HERLOFF says ...

Rome revisited

Just came back from a 4 day trip to Rome. Hadn't been there in more than 20 years. What a joy! 

More - and a photo album - coming up!  :-)

 

Copenhagen - City of cyclists

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.

Boing boing boing boing!

Still cold, still windy, but somehow, a touch of spring is in the air. No more than 2-4 degrees Celcius extra, still it's noticable. And my soul starts yearning for the dacha. Or rather ... it feels like it's jumping up and down like an eager child. Boing boing boing boing.

We're going there for the entire Easter vacation, and probably for a weekend sometime before that. And then the season has begun!

My sister has a cottage too, and judging by the total hours of sun in Denmark last year, we've both picked some rather nice locations. :))

Summer menu: Crisp Sunrise & Hot Coffee

This summer, we actually did what we'd been talking about doing for a while.

We all got up at 4.30 am in the morning and went to the beach to watch the sun rise over the eastern horizon. I made a pot of hot, strong coffee and a cup of hot chocolate for the kid (who actually managed to get up that early), and off we went. Even though the sun hadn't risen yet, the sky was already bright and darkness long gone.

I love summer. And that particular morning was magic, as we sat there watching the daily spectacle of the sun peeping over the horizon. Drinking hot coffee and chocolate. An experience that should - and will - be repeated.

 

the Godmother?

Facebook is full of them. Those mindless little personality tests that shows you which type or other you are. I usually avoid those, mainly because they're dumb, but also because the privacy of information given to Facebook is non-existent.

Anyway, sometimes it's just fun taking those tests, and I did one tonight at a place called Similarminds. Just to get my mind off work before heading off to bed.

In this case, I just don't know what to make of the result.

Fun ... or slightly scary???

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Summer is wonderful, but ...

Autumn and winter do bring their own very special joys. :)

Worth the effort

Summer has come to an end. It's this middleware thing now - not really summer any longer and not yet autumn.

I've been browsing the photos I took at the dacha during the spring and summer months, and I'm so happy that I actually remembered taking them. It takes a little while resizing them, so you'll have to wait a bit before I post a new photo album. However, here's a few shots from just about the same place: my favorite little patch of soil at the back of the house.  The first one is from May, the other from July.

Just shows that playing around with a few plants and seeds is so worth the effort. :)

Maxed out on Bliss ...?

The weather has been absolutely perfect so far. We're spending three weeks at the dacha, and I'm as happy as I think I can get. Is there a maximum to that? Happiness & bliss?

Below is a few shots from the days so far. The flowers are from the garden and the various pots I've grown this spring. *smiles*

Watch this space for more ... and click on the images for larger versions.

Happiness comes in many shapes and sizes

This spring I've started transforming our dacha garden into my kind of paradise. Abundant and generous yet simple, tranquil and soothing. 1000 square meters of zen.

It's going to take a while. I've spent hours searching for and planting the right plants. And I absolutely love it. Every minute and every second of it. It's better than I expected when we bought the place a year ago. It's much, much better.

I've taken some photos this weekend. Most of you will probably find them terribly boring, but what the heck. I'm going to revisit this photo album (and the many more to come) every day next winter simply to relive the happiness that place and that garden brings into my life.

I've been so caught up with it that I've considered turning this blog into a gardening blog. A blog needs a focus, an identity - instead of what I've been doing so far ... ranting and blabbering about this and that. But I have so many other things on my mind ... so maybe a gardening blog with a a nerdy tech twist? A gardening blog with tech posts and political rants here and there? A gardening nerdy tech political blog with an occasional post on parenting? A femininist tech gardening political nerdy blog with posts on art?

Let's just say I'm undecided. Still. Enjoy the photos. :)

PS. I had so many spam comments on the last post that I accidentally deleted a comment from plams when I bulk deleted them. So plams: if the spam filter now hates you, you'll probably have to change your data if you want to comment. Sorry :(

Spring is in the air

Mobile images aren't delicious in terms of sharpness, color and contrast. At least not the ones taken by my mobile phone.

Nevertheless, here are a few signs of spring that I caught at the dacha - as well as the lovely, lovely faces of the three people in the world that are closest to my heart: my son, my husband and my mother.

A few days at the dacha with them, long walks on the beach, fresh air and the signs of spring. Maybe I'm getting old, but I can't think of any other way I'd rather spend my time. Bliss.

