digging and thought it safer not to dig around whole of the house foundation and rather just do the bit where the cellar is, we got a quarter cellar where there has been an old boiler, heater which is very damp indeed. So it is all sorted and the bill came this morning i think because i saw it on the kitchen table and by the size of it it seems like the small dig was almost as expensive as the big dig!

Oh well it is done now so we can pay it off and start to think about what is next to do to the house. Highest on my list is decking around the house including putting in a door from the lounge out onto said decking. But at the top of the list is also redecorating the shower room/utility room where we have a sauna we never use taking up a lot of space and fix/decorate the upstairs toilet and the downstairs toilet. After that i suppose there is the kitchen to think about. It never ends does it?

Swooooosh!

What was that? What you mean already back to work?!?!
I cant believe that my vacation just went by like a blink of an eye! But by gods it was a busy blink!

The first two weeks was spent at home doing gardening stuff or so we thought, you see my knee happened and that put a nice stop to that. At least we got a bit done before i had to take a seat on the sofa and the stupid knee was much better when we went to Germany and England.

Oh the concert with Bruce was magnificent! I have for so long wanted to go and see him in concert but it has always been hard to get tickets since they sell out in a matter of hours here in Sweden. But my clever husband looked elsewhere when it wasn't possible to get tickets for the concerts in Gothenburg so he thought, why not a weekend in Hamburg so he could finally ask me the question, Excuse me, but are you a Hamburger.... Yeah i know, he has a warped comic streak in him but i love him for it all the same. I don't know if i like Hamburg though. A bit soulless if you know what i mean. Oh it is a big town and all but almost all of its history had been blasted away in WW2 and it showed.. I really cant get all excited about something built in the 50s and 60s not to mention the 70s..brrrr. As well as i cant understand the need to advertise the red light district as a 'must do' when in Hamburg. We had a quick drive-by with the open top tour bus (yes you got to do one of those) in St Pauli and the famous Reeperbahn. And that was frankly enough to put you off from going there anymore. I cant and will not ever see the point of going somewhere to see someone stick a needle up their arm, totally oblivious to the fact that a full tourist bus is slowly crawling by watching him do it. Just as i cant see what point you have of the pictures you take of the man...? Is that what you will show your friends back home when they ask what your holiday in Hamburg was like? Sigh...

I would like to go to Germany again but maybe to somewhere that has a bit more history saved. And you got to admire the German efficiency. Everything was on time and clean and ... well there is nothing to complain about, well maybe that irritating habit of dubbing everything into German on the telly. Do you know how weird it is hearing a German voice coming out of Orlando Blooms mouth when trying to watch Elizabethtown? It was just too much. We ended up watching the football (yay Spain!) and trying to decipher the news and weather.

Our week in England was lovely. Lots of shopping done(new smaller clothes that actually fit me!!) and we had a really nice family day out hiring a boat on The Broads celebrating James' dads 60th birthday. He didn't know where we were taking him but he soon sussed the general direction out and then he put two and two together. Everyone took turns in driving the boat and we had a nice buffe picnic by the side of the river and toasted in some bubbly. It was very relaxing gliding down the little rivers and canals, just watching the world go by and look on in amazement how big a boats some people have! And luck would have it it didn't rain until the very last hour.

We had 2 days at home before going off to Stockholm with some friends of ours. We had a 3 night stay in a hotel, saw lots of stuff you don't normally do when in Stockholm, like the boat tour under Stockholms bridges, going by boat to the viking settlement of Birka, the lovely garden and castle of Rosendal, went up the tower at Kaknäs and got rewarded with a great view of Stockholm, had a night out in the amusement park Gröna Lund where we did try out the Funny House and the Haunted House (well me and Rosie wanted to get scared) and watched Fredrik go on one roller coaster after another while safely on the ground taking pictures of him. We also managed to have a long walk through the Old Town and all its small alley ways and artists shops. Not to mention tripping over all the Japanese tourists flocking around every corner. I don't know why Stockholm is so popular with the Japanese but they seem to be everywhere in summertime.

All in all a very good vacation, part from my knee which btw is much better now so I'll stop going on about the knee since the knee is so much better in a knee like way...

Restless legs..

I am getting the jitters! On Friday we are going to fly to Hamburg for a weekend stay including going to see Bruce Springsteen in concert on Saturday and i am getting very excited about it all! But also very nervous... We have booked an apartment in central Hamburg but it is always a bit nervous before getting there and seeing how it looks like and getting settled. It seems really easy to find though, just get on the u-bahn at the bus station and hop off after 6 stations, if you are going the right way of course! We have been doing a wee bit of research of what there is to see but I still think it will mainly be a hop on hop off bus and then maybe a stroll through the older parts. Got to see how much my knee will allow me to do as well. The knee is feeling much better even though it really is sporting all colours under the rainbow at the moment.

