Natures own art

This morning I woke to another day of snow. The sun was shining and the sky was so blue it made my heart sing. I have an old apple tree outside my window at work and just a few days ago I stood admiring the small bulbs and dreaming of the white blossoms soon to come. Today the tree was beautifully white but not quite the white I hoped and longed for. But beautiful just the same. Natures own art!

On my way home from work I stopped by one of my favorite jumble sales. I found these lovely kettle-holders. I am hooked on kettle-holders. I can’t seem to get enough of them. I don’t use them I just collect them. I like them for their colors and shapes. In fact every one of them is a small piece of art. I might do something quite different with them some day. A patchwork maybe, or pillows or a bag...... And these had so lovely spring colors! A definite must have!

Happy Easter? No but a Merry Christmas!

In the south of Sweden (Skåne) were I live there is a big art exhibition every Easter. Local artists open up there homes and show their art and you can drive around for days and still find new and interesting artists to visit. We planned to spend Easter holiday at the cottage and to drive around and visit some of the artist that are close to our place. But Mother Nature wanted differently… We drove down on Friday. It was terribly cold but the sun was shining and my garden was full of spring flowers. The Easter holiday looked promising.

We have no central heating in the house yet but usually manage to get the temperature up to a bearable standard with portable radiators and the fire place. When we got there we had a depressing nine degrees Celsius in the kitchen and the bedroom was so cold just thinking about sleeping in there made me frostbitten. My Easter spirit was sinking fast….But what the heck…..if the Eskimos manage who am I to complain. So we ate in front of the fireplace and went to bed dressed in long johns, fleece sweaters and my eldest daughter even wore here wool hat and mittens. Tomorrow was bound to be much better right! You wish!

During the night a snowstorm blew up and we lay close together shivering and listening to the wind howling and the windowpanes rattling.

When we looked out of our bedroom window the whole world was white....

And we had four degrees in the kitchen so in the wee ours of the morning my husband and I got up and started packing and as soon as it was daylight we hit the road. We got out in the last minute. Half an hour later the roads were impassable. Luckily for us the newspaperman had just been around delivering the morning paper to our neighbors so we could follow in his tracks until we reached the main road back to Malmö. The closer to town we got the less snow we saw and when we reached Malmö there was no snow at all. We almost felt we had dreamed it all! It’s funny how it can be such a huge difference in the weather just 60 kilometers apart.

But I got to see some art anyway. Natures own art!

And I spent the rest of the Easter holiday in my nice and warm city home lying under a blanket reading and eating chocolate. Life could be worse I suppose……

Happy Easter

Hope you all have a lovely holiday !

THANK YOU .....

…….all so very much for your love and support after my hand surgery. All your mail, gifts, flowers, get well cards and encouraging words was what got me through my sick leave without going completely bonkers. With the bandage off and stitches gone I am back in business and these past few days have been really hectic. Not with creative stuff I am sad to say but with my efforts to get through all work that have been piling up during my absence. Now I am leaving the city to spend the weekend at the cottage. It’s the first time this year that we actually spend the night so my long johns is packed. It’s still warmer on the outside you see……I’m going to catch up on some gardening and prepare the house for Easter and hopefully change the doors to my kitchen cabinets. The former owner put in a yuppie kitchen in oak from IKEA which is SO very wrong in my 1903 kitchen. So I convinced my husband that the doors had to go…..It took a while convincing him since the kitchen was the only room not needing any renovation when we bought the house. And I guess he has a point ….but when it’s ugly it’s ugly! So I took the matter in my own hands and bought new white panel doors and sort of presented him with the facts. Ha, ha! And because my husband is a very nice guy he just sighed and said he would try putting them up this weekend. Hurrah! Hopefully I can show you a few before and after pics soon.

Have a lovely weekend and lots of love to you all

Jeanette

Let there be light

"Imagine a dark autumn night
lit up by innumerable candles and lights.Doesn't that sound fantastic?On November 3th 2007, Österlen will be lit up by local people putting up lights in their gardens and villages, by artists performing artworks of fire and much more.You are very welcome to share this experience with us! "

Organizers of "Österlen lyser"



.......I most certainly thought so. That it sounded fantastic I mean. So I went looking. And Yesterday I won second prize in a photo competition held at Österlen Lyser - the Light Festival .

