blissful garden

Spent some hours in one of my favourite gardens, Växplats Nybyn. The place where we always go flower picking on the last shivering days of summer. Where kindness and tranquility rules. Where the coffee and tea, sandwiches and cakes are vegetarian or vegan only, organic and fairtrade. Where there is only goodness for the mind and soul. And delightfulness and bliss for the eye.

Join me ~

national day sweden

It was oh so long ago that Sweden as a country was something worth celebrating (sorry to crush your conceptions here), with a heartbreaking dismantling of the once grand welfare system, the education system, with a government trying its very best to polarize the country, where the rich get richer and the poor poorer, where the environmental, gender, animal welfare, integration issues are blatantly ignored or misdirected - Sweden is a country that has lost its compass, direction and heart.

Of course there are fantastic, caring, intelligent, compassionate people adressing this in different ways and levels, unfortunately, so far to not much factual avail.

Once upon a time I was proud to be Swedish, living in Sweden, today I would go as far as to say Sweden is one of the least bad countries to live in. And yes, I know, it seems like the whole world is crumbling somehow, I know many people all over the world feel jaded about the way of the world, its not a Swedish thing per se. But on a day like a national day, it is a Swedish issue.

But, as I am currently in a happy place, yes I am, I'm also adamantly discarding these feelings, lifting my spoon, taking a bite of the Swedish cream pastry and saying;

Any excuse for a pastry is a good excuse!

sweden's national day

I used to find it quite appalling that our national day wasn't a public holiday, today when it actually is a public holiday I find oh so many other things in life, in Sweden so much more appalling, worthy of their own day.

Perhaps we should call today, June 6, like proposed last year The Swedish Bobbaloo Settlement's Day instead? I don't see any blue-yellow pastries today, but I'm sure we'll do something nice during it. Simply a public holiday, national day or not, well spent.

on june 6th 2011

As mentioned before, today is Sweden's national day (nationaldag). A day which I personally can't see any point in celebrating these days. Since, to semi-quote Shakespeare, there are too many things rotten in the state of Sweden. Sadly.

Even though, of course, we can be grateful for having escaped wars, dictators, starvation in modern times. But with a country having avoided just those of humanity's torments one would think that country should have made better use of those blessings. Instead it's as willing as any country to throw away so many resources, misspend finances, praise and give to the ones that already have while mistreating the lesser fortunate, devastate nature and abuse animals. With not the least bit self-perception or -criticism. Most every day is a reminder of so much potential lost. So for those reasons I feel it's quite pointless to celebrate any Swedishness.

But for an extra day off I was happy. A day that turned out to be a gloriously sunny one, tad too hot perhaps (will not whine, will not whine), managed to get some weeding and gardening done followed by cream pastries. Swedish flag cream pastries. Like Princess cakes, but with the marzipan topping in flag shape instead. They were lovely.

The bobbaloos thought it was an excellent day to celebrate their Swedish settlement - and who am I to say no to 13 adorable wee bobs? So they feasted, they partied and seemed pretty pleased with this day, June 6. Which from now on quite possibly will be celebrated as The Swedish Bobbaloo Settlement's Day instead of some silly National Day. Now that is something that's truly smiley-happy celebrate-worthy as far as I'm concerned.

Hooray ~

shaved with cake

The National Day was spent in a lovely lazy way which involved the summer shave of Little Loaf - which he wasn't particularly happy about but stoically endured - painting of chairs (more of which later), pottering in sunny, hot garden, writing, crocheting (oh so much more later) and baking cake. All those little details that together make for a pretty darn perfect day as far as I'm concerned.

As non-happy as Little Loaf was with the actual shaving, as super-pleased he was with post-shave treat - greenie bone. The only drawback being it was far too tiny a bone for all that unpleasant time of shaving. Strangely enough the bones are always too tiny. Why is that?

Smelled so good, chewed so well. And then it was gone, all gone.