Tickets, concert tickets, passports, euros, guidebook, camera, instructions to find apartment+map, adress book, mobile phone - check.

Clothes? Don't know what to wear and no it isn't because i got sooo much to choose from anymore, nothing fits me anymore! You see i am shrinking, shrinking..!! The last time James translated it into pounds and stones I'd lost 2.8 stones. Doesn't sound much compared to when you say it in kg, which is 18, something. Sounds better doesn't it?

Oh well at least we are going straight to England from Germany so can get more clothes there... shhh, did you hear that? It was James screaming of despair at the weight of our suitcases... poor soul no wonder he is preparing and doing all these sit ups. I do count them our for him when doing them, well at least i try to do so between the burst of laughter at the sight of him doing sit ups crawling out of his underwear inch by inch. Don't know how he does it but it is sort of watching a very slow sporty striptease..!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it is my knee!

Yes i know i said i would be back after my walk yesterday but since it was Friday the 13 th what did happen? Well on my walk yesterday i was looking at a plant saying to James that that one is just like the one we got in the garden when i twisted my ankle and feel hard on my left knee which now more or less resembles a blimp in size and are proudly sporting 2 huge bruises and a nice shaved off patch of skin. In the process i also managed to make a hole into my new trousers over the knee. Hopefully it will soon go back to normal. My knee that is, trousers are now degraded to being worn when doing gardening stuff instead of coming with us to Germany/England for our vacation. If i don't see any improvement i suppose i have to go to the medical center on Monday and see what they say about it.

Cant live life in the fast lane without injury eh?

Back to blogging...

So here i am again. I tried to feel comfortable at livejournal but it didnt really happen. As i have been reading a bit what i've written on here before i got thinking i should give it another go.

I'll be back in a bit. Got to get my walk in before those clouds that look likethe are going to empty of lots of rain get here.

Paranoid moi? What you mean its all in my head!

I have a feeling i will change direction in blogging soon. I have a feeling people i dont want to read this blog is or will do soon. So it seems i will reinvent myself somewhere else. I'll let anybody who wants to follow me there know where Im going to end up if you let me know in the comments but in the mean time damage controll is in progress..

Happy New Year!

So another year has passed and left us with various memories, both good ones and bad ones. I hope the new year will bring each and one of you what you wish for the most.

Warning Chocoholic ahead!

I am all sticky from tasting and making Christmas sweets. I've just finished off making a batch of dark chocolate truffles with lovely smooooooth cognac(Prince Hubert De Polignac V.S) in them. It has to cool down now enough to handle so am waiting for the fridge to do its stuff. Then I'm going to roll them into balls and dust with cocoa powder. Yummieee... There are also Ice Chocolate Éclairs sitting cooling off in the fridge and I have a lot of Cocoa Crispies cooling on the kitchen bench, they didn't fit in the fridge! It feels like I've rolled a hundred of little marzipan balls as well that is waiting to be dipped in chocolate. I ran out of the nice milk chocolate since someone, no naming names, had eaten a WHOLE 250 g bar (minus a little row I had last night but that was crumbs compared to the whole bar!) I got to find a hiding place for my sweets I think or there wont be any left for Christmas. I was going to leave them here for a treat for my mum and sister since we wont be here for Christmas this year. We are going to spend the holidays with James' parents. I am very excited about that because I have never had an English Christmas before. Only thing that is wrong with that is that I wont get to open my pressies until Christmas Day! Here in Sweden we open our pressies on Christmas Eve. Which to me is the right day...

Done diddely darn done!

YES, finally I am done with the Christmas shopping for this year! It was a slow start this morning but once I got going and got a few ideas of what would be suitable it all seemed to fall into place quite alright in the end. But now looking at the big pile of wrapped pressies we are going to take with us to England I am seriously doubting we can fit any clothes in our suitcases or we might be overweight checking in!

We'll just have to squeeze some thin clothing into the little spaces left and wear a double set when going. Now that could be interesting at the airport when going through the security check!

Fiddle fiddle fiddle sticks..!

Well yes I couldnt help but to fiddle a bit with the new blogger beta.. I dont know if I like it yet or if i will up sticks and move somewhere else... I quite liked the old blogger but then my dear James updated his side and suddenly mine was hijacked because he was put as a contributer to mine and i couldnt accsess it as easy as i did before. Something weird and it wasnt, isnt his fault.. :)
Another weird thing is that the spell checker isnt working. I use it when im not sure about spelling and it helps in the I and the 'nt that im too lazy to put in when typing.

Chrismas shopping... woho..

