08 Thursday Aug 2013
I’ve heard some call it lotion for the soul. It is soothing. It is refreshing. So I can see why.
Today my lotion was scented with the smell of sun-heated fields and a breeze surfing through huge, ancient oak trees. It also contained corn and potato fields, summer flowers and an eight-month-old littlegirl with a smile that put the sun to shame.
All if this is just off my doorstep these days. What is the best lotion for your soul?
23 Thursday Aug 2012
Posted in Good Life, Nature, Uncategorized
We didn’t have much luck when trying to find berries to pick ourselves this year. It simply has not been a good season for some berries, and some, while, where they were available to us the bushes simply let us down. But luckily for us we have found some good deals. We did find four kilos of raspberries for a decent sum. And the results of the find with recipes will follow soon!
11 Saturday Aug 2012
Last weekend we spent a day at my parents’ place, or rather in their garden. They were about to leave for a week long vacation and had no intention of using the many berries in their garden. I thus took Husband and Son with me and picked clean almost every bush.
It’s has not been a very good spring or summer for certain types of berries. I had hoped to find at least a few litres of blueberries, but they were scarce, sour, and small. The currants, black and red, were also scarce this year, and we only found about half a litre of each (despite the 6 bushed of black currant!).
My mother helped relieve the gooseberry bush from its heavy burden
One bush that really surprised me was the gooseberry bush. Never before have I seen a gooseberry bush carry as many berries. Each wee branch was heavy from the big berries. They hung like clusters of grapes. Unfortunately though, I believe I am the only one in the house who likes the taste of gooseberry products, and after about ten litres of berries we decided to stop.
During a short visit at my grandparents’ we picked about half a litre of raspberries.
Recipes to follow 🙂
09 Thursday Aug 2012
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Domestic goddess, Elderberries, Elderflowers, Food, Saft, Squash, Summer
For the first time ever I managed this year to take advantage of the many tress with elderberry flowers in the area. So I made (what I think at least in Scotland would be called) squash. A sirupy drink containing quite a lot of sugar, which is made to be rather strong, but is added water to before drinking. We call it saft (we also have ‘jus’, ‘nektar’, and ‘sirup’, which are all similar but not the same).
After trawling through dozens of blogs and cooking sites online, I finally found a recipe I was willing to try. Many called for what seemed to be extensive amounts of sugar, only to be balanced by quite a lot of added citric acid. After reading up, I set out with my own recipe made up after comparing many others.
What I used was:
about 50 bouquets of elderberry flowers
4 lemons (washed well and preferably organic)
1 kg demerara sugar
2 litres water
I picked the flowers while visiting my parents, and thus simply froze them to keep them from wilting completely. That resulted in a ball of brown flowers that were lumped together so much that I did not manage to rinse them. I imagined the cold would have killed of most bugs, and the forthcoming heat would kill the rest, so I simply shrugged and got on with it.
Then I measured up two litres of plain, good, cold water and added to a large pot with one kilo of demerara sugar. I’m not a big fan of white sugar, even though that makes the colour of the ‘saft’ a lot nicer, so that is the reason for the brownish colour of my drinks. I brought the mix to a boil and let it simmer until the sugar had dissolved. Meanwhile I sliced (I lie a bit here, it was actually a friend of mine who sliced the lemons, but I think he would prefer to keep that a secret, so shhh!) the lemons and added them to a big bowl with the ball of intertwines flowers. After the sugar had dissolved I poured the water over into the bowl.
Now, as you can see, this process is easy peasy, and takes no effort at all. I was so impressed with myself, I was keeping this old tradition alive, feeling like a domestic goddess, and it was no hard work at all! But then on to the final part 😉
Take the bowl and cover with plastic, a lid, or something that will keep away yucky things that are attracted to sugar. Then leave somewhere that is not too warm (out of the sunshine!) for about three days. If you manage to stir it once a day, you’ll do a better job than I did!
After those three days, sift it through a muslin cloth (or similar) and either freeze in smaller boxes (glasses, etc) or add to sterilized jars or glasses (I froze boxes of ‘saft’, so much easier).
To one part ‘saft’ add about two parts water.
I found the saft to be a little too sugary. Next year I don’t want to add more lemons as the taste of the lemons can easily overpower the delicate taste of the elderflowers. I was so pleased having made all organic saft this year, but might have to turn to powdered citric acid next time. Unless you have a good idea?
And here is, btw, where I found most of my inspiration.
10 Tuesday Apr 2012
The last few weeks it seems like the entire country has been bathed in sunshine. Spring is here and the temperature is slowly rising. Some days, however, the sun comes as a surprise on the landscape that has for so long been lingering in the cold, and as protection the sea rolls in with a heavy veil of fog. The fog covers the long fjords and rises up around the cold water, creating an air of mystery and tranquility. 
I took these photos on my way to visit my parents. The ferry across the fjord was the perfect time to get out of the car and capture the white surroundings.
08 Wednesday Feb 2012
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Geocaching, which I talked about here, gave me a good excuse to discover new and exciting places last time we visited my in-laws. But it became a lot more fun as soon as I had convinced them all that this was a fun hobby. One of days we took out, there were six of us: Husband, Son, Uncle T3 (there are three uncle Ts, this is the youngest), Granny, Grandpa and me. And Rambo the dog (a small papillon who lives up to his name only when encountering small birds).