Blue sky lucky

I'm spending a few days vacation at the dacha. And sometimes, one is just plain lucky. Despite the weather reports forecasting a completely overcast sky today, I woke up to a clear blue sky, birds singing loudly and everything looking and feeling almost spring-like.

I found out that only here (and at the west coast) we've been that lucky. Just have a look at the sattelite photo below. 

And it's getting better:

I'm off ... and I'm offline

Hey ya'll. I actually happened! My vacation started 2 hours ago, and tomorrow I'll join my boys at our (very, very offline) dacha where they went earlier today. I'll be back on August 6th, rested and relaxed after 3 completely work free weeks. Cya then and thank you so, so much for all your lovely comments. I'll get back to those as well, but right now, I'm off ... and I'm offline!

*smiles*

This has got to be pathological - can anyone please tell me (or maybe invent) the medical term for this?

It's kind of a compulsory disorder. Compulsory behavior. Obsessive dysfunction. Dysfunctional disorder. Obsessive compulsory dysfunctional behavioral disorder. Some psycho-babble something dys-com-misbehavior thing.

It happens to me every year just before my summer holiday. Or, rather, it starts about two months before my summer vacation. Okay, maybe it's there, just a little, thoughout the year (my husbond can tell you more about that), but it gets worse during the summer. Much worse!

I turn into a weather nerd. A forecast freak. A walking talking weather feed. I know almost by minute when the next forecast will be published online. I know the percentile probability of rain, showers, wind and sun 9 days ahead. I know how many millimeters of rain they predict will come next Saturday.

Maybe it's because I ride a bicycle to work every day and need to know what to wear. Maybe it's because I'm  trying to force the sun out for the three weeks  of my vacation? I don't know. I just know  that I'm absolutely unable to stop sneak peaking at the forecasts 10-20 times a day.

Believe me.
I've tried.

Midsummer (cut and paste) memories

The weather forecast for the previous weekend promised occasional rain. Nevertheless, we went to the dacha, since it's the best place to relax on the planet - no matter what the weather is like. That place is better than I imagined, and almost better than I hoped for.

The weather turned out beautiful. And apart from the fact that we all ended up with a pinkish skin tone due to too many hours on the beach without sun blocker, and apart from the fact that the guy lighting up the midsummer bonfire thought it was a great idea to pour gasoline straight onto the fire (and almost blowing himself and a few bystanders up in the process) - we had the most wonderful, relaxed, chilled out midsummer weekend.

Dinner with friends, cold wine at the beach, happy kids and a midsummer bonfire that seemed as if it was cut and pasted directly from the most Vaseline-blurred, romantic memories of my childhood. Blue dusk, orange bonfires along the beach line. Pure Summer Zen.

Klaus (the husband) took photos, and for that, I thank him. Loooove, honey!

Wanted: Nirvana

I need peace. Not only peace from the ever hectic, turbulent Everyday, but peace from the ever present and perpetual buzzing of my over stimulated, over active brain. I need an occasional break from all this activity that is ... me. And, as mentioned earlier, I'm neither a religious nor "spiritually inclined" person. So ... no rest for the wicked?

I've attempted meditation. On several occasions. And failed miserably. My mind can't stay still, goddammit. Perpetuum mobile. I sit there, breathing deeply, trying to focus on my breathing, focus on my breathing, just focus on the breathing - and while I do that, my mind decides that it's terribly, terribly bored, and wanders off.

Because of this need to quiet my mind, messing around with dirt and plants in the garden at our dacha is a bliss. And a few weeks back, at the beach, I discovered another and fantastic method by which this wandermind of mine can be made to focus and relax - to meditate.

Stunt kites! Two line kites that you can steer!

I stood there at the beach for an hour, the wind on my back, and focused completely on that thing, making it do all sorts of cool moves in the air. You have to focus on the bloody thing, or it'll crash. And when I was done, I was ... high. High with relaxation, somehow.

A deep, deep calm and satisfaction within. I hadn't thought about anything, really. I had sensed the pull of the strings in my palms, moved slightly to control the kite, but I had been mind-resting in the most profound manner.

Meditation sans boredom. A win-win scenario devoid of self. Heureka! So now I'm hooked - and I want to replace my son's kite with this: The Nirvana Kite. What an absolutely appropriate name that is!