No, not one of my favorite things to do at the moment since I am out of ideas. I've been doing a few bits here and there but these last few ones seem to be dragging on and dragging me down as well. I had actually promised myself to cut back on who I buy pressies for and just do it for the family and a few friends but every year it seems that the list somehow magically enlarges to a long scroll. But I have been thinking about it lately and really am going to stick to the guns this year and only do family and a few friends, period.. maybe. No matter how much angst im getting for not buying for the others. At the same time as I like Christmas I dont like the Silly Season which is what I call the time leading up to Christmas when you get bombarded with tips and ideas in how to make this Christmas the most happy and wonderful one, if you just do this or buy that.. You know the feeling? Well I 'spose theres nothing for it, nothing to make me linger any more at home. Up and atom... ;)

It is a very weird winter going on here. It has been hovering around +10 for 3 weeks now. No snow, no frost, plenty of downpours and they say it will keep like this for quite some time yet! Mind you i dont complain too much, no snow to shovel away and the house is quite warm inside since it isnt cold outside, we have crap heating that doesnt cope when it gets below -15 ish you see. But it feels odd. There should be hard frost nights with snow falling, really there should, but there isnt.. They are talking about it being an effect of global warming, which i could well believe, and some say it is because we are getting into another El Nino period. I just feel spooky about it since it seems so out of wack.

Currently playing Astral Projection - Solid Electronics

The computer music center is going in full swing and the roof and walls are absolutely coming down on me any second now. Or at least the neighbours will think we are having a full blast rave party going on. The only thing missing at the moment is the strobe painting the night sky!

I have a very diverse music taste. I can listen to opera one minute to swing completely and listen to Death Metal because there is this one song i like or like now trance music full blast. I enjoy serene music like Enya but also blue grass , blues, heavy metal, classical music, really you name it and I'll listen and i might find something i like and keep in my library.

It is such a shame it is illegal to download music. You really got so much to choose from on the Internet and there are chances you might find the next Britney Spears or Madonna by searching and listening and sending a good song on to your friends. You still do of course, download i mean, illegal or not but its such a shame that it couldn't be free. I know the artists have to get paid as well and it is right that they should be but looking at the price of a CD in the shop i cant but help feeling that we the customers are getting screwed big time by the big music labels. Thinking about what the prize for a new CD is at the moment , 225 Kr, I understand why people search and download.

I came across this one from my old entries and thought it worth being posted again.

On a British Airways flight from Johannesburg, a middle-aged, well-off white South African lady has found herself sitting next to a black man. She called the cabin crew attendant over to complain about her seating.
"What seems to be the problem Madam?" asked the attendant.
"Can't you see?" she said. "You've sat me next to a kaffir. I can't possibly sit next to this disgusting human. Find me another seat!"
"Please calm down Madam." the stewardess replied. "The flight is very full today, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll go and check to see if we have any seats available in club or first class."

The woman cocks a snooty look at the outraged black man beside her (not to mention many of the surrounding passengers). A few minutes later the stewardess returns with the good news, which she delivers to the lady, who cannot help but look at the people around her with a smug and self-satisfied grin.
"Madam, unfortunately, as I suspected, economy is full. I've spoken to the cabin services director, and club is also full. However, we do have one seat in first class." Before the lady has a chance to answer, the stewardess continues... "It is most extraordinary to make this kind of upgrade, however, I have had to get special permission from the captain. But, given the circumstances, the captain felt that it was outrageous that someone be forced to sit next to such an obnoxious person." With which, she turned to the black man sitting next to the woman, and said:
"So if you'd like to get your things, sir, I have your seat ready for you..." At which point, apparently the surrounding passengers stood and gave a standing ovation while the black man walks up to the front of the plane.

People will forget what you said...
People will forget what you did...
But people will never forget how you made them feel.

DIY time!

We did block off a doorway into our lounge earlier this autumn and now I'm finally getting round to plastering the joints and trying to make it blend in with the rest of the wall, still got the wallpaper to do on one side and painting the other side. Also James and his dad boxed in the chimney breast that was showing in the lounge and I am also trying to make that one look nice. But bugger it is hard getting the corners nice and sharp on that one! I've sanded it once and patched up were I missed so I'll just have to sand it down once more to see if that will do or if there is more to patch up. We also have to get around doing the skirting boards in the lounge and the frame for the attic fold down stair. All the doors need seeing to as well since most of them had been clad with plywood to hide the nice old frames and the paint is peeling on some of them We might even repaint the hall, still thinking about that one though... I just want everything finished! It has been lingering on for quite some time now but I suppose we'll have plenty of time this winter to get all things done..

If you ever feel like you got too much time on your hands and don't know what to do with it or if your just plain old bored go Grow something. I dare you to get it working at its maximum.

Currently playing Scissor Sisters - Ta-Dah (on repeat..)

Weird that, you know, sometimes you find a band that you like immediately. That is what happened when I found this one. I've heard the hit 'I don't feel like dancing' on the radio previous and thought hmmm might be good. So I decided to get the CD after a radio show featuring them and I got to hear a bit more of what they play. I think I might drive James round the bend though if I play it much more when he is at home...

