sunday reflections

Sometimes the heart and mind are so full of ideas, thoughts, feelings that it's quite a labour to simply sort them out and see the goals. When that happens (as it often does) I believe it's a good idea to take a step back or at least stop and reflect for a while. Before you write down the next steps and move on.



It is also a good idea to bake. While sorting your thoughts out. Today I made a coconut cake with chocolate truffle. Which was quite a feast. For both the eye and palate. I've decided to only use the kind eggs for baked goodies alone, cooking with eggs isn't my cup of tea anyway. I'm looking forward to filling the freezer with delicious things.

I do not take those eggs for granted and I have no idea when I will be able to get some again, so I think it's important to make really lovely and memorable things with them (and I'll try my very best not to bake for the birds again).

Three selected good things that happened this weekend;

* I finished the eternity shawl - anti-climactic of sorts, not really sure what project to continue with now. Perhaps simply finish that tulip sweater, hrm, yes it's been three years since I blogged about it...

* Saturday was a gloriously sunny day - one thing I've really come to treasure, actually realizing it only these past few years, with living on these latitudes is the way people start acting so very differently when spring arrives. A certain buzz in the air comes with the sun and higher temperatures, of easygoingness, friendliness and harmless flirtation. And perhaps gratitude for being able to put the long darks months behind us finally.

* I lost a mitten at a seminar I attended a month ago. It was a really good mitten. For various reasons I haven't been able to go look for it until now. And now it is back in my possession. The pink mittens have been reunited and they seem utterly grateful for it. As am I.

Do you have three selected good things
that happened during your weekend?
If so, care to share?

candle in the snow

Spent a portion of the day at one of my favourite places in the whole wide world, Skogskyrkogården - The Woodland cemetery, Unesco World Heritage site - lit a candle for Little Loaf lost, and for all other loved and lost over the years. It was a sweet and utterly sad moment. Few places are better places to be when you feel like that though. I'm glad we went there, even if it was cold, windy and filled with sorrow.







The day also held lots and lots of walking, a lovely lunch - any meal with halloumi is - good soy latte and many errands.

If it wasn't for the fact that upon getting home and not having the usual overwhelmingly hearty welcome by a little dog I wept like crazy it would have been a really rather fine day. I suspect many many days for a long long time will be rounded off with tears when I get home not being greeted with a wagging banana tail.

thursday notes

Three things today:

~ meeting went well, as far as the the new administrator being a mild and simpatico guy wanting to help. Thinking my idea for a business was a great one, unfortunately, the current political system - with its very much a not so hidden, but completely appalling, agenda being to create a general, slow long-term salary-cut for average to lower income groups - "prohibits" the administrators to give the financial help/for-a-while-only benefits during the startup for someone in my situation. I knew that was most probably the case beforehand, so no surprise there, sadly.

Well, be as that financially may, it felt nice to still be firm about not wanting to remain in a pindown system that causes only misery and pain. By the end of next week I have to let him know what I will do from then on, I have no choice, there's only one answer. But I'll take the week as a chance to gather more information and inputs, from people as well as a business fair I'm going to on Tuesday.

Moving on. Moving up.

~ After the meeting we went for a stroll at one of my favourite places on earth, Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery), the beautiful, soul soothing Unesco World Heritage Site in the southern outskirts of Stockholm. We enjoyed such a fantastic Indian summer day today, some +20 degrees C and mild breezes, it was some hours well spent in a perfect, just perfect way (even if feet were incredibly tired and we missed lunch-time at the nearby bakery with five minutes...).

~ When I came home I finished a project I've been thinking about for so long, but didn't begin with until earlier this week and yes finished today already. Well beyond chuffed am I, but I will not divulge any details until I have a copy of my own in my hand to evaluate in a couple of weeks. If it looks as good as it does on screen I will be proud to show and tell.

Until then I will simply heart the fact that I went so quickly from start to finish, for a longtime planned project. That really is something to rejoice all in its very own. Heart.

the woodland cemetery loaf

Meet the coffin loaf. If not by name, though certainly by looks. Its proper name is Skogskyrkslimpa - let's practise Swedish, skog = woods, kyrka = church, limpa = loaf, hence this is one piece of Wood church loaf - and it can only be found and bought at that charming little bakery-café Bakgården, nearby the always-worth-a-visit Woodland Cemetery.

It's sourdough bread with anise and cumin and to be honest I didn't find its flavour or texture all that appealing at closer inspection. The bakery have so many other great breads (like lingonberry bread, apricot bread and ciabattas) so this one coffin bread was just a one time thing for me. I can still appreciate the quirky idea of it (I most always appreciate quirky ideas, if you hadn't guessed that by now...), even if my taste buds didn't quite approve of this particular quirky flavour.

Eating Out - Bakgården

As I have mentioned this place for food a few times before, I won't write a whole lot more than you can read about it here. I will however say that I have enjoyed some of their lunches a few times since that post and especially the Greek salad has been just lovely.

And the service is always friendly, the staff seem so content and happy about their workplace (lots of laughing). Which always a huge and contagious plus in my book of mental notes.

It remains a tiny, tucked away place, which definitely is part of its charm, but I can't wait to try their more generous outdoor seating area when the weather gets more accommodating for that. Various personalities as customers, many well worth (discreet) observing and a dash of analyzing. Most memorable so far the woman who apparently pop by regularly to buy sandwiches and cakes to go but manages to gulp down a fair amount of coffee and pastries without paying while waiting.