Shavers promised I would feel less warm and bothered properly shaved for the season. Not sure about that. I would have thought there would be more treats and cuddles followed with such unpleasantness. One greenie only and some licking of plates. Life's terribly unfair for little loafs.

Interested in seeing previous seasonal poor-me-shavings have a look here -
autumn 2005 - spring 2007 - spring 2008 - spring 2009 - autumn 2009

The cake we enjoyed in the afternoon was first attempt on making a classic Swedish meringuey cream cake called "Budapestrulle" (Budapest roll). Traditionally filled with mandarines I went with raspberries instead. It was de-lovely and nutty. Quite the perfect round-off to a rather fine weekend ~

national day sweden ~

June 6, Sweden's National Day -

have a lovely one celebrating the,

despite many things not so fine,

beauty around you in this

blue and yellow country

called ours ~

swedish national day cream pastry sampling

Not a single heavenly meringue in sight on Sweden's national day (June 6), these Swedish flag inspired cream pastries were pretty much the only festive thing about this weatherwise gloomy, cold, rainy day.

Above behold the dog attempt on sampling, below the not quite so discrete cat attempt (for some odd reason there's pretty much always a liquorice cat involved in such attempts).

Both pastries remained unharmed and ended up in human tummies. They were unpretentiously lovely. That is, the pastries.

meringue heaven

Probably my least favourite sweets, desserts, pastries are things involving meringue. Far, far too sugary sweet, powdery, often with a very unpleasant tang of egg white, not to mention hardly ever as delightfully sticky as one expects and wants. While a well made lemon pie is lovely, a lemon meringue pie (or any other poor pie covered in meringue) is, in my opinion, an abomination.

Having said that, I must admit that I recently by accident - and no not in a long term quest for the perfect meringue, I've long ago given up on meringue and me being something compatible - stumbled over what can quite possibly be considered the world's best meringue. Namely the ginormous meringue, from bakery/café Schelins konditori situated in small town Sala (an hour's drive or so north of Stockholm).

I do love the look of over sized flavoured meringues and as the ones on display at this café looked splendid and perfect for my mother's sweet tooth - not as discerning as her daughter's - we opted for one pear meringue to take home as a treat for her.

As a sweet and caring mother she said I could have a sample, that it was quite lovely in pear flavour and unusually sticky. And, well, let's just say that was kind of an understatement... It was not only pretty cute, it was quite heavenly in bite. A distinct but still subtle pear flavour, reasonably sweet for a meringue, no egg whitey tang and a toffee stickiness that was... divine.

When we passed Sala some weeks later we popped by the bakery and bought two other meringues, one lemon, one raspberry. Both equally goody good as the pear one. Now I'm quite, quite glad we don't live close to a bakery with such meringues, because one might easily get addicted to their sticky sweet loveliness. A loveliness that hasn't at all turned me into a meringue lover. I'm just pleased to say I've found a hidden gem, I've discovered meringue heaven.

~ Oh, and Happy National Day ~

~ Happy National Day, Scotland ~

~ Happy National Day! ~

June 6th, Sweden's National Day - I hope everyone is having a good one!

Secret, gooey chocolate cake

For National Day dessert yesterday - and well today, since it's not a sweet that keeps well for too long...*promise* - we had one of my favourite sticky chocolate cakes.

Or rather very gooey, runny chocolate cake. As you can see from the pic it doesn't just melt in your mouth, it is sort melted well before it hits your tongue.

It's very simple to make, probably not very healthy - if you don't count the wellbeing of the soul and mind when it's treated to something really palatable with chocolate as the main ingredient as healthy - and it even has a bit of a history behind it.

The recipe - a very secret one, that travels from mouth-to-mouth and is shared only under very special circumstances... - I got from a dear friend of mine, or at least she was that once. For some years in high-school we had great fun, but then lost contact.

She and I, and sometimes a few more of us, used to have these informal tea-parties. Where we enjoyed tea and scones and discussed important things in life. Sometimes she did make this wonderful chocolate cake as the finishing touch. And one day decided to share the recipe with me.