The more it snows a tiddeli pom...

It has come about 20 cm of fresh new crisp white snow! I love winter, especially the snow and the clear dark nights when you can see the stars go on forever and ever. There is nothing that compares to a late evening walk in the moonlight and it is all quiet and the only sound is the crunch from the snow under your shoes.

I remember from when I was little that we always seemed to be out later in winter when the lake had iced over and the snow had come. You could play cops and robbers in the dark or more fun have snowball wars with your own castle made of snow to protect. If you were lucky dad piled all the snow into one big mound where you could bore holes and make little chambers inside and sit there with a candle lit eating your sandwich pack that mum used to prepare with that warm choco in a flask which always seemed to go cold just too quickly. We played we were astronauts at night walking around in the cold empty space(usually down by the lakeside) and used dads old binoculars as our telescope to see if we could spot any UFO's or alien invaders. We never got very close to the stars but it made it all much more magic when you could see them a bit closer to you. Sometimes we'd see the northern lights glimmer and flicker its band across the sky and there were shooting stars raining down on us. You don't see them in summer since the nights are too light and I do miss them. So I always welcome winter like a good old friend, a wee bit too cold at time but still the very best of friends.

It is raining

And I really mean RAINING! No little dripdrops, I mean full front on pouring! And I will have to go out in it later to go collect my car. It is at the moment at the garage for a long over due service. Me, I'm due for some serious sleep but cant really since there is a bit to do in the house and I have work later on. It has been three days with really early mornings since I've worked the weekend and today was just too much when I really should have been able to stay in my much cosy warm bed instead I had to get up and go. Thankfully I got a lift back home courtesy of the garage or else I would have been even more miserable getting back home in the rain on the bus, even more so since I forgot my umbrella at home...

Near miss

Just a bit north of us they are now covered in the white cold stuff. Apparently it has come around 10-20 cm of it. We just got the sideways rain.. But I am happy it missed us this time since we haven't put on our winter wheels on the car yet. That appointment isn't until tomorrow.

The garden is almost sleeping. Just got to get some rose cover and rake up the leafs and apples that are falling as soon as you turn your back. It was a lovely day yesterday so I thought I'd make the most of it and got the dahlias up and tucked in for drying. I also turned the flower bed over and moved some of the perennials that had got too big for the spot they were in and cleared of the last of the marigolds and petunias. Parsnips are now down in the cellar for winter storage all scrubbed up and tucked away. There are only a few summer flowers left in the garden and they are still so nice I don't have the heart to pull them up just yet. Especially since they have promised a bit warmer weather for next week. It will be a new record for me to still have flowering Margueritas in late October not to mention the lovely crawling and sprawling Nasturtium I have in front of the porch. I wish the frost would hold of just a bit longer so I can take a picture of it for you to see.

We've had the smell of snow in the air for 2 days now but nothing as of yet. But it is getting colder the longer the week wears on so I wouldn't be surprised if we did get some of the white cold stuff soon. It has been a weird autumn my dahlias are still in full bloom and the last of the marigolds are budding, my lovely dark pink roses are flowering again and got lots of small buds coming and we haven't had one night of hard frost yet! I am dithering about if I should cut my dahlias and bring them in for storage or let them flower until the frost gets them. Everything else is more or less tidied part from the parsnips that still are going and the late salad which is covered by some fleece anyway. James has kindly turned half of our vegetable patch and I need to find some fir tree branches to cover up our roses when it gets colder. Yes I know, how ironic that we did cut our fir trees down..

We've been busy over here. I am getting into this thing called eBay you see.. Am trying to sell some of my surplus postcards and have managed to sell two (2!) so far. I also managed to have my birthday and had a very nice gift from James, my own web site, which is in development. I had lots of other nice presents and a two day celebration as well! Is it silly wishing it would have gone on for another day? I have been a bit slack with everything online-ish but now when winter is setting in I will get back in the saddle and start writing more regular. There wont be much to do outside anyway when everything is covered with snow or it might just pour down with rain. You never know now a days.

Far too much is going on in real life to be able to fit any extra blog time in. It is a shame and I really shouldn't be able to call this a blog anymore. But I'll try and make it better soon.

I've been trying to sell some of the surplus junk we got in a car boot sale which went quite alright but it was really too little people to make for any good money. But what we got was alright. Shame though that you have to haul all the leftover junk back home, that wasn't intended you know! But maybe later in the year I'll try again and sell some more off. I've been trying to get my other enterprise off the ground with a bit of help from James, more on that later when I have something to show.

Gardening is slow and enjoyable. I have been making a few bargains at the plant nurseries when they have their end of season sales. James has been very nice and dug me a bit of a bigger flower border that we started off with two bushes and not complained too much to me for buying more plants and bushes. You do get into some sort of frenzy though when you have a blank canvas to fill up with plants. Because when we moved here it was just lawn, one old rosebush, a few apple trees and one, 1 !, tulip bulb. Next year I am going to try and grow some more perennial plants myself if the ones I did this year come back next spring..

