the daring scandinavian photographer and the paw approval squad

As I was feeling better - still is, touch wood - I thought it was prudent to try and make the most of the measly amount of daylight us Northeners get this time of the year. Hence a photo session in garden was called for today. It was a gloomy day - which made the photographing unreasonably tricky, I couldn't believe how dark the camera adamantly told me it was at noon already. Darn, darn - and not only gloomy but windy, oh so windy. And the nasty winds made the reasonable temperatures of around +7 C drop. A lot. And the photo objects didn't want to cooperate.

And as I am notoriously everyday lazy (and proud of it!) when it comes to things like (not) putting on proper clothes when having my wee camera in garden sessions it soon became unbearably cold out there - picture the crazy snivelling, coughing, babbling to herself lady in a worn dressing gown with a magpie's nest on top (my sorry hair these ill days) and a camera in hand, that can just possibly me, the scarecrow on a mission - and yes, there was a short an unexpected moment of hail too.

So I totally blame the weather for not being all pleased with what I managed to capture with camera - because it can certainly not be the one behind the camera, oh no it can't - and I think there'll be a new try on a not so gloomy day (hopefully soon to come).

A few of the things captured was the incredibly sweet and personal package with letter I got from my gifted, multi talented swapping partner in the great letter writing swap. That most splendid of ideas and far, far from shabby see through is something that certainly calls for a grand post of its very own later, but for now - this post can be read as a tentative way back to writing after some horrible all revolving around a sore throat days, poor, poor bunny - I will give you a glimpse of one of those things that rarely disappoint in this residence situated at a place on the globe where autumns and winters are long, rather gloomy, cold and grim;



the ever trustworthy intervention of the paw approval squad ~

These teas with magical sounding names have travelled through forrests, over the ocean from Portland, Oregon to Stockholm, Sweden and I can't wait for the perfect moment to try them (I hope they blossom with milk?). Apart from bearer of magical names they certainly look good in autumn colours and gets the paw plus liquorice nose approval. I take that as a prosperous sign.

the spelt ~ wheat ~ feta ~ cheese bread

A while ago I wrote about a spelt-cheese bread that turned out so fabuously. The recipe (in Swedish) comes from an excellent little café book I bought on Åland. One recipe from each café, 20 of them. So far I've tried two of the recipes, both turned out lovely. As far as I'm concerned these two grand recipes in this nice, unpretentious wee book with fine photos makes the book well worth the purchase, even if the other 18 recipes turns out to be not so appealing.

Anyway. I did tweak the original recipe (seven ingredients);

:: since I like to substitute wheat flour with as much spelt flour as possible. You do need a whole lot more spelt than wheat flour to form a doable dough. A lot. It will be a runny mess otherwise. Keep those measure cups coming until the dough is light but firm.

:: I didn't have any feta cheese spread at home (not even sure it exists ready made in Sweden...?) so I used the 150-200 g ordinary feta I had and just crumbled it instead.

:: And grated some more vegetarian cheese.

spelt-wheat-feta-cheese bread

1 L water
50 g fresh yeast
1 tbs salt
700 g wheat flour - this I took less of
300 g spelt flour - this I took more of
250 g fetacheese spread - I took less + ordinary feta
2 dl grated cheese - I grated a bit more
ca 2 dl flour for the shaping

Mix the yeast with tepid water, add salt. Add the flour, little by little, let the machine work/stir constantly. The dough shouldn't be too firm, yet not too loose, when it doesn't stick to the bowl it's about ready to go to rise. And rise it will. A lot. So don't use your best towel or let the bowl stand in the mixer while rising... Leave to rise under towel for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the work surface with flour. Pour the dough onto the surface, it will be quite soft (at least if you've used a lot of spelt flour). Knead it, then use a roller to shape it into a larger rectangle. Spread the feta and the grated cheese evenly onto the dough. Fold one half of the dough over the other. Then cut 2-3 cm slices and twist them (I got about 10-12 baguette shaped breads). Place them on the baking sheet and leave to rise, uncovered, for 15 minutes. (After rising you might want to brush the bread a bit with water or sunflower oil before it goes into oven.)

Preheat the oven to 200°C, bake the breads for 20-25 minutes. Remove, let cool uncovered on a rack.

Still warm eaten with a dollop of butter this is heavenly. The bread freeze well and is perfect to thaw in the micro for an instant quick meal with some fresh veggies on top.
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Recipe from Pettas bakery & café on Åland. Very much worth a visit if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

the historian

"The Historian" by Elisabeth Kostova is one of those books I bought on a whim just because I loved the cover. That was well over two years ago. I do find that I often adore books I've bought for the cover almost only, this one was however sadly one of the exceptions.