Ever since then I've made this cake for desserts and for special occasions now and then. It is very rich and too much can leave you feeling pretty wambly. But yes, the right amount of this gooey, runny chocolate cake is simply heavenly.

Perhaps more enjoying a day off work than really celebrating the National Day in a hoity-toity kind of way, but still I think the day most certainly deserved a proper round off. And what could then be better than a heavenly dessert? Served of course with whipped cream and a complimentary Swedish flag on top.

The Toy Car vs A Good Hair Day

Today was certainly the perfect day to inaugurate The Toy Car for the season. Usually we do that in late April/early May - but due to someone losing his appendix at that time all this was a bit delayed. But today was at last The Day!

Yes I do remember, I did give M a bit of a hassle some years ago when he felt it positively necessary to get a cab, and not any cab but The Cab a k a The Toy Car. I thought it was quite hideous at first, and I really couldn't understand why one had to be seated so "below" groundlevel and what on earth is the point of driving top-less - the car not the driver or passenger...

And come to think of it, guess how many handbags one could buy for that kind of money? Maybe no more than a few Birkin bags, but still, more than one ugly little Toy Car...

But guess what, after having had the opportunity to enjoying - yes, that is the word! - some outings in the Toy Car I've fallen in love with the little-not-so-ugly-anymore-but-rather-cute-one. And I dare say, so has Elvira - the handbag - she had her first ride today and was absolutely thrilled! As you can see by the way she sort of leaning against caressing the Toy Car in the pic...

I so cherish the cab-drives which leaves me both textually and figuratively blown away, inside out. All my problems are gone, if just for then, they're still out of sight out of mind. To be able to experience nature so close at hand without walking or biking is truly wonderful.

All the whiffs of life, grass, wet soil, flowers, hay, fumes, rain, sun, rapeseed-fields, wind, yes even manure and catpee are smells that become aromas of life once in the cab. I feel so complete and utterly alive and free - and I treasure every bit of life, of nature, of sky, of earth, of wind beside the road. Being here, being now. Living in the moment.

But there is one thing, one really irritating thing with the Toy Car, well with every cab really - the lack of being able to present oneself with a good hairdo when getting out of the car and back into reality.

I've tried being cool and sophisticated like Audrey Hepburn with a silk scarf wrapped around my hair - either it didn't stay on or the hair was a complete scarf-head mess when unwrapped.

So I just let the hair run as free as I feel - unfortunately I always end up looking like Bridget Jones with the hair in a big hay-cock or as if I've been immersed in a bowl of butter. Getting my very own kind of natural hair wax. Either way, the glamour-factor equals zero. But really, who cares? Life's just too short to be all bothered about keeping up good-hairdo-appearance when one gets the chance to have a blown-away-drive with the Toy Car!

Thou Ancient, Thou Free

Today it's the 6th of June, Sweden's National Day. It was made into a public holiday as late as 2005, but it has of course been celebrated in more or less modest ways before that. The day is celebrated in memory of Gustav Vasa becoming a king in 1523, which ended the Kalmar Union - when Sweden was ruled by the Danish king - and thus "founded" the new Sweden.

If you want to read more about Sweden and its history, you'll find it here.

Yes there are many things that can and should be improved in Sweden - both politically and otherwise, or well I suppose one could way that everything in life is politics in one way or the other... - but all in all and certainly by comparison worldwide, it's a fantastic country in many, many ways! And yes I'm in general proud to be Swedish!

Even if I don't shout it from the rooftops, or waver the flag too often and certainly bellyache about what's wrong in the parliamentary kingdom of Sweden on a regular basis - but hey, it's a democracy! So feel free to speak and write and try to make a difference.

Here are some ways you can celebrate the National Day in Stockholm -

and here comes a picture-cavalcade with some glimpses of what makes Sweden a grand country - Happy National Day!!! -