Onward upward eh?

Btw..

Just a little brainteaser until i blog again... My score was a struggling 13.

Gardening is slowing down. We've picked all the potatoes, carrots and parsley, Still got some beet roots left and the parsnips aren't done yet but getting there. We might be getting some late salad if the warmth lingers a bit longer. But it is getting quite cool at night. Apples are getting there and we've had loads of plums that I've turned into the most lovely tasting jam I've done so far. Imagine ripe red-blue plums spiced up with a vanilla pod, yummie. Dead simple recipe too. You take 2kg of plums, halve them and take out the pips, boil with 2 dl of water until soft and mushy then add 1.2 liters of sugar and one big vanilla pod, you add both the scraped out black seeds and the whole remaining pod, boil for further 10-15 minutes to a nice consistency, de-foaming it if necessary then put in warm jars and seal.

We've had very rainy wet weather with sunny warm days in between perfect for growing but too late for the year I think. Today is a Change day. You know the kind, pelting rain one minute, sunny spots in between but also quite a fierce northern wind blowing. Definitely a Change day. Me, I'm home with the first cold I've had for ages. One by one got hit by it at work so I was just counting the days really until it was my turn. It isn't too bad, sore throat and fever and general tiredness but not really any running nose and coughing, yet I might add...

Just cant pass over a test can i.. It is pretty accurate as well.

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have medium neuroticism. You're generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic. Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy. Your life is pretty smooth, but there's a few emotional bumps you'd like to get rid of. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Do you ever get the feeling that there is a change even though nothing obvious has changed? I had that feeling today when i went outside. It just felt like the summer is ending, strange because it is still nice and warm outside, but you know there is a time when the garden turns. Lots of things are ripening and it looks like we will have a great year in the size of crops we are getting. Some of the summer flowers have ended though, surprisingly early but i think it has to do with the long dry spell we had earlier and now that there is rain it really doesnt help.

The garden has looked better this year and will do even better next year i hope. Our new hedge did suffer a bit from the dry weather but hopefully it will spring back next year and get going. We have to start pondering about the Big Dig next year. Considering the amount of downpours we have had it is time to do something about our damp foundation. So that is something we would like to do first thing next spring. Also there is this wast amount of space around the tree stumps that could need a bit of work and planning. I would like to make that part of the garden a bit of a wild spot, bushes, small trees, ferns and flowers of course. Like a little hideaway with paths around and in it. We'll just have to see.

What is keeping me busy...

Untill i get my writing skills back again i am doing a little photoblog. Feel free to visit.

Should i stay or should i go...?

At the present it seems i cant find the time to blog and when i do i get writers blog.. So, what should i do?

Summer has arrived with a BANG!

Lovely blue skies, temperature is hovering around +20, the Syringa hedge is in full bloom with lovely lilac flowers and all my summer flower seeds are growing like anything now, plus all the weeds of course.. Not to mention the lawn and there isn't anything we can do about it since our lawn mower decided it needed some service and was making this horrible sound when James was going to cut it last week. The damn mower is only 1 year old but James thought it might have to do with that he by accident drove it over a piece of rope that tied itself around the knife last time he cut the grass. Oh well, helpful neighbour let us borrow his mower once so it isn't a complete jungle out there. Hopefully we will get our own mower back soon. Anybody got some sheep we could lend?

We've been digging new flower beds as well as putting up a little willow fence to try and get people from cutting across to the Finn neighbours. Will see how much help it actually is later on. The new hedge is coming along, slowly. We've had loads of flowers on our plum tree this year and not so many on the big apple tree. But the huge old apple tree in the corner is covered in flowers so we'll see how much we'll end up with this year again of uneaten apples. I mean there is a limit to how much you can do and eat with apples in it before you get so tired of it you don't want to see another apple pie for as long as you shall live.

The vegetable patch is on the go, don't know how much will actually come up though due to a large flock of magpies. They are forever there picking at it so don't know how much spuds we got left or any other seeds. We did try to scare them off with dangling CD's but they soon learned that it wasn't scary. We did cover the seeds up with fleece but on closer examination there are now huge holes pecked in the fleece by them. Any suggestions to what to do about it? Part from shooting the buggers! Which isn't allowed anyway...

Flowers are going better this year but it has been nerve racking a couple of cold nights and I'm sure some of my climbers have been frost bitten because they look ever so sad so I've started a new batch just in case they don't pick up. Trying to organize the flowers and new shrubs in a way that is nice is fun but frustrating as well. It's sometimes a bit hard when you start off with a little little shrub that is supposed to grow as big as 2 meters and visualize how it will look in a year or two. I want instant BIG and bold plants. It is always easier as well to see how they will match each other when they are bigger and I wasn't planning on moving them in the near future but I might have to if I got it wrong.

