Alla Hjärtans 'Dag med min älskling och en Semla

Today is Alla Hjärtans 'Dag (the direct translation in English is All Hearts Day, otherwise known as Valentines' Day) in Sweden. The holiday here is basically the same as it is in America. Couples celebrate their love by showering each other with flowers, candy and affection.

My husband and I celebrated our love by driving to Lund and going to our favorite bakery, St. Jacobs. I have featured the bakery in a post a while back but I did not talk about one of my favorite items. Pictured above are Swedish Cream Puffs called Semla. Now, I have indulged in my share of cream puffs, but none so far have compared to these. They are made with a pastry type roll that is cut in half, and filled with marzipan first and heavenly cream. You can always tell when someone has had one because the powdered sugar from the top of the Semla usually ends up on their nose, no matter how careful they are.

Here’s to Love, Happiness and Swedish Pastries!

The World Turns Around Just Like a Wave on The Shore

"Well the World, it turns around

Just like a wave on the shore

and I slept with the tide

Just like a memory slipped away"

This is the first verse to a song my Dad used to sing to me with his guitar when I was growing up.  I remember he used to sing it to us before we went to bed and I could still hear it playing in my head along with the waves crashing on the beach down the street from our house long after I was supposed to be asleep.

To this day when I go to sleep I still feel it is all too silent without the ever present and repetitious sound of the waves moving up and down across the sand. When I was living in San Francisco I fell asleep to the sound of the city; the willful grinding of the street cars on their endless tracks, the steady hum of cars racing through the metropolis in the dead of night. Now that I live out in the country there is nothing to fall asleep to except the murmur of our old refrigerator and a few wistful sighs from a very spoiled dog.

This quietness, this Swedish stillness is one of the major reasons I wanted to move. I felt I was over stimulated by all of the movement around me. I felt if I just had a little time away to myself I would be able to think more clearly. Little did I know that once I left it I would still hear the ambient noises of my recent past in my head; they move back and forth through my memory like the words of a profound sermon or a meaningful conversation that could never be finished. The muffled sound of movement and chaos are like a song I always listened to but never liked until it stopped playing over and over on the radio.

It's true, Swedes Do Walk On Water

 

When I was in California visiting I met up for dinner with an old friend of mine that has very conservative Republican Values. I always love discussions with her because we usually disagree and I always enjoy a good debate of any kind.  It is good for me to know her because almost all my other friends and family members have similar political views as I do and I rarely get the chance to see things from another perspective.

Because I have been living in Sweden for the last year our conversation naturally moved towards the differences between Sweden and the US. I told her about how Gay Marriage was legalized years and years ago, how Swedes must take five weeks of paid vacation, and how much I am enjoying the much lower cost of Socialized Health Care. As I watched her face squirm with confusion I decided to bring up the benefit Swedes have that almost all Americans my age have a great need for (including my friend) : Mandatory Maternal and Paternal family leave that adds up to almost a year.

When my friend finally got the nerve to speak again she said "Well Natalie, just let me know when these Swedes start walking on water......."

When I was on my walk today I was thinking of our conversation and low and behold,the photo above was the result. It looks as if the Swedes do walk on water.

To my charming and sometimes misguided Republican friend:.....what can I say, I am just letting you know what I saw....

Views from The Road Less Traveled

Yesterday I went with my husband on a trip for work through the middle of Skane. Some of the roads we took went through parts of the countryside that looked very empty and almost haunted. Sweden is such an old country, yet to me it still seems underdeveloped and undiscovered.

Occasionally the expansive white landscape was interrupted by a fantastic windmill like this one. We also drove by many charming farms and a couple of forgotten castles. I am taking notes on places I may want to revisit during a sunny summer day with a picnic and a better mindset. Only a couple more months!

"Patience is a Virtue"

             Although the look of a finished Hawaiian Quilt can be very crisp and simple, making a Hawaiian Quilt takes major patience. The design must be cut out and then hand appliquéd on to the white base fabric. After you are done with the appliqué then you have to hand stitch all around the design and in to the batting in order to make it an actual quilt. Although the process is long, the satisfaction and inner peace I get from simply moving the needle and thread back and forth through the fabric is profound. I think often of the long line of quilters I come from and what they would have thought about my series of stitches.

          I love picking out all the fabric and creating the design, however I have never been good at following through and finishing a project like this. When I was living in San Francisco I never had enough clarity to just sit and go to work on something like this. I am older now, and I live in the tranquil countryside so I have more confidence that I will see this one through till the end.  I have long dreamed of being able to call myself a quilter. I will finish this quilt and many others like it.

 A wise woman once told me, "Patience is a virtue" and I know now how true that simple statement is.