I feel very happy, honored and proud.

Österlen is a region in the south of Sweden known for its beautiful landscape, small picturesque village and its very special light. Many artists are drawn to the region mostly to try and capture the “light” on canvas. Some compare Österlen to Toscana or Provence and it’s invaded by tourists in the summer. During winter however the cold wind blows in from the sea and Österlen is black like the inside of a sack of coal. And that is one of the reasons for the Light Festival. To bring light to the villages! Other reasons are to try to attract visitors to the region not only during the summer months but in the winter too in order to make the local merchants, artist and B&B owners survive.

The Light Festival is absolutely beautiful. To drive through the pitch black landscape and see the small villages with all kind of light installations. Candle lights, torches, fireworks, bonfires – and everything made by the villagers themselves. And that was what the competition was about - to try and capture the feeling of the festival on film. My photo was taken during a dance with fire at the town market of the small village Brösarp.

It was the first time my family and I visited the Light Festival but definitely not the last. And since my summerhouse is located in the outskirts of Österlen I just might try to convince the residents of my local village to participate next year.

Let there be light

Boooooring !

Three days since my hand surgery and I am already bored stiff. In between taking painkillers and piling my hand up high on pillows I am slowly going crazy. I can’t concentrate on my books and all my glossy interior design and gardening magazines makes me want to redo my home and garden. Now! At once! (Yes, you were right Angela!) I can’t stay in front of the computer for very long either which gives me all the signs of abstinence syndrome. Not being able to surf around and read all the great blogs out there gives me the shakes and shivers. Booooring! Can you hear the sound of Homer Simpson? Believe me I have him shouting in my head all the time! Thank god it’s only 14 days left before the bandage comes off.


Here comes a few words of wisdom :

Five things you can’t do with only one hand
Short commands on your computer
Open a box of chocolate
Open a bottle of wine
Eat with knife and fork
Take a bubble bath

So there is NO way I can drown my sorrows in wine, food or chocolates!
Big sigh!

Five things you tell your family that your doctor said you couldn`t do
-for six months time at least
Cook
Make the beds
Empty the dishwasher
Go shopping for groceries
Vacuum the house

You have to make the most of it while you can eh?



As I am writing this I suddenly feel ashamed. Here I am full of self-pity when I should be grateful. My bandage is going to come off and I will be completely recovered. Just think about those who are injured or impaired permanently. So my thoughts go out to all of you less fortunate than me.

Lots of love to you all!

Jeanette

Stormy weather

I am scheduled for hand surgery on Monday so this weekend was the last opportunity to do some gardening. The garden damage control had done the trick and the spring flowers had been left alone since our last visit. The amount of flowers looks very promising and I can’t wait to see what the garden will really look like in a few weeks time.

We decided to trim the hedge down to a little less Sleeping Beauty height. The weather could have been better though. A storm passed over the south of Sweden Friday night and it was still very windy when we drove down to the house on Saturday.

My husband, better known as“Bob the builder” did the trimming and my daughters and I had a tough time raking the branches together. Have you tried raking in head wind? Not easy I can tell you. Our hysterical laughter echoed over the garden when the branches kept flying back at us.

We couldn’t use the wheel-barrow because of the wind so we had to rake all the branches on to a tarpaulin and drag it to the compost heap. My youngest daughter got the best job ever. To stop the tarpaulin from taking of with the wind she had to lie on it while my eldest and I did the raking. After a day’s hard work we had completed about ¼ of the hedge….. So next weekend I will be works manager sitting in a chair resting my hand while supervising the work. Ha, Ha !

I am a bit nervous about the surgery. Or not really the surgery but the frustration that goes with it. Not being able to do anything creative for a while. My left hand will probably be in a bandage for 2-4 weeks! I am not really sure how I will cope. Not easy to wet- or needle felt with just one hand! Not easy to do anything with just one hand in fact. But I have stocked up on gardening Magazines and books so hopefully I will be all right.