My Pocket

going down mountains

We were in Åre, a skiing resort in the mountains bordering to Norway, an 8 hour car ride from our home town. I've been skiing since I was 8 years old, my brothers since even younger. We all still have our falls and I had mine in the slope above. I knew already when I took the picture that I would not be going down this one again - it was no pleasure, all icy and steep. I can get down most slopes, gracefully is another issue. :p

Beautiful light up there though. The flats at the bottom of the valley is the frozen river flowing through.

Love my brother's goggles. That's all you'll see of me on skis, ha! :) The benefits of being behind the camera.

My brothers cooking together in the tiny cabin kitchen.

Now that's my kind of slope. I love cruising along moderately steep strips, going all over the shop from one side to the other. My youngest brother and I had most fun going off into the woods though, maneuvering small paths between and under the pinetrees.

Thanks for reading this and I hope you all enjoyed your holidays. Wishing you sunlight and a clear view towards brighter days and warmer breezes.

Sunday walk on Långnäs

Having the mailboxes of several houses in one place is common in the countryside. I liked the frosted colours together with the dark Falu red that is so common on the classic Swedish wooden houses.

This was the spot to get icicles when we were kids.

We were on the way home to pick up the third missing brother who is studying in Shanghai and has lived there for six months now.

No scooting on the ice for you miss, not with that camera. Aaw...

This is not the usual way home, it was a (steep) shortcut. We went for this walk a couple of days before Christmas but I've set it to post now. To give you something to see while I'm away up north. :)

Stockholm the city of water

I visited the only childhood friend I still regularly meet and talk to last Saturday, he makes me laugh and I never have to doubt we are friends. We have a tradition together - every Christmas we go for a walk in one of the days leading up to Christmas Eve. Both of us used to be with our parents in our hometown around then and would go across the bridge to the island you saw across the bay from my parents' house.

This year he was still in Stockholm where he lives so we walked along the water edge in the capital instead. I love how Stockholm is a city built on a collection of islands, connected to the vast archipelago further out, you're never far from the water. In our hometown it's the same - you get your sense of direction depending on whether you're moving towards the water, away from or alongside. Where I live now I miss it more than I realise until I go home and smell the air, watch the flickering sunlight on the waves or hear the lapping and the gulls.

He's got it good though - he lives in a highrise a block away from this view. In the summer he gets his towel and goes for a swim and a sun-bath on the smooth rocks. The water is really quite clean, you used to be able to drink it.

We walked along the water to the city centre, past this building that I loved the colour of.

This is my favourite photo though - those ferry boats go out into the archipelago in the summer. Sometime I will bring you on a proper tour of the Stockholm I know, which isn't the hip bars, fancy shops or historical buildings. It's the parks I've had my packed lunches in, the long streets with tiny bookshops and blocks to get lost in and the winding cobblestoned Old Town. :)

mist and snow

Britain has been showing a very characteristic face of autumn these last couple of weeks with grey hazy skies and misty valleys. I love the muted colours and peaceful air that this weather brings and it's so green still.

I like winter in England so I suppose I am not your typical Swede. I love snow with its slow, magical floating down to earth on a dark afternoon, the excitement of suddenly seeing the first snowfall from the window, the soft silence that envelops everything and muffling even the sound of cars, the crisp, clean and bright white of a morning walk or making a snow lantern as the light fades and it's time to go in and thaw your mittens. I love all that and I go home every christmas to get that feeling as well as going skiing.

However, where I grew up this lasts far from forever as it's too mild by the sea for the whiteness to remain. A lot of the time you trudge through streets of grey mush, pass hard and dirty piles of snow and get your shoes soaked by the slush. That's why I prefer it here, where it's mild, drier and greener. The ivy on the trees even gives you a feeling of still having green foliage in the woods.

We do have a sprinkling every now and then however, and I'll be one of the first to catch snowflakes on my tongue. D is the one to run around rolling snowmen though, since after all, being Swedish I can't show myself to get that excited over something as ordinary as snow. :)

Most of the time it looks like this however.

And I like that just as much.

room for washing

This be our bathroom. :o) I love the view out the open window in the mornings sitting in the bath tub. Am I the only odd girl sitting down for her shower? Surely there must be others too. I do it because I like it - it's warmer and less splashy. And because I can't stand shower curtains near me, don't like 'em.

The entire bathroom was covered in dark stain wood panelling when we moved in. Not much we could do about that so we just painted the walls white to keep it from looking like one big sauna. It turned out quite nicely, I think. I didn't do any cleaning or tidying for this photo session by the way. Oh, ok so I did do a bit, but not much. The strange blue tea pot on the cabinet is my neti pot, a vessel for pouring salt water through your nostrils in the morning, a yoga body cleansing thing. It's lovely, but I won't try to convince you.

The photo next to the sink is of my summer washing place on the island. It's just around the corner from my little cabin, on a shelf in the smooth rocks going into the water. I can stand there and keep my schampoo and conditioner bottles in little nooks above water while I wash in the water that's up above my knees. The water is clear and not very salty at all. When I need to rinse my hair I just dive in further out and swim underwater for a while. When I'm done I sit on a towel on the warm rock until I dry in the sunshine. My favourite shower ever.