outside :: inside

what a weekend.

someone recently told me that my blog seem so full of coziness and quiet beauty. well, that might be true, but that doesn't mean my life is all that cozy and quiet.

at least it wasn't this weekend. in fact i'd say this friday was quite the opposite. it was one of those days where i just seemed to bang my head against the wall so many times it left me feel completely worn out and useless by the time it ended. but, as it often goes, the day after things looked brighter and, if not easy, then at least easier.

i'm not posting as much as usual. as i wrote on another occasion, life is hectic around here these days. and as much as i like to say i deal with whatever life throws my way in a strong and practical way, then sometimes i do fall into that abyss of self pity and exhaustion. where you just don't feel you do good. enough.

so, what you see mostly these days, are those moments of quiet beauty that also find their way. it might not be the whole truth about my life, but it does reveal some of those moments of beauty that makes me stop and focus beyond the next task, the next move.

like the early beginning of our hopefully green and lush winter gardening. and my inherited serving dish on the dining table with the first clementines from the garden.

wishing you a wonderful week with plenty of those little moments that make you stop and appreciate the quiet beauty in the middle of it all.

last weekend

we went to the beach. this weekend the temperatures dropped and we're staying home. it's been raining. i'm wondering if last weekend was the last summer beach trip of the year, and if the drop in temperatures will last. no matter what, i am looking forward to the freshness and the green this rain will add to our garden.

walking by sunset

the light is amazing these days. i love sunsets in the fall. and i love to walk in that hour up until sunset, especially when it's through the field behind the garden, passing by the neighbor's pumpkin harvest. yup, we've got some too. i spent a good part of a weekend a while back cooking pumpkins and freazing down. we'll have pumpkin soup this winter.

the kids like pumpkin too. maybe more to climb them than to eat them, because they are huge. and they love to be picked up by another neighbor passing by in his tractor. couldn't be better.

today we celebrated their fifth birthday. that is so big in so many ways. we had a good day, without pumpkin climbing though. i always have this nostalgic, sentimental feeling on their birthdays. it puts everything into perspective, brings back time and memories. i wonder if it will always be like that.

olive season

we have a big olive tree in the front yard. we didn't really do much about it last year, but this year we decided to make use of them. and so we have been collecting and started the process of making olives. we're experimenting a bit, trying different ways of preparing them. with lemons, garlic, chili peppers etc. if they end up good, and you're on my christmas gift list, you better prepare yourself: there will be jars of olives under the tree this year.

now if you think i'm all garden and kitchen these days, you're absolutely wrong. in fact, these moments of olive picking and gardening in general are few, and so is the time in front of the computer. at least when it comes to blogging and blog reading.

it will probably continue for a while, the minimal blogging and absolute minimal commenting, but this is life right now around here. it makes me a bit sad, but on the other hand, things are happening, and the time i have to myself is very limited. and so i am off, to the garden. we built a new chicken coop and is making a vegetable garden where the old one stood. the soil should be quite good there.


enjoy your weekend

stealing a moment

wow. it's been a week without posting. not even a corner view from me this time round. i have been so very busy. life is rolling by really fast these days, and i have a hard time keeping up with everything.

i am not sure when i will have time for the next post, not to mention find the time to take photographs to share with you. which is also the reason why i am showing you these photos from this summer. they were taken at the zoo museum. i am not sure why i am drawn to bones and nature collections. but i adore museums like this.

wishing you a wonderful weekend.

it rained today

it rained today.

already in the morning it was in the air. i put on a long-sleeved shirt when i got up at six, for the first time in a very long time. except for the time i spent in denmark, of course.

it started just as i picked up the kids just around noon. everyone were so excited. soon after the sun was out again, and the roads dried up faster than i could have located our rain boots. anyway, it's still too hot for rain boots, so the boys jumped bare legged through the few puddles that were big enough to last through the afternoon sun.

and then we found a few nice things. like this empty beehive and a few little flowers. how i missed the rain.

wishing you a wonderful weekend :)

hi

enjoying the beach. still. they have been saying on the news that the temps are to drop significantly. didn't happen yet though. as much as i love the beach, i am looking forward to a bit of fall. it's in my scandinavian veins, i need a change of season. or maybe that's just my mood these days.

then i could crawl under a blanket and look out the window. even if it is just a feeling, an emotion (cause real life doesn't actually let you crawl under the blanket and stare out the window for very long), then it would be better off with a bit of gray sky and rain outside.

but i guess the sun is good to have out there, shining bright. i have a whole lot of stuff that i need to deal with, and it's hard to get things done if it's dark and gray.

did i tell you i went to see joanna newsom i tlv? it was wonderful. she has an amazing voice, and there's something so adorable about her. sweetness combined with strength.

recently i have been listening to this pretty voice.

corner view - orange

orange, you said? not yet. but soon we will have oranges. traditionally orange season around here starts with the first rain, and that should be on it's way. at least that what they are telling us on the news. so far it's blue sky and 30+ degrees celcius. the rain might not make these instantly orange, but at least it will wash of some of that dust :)

but when they do turn orange, we'll be having freshly squeezed orange juice.

this week's orange corner view is hosted by the lovely otli.

have a beautiful day.

sometimes

there's just nothing better to do. after a long day of playing and swimming at the beach, a tv dinner is just in place. especially if you can have your favorites, chicken schnitzel, fries and tomatoes. obviously it also requires parents that are equally exhausted and in just the right mood to allow this.

they are watching pippi longstocking. pippi means pee, or wee wee in hebrew, thus here she's called bilbil. our dvd is from denmark, though, the old swedish television series with the same danish voice-over i listened to when i watched it as a kid.

that girl just never gets old.

little green guy

i don't think i ever showed you this chameleon we had over for a visit on yom kippur. they pop by in the garden once in a while, but this was quite magnificent. they used to be very common in the middle east, but today there are less as they - unfortunately for them - move very slow. this of course make them easy to catch and so, children and others catch them for fun, keeping them as pets.

they really are slow, which is why we had the opportunity to take this guy from the pomegranate tree where he was hanging for a close up examination.he was quite stunning.

and so, after a few minutes we said our good buys and out ways parted.

ps: thanks a lot for all the nice words the other day. i am considering to get a mustache for real now