The story promised an intellectual and unique take on the vampire/Dracula lore. And even if I granted had difficulties to sleep well and turn of the lights after reading it late at night my overall impression was of an ambitious story that was turned into a not very well written (or badly translated as I read it in Swedish) brick novel. The story told was just too long winding, what started out as an interesting, intelligent, strangely creepy Dracula story entrenched in ancient Eastern European history very soon turned into a rather simply written story, with far far too many words - words are lovely, but I also find that they should also be used discerningly and not for words sake in themselves. Less can truly be more -, jumping back and forth in time - which worked well for "The Time Traveller's Wife", but that's another story -

parallel stories with different narrators and travels all through post WWII Europe in search of answers of Dracula's true dwellings. I found all those travels back and forth, both in time as well as in Europe, rather tiresome and more of a bother than essential for the story. The characters, their features and behaviours were annoying and quite incomprehensible. To me.

Add some loose ends, tiresome side notes, a terribly anticlimactic and unimaginative ending, hey presto, clearly not a recommended read as far as I'm concerned. The only reason for me finishing this book - over a very long period of time - was pure stubbornness. Can't say that was a good choice. But still, all 600 plus pages are read. And for some reason that alone pleases me in some weird and word nerdy way.

november sunday grump with a few delights

I wish the month of November could find me in a better mood. I wish I could say hallo, welcome , so nice to meet you again. But alas I can not. As the beginning of a cold I thought I had on Friday turned out to be tonsilitis. Enter and sigh of enormous proportions. Having a sore throat is definitely my number one h a t e thing on the average flu-cold-scale of simple illnesses. With a normal cold you get to 'enjoy' the sore throat feeling for 1-3 days before it turns into sneezing, snivelling, fever and such. With tonsilitis the whole darn thing revolves around that same sore throat, and cough, for days and days and... Did I mention that I h a t e it?

Eating spicy food, toast, drinking tea and apple juice seems to help a bit. For a while. The rest of the time I'm feeling seriously grumpy and dwell in self-pity. Because having that surprisingly short cold some months back and having survived the tin can woman april I did hope and think there would be no more throat nastiness this side of new year's. How sadly wrong was I.

On the bright side - see, I am at least trying to be reasonably positive despite my unfortunate state - I'm glad I was able to go on that marvellous little get away - yes, one guessed on Gdansk, Poland and that was certainly it. The Place of Surprising Marvel. A place I will of course write a lot more about later. And show pictures. When in not so crabby mood - without feeling ill, that the birthday and the major part of October - after successfully finishing the course - was enjoyed illness-free with me in an overall rather pleasant mood. And with nature showing off its diversity and most gorgeous face in every colourful leaf.

When this weekend haven't been spent time in bed, reading, sleeping and feeling sorry for myself - poor, poor, bunny - there have been a disproportionate amount if time spent in front of the TV. Only good stuff watched of course. But even good stuff needs non idle hands so I have been knitting a lot. One shawl in this gorgeous rainbow wool yarn nearly finished (pictures of end result to come) ~

and couple of teal socks - one in black, obviously not my own idea of fun or usefulness, and one pair in the pretty mixed red yarn - have been undertaken. It's been ages since I knitted socks, I can't say I enjoyed it then, but now, apart from the needles being ridiculously thin and me finding the instructions initially sigh-worthy intricate, it is kind of fun. Lots of fun actually. At least when knitting in lovely colours. And imagining what to wear with them.

So instead of over-dwelling in self-sore-throat-pity I try to dwell in books and yarn delight. And with every purl I hope the tonsilitis will be on its way soon, soon, soon and if not I will have to go see Doctor Feist and get some magic medication. (And if it wasn't for the cost and me not liking the idea of medicating I would not hesitate to go see her, because she certainly has a benefitting and moodlifting manner.)

For now I will take comfort, as so often, in the magic of yarn. And tea. Add spicy food, a good book and something pleasant showed on TV.

three seasonal chocolates

~: This post will consist of only treats not a trick in sight :~

The Swedish (or at least it used to be) Marabou chocolate brand - with the lovely and award-winning sculpture park - is probably my favourite brand when it comes to the mass produced kind of chocolate.

When I was a child and my bestest friend and I had a treat it was most always a large bar of plain (nothing plain about it really) Marabou milk chocolate and big glasses of milk (which I for various reasons don't drink anymore, apart from in my tea).

The chocolate has a rather distinct taste, the smooth milk chocolate feels genuine and fresh and the flavour obviously contains a lot of happy memories too.

Apart from the 'plain' classic milk chocolate, Marabou's bars come in many different flavours. My overall favourite is the 'Schweizernöt' (Swiss nut), it's just a perfect mix of smooth milk choc and crunchy hazelnuts. And even if past summer's limited edition of strawberry chocolate was quite lovely, summery and came pretty close to the Swiss nut it didn't completely win me over, or rather it didn't beat the nutty delight.

For this winter season there are three new flavours, one being a limited edition called Vinter (yes, 'Winter' that is), a crunchy crocant version with spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, pepper, ginger and vanilla. It's really nice, flavourful and very Christmassy.

