Orlando – Virginia Woolf

I just got too give you this tip to read the book Orlando by Virginia Woolf. A love letter disguised as a fictional novel, with the character  Orlando goes from being a young nobelmen in a medieval England too a middle aged women living in the early days of the 20th century and the life in between. As you understand, the view of time is rather floating in the book, which takes some time to get into. That is the charm of the book though, that a lot of things happen, which makes you want to read more, and more and more. This is the first book I have read about Virginia Woolf, and it did whet my appetite.

Coleslaw

My mother made coleslaw when I was in Blekinge, and I liked it so much that I decided to make it myself when I came home. From scratch. As the mayonaise in the store was all awful, even if the package said “real” (how real is it when it does not contain egg?) I decided to make my coleslaw with homemade mayonaise.

To make my mayonaise you will need:

Two egg yolks
250 milliters oil
1tsp Dejon mustard
1 tbsp white/red wine vinegar (I used white) 
Salt/pepper to taste

Mix the vinegar, the yolks and the mustard together. Add the oil, a little at a time while stiring simultaneously. The mayonaise should be creamy when finished. After you’ve made the mayonaise, get some finely chopped cabbage (I used about 200g)  and just mix it with the mayo. If you want to to go all out, you can also make my meatballs. I cheated though and bought organic meatballs in the shop.

Pearls of Karlskrona

Hey all! I am back from Karlskrona and feel fully rested, as you should after a vacation, especially after having got a great moment of meeting the family at the same time. Karlskrona is so incredibly beautiful, a real sea town with boats in every corner, lovely historical buildings and beautiful gardens hidden behind walls. Here are some of the pearls I found during my trip there:

The shopping streets of Karlskrona. Not because they got any unique shops, it is the normal one’s like H&M, but the buildings they are located in are worth seeing New modern buildings mixed together with old houses, wooden cottages mixed with brick houses, and every road paved with setts.

A London Routemaster bus that got a new life as an ice cream bar. This one was closed though when I was here, but next time I definitely shall try to go there. (These buses are actually not in use any more in London)

Blekinge is known as the Garden of Sweden, and I can say that it is so true. Around every corner you can see beautiful gardens, great  bushes covered with flowers, fountains and statues of historical people, especially Carl XI, who wanted to make Karlskrona Sweden’s capital city. This was, in my opinion, the greatest gem in Karlskrona.

The sea. Karlskrona is, just like my hometown Norrköping, a harbour town. But unlike Norrköping, you can see the sea in pretty much the entire town. Incredible!

Little brother looking happy with double ice creams. 

An ice cream bar that I did visit! Glassiären. If you go to Karlskrona, you’ve got to go here. They’ve got wonderful flavours like Italian Caramel and Pear Chocolate, or the one I tried, Marsipan Chocolate. Best of all is that they make the waffles for the ice cream themselves, in front of you. And that one scope of ice cream is more then you can eat. And that they are cheap. Let me just say, both I and my family approved of this.

Such a cute little boat.

Slumholmen. My favorite island in Karlskrona. Here you can see a lots of old and new boats, visit the Marin Museum or take a stroll to the light house.

The signs. Funny signs, signs with boring messages but looks nice, informative signs, boat signs. They are everywhere and quite hilarious.

Amiralitetskyrkan. Sweden’s largest wooden church. But the part I was most interested in, the catacombs, were unfortunally closed. You can see that this was a real military church, with the Swedish flag colours everywhere. I am sure that the bells play the national anthem every sunday.

I will most definitely go back there again, so I will probably post more pearls I find about this place.

In the Garden of Sweden

I am at the moment in Blekinge, also known as the Garden of Sweden, with my son O. We are staying here together, having a small rest and get to know each other better and also meet some relatives and friends. My blogging will be less until saturday. Instead I promise a photo cavalkade of Blekinge later on. Have a great vacation you guys too!

Motherly Commandments

I have heard so many does and dont’s about how I shall raise my son lately (and even before that, during my pregnancy) that I have decided to write a list of my own…well let’s call them motherly commandments. This is my own rules for how I want and shall raise my son. I have nothing against advices about how to take care of my son, but I want to seek them out myself, not have them thrown into my face.

This is anyway my few rules I put up myself, for my son’s sake:

1. Let O go out at least a few hours every day. This rule I put up, as we noticed he sleeps best outdoors, and also I believe that fresh air is the best for anyones health, no matter of what age they are.

2. If he cries, I shall pick him up as fast as possible. No matter if that means that I carry around with him all day long, or never leave the sofa. A child that feels safe is a child that will grow up to be a strong and independent individual.

3. I shall not say that my son is bad for pooing 3 times in 20 minutes, nor sleeping properly the entire night. You would never say that to an adult, why should you say that to a child?

4. My son’s needs will be put in first hand, but I shall still not forget about myself and Adams needs to. Happy parents makes happy children.

5. And my last commandment, I shall enjoy the time together with my son as a newborn. He will soon be an adult with his own children and his own life, I only have this time together with him.

Salvia Tea

I know it has been a lot of food posts lately, but during summer I got all the time in the world to enjoy good foods, especially as I am married to a skilled chef. Something I am able to do myself though, without any help from Adam is quite a few different drinks. I got fresh salvia leaves today from one of our neighbours, and by just pouring hot water over them, I got myself some nice spicy salvia tea.  Do you got any tips of nice teas? I would love to hear them!

Grandmother & Grandson

Little O and his grandmother Rachel, cuddling together on the sofa at Adam’s work. 

Having the family around is funny, O thinks, as it is more people around that willingly to let him sleep in the arms. The best place in the world according to him, as neither the bed and the pram are that cozy.

O will meet his grandmother

O is his new outfit. Cute enough to make any mother proud. 

Today is an exciting day, as O will meet his english grandmother Rachel for the very first time. We had a lot of prepartions yesterday with making buns and cleaning the house. It is always lovely to get guests, and for O, it is nice to meet the other side of his family too.

Cinnamon Buns

Ah, I love to have summer vacation. It gives me time to do some of the things I do enjoy in life, like reading books, take care of my flowers and of course bake! This evening I decided to make cinnamon buns, as Adam’s mother are coming to visit tomorrow and it is nice to offer something sweet. Cinnamon buns is time consuming, but now during summer I do have all the time in the world to make them. If you got time to make them yourselves (it takes a couple of hours), you can use this recipe. If you do try it, feel free to tell me what you thought about them.

Some summer shopping

It probably have not gone unnoticed that I like to buy things, especially to my dear loved one’s. This summer I can’t afford any extravaganzas, but I bought a fair few things on the summer sale to me and O.

We bought a little clothes for him, as he are one messy baby. The two one pieces are just so adorable, the blue one is made of organic cotton and comes from Lindex. The one with the guitars on (in honour to his dad Adam) is from a second hand shop. The cute throusers are also from Lindex, and so is the socks.

My favorite drink at the moment, organic fruit drink from Saltå Kvarn. It is super tasty, and I use the bottles afterwards as water bottles. Good if you want to avoid the BPA rich plastic bottles.

After a long hunt, I found myself a pineapple bag. This beauty comes from H&M.

I also got a fair few new books. The two top one’s I got for free from my bank, and the two bottom one I found just lying about outdoors. It is sick that people abandon books like that!

And last, I got a new bag for my phone, from Golla Design and a yellow umbrella to pack down in O’s nursing bag. Adams comment about my new phone bag was: Could you not find a more girly one?. I informed him that I took the least girliest of the pink one’s.

And that was the latest shopping I have made.