June 2011
21 posts
2 tags
Gröna Lund
One of the things we did last week was to go to Stockholm’s amusement park called Gröna Lund:
We were mostly in the kidlets section of course. I rode the Flying Elephants with Astrid and she LOVED it. Then we tried the Ladybug kiddie rollercoaster, which terrified her and I had to do trauma-prevention: “you’re safe you’re safe Mummy’s here Mummy’s here...
The pickle
Here’s the earnest pickle that Per and his sister Pia used to ride on when they were little. Now dusted off and in use again. It kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
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I keep looking out the window
because night doesn’t look like this.
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Party panties, among other things
Drove back to Stockholm yesterday, just in time to get to Astrid’s friend Herbert’s 4th birthday party. Going to a birthday party in another country that you are just visiting is somehow more touching and poignant. There’s enough detachment from everyday life here to see things as if for the first time. I sense the uniqueness of this-time this-day this-place this-event more than...
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Självplock (You-pick)
We did get out to the you-pick to pick strawberries. It was the first day they were open for the season. I very busily packed the kids up and got them into the car with everything we might need. Then on the drive there I was very busy craning my neck to see the houses and barns of Västerby.
It wasn’t until I had put Axel in the carrier and sent Astrid off with her basket that I felt the...
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And a bit obsessively, the bag.
But it is lovely, isn’t it? Nice watercolour paintings.
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Hemköp grocery store spy photo mission attempt 2
Went pretty well, considering I went in with a list of groceries to get, was helping a three year old steer a kid’s shopping cart (and fending off requests to put every second item in said cart), and was acutely aware of the fact that Erik Axel was waiting out in the car with his Farfar (grandfather) and could quite possibly be screaming to get out of his carseat.
I know I should edit...
“¨How do pigs cut their toenails?¨”
– Astrid, 3
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Clothesline 1
Starting another series round here, along with Dolly’s Outfit and Messes. This one because I love the look of clothes hung to dry on clotheslines. Per hung these out today and brought them in smelling so lovely and fresh:
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Pop tradition
I think this is the third summer in a row Per and I have gotten a crate of pop to drink while we’re here. That makes it officially a tradition! I don’t usually drink much pop, but it’s really nice in the summer to have a cold bottle, especially of this old fashioned sort.
It reminds me of my Grampie Gordie asking us if we wanted a pop when we’d go visit my grandparents...
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Two things
Thing 1: Strawberries grown in Hedemora, can’t get much more local than that. Am excited to go to their you-pick soon, just a hop skip and a jump away. Well, maybe not literally. Because then I’d be standing in the driveway still.
Oh, and one more thing about strawberries. They’re called jordgubbar in Swedish, which I like, because the literal translation is “earth...
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Swedish groceries
I could wander around in grocery stores here forever. I love looking at all the awesome packaging. Here are just a few pics, but I’ll get some more soon. I have to get all the different milk and yogurt packaging that I saw last year, it’s beautiful.
I always feel weird standing in a grocery store trying to sneakily take pictures. Not only might the people who work there get mad at...
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Immediate
The name of this blog is a good reminder for me to not forget to look around at all that’s in the day. It seems almost too simple sometimes: that all I need is right there. That all I have to do is open my eyes, look around, stay aware, and then just respond somehow.
I have a lot of quotes floating around my head, bits and pieces of what people have said or written that help me stay on...
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Och nu så vill jag sjunga att sommaren är skön,...
And now I want to sing that summer is so nice, and the trees are so lovely, and the ground is so green.
-from Sommaren är min (the summer is mine) by Astrid Lindgren
The past few days in Stockholm have been very, very busy, and lovely! It’s been sunny and summery and we’ve been out runnin’ the roads with friends we haven’t seen since last year. Most have children so...
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Hur gick det sen? What happened next?
We played in this fun interactive version of Tove Jansson’s Hur gick det sen? at Kulturhuset. It’s a children’s book with holes in the pages to look through to the next page.
Tove Jansson wrote the Moomin books and is one of my favourite authors.
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Night but not night
Driving from Hedemora to Stockholm around midnight.
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Nationaldagen (Sweden's National Day)
Monday was Sweden’s National Day so it was a holiday. When I woke up in the morning and wandered out into the yard I saw all the neighbours raising their flags. (Normally they fly a pennant flag, and only raise the real flag on flag days or special occasions.) It felt quite surreal to be standing so suddenly in this yard in Sweden watching people raise flags.
We spent the day in quite...
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2 am
We’ve had a hard time getting Axel used to the time difference here, so we’ve been up to see a few 2 am’s. It helps a bit that it’s so light out so late, and it’s fun to watch night come without it ever truly getting dark. Luckily that light has given me the extra energy I need to sit up with a time-confused baby.
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Hedemora gammelgård
This is Hedemora Gammelgård, an old farm outdoor museum close to where Per’s parents live.
There’s a summer café there where we had coffee and waffles.
I loved the idea of putting rag rugs on the chairs and benches.
The buildings with sod roofs are interesting. The sod was usually put on top of layers of birch bark on top of wood planks. The weight of the sod compressed the ...
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Tradition in the sky
I never seem to drink tomato juice unless I’m on a plane. Then for some reason, when they wheel their cart down the aisle, I suddenly crave it. Is it because they have these cute little travel size cans of it? Or more just that it’s become tradition?
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Messes 3 and 4
