1 year Anniversary

On the 16: th of July we celebrated the one year anniversary of buying our country house. Over a nice meal and a glass of bubbly ( Ok I confess I had four….) my husband and I summarized what we had accomplished this first year. Here goes:
Master bedroom made from scratch meaning isolation, flooring, painting the walls and an extra door put in.
New isolation and flooring in the hallway.
Two rooms made into one big living room meaning tear down a wall, close the old a doorway with new bricks, painting the walls and sanding the floor.
New roof in the living room.
Installing a fireplace.
Take two kitchen cabinets down and put new doors on the rest ( my husbands most complained about project since there was nothing wrong with them accept that they were ugly. The ugly part being my opinion not his….)
Put up a staircase to the attic.
Installing a water heater – that was done on the anniversary day! Hurrah hot water in the kitchen!
A lot of gardening (weeding) can also be added to the list.

We have pretty much filled the goals we had for the first year and the goals for the second year is installing new electricity ( the old wires being dangerous) and installing central heating. Both of the above is planned for this autumn. Start building ( and finish) one of the rooms on the attic and hopefully begin on one or two more. And enjoy a lot more of the garden and do a lot less weeding!

This first year has been hard work but I don’t regret buying the house for a second. My house and the countryside is my paradise on earth. And in my ten year plan is already to sell the town house and move here permanently. Not in my husbands plans yet though but you just wait….he will come round in the end!

So you want a guided tour do you? A befor- and after tour of the premises? I`ll see what I can do.

First you have drive down the long and winding road. Sorry about the wheel barrow but I am mending the driveway…..

Welcome to my house. Come inside at your own risk. Remember - Builders at work!
( aka Bob the Builder - my husband)

The master bedroom to be

The hallway

One of the smaller rooms soon to be part of the living rom and home of the fireplace.

The kitchen. Just look at the ugly yuppie 1990 cabinet doors. Yuck!

Tadah.....drumroll......One year later

The master bedroom

The hallway with the stairs to the attic

The now much bigger living room with it`s fireplace

The kitchen.

Not quite finished. I am going to paint the rest of the woodwork white and add some pots in copper and old ceramic mugs ..... I still hate the white tiles but my husband want hear of having them down as well. I might try painting a blue pattern on some of them.... to make them look a bit older.

This is the view from my living room window!

Now I think you understand why I want to move here permanently!

Thanks for your visit and welcome back!

Jeanette

PS Boy, was that the longest post ever! Sorry! But you did ask for a guided tour.....

Time to stop just hanging around....

This morning I woke up realizing that almost half of my vacation had already passed. And what have I done? Almost nothing. One part of me found that good and reassuring and the other part got a minor anxiety attack. The other part won! I started writing lists of what I wanted to accomplish the remaining weeks. All of you who read the “tagged” post know that I like doing lists. This time I hadn’t anything to put down that I already had done though….. I am so full of ideas, projects, creative stuff that my head is spinning but I don’t seem to find the time to really sit down and get started. I crave for some time on my own!

My creativity needs a really long runway before take off and if I’m interrupted I sort of have to start all over again. With my daughters home on their summer leave I am torn between spending time with them and have time on my own. It’s silly really because they spend most of their time hanging out with friends so I really have a lot of time on my hands….but they still turn up on the doorstep asking “what’s for dinner” and there is the occasional washing up and shopping for groceries in-between trips to the country house for some renovating or gardening.

When I read what I had written I hear that it sounds really grumpy. What do I have to complain about? But I have this enormous creativity urge building up inside that it feels like I am going to burst. I think I needed those first couple of weeks to have my ideas simmering on the back burner but now I need to get down to it. So folks, I am off ! Off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. Well not really. But I take a week or two off from bloging to lock myself in the workroom instead. Hope to be able to show you all some results in a few weeks time!

Wish me luck!

Jeanette


Ps Do you want a sneak peek at my to do list?

