corner view - summer

it's been here quite a while by now. the summer, the heat, the sun. we have been going to the beach for months, we have made bonfires in the evening, played with water in the garden. we even got tired of it some days and stayed in doors during the hot afternoons with the air-condition on.

but one thing that reminds me of summer, the summers of my childhood, is sankt hans, the celebration of the shortest night of the year. this always seemed to fall just about the time where school was out for the summer, and the excitement of vacation, long days at home or away was in the air. looking into those flames of the sankt hans fire it was like time changed. endless weeks ahead filled with promises of something different with no clocks, no bells.

for the last five years we have celebrated this tradition of sankt hans on a beach here in israel with other mixed danish-israeli families. it's a danish tradition to burn a witch on the bonfire, and so do we. yes, i know, not very politically correct, and a macabre reminder of those dark days in europe where "real" witches were burned, usually strong, independent women (and men) with knowledge. or just plain unlucky humans caught in local power struggles and jealosy.

nowadays it's just a doll, and as i told the kids, it's a magic doll. when she burns she travels with the smoke all the way to bloksbjerg where she will become a real witch and dance happily through the short night with her witch friends and the giant trolls. of course they are all good witches and good trolls in my version. i hope it helped them deal with the scary, but spectacular sight of the doll on fire.

for more summer, pick up your broom and fly on over to the lovely jane of spain daily. 

btw, the kids were very excited and brought pictures to their kindergarten of the witch burning. they talked about it at the morning gathering, and i don't even want to think about what the other parents were thinking when their kids got home and told them about the danish people that are burning witches at the beach. oh dear.

while the cake cools off

the boys baked. all the messy mixing went fine, but then there is the waiting, that's the hard part. first it must bake, then cool off. the essence of torture.

pearls, atlas, a little bit of drawing, followed by some touching and just plain staring. and a whole lot of  "can we taste now?" from the moment it went into the oven till i said yes. and then we had cake.

in between

we had a full weekend. there was a witch, a bonfire and a couple of parties. plus some family visits, an afternoon at the beach and a night with an aching ear.

now the kids are of to kindergarten, and i am supposedly working hard from home and sorting my end-of-month paper work. but really, i am here. don't tell anyone ;)

have a wonderful week - and remember to treasure the little moments in between everything else.

corner view - noticing

reds and blues - naked children - summer fun.

notice more via jane of spain daily

soft and quiet sting

 

we have so many medusas these days. i like the name medusa for these. they sting badly, but still i love them. to watch them, something so delicate a perfect mix of solid and fluid. to watch it move. silently, quietly, softly.

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today i decided to give up on the 365 flickr project i have been trying to do. it became yet another thing i stressed about, felt bad about, tried to fit into my life. it wasn't meant to be like that, so i had to let go. maybe one day i will try again...

i feel sad, but also relieved. i made it to 150. so that's what i call that flickr set now, 150 days.

dream

 

the weekword is dream. i wasn't planning to participate. and didn't (it is a friday thing). but then suddenly it was there, in the sand. visible, changing shape, disappearing. fleeting, but always there. and then i went along.

the word of the week was chosen by elisabeth of textilspanieln. she will show you more dreams.

corner view - daily

daily. i almost lose my breath. daily. these days. i am longing for time to enjoy the daily-ness of life.but life is filled with work, exams, a lot of thinking about some hard decisions (i will tell you more when i have more .... time), and then of course there was the operation. and we have daily hair combing because it is lice season and this whole thing with lice entered the house - and my hair - for the first time. ever. the past two weeks i have been combing the boys' and my hair once, twice or more. daily. just writing this makes my hair itch.

between all the running around there are some daily moments of bliss. like when i have time to collect the daily bunch of red tomatoes in the garden. or watch a bug with the little one. and see the light stream through the windows, through the shutters.

i also long for daily postings and visits to all the beautiful blogs i love. i am not there. don't even know when i will be able to post the next time.

for those with time, please take a look at all the daily corner views via the lovely jane of spain daily

all is good

we came back home yesterday in the afternoon. everything went well. his eyes are still red, but he is doing fine.

i am glad we did it, i think it was the right thing. but is was also very hard emotionally to go through. before, during and after, mainly because of worries and stress.

to see him fade out was terrible, to see him wake up, confused and in pain, was a painful relief. so many mixed emotions.

but now we're home. it's behind us.

thank you so much for all your thoughts and well wishes. i appreciate that so very much. now let's have a nice weekend.

going under

full anesthesia, my boy. tomorrow. it's an eye operation, and we have been debating back and forth what to do.

he has a lazy eye and is losing sight on it. it was always "sliding" out a bit when he was tired, but the last 4-6 month it is almost constant. doctors are telling us it cannot be adjusted with patches and glasses, but we were very reluctant regarding an operation. but lately he has complained a lot. he is always closing or covering one eye, as he cannot focus and it bothers him. he says his eye is "rolling around", because he can still see on it and his eyes are sending two different images to the brain. eventually his brain will shot down on the lazy eye.

so here we go. it's scary and it's awful, but if everything goes according to plan, we will be home tomorrow afternoon. and hopefully he will no longer have to deal with this.

now

this friday's word is "now". i wanted to participate, but the time to come up with something never seemed to appear (i told you, it's an intense time right now in this house).

this morning i kept on thinking about it, and it bothered me that i cannot find the time to be creative. how important it is to take the time, or as aimee of artsyville so wisely says: make time for your art. now, and not later. and so i decided to participate.

i wanted to draw something that related to this idea about taking the time right now. i am not sure i succeeded in that. i was in a hurry. but that doesn't matter, because something much better happened: i drew something out of my style, something new to me, because i had to do it right now, without much thought.

so, this is my advice: what ever it is you want to do, do it now. you might not have the time, but then do it the best you can, do it in another way than you originally thought it should have been done. be creative. you might like it.

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the word was chosen by hanna of hanna-happening. and thank you for that, hanna. it pulled me back in and on to something new. for more "now", hanna leads the way.

now i am on to something else - and remember now - have a wonderful weekend :)

on the wall

i changed the wall in the living room. moved the boards and put up framed art work. including some of my own things (which i am not really sure i am completely comfortable with for some reason).

i love to see what people choose to display on their walls. it says a lot about them, shows who they are. what do you think people see, when they look at your walls?

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many of you liked the quote i used in yesterday's post. it is from a speech by haruki murakami that he gave when he received the jerusalem prize in literature this last fall. i linked to the entire speech via sarapirat and her adventures, but later i realized, that it wasn't really clear, that there is so much more where it came from. you can also read it here. it is a beautiful and inspiring speech.

corner view: from where i sit

i love when i sit and suddenly realize that right now is a special moment. and then if the camera is next to me, by chance, not because i was intentionally looking for a motive, giving me an opportunity to catch a moment of still and quiet beauty. in the garden, or at the beach in the tent.

for more corner views, visit the lovely jane of spain daily

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and just because it is important for me to let you know that the latest events here in the middle east did not go unnoticed and saddens me beyond believe:

"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."

haruki murakami via sarapirat and her adventures