Closet time

Here´s The Village´s dry closet. Smelly? No, I do not think so. A slight scent of fresh soil may be detected but not much else. It does require a coat of paint before being the proudest of closets, till then it will have to soldier on as is. Next time you´ll see it, it will be shining as new!

Red ruby

Late last evening I retired inside for a film and some night snack. While brushing my teeth I found the house glow with a new colour as the light reflected off the freshly painted walls. There is a special feeling seeing the result of a days labour.

Enlight me

Light is a central thing in mans life. One have to be able to see or be seen and this is nothing to take lightly. In northern Europe we´re particularly sensitive about having a light that is doing what´s it supposed to do. Sometimes you want a light so you see what your´re doing, like when reading or mending a steam engine. Sometimes you want a softer romantic light, to set the right mood. It may have something to do with our long winters and nearly no day light for long periods but I´m not sure. My light of choice at the moment is an old fashioned Feuerhand, this being a rather small "Super Baby". The new ones are not as good as the old ones, that´s for sure!

Paint it red 1

Great to be back in The Village again! A Mayor shouldn´t stay away too long. I found and bought a telescopic ladder on the way here. It fitted exactly in my practical car, no need for a rack on my car roof. After a quick cup of tea and a couple of sandwiches I started working on making the main building pretty. Red house paint made of iron oxide is very traditional in this part of the world. After some time I had finished the right hand side. One can clearly see and compare the freshly painted side and the still to be painted front. While starting on the front a thunder storm came from nowhere. The god of thunder, Thor, came rumbling on his waggon pulled by two goats. BANG! A fine summer rain drizzled as I stod shaking on my ladder wondering if the storm ever was going to pass by. As writing this there is a clear blue sky and the birds are singing their hearts out.

Brittney´s spear?

Today I went back to The Village again. I passed through The Town to get some food for the weekend and realised there was some kind of town festival going on. The local mechanical museum had brought out some machines, including this barking machine.It didn´t bark like a dog but made a more machine like sound, as machines did when grandfather used to be young. A sign said it was used for taking the bark away from fence poles, and and make the ends more pointy. The very informative sign also informed the visitors it did "ten mens work". That is progress!

Lego time!

The Danish invention of Lego is one of the greatest ever. I was brought up on home cooked food and Lego. True. Lego is making you skilled of thinking in three dimensions and will more than many other things speed up your creativity. Great when you´re young and need to develop your senses. Fifteen years ago I had a crazy idea and gave all my Lego away. Since then I have hardly touched Lego at all. Not till this weekend. Browsing around in a supermarket I happened to walk past the Lego shelf and slid a packet of Lego in my basket. I´m a sucker for helicopters and what else to make than a striking blue and white police chopper! Ten minutes of sheer bliss had me a brand new Lego chopper on my dinner table.

Lego is made up of the Danish word of to play, lege. So Lego actually means Playo, or so...

Car boot sale

My neighbour informed me of a big car boot sale in Town a forthnight ago (yes, this is a late text). Hadn´t really had my mind set on anything in particular but found a nice stack of LIFE magazine. All twenty or so of them was from 1969-70. Great reading on the use of mariuana, the Woodstock festival, the first lunar landing, alternative families in Scandinavia. Will save reading them for a rainy day.

Lovely ladies at car boot sale waiting for customers. They agreed to be called Greta Garbo and Anita Ekdahl for the record...

Bicycle accident

Can you belive this shit; I was at my job and had just read an article in this morning´s paper on bicycling and safety. I went to fetch the mail and ten minutes later there was a bicycle rider down just outside my job. Enough people were helping the unfortunate so I ran up and took this photo from my room. In a few minutes a number of ambulances and police cars showed up and took care of the situation. This was not a minor accident as the person seemed pretty banged up and was totaly still. After a long time she was stabilised and wisked away in one of the yellow vans.

I was pretty upset at the time as I had just expected something like this to happen. It is one of the worst areas for all sorts of vehicles and pedestrians alike in Town. Cars parking or stopping at the worst places imaginble. It was obviously the driver of the white car who was involved in the accident. There are cars parking or stopping all the time in the dedicated bicycle lane, just as he have done now after the accident. This means all bicycles have to turn around the obstacle and will get exposured for the traffic in the neighbouring lanes. This is a common problem as well. Check out the red cars; what will happen to a bike rider if a driver suddenly opens his door and not watching out for bikes coming from the rear? Well, you guessed right; a sudden airborne manouvre will occur.

After a while I mailed the paper I read earlier and told them what I think about things. The worst problem is not if someone fouling up; it is always the least protected person who is smashed. We don´t need more dedicated lanes, we need more common sense behind the handle bars as well as behind the steering wheel.


A few hours later I was coming back from lunch and found cars parked in just every space available, in the intersection a bit left. I grabbed my camera and started to take pictures. A taxi driver came and started to ask me what the fuck I was doing. I explained the matter to him and he got upset as he didn´t want his car, logos and all, photographed. That is your problem, I said. I told him I had to document the area as it is really bad reagrding safety. Well, if the bikers... blablabla, he went on, and almost picked a fight with me.