Happy Easter

Tomorrow we will get the keys to the datja. Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!!

I am packing our bags today, stuffing them with clothes that is suitable for working in the garden, good coffee for the breaks and hot chocolate for when we return from long walks on the beach. I've packed a few good books and some candles. Sugar and spice. Tea and honey.

I've worked for almost 120 hours during the last two weeks. Insane, really. But the thought of having this treat at the end of it made it quite a lot easier. So ... now we'll go and relax and get to know our new Sanctuary for the next 9 days.

I feel so privileged and blessed by this, that I almost expect some kind of punishment to hit me. Some cosmic balancing act that will ensure that I can't suck up so much good karma all by myself. On the other hand, I've had my share of bad karma so far, so maybe this actually is the cosmic balancing act?

I'll be back, and until then: Happy Easter to all of you! :)

Our beach

I just received this image (click to enlarge) in a mail from my beloved spouse. Which proves that right now, he's sitting at work daydreaming of the new possibilities for relaxation and peace that we have suddenly gained access to.

What a privilege it is. Long, long walks on that beach. Clean air and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. And the beach is, in fact, quite a lot longer than the picture shows. About 20 kilometers long.

Phew!

I love my job! And I demand a lot from myself when it comes to my work. But now and then, I end up with so much work that there's no chance in Hell I can deliver. Even if I include evenings and weekends in my planning. I hate that.

I know how my body will react, if I don't do something about such situations - and fast.  My immune system will begin to respond to the increasing stress levels, and I will catch every single cold or flu or stomach virus that I happen to pass in the street.

Right now, everybody want everything done by Easter. And I have to find some assistance if I'm not going to cancel my 3 extra days off before the official holiday. I need those 10 days off very badly, and cancelling some of them will only make things worse.

The good thing is, that when Easter comes, I'll be on the right side of all those deadlines - and if all goes according to plan, I'll be going to our dacha to chill. We received the contract today, and it states April 1st as the date of purchase.

Wheee! I can already feel the effect of owning such a place. The possibility of such a blissful retreat at the end of periods like this is simply mind-blowingly wonderful!

Update: One step closer

This Saturday morning at 10, we went to see the datja.

It's wonderful! Small, cozy and with a garden that looks a complete mess this time of year. The elderly couple that owns the place have built a gigantic summer residense not far away, and no longer takes that much care of the plants and lawn of the little place. At the moment, the rare residents of the house are German tourists, who rent it for a week at a time. And, of course, they don't do anything to nurse the greenery.

Anyway - despite the neglected garden, the house was every bit as lovely as the pictures suggest. The combined living room and kitchen is kept in beautiful shape, and everything that's been done to the house through the years is done with complete adherence to the original idea and aesthetic identity of the house. Nothing has been destroyed by misunderstood "modernisation". Everything is in good shape and made from high quality materials.

Apart from that, the house appears as if tailor made for us. The style, the atmosphere, the place - everything is just the way we like it, so after inspecting it all in some detail (looking for anything that should cause a reduction in the price), we decided to buy it.

We went back and had a beer with the owners (a sweet, friendly couple), and said that we were willing to buy it, if we could have it as it is. Including furniture, cups, pans, blankets, lawnmower, garden furniture, knives, forks ... everything that's there today. Except for the stuffed wildlife on the shelf in the living room. Those stiff animals belong to the present owners, who've collected corpses through the years, and, to be honest, I'd rather use that shelf for books! Anyway, they agreed, and we had a deal.

Today I've been in touch with the real estate agent, who has started working on the contract. And, if all goes according to plan, we'll be spending our Easter vacation (10 days in all) at our very own datja. Right now, it feels surreal. But the dream is one (big) step closer.

Not just another photo gallery

I've finally pulled myself together and created a new photo album with a few photos from our summer holiday last year. I guess the photos resemble the photos found in about a billion similar albums all over the world. However, most of these are taken at the place where we're looking to buy a summer house. So, if we are the happy owners of the datja within a month or so, the photo gallery will be a prediction of many summers to come.

Browsing through those pictures just made me long for that place even more. Hopefully, hopefully, nobody will see the house and outbid us. Hopefully!

You'll find the photo gallery here, or by clicking on the link at the bottom of the left side bar.