The other two are different chocolate cream bars - usually not my favourite, but as I take my Swedish blogger writing in English about Sweden duty seriously I of course had to have a little sample - called Sensation (don't know about that...). Toffee-walnut sounds rather nice, but I found the walnut didn't work too well with the toffee, bit too sweet for me and overall just uninteresting.

The Yoghurt raspberry version was quite lovely though, very raspberry - my definite favourite fruit-berry thing -, rather fresh and not too sweet. This one I can see myself enjoy in the future without feeling the seriousness, weight and duty of blog above.

happy halloweening ~

So much to write and share and show, but unfortunately I've managed to get another cold/flu/whatever thingy and this weekend (at least) will be spent in resting position for me. I had plans for a lot of pumpkin carving, cooking and baking, but alas that will have to wait and the only Halloweening for undersigned will be this rather wonderfully creepy, sad and beautiful Spanish ghost story called El Orfanato (the orphanage) on DVD.

Stay well, safe and have a lovely halloweening weekend ~

the spelling squad strikes again

In this world of too many careless or ignorant users of words with less skillful insights in spelling there is no such thing as a rest for the language - word - spelling squad, behold the latest find that would make any stickler for a proper spell check sigh in despair ~

Or maybe this is just a case of one vegetarian member of the spelling squad not knowing her burgers.

on coming home

Back home again I have to say the get away to a new neat place has been brilliant, I am totally smitten by the complete and surprising awesomeness of the city in question and its surroundings. Yes there's room for improvement in details, but I am all too willing to overlook those flaws because I had such a picture perfect, enthralling wee trip. Loved every bit of it. And hereby add a new favourite destination to my list of already favourite such places.

Before I share more details - and more photos - I thought it would be fun to see if anyone would like to take a wild (or not so wild) guess as to where this place of almost surreal picturesqueness, fairytailish architecture and understated gemness can be found.

Three clues to the city;

it has a historic Swedish connection,
say hey to the Hansa and
a fondness of cherries.
Now where can that be...?

This splendid place really showed the prettiest of autumn faces no matter weather - we had pouring rain, wind, clouds and blue skies - and time of day or night , the light was dash misty, soft and stunning - which sadly the multitude of photos taken don't quite do justice - and it just took my breath away. Cobblestones, intricately detailed architecture in almost every colour of the rainbow, it felt like an unlikely step in to a romantic movie set. And I'm not easily impressed like that.

Lest not forget all

the sweet happy birthday wishes

of the other day,

thank you ever so much,

truly well chuffed am I ~

happy birthday to me ~

Yes even if it was a long time since I relished the idea of getting another year older - still, the alternative does seem rather grim and unpleasant - this year I am not beating about the blog bush or hinting but fully admitting in blog that today of all October days is my birthday.

It will be celebrated with a nice little get away, to a for me completely new place of destination and I'm hoping it'll be as much fun as I have my heart set on it to be. I kind of think I totally deserve it.



So happy birthday to me -
and any other October 25th birthday fellow,
relish the fact that you're an autumnal being,
and treat yourself to a celebration
in style and splendid colours ~

happy united nations day ~

Growing up my dream occupation, goal in life was to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

It was only after I realised that my dream occupations as a 7 year old, engineer or ice-skating princess, was hilariously out of touch with any of my talents or reality, that I began nurturing this dream of playing an highly important role in international affairs and working hard making this one world of ours a better place. I faintly recall even writing a letter to the then Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar expressing my admiration for his work and telling him about my future goals. As far as I can remember I never did get a reply.

My goals and dreams of a diplomatic career ended in my late teens when I saw the rather, to say the least, ridiculous application form for a internship at the Swedish Foreign Offices. Instead I became a lawyer. A second place decision and change of objective in life I'm far from certain was a wise one in hindsight.

Even if sadly the United Nations organization has turned into a rather over sized, bureaucratic, edentulous apparatus - there is such a thing as too many, far too many vetoes - I still believe in the, at least, once aim of the United Nations, to do just what the name states, unite the world.

I am a firm believer in international cooperation - although sadly there seem to be too many, far too many, brainless as well as heartless (a discouraging combination) adversaries with whom neither rhyme nor diplomatic reason works - and the ultimate power of the word. Spoken as well as written.

Side note, being a firm believer in international cooperation and diplomacy far from equals being a friend of the in myriads of ways monstrosity called the European Union.

The brilliant, with their brain as well as heart in the right place diplomats that endlessly fight for rhyme and reason to prevail, the ones that balance the thin line of diplomacy yet at the same time not afraid of speaking their well-articulated mind, they are my heroes. Hail to them.

Therefor on this day, October 24th, I wish every well-deserving soul a

Happy United Nations Day, may this world of ours one day be a better place for all species to live in, peacefully co-exist, respect each other and thrive ~