1. Pimp the bathroom in the country house – stop it from looking like “ a hole in the wall”
2. Finish making the red linen skirt preferably before the cocktail party on Saturday !!!!
3. Pick a theme and photos for the exhibition in march and how about you start taking a few new ones you lazy bugger !
4. Get started on the recycled art & stuff thing and talk to M about an exhibition in her shop this autumn - that just might get you going eh?
5. Should I start a blog shop ? or Etsy? or signerat.se? and sell my photos and stuff and would anyone really want to buy any of it?
6. Get a tan

7. Get a grip

8. How about losing some weight too while your at it?

Dzien dobry ( Hallo)

Warsaw took me by surprise. In a very positive sense. I went there expecting grey houses and a lingering atmosphere of former communist state and found a busy and booming city full of energy and potentialities. The city took me with storm! Since my sister worked while I was there I had the whole days to myself exploring the city. I walked and walked and walked almost wearing down the soles of my new trainers. I strolled through the old town with its small alley ways, visited art museums, historical sites, and old Cemetery’s and enjoyed the large and beautiful parks. I even managed to cram in a jumble sale! On the whole the city was much greener than I expected my prejudice thinking it would be only grey and that all buildings would look like Stalinist hotels housing only western business men with a visa or the East German women’s team of discus-throwers on training camp. Of course there are a lot of bunker like Stalinist structures and equally dull buildings of a later era but with the arrival of a market economy in 1989 the face of Warsaw started changing rapidly. Newly constructed steel-and-glass towers and commercial posters of gigantic proportions have made Warsaw very much a town between old and new. And that is very fascinating!

On the evenings my sister and I did some serious catching up involving a lot of wine, good food and talking to the wee hours of the morning!

Old meets new! The Palace of Culture and Science surrounded by glass and steal buildings and commercial posters. The Palace was a "gift of friendship" from the Soviet union 1952. Poles often jokes that the viewing terrace is the best view of the city because it`s the only one that doesn`t inclued the Palace of Culture & Science itself.

The polish people live very close to their dramatic and tragic history in a way that is difficult for a Swede to understand. Sweden not being in a war since 1815 and with a population that largely tend taking freedom of speech and human rights for granted. Everywhere you go in Warsaw you are reminded of WW II and the five year long Nazi occupation. No other Polish city suffered such immense loss of life or such devastation in the war. The occupation triggered two acts of heroic armed resistance, both cruelly crushed. The first was the Ghetto uprising in 1943 when heavily outnumbered and largely unarmed Jewish civilians fought fiercely for over a month against overwhelming Nazi forces. The second was the Warsaw uprising of 1944 that hoped to liberate the capital and set up independent government before the arrival of the red army (which was already camped on the eastern bank of the Vistula river). The street fighting went on for 63 days but then the insurgents were forced to capitulate. For the next three months the Nazis methodically razed the city to ground. Only on the 17 of January did the Soviet forces cross the river to “liberate” Warsaw! About 85 % of the Warsaw buildings were destroyed and 800 000 people – more than half of the prewar population – perished.

The most valuable historic monuments, most notably the old town has been restored to their previous appearance based on original drawings and photographs.

The Royal Castle in 1945

The Royal Castle rebuilt

I also visited the Pawiak Prison Museum once used for incarcerating the enemies of the Russian tsar but during the WW II the Gestapo’s main prison facility. Around 100 000 prisoners passed through its gates of whom around 37 000 people were executed on site and 60 000 transported to the gas chambers. The visit left me deeply touched and very sad. During WW II and at the age of 14 my father spent two years in a prison camp in Siberia. When I visited the Prison Museum I was overwhelmed by the sudden knowledge of how much my father must have suffered and how little I know about those two years. Through my father, WW II have always been an important part of my history and has in parts made me the one I am when it comes to my views on politics and human rights. The visit made me want to dig out my old history books collecting dust on the attic and reread them. I also decided then and there that I am going to sit down for long talks with my father and “write down” some of our family history. Not only for me but for my daughters as well.

The Pawiak Prison Museum

I left Warsaw with a firm resolution to fly back real soon!

Da widzenia ( Good bye)

Jeanette


The language ? Nie razumiem – I don’t understand!. I studied Russian for a year in high school but I can’t say that it did me much good. Poprosze o dodatkowe lozko w pokoju - pronounce that if you can! It means can you put an extra bed in my room :-) So glad I stayed with my sister and not in a hotel!

My bags are packed….

….and I am ready to go. I am leaving Sweden for a week in Warsaw to visit my sister. She moved there recently and she’s to stay three years to work. I have never visited Warsaw before so it’s going to be great fun. In our younger days my sister and I really new how to have a good time so lets hope we haven’t lost the touch….

Why don`t you enjoy some rhubarb and strawberry crumble while I`m gone!

Enjoy !

Jeanette



PS

So you want the recipe? That good huh?

Preheat the oven to 200 C ( 400 F)

Put finely chopped rhubarb and whole (small) strawberries in a ovenproof dish

Mix
200 g butter
300 g flour
60 g suger
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or 2 teaspoons vanilla powder

and rub the butter in the flour/sugar/vanilla until it resemblance fine breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle the crumble over the rhubarb and strawberries and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.

