For a couple of days now, real winter is on visit…and I cannot say how happy I am. I will let you wander around in my neighbourhood to hopefully enjoy the white serenity. Last year we had no snow at all, and it is exactly ten years since we got this much.
Sheer Happiness! And the children are out everywhere skiing and building snowmen. So Grateful, so Thankful.
Goodbye 2020 – Happy New Year!
Thank you All in the blogosphere for helping us stay reasonably sane this year ♥ We made it so far, and I believe there is a light in the tunnel for 2021. Take good care of yourselves and each other – hope to see you soon again! – Ann-Christine
Today we went to the forest again, dreaming of frosty days and snow …
Milo was a youngster – I think it must have been a long time ago…
Can you feel it?
The need for crisp air and eyelifting skies? Totti enjoying a frosty morning some years ago – so fresh in the air…so easy to walk.
Today was announced on the news, that November and December were the darkest ever in Sweden since they started measuring hundreds of years ago. So little sun and so little light. Stockholm didn’t have a single sunny hour in these last 7 weeks.
Grey can be beautiful – but not every day for two months – and there are three more to go before early Spring.
But in less than two weeks The Winter Solstice will be here. I can’t tell you how much we need it!
I was born and raised in a tiny village, consisting of about 15 houses situated on a ridge above the school house. Here I spent every day of my first 12 years, climbing and running, strolling and roaming the farm land, meadows and forests. I had a happy childhood.
This is the gate I climbed every day – or, this might be a newer one, but it still looks the same to me… There are huge stones in the meadow above, and we used to bring buns and milk to feast on when we had finished climbing and settled on top of the highest one. To us they were mountains – but in reality, boulders from the ice age, left here when the ice moved away.
Walking, walking…One of the last colourful days, I decided to walk along an old road I used to walk in my younger days – in the 1980’s. I had a friend living at the end of the road, and I believe she still is.
Hovdala is mentioned for the first time in 1130, but the presently visible castle complex began to be constructed during the early 16th century. The date 1511 can be read on one of the façades. In those days, Scania (Skåne) was a part of Denmark.
A renovation of the castle was initiated in 1993. In 2004, renovation project was awarded the Europa Nostra award for ”sensitive and intelligent restoration work.”
The castle was besieged twice by Swedish troops during the Kalmar War. But, Hovdala castle withstood both sieges.
Follow the road up in the forest behind the castle, and you will arrive at the Library Ruin – on which I have often posted. An unfinished octagon built by the owner of the castle – what a beautiful idea – to have a library in the forest! So, I will leave you there…for now.
Just outside the Ifö factory in Bromölla, live-sized ceramic dinosaurs sunbathe on a ceramic cliff surrounded by springwater. Or should be, but there was no water when we visited.
Scanisaurus is the masterpiece of Sweden’s renowned ceramic artist, Gunnar Nylund. It is a one of a kind artwork, made by hand and consisting of more than 3000 individual pieces.
In 2014 many of the original plaster forms that were used to make the fountain were rediscovered by Ifö Center’s artists. They are now under restoration at the Center and the goal is to produce new parts and restore Scanisaurus for the 50th anniversary in 2021.
The funny thing is, that the discovery of the plaster forms was what finally convinced ROA to come over from Australia to paint T-Rex in 2014.
This is my third post from Ifö Center. Here are links to the previous posts:
https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/10/22/thursday-thoughts-ifo-center/
https://lagottocattleya.wordpress.com/2020/10/29/thursday-thoughts-more-ifo-center/
I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
We all needed a break, so we went to the west coast for a day. To walk by the sea. To sit in the fresh breeze. To wash away November mood.
We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.
― William James