Situated one underground station or - more appropriate if you're planning to stuff your face completely - a decent walk from Gamla Enskede Bageri, you might want to take them both in on one visit in the neighbourhood. Yes, the bread do freeze well.

Bageri Bakgården (Enskede Bakgård),
Sockenvägen 477, Enskede
- across the road, awry from the always
more than well worth a visit Woodland Cemetery

Nearly Wordless Friday

Today I'm just going to share some photos from one of my favourite places in Stockholm - some might remember the post and the pictures posted about a year ago - the Woodland cemetery (Skogskyrkogården). I must make a note of actually visit this extraordinary place when the weather and light conditions are better - I always seem to end up there late Autumn... More pictures to be found, as usual, in my Flickr Album

WCB # 107 - Catfluences

A very regal looking lionsculpture in Kungsträdgården (King's Garden), Stockholm. Very nicely chiseled, almost a bit scary in looks...

This weekend's catblogging is not going to be about my cats in particular, but about cats in general, making pawprints all over.

These past few years it's been sort of a very small hobby of mine to discover, document and now and then acknowledge these catfluence everywhere. In the public realm as well as the more private. Quite the fun thing to do, it really open your eyes for all the interesting an exquisitive details that can be found everywhere.

A small lion as a waterhose device, Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery), Stockholm.

A lioness showing off her good side in Bredäng, suburb to Stockholm.

A different kind of mousetrap can be found on a backstreet of Stockholm. Love the looks of those sculptures!

This cat part of the giant puzzle has adorned the subway station of Bredäng ever since I was a child. Cute!

Another cat and mouse play, Resarö Marina, some miles north of Stockholm.

In Stockholm we even have one of the oldest blocks of houses in the city being named after cats - like the Cat Alley, the Cat Tail Alley, the Catfoot Smaller, the Catback, the Grimalkin Bigger, etc etc. Quite a charming area with a very special ambiance to it. Of course.

Have you ever thought about how often different cat-beings appear and most often show great posture and even stand guard in townscapes all over the world? And how very different in looks and personality they seem to be?

This impressive lion having a bit of a laze at Strömbron in Stockholm, keeping an eye on the world passing by the Parliament building and the Royal Palace.

This fierce looking lion guards a lamp-post at the diplomat-block in Oslo, Norway.

This uppish looking one can be found in Copenhagen, Denmark. Beautiful!

Sometimes they act like waterpipes, like this one at Mälsåker Castle, Sweden.

Sometimes they've been guarding the city gates for centuries and gotten really dirty, Lübeck, Germany.

They keep us mere mortals safe from harm when killing deadly snakes, like outside Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark.

And they sure know how to make an everlasting impression! These sets of pawprints I found at the open air lapa in Schotia game reserve, ZA.

So why not have a look around for catfluences in the city/village-scape the next time you're out and about? I bet you'll find them where one might least expect them!

Of course it's pretty crucial to have comfy footwear while scouting for catfluences - like one of my favourite twin ones from Camper, Cats & Dogs. How appropriate!

This week's WCB is kindly hosted by Scamperdude - see you there!

Skogskyrkogården, the pictures

So here they are, the pictures of the fascinating place called the Woodland cemetery I wrote about yesterday.

When the pictures didn't feel like being uploaded. Today they're obviously in a better mood...

Skogskyrkogården

The Woodland cemetery (Skogskyrkogården) is one of Sweden's places that's inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. And no wonder, it's an absolutely stunningly beautiful and very special place situated just on the southern outskirts of Stockholm.

Well worth a visit all year around. And if you have the opportunity to go on a guided tour, please do, since it's the chance to see what lies behind the architectural greatness and also how the different chapels - there are five of them - looks like inside.

In the beginning of the 1900s it became obvious that Stockholm needed a new burial ground. An international architect competition was initiated to ensure the harmony and dignity of the buildings and landscape of that new cemetery. The winners of the competition was two talented Swedish architects, Erik Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz.

The cemetery and the first chapel was completed in 1920. The chapel was named the Woodland chapel and it's roof is adorned with Carl Milles ' sculpture "The Angel of death" (pic above) - this area and the chapel actually makes me feel really uncomfortable and somewhat unsafe. The atmosphere there is for some reason not at all pleasant...

The second chapel, the Chapel of resurrection (pic above) was opened in 1925. It's situated in the end of the beautiful, atmospheric Path of Seven Wells (pic above). A walk that basically takes you from one end of this larger than large cemetery to the other.

The largest chapel, and the one that's most wellknown I suppose - and in my opinion the least appealing -, is in fact three chapels (and a crematorium). They go by the names Chapel of Faith, of Hope and of the Holy cross.

The wall that surrounds the cemetery was built by unemployed people of Stockholm between the years of 1923 to 1932. It's 4600 metres long (compared to the Vatican state's wall that's 3200 metres long).

Greta Garbo, the world famous Swedish actress, is since a few years buried at Skogskyrkogården.

In 1994 - better late than never... - the Woodland cemetery was inscribed to the above mentioned list. Some of the motivation being "... an outstandingly successful example of a designed cultural landscape which blend... natural vegetation with architectural features to create a landscape that is ideally suited to its purpose... The creation... established a new form of cemetery that has exerted a profound influence... all over the world."

So if you happen to have an errand or two to Stockholm, please don't miss this extraordinary experience that goes by the name of Skogskyrkogården!