Serve with ice cream!

Midsommar - Midsummer

We may not have polar bears walking the streets in Sweden but it`s a dark and cold country most of the year anyway. That’s why we people up north cherish the summer light so much that a celebration is held an entire weekend - the midsummer festivities. Some of you might say that the midsummer festivities has nothing to do with the light but is only an excuse for getting seriously drunk on aquavit, singing obscure songs and eating herring with sour crème and chive. I for myself go with the light theory. On midsummer night’s eve (or thereabout) is the summer solstice and the sun is up longer than any other day. And that’s worth celebrating. You can stay up all night and the sky only goes a brilliant dark, dark blue but never pitch black. That is if you don’t live in the northern parts because there the sun doesn’t set at all.

On midsummer you have a may pole decorated with flowers and you dance around it! It looks a bit like cannibals dancing around the pot! Japanese tourists with cameras usually think we have gone completely bonkers. We do eat herring with sour crème and chive and you drink aquavit and sing obscure songs. The drinking and singing part probably goes back to the Vikings or something but we were more in to chewing poisonous mushrooms back then. With the eating, drinking and dancing completed the ladies go out flower picking. You are not allowed to talk while picking and you must pick seven different flowers. Then you put the flowers under your pillow and you will dream about the man becoming your husband. My husband usually makes fun of me saying “what’s the point of picking flowers since you already have the man of your dreams” but who knows I just might dream about Sean Connery and who wants to miss out on that?

May pole - not ours though

(Istockphoto)

Served directly from the freezer

It doesn`t get any darker than this

Flowers for the wreaths

Youngest daughter wearing the finished result

For me Midsummer is getting up early in the morning to pick flowers for the wreaths and the maypole and to lay a beautiful table with flowers, a linen tablecloth and lots of candle lights. To sit down with family and friends and enjoying each others company until the wee hours of the morning. And yes I drink the occasional aquavit and yes I sing an obscure song or two but most of all I enjoy the company of my loved ones!

So all of you friends out there, Swedes or not I hope you have a lovely midsummer week end!

Jeanette

PS Did I tell you it almost always rains on Midsummer? But in my dreams and memories the sun always shines!

56 blank pages

Last Friday was my last day at my current job. This past two years I have been working with establishing a “meeting place“ for elderly people in one of the districts in the town where I live. In your old age it’s easy to be isolated and your social network keeps getting smaller when friends or relatives die or move into nursing homes. Isolation can lead to depression or ill health but if you have a place to visit and have fun and interesting things happening in your life well then you have not only a better life but also a better health. The community had an old house with a beautiful garden and I had a two year contract as a project leader and an assignment to fill the house with activities for the elderly. And now my work is done! The house is filled with activities everyday and the elderly have a place to visit were they are truly seen and met with warmth and welcoming. Most of the visitors are in their mid eighties but the oldest visiting is 94. I’ve had a marvelous time and met so many adorable people but now it’s time to move on. I am a “project nomad” and I like to have new challenges in my life. In the middle of august I start a new job as a planning secretary for the chief of community based health care in the same town district where I work now. A planning secretary is a bit like being a political secretary only you don’t work for a politician.

Middle of august did she say? And what the heck is she doing in the mean time? Well my friends I am having a vacation! Eight long and beautiful weeks or 56 blank pages to fill with creative stuff, house renovating, visiting jumble and yard sales, blog writing, nature walks, photography and lazy days in the hammock sipping a glass of wine and reading a book. Oh joy! I almost have to pinch my arm to believe that it`s really true! I haven`t had a vacation that long since I don`t know when. My school days probably!

I promise to keep you all updated!

Take care!

Jeanette

Poppies

For several weeks now the weather has been very warm for the season. Way too warm to do anything creative until the late hours of the evening and then it’s time for bed…... One part of me have been longing for a felting frenzy and the a nother part of me didn’t. Just the thought of wool made me feel even warmer although the felting as such hasn’t anything to do with being warm at all. Anyway….yesterday my better self won.

I had been out all day photographing poppies and was so inspired that I made a wet felt with poppies on it. It`s going to be a present for another photographer Annika Christensen who specialize in garden photos. Do visit her blog and website.

On Wednesday the weather is going to be back to normal. That means rain and grey clouds and a lot colder. Guess I`ll be doing a lot more felting then.

Have a lovely week my friends!

Jeanette