Anyway it is nice that some plants survived the first year and are now coming back bigger and hopefully flowering better this year. I had some casualties that didn't make it through the winter. Sadly my big red poppy didn't like it where it was planted and was rotted away and also I don't have high hopes of my big, white, wonderfully smelling lilies coming back, no sign of life yet where they are but all other lilies are coming along nicely.. But surprise surprise all the tulips came out even though I did plant them way to late last autumn.

Currently playing Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush Dont give up

I've finaly got around to sort out all my mp3's and stumbled over some old favorites of mine. It has been sort of a night with music overload. Got rid of quite a lot of crap music as well. Everytime i hear this song i get goosebumps, i really dont know why, i just do.

It is still cold and wintery over here. The snow is slowly melting away but it is still a thick layer on the lawn and not a flower in sight. We have now finished our decorating inside and are preparing for the big push in getting the garden in shape whenever the frost has gone. First of all we have to get rid of all the fir tree branches that remained after we cut down the 3 big trees earlier. And then there is just a the question of what to do with all the space we now have.

It is snowing

Not just a little but a lot and it is wet and heavy and just plain old horrible! I am soon to do the last few strips of new wallpaper to our bedroom and hopefully that will be it until we have saved enough money to renovate the bathroom.

So onward getting all glued up it is. Back with pictures later

Morning walk

We went for a walk today to the local auction house to have a look at what they were going to auction out later on today. I think we saw all in all 3 people on the road there and it wasn't that early, around 10 I think. Partly I think people kept inside because it was Sunday and Vasaloppet (90km long ski race) was going on up in Mora and was being showed on TV. But also it was cold and windy plus they hadn't cleared much of the snow that came during the night. It was bit hard going on the smaller roads but we managed to get there without slipping over even though James did his best impersonation of a skier without skis. The auction looked more interesting on the pictures online then it did in real. There were the odd bits and bobs that I might have wanted to bid on if they didn't go too expensive but nothing really special.

We are going to my mums today for a Sunday dinner. My sister and her bf are picking us up in about 1Â? hour so got to think of something to do until then.

The more it snows a tiddelie pom...

At the moment it is still snowing, third day in a row and James has started to throw the snow past the big ridge of snow that is now enclosing our drive or else he wont get it over the top soon. We have started to shrink the driveway as well so it will just accommodate our car and a guest instead of 3 since we haven't got anywhere to put all the snow that is coming!
But hopefully it will ease off after the weekend. It's really not too bad compared to what I am used to from my childhood but still, I think it must be one of the few winters of late where there has been plenty of snow.

Yesterday and today have been spent looking at wallpaper for our bedroom and looking and trying out a new bigger sofa. We were thinking of getting a corner sofa so we didn't need to shuffle around and try to fit in 2 armchairs with our old sofa. So in search of the perfect sofa we have looked everywhere and did find a very nice one at Lidens but realized once we came home and started measuring up the lounge that there wasn't a chance in hell for it to fit in. Even though we used various option in building it James got it right when he asked if we wanted a lounge or a sofa. That is how imposing it would have been. So yesterday we went back to Mio here in town to have a look at a similar one but slightly smaller version of a corner sofa. But that one would have been too big as well, it would have fitted but maybe just. We were getting quite despondent at that time before we looked at another option that we are favouring at the moment, it is a wide 2,5 seater (longer then our current sofa)with a corner divan stuck on it and would fit nicely without taking over the room completely. We even took some fabric swatches with us home and James had to agree that my favorite color, a mild green, actually worked very well with the rest of our new lounge even though he protested at the start and said NO we have plenty of green (our hall and my sewing room). But we will have a bit of a think before we decide yet.
As for wallpaper, would you be surprised if we said we have actually been looking at black and grey prints? There is this collection by eco that just have the most lovely black and grey prints among other colors as well but we just fell in love with the black and grey ones. But knowing me and just how much color actually affects me I don't think I would put it in the bedroom. We looked for other options and found a very nice chocolate brown with a darker brown hazy floral print from Midbec that we are quite in agreement of. We went today to see if Falun had any better options before deciding in favor of the choco one but couldn't find any that tempted us as much. But it still is an open issue what we will have in the end.

Nostalgia

I've been reading some books that pictures Falun how it used to look like and what it looks like now. I am still very attached to that town even though we have moved and are now living in Borlange. I sometimes do wonder about the good of progress and change, at least in the way how towns change over the years Somehow I would like to smack the silly people who thought progress was to knock down charming old houses and destroy complete blocks and replace them with bunker looking complexes all in the name of progress and the future good. Borlange I think is a brilliant example of how it can go wrong. The town center looks like it is a set of concrete boxes put together, no curves, no greenery, no surprises just this grey, beige mass of concrete and glass from the seventies. No wonder people don't like to be in town and that the businesses are moving en mass to the big shopping mall Kupolen just outside the city center. But I must say that Falun did patch up a lot of the damage done by redoing lots of the buildings as to make a softer skyline.

