Chilly and stronger

(Didn't know that there were so much dust until I saw the photo)

Kelly Clarkson What doesn't kill you make you stronger is on the radio in my car and I think that title is a perfect quote for this post. With -29° C (-20° F) the gear level was a little sluggish even if the engine pre-heater had been connected to the car the whole night. But that didn't stop us from driving to the city to watch a winter-swim-competition held on the river.

I'm just going to tell you that the water temperature was about 1°C (34°F), the photos will speak for themselves....

 

-Happy Winter Everybody!

A very special heritage

I'm reading a book by Lucy Dillon, Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts where a woman inherits everything that had belonged to her aunt. She moves into the house and discovers that the her her aunt has been living a quite different life in her youth that wasn't known to her family. There are beautiful expensive dresses in the closets and a lots of accessories and jewelries. This is just one little part of the book, but it reminded me of my grandmother (my father's mother). It wasn't that she had a lot of beautiful dresses, no but I inherited a very special one from her.

In the late seventies she wove the fabrics to four costumes. They were made for her two daughters, my mother and one for her self. There were different weaves for various parts of the costumes. I have tried weaving very simple kind of mats and I've always been so fascinated of all that she made through her whole lifetime. I've been told that she started as a little girl and learned how to do it just by looking at older relatives. 

When my mother got the fabrics she were together with others on a course so she could manage to sew all parts of the costume. She had sewed dresses before but I think this was a bit different. When I was younger I wore my mothers costume, but when my grandmother died I inherited hers. 

It feels like I've got two heritage in one as it's both the work of her hands and the costume itself. 

There's only on very special occasions that we wear these costumes so I didn't feel like putting it on right now and take some kind of posturing selfie. But who knows, maybe I have it some day and someone catch it on a photo.

The first photo

The first photo

The photo above is very special to me in many ways. This wonderful young couple has just given their camera to the daughter and now they're waiting for her to hopefully manage to take her first photo. After that they probably waited some weeks to induce the photos like they did back then. But when  they finally saw it, they smiled and showed their four years daughter what a great job she had done. She had managed to catch them both! 

This was in the late sixties and very much has happened since that summer day, both more children and grandchildren has enriched their lives. 

But if we go back to the little girl who always has loved to take photos of family and friends. She also found out that there is so much beautiful to catch in the nature. She bought a mobile phone with a good camera because than she always had it with her. But sometimes she felt that she would like to take more advanced photos. I think she was influenced by her blog friends who are very good photographers. Finally she decided to put some savings on "real" camera and now she's trying to learn more about her new investment.

The last (to date...)

Snow and tulips

Much snow the last weeks and it isn't easy to ride the bike now

but there are many people here that does it anyway. Some of them

just change to studded tires.

White snow, or is it blue? 

A withe wall,or is it yellow?

But the sun was shining from the blue sky even if it just

came up over the tree tops.

The river is struggling for being open but the ice is covering it

more and more.

The snow mobiles makes trodden paths which makes it easier for

walking and skiing in the nature. 

I wasn't out very for a long today, had to devote the house

and all the Christmas stuff a lot of time... 

and the Christmas tree went out and  the nails fell like a 

hailstorm, but the reward for all cleaning came later when I bought 

these tulips!

A motif for new eyes

Some years ago we had a small "refreshing"of the staff room where I work. I remember that I was involved with the discussion about where we should place the paintings we had. One of them was perfect for a certain wall because of its black frame and black and white shades. 

Today when I sat on the sofa with a cup of coffee all by myself, my eyes fell on that painting and I realized that for all these years I had never really seen the motif. It was a very strange feeling that I had been so close to a painting and knowing that it was there. But if someone had asked me yesterday what the motif was I wouldn't have had the slightest idea. 

This painting is a lithography and the name of it is "interior" and the first I saw when I started to look at it was the picture above with chairs, a bureau and a window. But the next picture  will show you the rest of it and for me it became a kind of "wake up experience".  Why hadn't I seen it before? Are there other things in my life that I have around me every day that I have to open my eyes for? Or watch with new eyes...

Can't let go of the red

The snowing has continued and I'm grateful that we have been home most of the time to take care of it all. It's quite heavy when the plow truck has passed and left a pile of snow on the driveway. But the good thing is that I get some exercise. I know that a lot of people already has put away all the christmas stuffs but I like to have all the red colors around me when it's so white and gray outdoor. Maybe this is a bit embarrassing but I even listened to my favorite Christmas CD for this year when I enjoyed my coffee yesterday. Michael Boblé...what a voice! I have put it away now but I know what I will look forward to when it comes to Christmas of 2012.

We won't take out the Christmas tree until next weekend because the needles are nice to us this year and have stayed on the branches and not jumping down on the floor. I love my red Christmas baubles but I heard that a possible reason that we have them is a bloody tradition from the old nordic heathendom when they sacrificed animals and hanged them in the tree.

I think it's interesting to know the reasons to our traditions as we have a mix from different countries and religions and have developed the customs through the times. It's also nice when friends or families can create a new way of celebrating a feast and make suitable for them. 

Light therapy

Today I want to give you my warmest wishes of a Happy New Year for everyone with a collage of photos from a walk along the river that I did yesterday.

 

We don't have many hours with daylight at this time of the year, but that makes it more important to get out

and now when we have got more snow the landscape gives the light we all need. I know that there are patients  with psychiatric  disorders who get light therapy, but what can be better than walking around in a nature with snow everywhere. Of course, I know that it isn't possible for everyone, but for us who live in this chilly part of the world it's a blessing that we should appreciate much more.

Was out today on my skis for the first time this winter and I loved it, if you want to see photos from that you can jump over to my Swedish blog where I wrote about the trip.