I don´t care who is the offender, if you have the legal right to park where ever or what ever. If it is the driver or bad planning from the traffic departments side. It is always the least protected person who is mangled. Change the environment AND attitudes, that is all I ask for. Judging from quite a few bumps, scraches and a broken left side mirror he didn´t give a flying fuck about any body else.

In the picture above there are at least four illigally parked cars; the red in a no parking zone, the yellow cab is parked in the intersection, the dark car in front of the cab is in a no stop zone, the white van on the opposite side is parked in the dedicated bicycle lane AND whithin the ten metres you have to stay clear in an intersection. There was another car parked between the dark car and the yellow cab before I had my camera ready. It is like this EVERY day in this corner... It is just a matter of time before some other bike rider or pedestrian gets hurt again.

Salmo salar and garlic

Fry slices of salmon with a bit of sea salt and lemon pepper. Press a healthy dose of fresh garlic over the fish and flip over. Serve with potatoes cooked in the owen or rice. A fresh youghurt goo like tzatziki is also nice to have with this dish.

Weather report 1

A dogs and cats kind of rain made me stay inside today. My window looked like the ones they use to have at the fishmongers, rivulets streaming down the pane for an hour. Hope the doors to the balcony will keep tight till replacement day later this year. Was my head feeling heavy because of low air pressure or because of yesterdays action?

Party

This Saturday I had a combined 40:th birthday party/house warming. Around 25 friends and family got together and came and went in shifts during the day and night. Great seeing you all! Piccie from me making a cardemom cake:


Wip 2 eggs and 2 deciliters of sugar. Add 100 gr of melted butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 2 teaspoons of cardemom and 2 teaspoons of baking soda. Turn down 3 decilitres of weat flour, slowly. Add 1 decilitre of boiling water. Pour the smooth mix into a cake tin. Mix 1 teaspoon of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, distribute over the surface. Bake at 175 degrees Centigrade till done, middle of owen.


To the left black currant bush from my cousin J and husband N, to the right a cool chili plant I got from RL and his missus Å. Dead centre is a white spotted hind.



Post battle... Thanx All for comming!

Wallpapering 4

I´ll be damned! Mr Wallpaper did it, horray! I put a Post It note on my door as I left this morning telling him I´d be back by 1600 hours, that way he´d know how to spend his day. I didn´t know what to expect as I opened the door. I told myself everything was fine, and as I opened the door I had the greatest of surpsises. Fabulus. Once inside I started sorting things out. After three hours I was more or less done. Just a few things to get in my storage in the basement.

Wallpapering 3

Right, day three and not much have happened wallpaper wise. It does seem like all painted areas have had a second and covering coat, though. Great. But, big but, cocky Mr Wallpaper has only half a day to finnish the rest... or do I have to celebrate my 40:th birthday and have my house warming gathering in something looking like the Gaza strip after an Israeli full moon party?

First official Shorts Day

After a very sweaty day in what i would refer to as "winter gear", I finally brought out my shorts. It´s more airy and will drive my workmate B.E. insane for sure. She likes legs! Legoholic might be a proper word for her. I think I´ll try to convince the government into proclaiming a national Shorts Day and making it a public holliday...

Wallpapering 2

Ha, something´s happened today! Called the Wallpaper man and questioned him about last day´s work. Had to finnish another job, he said. So, you´ll be finnished with this job by Thursday as promised? We´ll see, he said. Later he called and said it would be all done on Friday before noon. Right, you´d better be...

Wallpapering 1

OK, this is what my kitchen looks like now. In an attempt to clear the rest of my Home for wallpapering and a bit of paint I had to shuffle all my belongings (that could fit) into the food preparation compartment.

Here is the main room and all things that didn't fit in above mentioned space. Guess why I want new wallpaper... This morning I met the floor fixing guy and he did all right I could conclude as I got home this afternoon. Whatever happened during the day for the other guy, the wallpaper man, I have no idea. He certainly did not do anything creative on my walls, though.

Chill out

Eight o clock in the morning, twentyfive below, 27:th of december. No fake, no Photoshopping, just a man and his camera. Watching this picture I remember the past winter. It was great in a sense but hanging out in the longer spring evening, nursing a beer, is much cooler. During some of the year the conditions are favourable for what is called "the blue hour". The light can be truly blue and vivid and the air is almost vibrating!

Guerilla gardening

Have not a great garden for gardening. Or do I? There are no traces of former owners green fingers so I have a totally fresh ground to play around with. I also have not much previous experience of gardening so I´m not too prejudiced about how to and what to do. The territory I am in charge of as a mayor is not great but large enough to do a bit of this and a bit of that. I went to the local supermarket and got a few envelopes of seed. Last weekend I poked my finger into the topsoil and put a few seeds here and there. A bit of rain did the rest and I hope there will be at least something from my little walkabout in my garden. A few seeds were thrown at random places and maybe my guerilla tactics will pay off later on, if just those birds and deer will not eat my plants...

In early May just after snow has melted away, these anemone nemorosa are still the only flowers in my garden. Hope that will change a bit later.

Letter of intention

Dear Reader, this blogg will be on a small place in the middle of the countryside. Although The Tiniest of Villages was aquired last September I have not started on updating the world on what´s going on. Until now, that is.

So, hang tight and have a jolly nice second hand experience of The Mayor´s doings.

Day one...

On the first day God created The Tiniest of Villages. On the second through seventh day He rested...