Keeping warm

Alpaca slipover for niece. Warm pink like 80% magenta, 20% yellow - difficult to catch with the camera, at least for an amateur. I tried outside, but it didn't help. Anyway it goes well with the white winter.

Yarn: Drops alpaca (2922) - very soft.
Pattern: All you knit is love, Susie Haumann.

In a crack

Something disturbed the nutcracker..

Knitting mikado

New tools.

I have been looking for wooden double pointed needles for some time. 

These are a little rough to begin with, but knitting soon makes them smooth - and darker. (You can see which needles have all ready been used for a pair of fingerless mittens).

Organic wood, comes in 10, 15 and 20 cm lenghts - (mine 15 cm) - found here.

Glimpses of summer 2012..

We had a cold july followed by a warmer august - almost no mosquitoes (due to the cold?) - enjoyed the best strawberry harvest ever - saw family and friends - travelled north to Sogn and Telemark - saw a raven at close range - ate wafflers with cloudberries - celebrated a golden anniversary couple and some birthday people - took a few beach swims - had "some" ice cream - and made a late summer trip to Aarhus - (beside the usual household and everyday survival stuff).

So many good days to be grateful for.

- and then, at the end of summer the best thing happened, this tiny and very sweet niece arrived! ♥♥♥ 

Hidden in the darkness

It was around midnight, we were on our way home and in a sharp turn just south of our village the badger passed us. Maybe on her way to forage for food, meeting friends in the meadow nearby?

I know they are supposed to be here, but this meeting makes me think of them. Good to know someone is actually living a badger-life in the dark nights around here.

Badger of honor? Given for outstanding nightlife? ;O) Badger pillow looks soft,
and a famous badger - have been read to "bits-and-pieces" in this house.

The Mill and The Golden Grey

At the moment the old mill is being restored. The other day we saw thatchers on the roof and many more things are going on inside. I think they are done in a couple of months. (This photo is a before-picture).

In Denmark, as in most western countries, the large generation born around 1940 is getting old now. The marketing industry like to see them as "the grey gold" because they are believed to be strong byers.. well here you can see a perhaps more unnoticed reason for a golden nickname - so many of them are doing a full time volunteer job in many corners of society today.

Marie - the last Miller of Tadre - was indeed "a golden grey" of her time - as she fought to preserve Tadre Mill for the next generations. She made it possible by selling the Mill to the danish government for a much smaller amount than she could have achieved from other byers. Furthermore she used the money to make a Tadre-foundation (scroll down to the blue area to find english text).


The films linked in this post are made by Ole Malling, a maker of many fine productions for Danish Ministry of Environment, Danish Television a.o. Malling Film.

Indispensable things..

So, this Saturday it was time for a cozy plant market again. Sunny and windy Septemberday, about 25 sellers, coffee in the old mill.

I found a new Pelargonium with very delicate leaves - and it goes so well with the one from last year. They are both covered with tiny tiny hairs - "velvet-leaves".

Other fine things I couldn't resist: Local honey - some produced 50 m from the market :O) - and a Mint Nepeta plant (hedebjergmynte) bought from a garden blogger - inspiring blog.

Autumn bliss

First harvest - we planted some raspberry bushes last year. Seems quite a few berries will follow in the next weeks. Uhm!

Sunny Slow Motion

Low evening sun and crochet experiments at the terrace.
I hope you have some lazy summer days too.

Midsummer's Eve

Windy evening - but sunny, so ok for a little picnic.

Driving home in the brightest night, so many bonfires along the fiord. You can smell the smoke everywhere -  probably most of Scandinavia is wrapped in it. 

Oups..

.. lost the last two posts while rearranging a bit in here.. anyway, here is the most important part:
:o)

The forest comes closer

In a radius of about 15 km from here three new forests are growing fast - this time of year you can almost hear them grow.

This area with mostly rich soil has been farmland for a very long time, but because of a national afforrestation plan this is now changing - well at least a minor change since these new woods are small - about 2-300 ha. each.

Trees instead of e.g. intensive wheat means better protection of drinking water and making room for larger biodiversity - and besides all that I love trees and I envie them norsemen and swedes a little bit for having all those trees.. :O)

This new forest is placed partly on an old gravel pit. I wonder if this is somewhat similar to how things looked after the last ice age?

When books were new and a bit frightening

Have been busy lately..

The other day I was going through old e-mails to find some work images. On my way I came across this norwegian video sent to me by my sister, who was studying in Tromsø back then.

 (Danish subtitles can be found here).

Extraordinary wednesday mini excursion

Yesterday my neighbour invited me to join her on a little trip to a magic yarnshop she recently discovered. No hesitation :O) - and after a 15 min drive we reached Louise Hardens shop. Magic place indeed. Lovely yarn, models and very skilled help.

Over time you get a sort of personal-map showing special places like a fine path with blue anemones in the spring, pancake-café near lake a.s.o. This is a new spot for my personal map. Thanks for showing, Kim!

Firmly planted

Helps you stand tall.

It's been rough and rather windy this last week.

The Wren

Gærdesmutte in danish = "stone-fence-slipper" :o)

Tiny bird with remarkable song - easy to recognize because of it´s opright tail. Two cold winters have reduced number of wrens in Denmark - hope this rather warm winter will help them make comeback.

Thanks to this blogger, I found my way to a very fine piece of wren. Together with a candle or two it makes a fine little gift.

Colorful afternoon break

Close family expecting a new member ♥ .. nice opportunity to knit small items :o)

I love this magic yarn and how well it goes with my pear and mug. I find much everyday-pleasure in colors. I get a little "high"seeing unexpected combinations like a well known stamp in new colors. A bit odd perhaps, but maybe you know that feeling?

This post made me think about the constant joy of colors.

Do you fancy old cross stitch patterns?

I do. If you do too, you should go here soon, Korsstyngsbolaget has a give-away coming up tomorrow. You can win their newest collection of old swedish cross stitch patterns called "Beings".

Britta Johanson is the woman behind Korsstyngsbolaget - Cross stitch publishing.

She has made 11 books with pattern collections! I want them all :O)

Frosty mist

A round shelf ??

Sounds crazy - looks very nice. Made by Inga Sempe.
Found via Lotta Agaton.

February fibers

Long to-do-list for today. But then.. when the moon rises and the temperature drops even further, it's time for yarn and hot tea.

Winter wanderings

Snowflakes in the air (not much on the ground) both saturday and sunday.

Long walks with friends and family - one along local fjord, another one along northern seaside - pretty stones in heavy pockets :)

Pimp your fridge or Plastic Fantastic #2

Do you sometimes come across a special plastic bag? One, so pretty, special or funny that you will use it again and again? Here is what we sometimes do with those bags:

1. Take beloved bag - here picturing Findus the swedish cat, invented by Sven Nordquist - and cut out illustration.

2. Wipe the backside with a damp cloth.

3. Place the illustration on the fridge (which should be clean and dry) and use the cloth to wipe from the middle of illustration in all directions. Done.

This idea comes from my grandmother. She used to do this in the seventies with art-bags from the danish food chain Irma.

To make people keep and use the plasticbags again and again (and to come shopping again), they asked a new artist every month to illustrate their plastic bags. So my grandmother had her own exhibition in the kitchen back then :)

Irma still makes art-bags. In 2010 Mia Villaume made a bag. I wouldn't mind having one of her paintings on my fridge.

Still there is the pollution aspect... even though this is an idea to re-use plasticbags, we shouldn't buy them at all.. I know. We try to use willowbaskets, and the plastic-bags we do have, are being used many times, but still..