Just as an example the house we now own is from 1925 but you really couldn't tell, that is how massive and damaging the renovation to it is. The former owners must have ripped every feature out of it because bloody eck we haven't found ONE original feature, part from the doors which I am surprised they kept. But also very pleased that they did because they will be lovely once we have stripped them of I don't know how many layers of paint and repainted them in a soft white. I am quite sure that at one point they must have had a balcony above the porch and most likely a glass veranda entrance underneath it. Also I think there must have been a wooden staircase inside even though the one in here now is made out of the much used MDF and then covered with plastic carpet (shudder).

There is quite a lot I would like to do with our house in terms of renovation and putting a bit of the features back in or at least try and give it a bit of its charm back. At some point we will renovate the bathroom/sauna/utilityroom and the kitchen. Most likely we will get rid of the sauna, I quite like saunas but haven't tried ours out because it has been packed with books and other stuff when we were doing the lounge and bedrooms upstairs. I much more prefer to have a bath tub installed and a better way of having the washing machine/dryer tower placed. The kitchen is a problem in itself as it is now since there really is only one way of having our kitchen table and we cant fit any free standing cupboards in since the walls are too narrow and you got a fire in one corner. It would be very interesting to change everything around in there and move the fire into the lounge plus put in a better fitting window where the sink is today. That's another thing that is annoying me just a bit, there are at least 6 different styles of windows in the house, somehow it makes it look lopsided. But there are good points as well with the house or else we wouldn't have bought it, but I like to dream a bit of what it can be made into. Just to ease James' worries I'd better put this disclaimer in; I am just talking out loud and not making any firm plans to do anything or all of what I have written in here. Better love..? :)

Golden Sunday

Sweden won the Olympic hockey final today over Finland, YaY to us!! Hockey is one of the few sports I do enjoy watching and it was a nail biting one as well since it was a close match from start to finish. Not to talk about the last few minutes when the Finns really were throwing everything they had against the Swedish goalie, taking out their own goalie to gain an extra player and the Swedes were diving in to stop the puck with their own bodies if anything else failed. It was really tense and people at work who snuck in to watch it on the staff room TV were shouting and jumping and then the last second ticked over and we WON!!!! Poor Susanne was sitting at the till all alone while the rest of us was shouting in the kitchen but I don't think she minded and there were hardly any customers in at all during the game anyway. Everybody was home watching it just as they have been during any other Swedish highlight or chance of a medal in the Olympics.

It's that time again.

You know, when you look around and get the urge to change everything around you?
You don't know it? Oh good for you because it is a hard bug to shake once you've attracted it. We are now getting in gear to redecorate our bedroom after having a wee bit of a rest from the stressful pre-Christmas rush getting everything nice and finished. We are starting slowly by looking at wallpaper and taking home endless amounts of catalogues and test rolls and you really don't want to know. We've gone off the idea of the one we had decided on before Christmas, partly because it will be the only thing in the house that is blueish and we don't have anything that will match it, not to mention any bedspread that will fit with it. And I have an inkling that I wont be allowed to buy yet another bedspread just because I have such wonderful puppy dog eyes when I really want something from James. He might have fallen for it earlier but he is wising up ...! It's a bit tricky this time too with a north facing window meaning not a lot of light in winter and huge white wardrobes, white floor and white newly painted ceiling. At the moment it feels a bit bleak and too white. I do like white and shades of white when seen in magazines but I don't think I'd like it so much if I had it at home. Because if I did we wouldn't have decorated the house so much since almost everything in it was white or beige to start with! I'm more of a colour girl but not bright ones since I cant stand it loud and bright everyday. So the question for the next couple of days and weeks is, which colour do we pick for our bedroom, not to mention the pattern....!

Work is as work usually is, boring but pays well. Stressful and intrigue filled as well as of late. I'm really really REALLY trying not to get sucked into all the gossip and bullshit that is flying around and just do my stuff and get out and home before anyone has the chance to start asking me what I think of this and that and have you heard of so and so... But it is hard to close your ears especially when the person talking has this loud and shrieky voice that will penetrate steel if necessary to get her point across as the one that should be heard and obeyed and oh yes we will do as you say Mrs B, not really, up yours and leave me alone is what I really want to say!

