Sunworshipers

The sun on offer this morning was apparently of the perfect kind, or so thought both cat and dog. Oh, life must indeed be good having that kind of lodgers with such faces attached to those huggable bodies!

Someone obviously also thought earth offered a rather zestful scent this sunny morning...

On Windowboxes And Such

My windowbox pansies of spring season have seen way better days. Pretty soon I think I'll have to exchange them for something flowery new. What usually thrive here is petunias, but I'm thinking of going out on a crazy limb chosing something quite different.

I saw these windowboxes at a backstreet in the city the other week, despite being in shades of purple I thought they looked kind of adorable. Maybe these - if not exactly the ones in those boxes... - should be my new flowery companions in the windowboxes on the streetside of the house?

Do you have windowboxes? If so, what flowers, plants and colours do you prefer to have in them? Any wild suggestions as to what undersigned should try?

I'm On Etsy Too

Since I'd heard so much good about Etsy - a place apparently being the web home away from home to an overwhelming amount of craft talent, hence also being dangerously addictive... -, I thought I would have a little go at it myself.

So. I've just uploaded a few pieces - so for all you non-Swedish speaking people out there, who have eagerly awaited my website getting it's English section (yeah right) -, I suggest you have a look here. Any questions, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail.

And I do think the Etsy-badge that will get you right ----->
to my shop is kind of neat too. Widgety neat indeed.

Tuesday Boy & Rose

Strangely enough there's always room for that special face - this time it's shown simply because there's a new rose in the flowerbed. A rather gorgeous one, we all think. And since we believe in sharing, when it's possible and the decent thing to do, enjoy -

Ladybug, Ladybug

Last week I went with bright & beautiful in the flora of life, this week I'll kickstart with a teensy-weensy version in the fauna realm. So wee, so perfect, so lovely. Ladybug and leaf.

Horse & Hound

A good city always offer its long-term inhabitants something pleasantly unexpected now and then. As far as Stockholm goes, I find it rather entertaining that there are loaf-doggie shaped horses to be found in the middle of the city, at a vast field, that green lung that's a part of the city district of Gärdet (The Field). And then, just a few minutes by commuter train, north of the city, you can find the real deal, the original loaf-doggie extraordinaire. Now that's what I call best of both worlds!

Life Is Like A Bowl Of Cherries

(... if you're not a chocaholic). And now, instead of writing something incredibly clever here, I'll just let that food for thought settle, all comfortable and snug, for personal use only.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Of What Could Have Been

Once again Midsummer's Eve, one of those much hyped public holidays in Sweden - but still, I hope you're having a good, happy summery one under the amazing Scandinavian night sky that never gets completely dark this time of year.

Myself I'm probably going to brood a bit (too much) about an issue - that had a whole lot of potential of becoming a more than really decent job - that I had invested a whole lot of time, energy, effort, work into. I had every right to have really high hopes for this, the position was practically invented just for me, the long interview went great, the ambiance felt very positive, my gut feeling as well as all those little signs all pointed in one direction.

And then they didn't even have the darn common decency to make a personal phone call to tell me "sorry but..." - instead I got a default e-mail. I feel insulted, angry, disappointed, mopish, and there's not a thing I can do about the immense burning question "why" for a whole extended weekend. So, personally, I'm going to have a non-happy Mopesummer. Add melancholic dream of what could have been.

On Stage - FJK

FJK is a Swedish musicgroup within the singer-songwriter tradition. The group consists of three musicians - guitar, contrabass, accordion, harmonica - and was formed in the early 1980ies. Those were pretty much the days with only two - just imagine that... - TV-channels in Sweden, and if I'm not completely mistaken I heard/saw FJK on one of those hopelessy nerdy TV- or radioshows back then. Or maybe it was my parents who used to enjoy their music on LPs. My memory is slightly hazy when it comes to as exactly how I discovered this little unpretentious gem of a group.

Nevermind. What I'm not the least bit hazy about, is that the early 80ies was the time of my early teens, and as we all know, that can be a rather impressionable age. And with a slight bashful blush I have to admit I kind of fell in major crush with one of those musical guys. Since it probably was a bit goofy to listen to that kind of music back then, even if it was just a tiny part of my music taste, that crush was never shared with friends. And no, I won't blog share exactly which guy it was either.

The group officially split up in 1996, they each moved on to respective solo careers, but ever since they have reunited as a group several times for different kinds of concerts and performances - playscheme here

I've caught a few of their performances over the years and they've all been quite unpretentiously lovely, with geeky interludes of in-jokes and great acoustic music. The latest one was a few months back, when their concert was just about the only balm on that completely Murphy Lawish day...

Some of their really classic pieces are written as wonderful, heartfelt hommages to Stockholm. Overall, one thing - apart from that crush thingie - that probably drew me to their music all those years ago, is that their lyrics are very well-written. And when they don't sing their own material they always chose those lovely, lovely oldish chansons that strike a certain cord inside.

And what about that teenage crush then, when did that subside? Well, to be quite honest it never really did subside completely. Which, for me, is somewhat odd. And whenever I see or hear him perform I still get these semi-fluttering butterflyic feelings inside. Ah, I guess some crushes never go out of fashion, 1980ies or not.

Purple & Friends

As much as it goes against the grains for me, I suppose one has to acknowledge that yes, even purple can be comprised into the bright & beautiful category - hence, I proudly present Purple & Friends -