We had two posts we wanted to find. We drove for a few minuted and then found a small, gravel road to take us up into the forrest. The first post was found quickly, we practically ran up. The road led us to its vicinity, and the post was located only a few metres off the road. The second however, was not connected to any of the paths we could find. It was getting cold, we had two arguing about which way to go (arguing for exact opposite directions). We knew in which direction the post was, but we were faced with two paths, non going in the direction of the post.
So we stopped. Made a fire. And watched the sun set in-between the trees. And if we hadn’t already reached perfection: we now have to set out for the second post some other time, which means another splendid day out in the wild.
18 Wednesday Jan 2012
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At one time I found myself walking arm in arm with my mother in law, both giggling, with Husband walking in front of us swearing and mumbling. Apparently we perceived the situation a little differently as we walked through a small forest in complete darkness, following a small arrow and a blinking dot on my iPhone…
Another time, this time out at dusk, we parked the car in the outskirts of a forest, walked a few hundred metres and found ourselves at the edge of a small stone circle (think stonehenge en miniature)…
I giggled as I climbed a set of stairs leading up to a church and the connected graveyard. Husband and my youngest brother-in-law accompanied me on our quest to find a memorial bust containing some inscribed dates which would give us a hint about where to go next…
A treasure hunt by the sea coincides with a beautiful sunset
As if I don’t have enough thoughts spinning in that poor little head of mine, I have also taken on a new hobby. Actually, it’s not ‘my’ hobby, I’ve forced it upon both Husband and Son too (and my in-laws and soon my parents, but that’s a different story). Son knows it simply as treasure hunting. Husband has dug out the competitor in him and is hooked. And I love every aspect of it. This activity gets us out of the house more, shows us new places, often amazing places, and every now and again it requires a wee bit of brainwork. You’ve probably heard of it already, it’s called geocaching.
Anyhow, I’ll try to explain it simply: there’s an online community of cachers (who refer to non-cachers as muggles). Cachers hunt caches and place caches. A cache is a small container varying in size from a little less than a sugar cube, to a small bath-tup, but are mostly the size of a smallish lunch-box. A cache is hidden somewhere, often in a location of some importance to the cacher who hid it, and made available for other cachers to find. The location of the cache is given as gps coordinates so the cache can be found by using a gps (or a phone with gps). All caches contain a log book which is signed by finders. After finding a cache you also log your visit online. The website then keeps track of all the caches you’ve found.
A rather compelling cache hid well from the passing muggles
We found our first caches in the neighbourhood. A wee stroll after picking up Son from kindergarten, a few minutes of searching under bushes and in the cracks of the mountain resulted in a few smilies (found caches are registered as smiling faces on a map). Son is ecstatic when he finds a treasure (a pirate scimitar is now an obligatory item for all treasure hunts) and often there are small items to trade with so he gets to bring home a prize. Boy do I have a lot of places to show you! More to come 🙂
20 Tuesday Dec 2011
The first snowfall in the city happened while I was in a different city. A few centimetres of snow fell while I was in London and was already gone by the time I came home a day later. I thus missed it… But the weather gods understood my frustration and have now gently bestowed upon us a few centimetres of snow. The snow appeared from dark skies that have been looming over our house for hours and came falling down before it was too late collect photographic evidence!
09 Friday Dec 2011
No, I haven’t picked up on British slang, so I’m not talking about the girls in London. Son was ill last week and had to stay home from kindergarten. Trying to be a good parent I also kept him home for a day after he was fever-free, which of course meant dealing with a two-year-old who’s bouncing off the walls. So we made bird-food.
Making bird food is very easy. It might not be cheaper than getting it at the supermarket, nor is it any easier. But it does give that fulfilling feeling of having done something good for someone. Son is also very happy seeing the bird feed off the food that he had made (almost) all by himself, cause it is indeed very easy to do.
We melted a block of coconut fat, added nuts, rolled oats, and dried fruits. We took two small sticks, bound them together to form an x, and tied a string to the x. The x was places in the bottom of a plastic cup (the cup is likely not to survive,
so don’t use something you care about) with the string hanging out. The goo was then poured into plastic cups and left somewhere cold over night.
I assume that heating the cup slightly will cause the the bird food to let go and come loose, but I didn’t bother with that and instead peeled the cup off. The string is then used to tie the food to branches in a tree or somewhere similar. Quite pretty and also very good for the wee birdies.
14 Monday Nov 2011
The surface of the ocean resembled that of a mirror: reflecting, still, cold, and clear. I could only see a few metres out as a thick, white, veil appeared to have engulfed the entire world. Driving to work happened inside a small bubble that allowed life, vision, and colour. The bubble was only a few metres and diameter with restrained by deep, white walls. Occasionally grey, ghostlike figures drifted in and out of nothingness, giving all signs of life a spectral touch.
I climbed up the hill toward work. The beautiful view that awaits me every morning was gone. To ease my disappointment the sun rose as I reached the top. A gleaming white disk hung in the sky behind a tall tower. The disk seemed to embed none of the characteristics or qualities of the sun, but created a stunning image on the blank canvas in front of me.
The fog stayed for two days, left on the third day only to allow my husband to return home from work before it came back later that day and stayed for another day.
Anne blabbers 