Spring is not sprung but mini springing as the snow is melting at daytime and freezing again at night time. Hopefully it is not too far away since we both are eager to get started with the garden and getting various projects going.
I've asked James if he would build me some flower boxes to hang on the side of our porch. I also want a trellis for a climber plant to grow on as to shield us from the wind on the left side of the porch. Also we have to get the rest of the boxes for the raised beds made and put in place, all fir tree branches cleared off and the freed ground surveyed to see what to make out of it. Raspberry bushes bought and planted, black currant bush moved from the allotment to a suitable place in our garden and flower beds dug in various places if there is time. Lots to do and plans to be made. All great fun eh? :)

I've cut my hair

Not just trimmed the ends a bit, oh no I have really really cut it all off... It feels weird not being able to put it up in a pony tail as I am used to doing to keep it away from my face. There wont be a pony tail for ages! But it has it advantages as well, no more frizzy hair in winter when everything is so dry you could almost touch the air inside. And at the moment all I need to do before going to work is ruffle it up a bit, add a bit of hair spray and off I go. It is also fun seeing people doing the double take when they don't recognize me at once. I got to look different if they walk past and then stop and have a second look before saying ' oh it IS you'.

We have had some cold weather for a while but now it is finally easing up a bit with warmer weather in the daytime at least. Right now it is close to 0 and the snow is melting a bit on the sunny sides but still loads of snow left since we had some more the past week. I managed to capture a sun halo with my camera when it was -20 the other day you can really see how misty and cold it is I think. Hopefully it wont be getting that cold again for a while.

A wall of snow coming down

That is what it looked like a minute ago when I glanced out the window. Here we have had absolutely perfect winter weather with up to +8 degrees for a week and now it is back to old miserable snow and cold. Sigh..

I hate to be fooled into thinking it might be getting warmer and a bit more like spring but its not spring but you could have fooled me the past couple of days! It's only February I had to remind myself over and over again. I was getting really excited about the warm weather but to no avail. Everything is once again covered in a white blanket and I'm sure it will remain so until late march if we are unlucky. Booo hiss!

Bloggers block or Just to damn tired

I've not written anything for ages partly because we have been very busy before and during Christmas and New Year as my family decided on to have the Christmas dinner at our place this year and we also had James' parents stay a week after Christmas.

And after all of that i naturally got a cold that is still lingering on and making my voice disappear. Oh joy of sitting at the till all day tomorrow trying to get my voice to make an audiable sound and not just a little huff and puff crow. I went to work on Tuesday barely being able to say hi but my boss didnt think it such a problem as to let me of till duty when i asked if he could let me off. He just asked me why i hadnt got some medicin for it. I looked quite dumbstruck asking him what sort of medicin you would take when your voice is lost and he looked even dumber when mumbling something about me sorting it out myself.. I shouldnt have gone back to work but hey you think you are being nice and loyal by going back as soon as possible since you know that they do struggle when someone is ill. That's gratitude for you!

I had a very pleasent surprise the other day when Mary phoned us to see what was wrong since I hadnt blogged for ages and James hasnt even glanced at his blog since i dont know when. We had a little talk and it was good to catch up and i seem to recall me promising to get back into blogging again so voila, here i am! Mary can work wonders you know.

But now when im here i really dont know what to blog about. Before Christmas we were so busy with redecorating, that was all that i blogged about. And i still have a few things i would like to change around the house but im in no rush really anymore and i cant bother you all about the pain of finding the right wallpaper and all that stuff again. I'll take some photos and post here to show you all the hard work we've been doing but i'll have to wait untill the batteries for the camera is charged up again. I've not touched that camera for so long it was dusty when i picked it out of my cupboard! Shame on me, shame!

It is snowing at the moment outside. We had been treated to a few days of +5 last week but it all seems to be changing again. You get that longing for spring when it does get that warm in the middle of winter, not so nice when you get blasted with -7 and a hard wind making it even colder the next day. They've promised lots of snow for tomorrow so we'll have to see if it is back to getting the snow shovel out and back into action again.

Spring... oh there is lots to do outside in the garden this year when spring has sprung and i've already bought some seeds and cant wait until it is warm enough to get them going. Got lots of ideas in my head what to do with the new space that the 3 big fir trees left us with now that they have been chopped down. Also we have to finish building the boxes for the raised beds we dug out last autumn. I dont think i'll have anything growing close to the house this year just in case we do decide on doing the Big Dig this year. Plus we had an awful lot of bindweed in that flower border and along the house itself that i'll have to spray this year in a feeble attempt to get rid of it. We got to prune the apple trees now in February/March and i'll make an attempt at getting the middle size tree a bit more even looking since it has been neglected and is growing far more at one side then the other. It looked like it would topple over last year when all the apples on one side was pulling it down, i really thought the branches would snap when we were surpised with some heavy wet snow when there still were apples left in it in late october. But it survived but i cant say that about a bush we have close to the old shop, it was looking really sad with branches cracked and all hung down by the heavy snow. i managed to keep the rest of it intact and hopefully it will grow back this summer. And hopefully our new lilac hedge will grow very well and tall this year so we can trim it and make it nice and thick.