Right Now

It was Mark Twain who said: "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
We live on credit and we have lived on credit for a long time now. I'm not talking about bank loans, but the other much larger credit that we all share. We owe the world.
For example: If you make a fire to warm yourself, do you also plant a new tree to replace the wood you burned? Probably not. I know I don't. We should, but somehow it becomes someone elses problem although -ultimately- it is up to every single one of us to take responsibility. Don't wait for your governement to do something because it probably won't. Instead give a thought to what actually happens to all those things you throw away, where does it all go? Is there any way you can create less rubbish by shopping differently? Do you really have to use your car as much as you do? If you do, then how do you drive it? And what kind of car do you drive?
I believe we were meant be the gardeners of our world and not the rulers of it.
If you want to change but don't know how then find out! There are two great resources at the bottom of my webpage. Take a little time and click on them to find out what you can do.
Life is always right now, this moment. Don't waste it, do something. Now.

Going to Work

On my way to work yesterday I couldn't help taking a photograph of an incredible looking moon. Driving on the narrow winter road with a bright moon lighting up the clouds in front of it was almost surreal and unfortunately the hasty photo doesn't do the experience justice. In fact I tried hard not to turn around to take the photograph, but the photographer in me was very insistent. Lorienne says I don't have to photograph everything, but most of the time I do.
To save some time I decided to do a handbrake turn to get the car pointing in the right direction instead of doing a 97-something point turn. Not my best idea yet. I chickened out of driving fast before pulling the handbrake so the car didn't have enough momentum to make a full turn. I'm glad the snow banks on the side of the road were soft!

Family

I didn't take many photographs this holiday and the ones I took were mostly of family since we had very special guests this Christmas:
Lorienne's brother James, his wife Lynda, their youngest son Warrick and his girlfriend Julie came over to visit us all the way from the USA.
A couple of years ago we visited them in Chicago and it felt like we did a hundred different things. When we got together with them here in Sweden we mostly ate and drank more than we usually do with only a couple of other activities thrown in. Still it was great to spend time with family members who we see far too little of.

James with his nephew Henrik and only niece Rhiannon.


Julie proved to be quite the skeet shooter and struck fear into the rest of us with her lethal scores.




Warrick wants a gun


Love in the cold

Santas from America

This Christmas some santas came over from America and performed advanced figureskating moves on our local skating rink!

Santa James:


Santa Warrick:


Santa Warrick and Santa Julie:

Family Update

Rhiannon has become much more aware of her surroundings lately. While she little more than existed before, she now follows us with her gaze and when spoken to she gives us the most radiant smiles you can imagine. I haven't been able to catch one of those smiles on camera yet since they are so distracting that I forget to take the picture!



The other day Henrik told Lorienne and I that one time when he was going home from "pretend Work" he saw two dark stars with racoons in them. He really meant racoons too because he translated it to Swedish and used the term "tvättbjörn" which means exactly that!
While it's occasionally too cold to be outside for very long you have to invent things to do inside instead so why not become a cat who likes hiding in paper packets?

Old Moon

Another image using an overlay technique.
This plot or piece of land in Kyrkås has been in the same family since November 1710. That's almost 300 years ago and some of the buildings on it were erected even earlier.

Lucia

Every year on the 13th of December Sweden celebrates the saint Lucia, you can read about her here.
The reason we celebrate this saint is all but forgotten, but it's something school kids do and they dress up in white robes, hold candles or stars on sticks and sing Christmas carols. All the parents and friends come to watch and listen. Actually it isn't reserved for schoolkids and has become something of a beauty contest outside of the schools.

As far as the school celebration goes, it involves both girls and boys. Traditionally the boys dress up in white robes and hold stars mounted on sticks and the girls wear white robes too, but also wear tinsel in their hair and hold candles. The main character Lucia was always played by a girl with candles in her hair, but these days of the Swedish liberation of the sexes, a guy will do just as well. There is a debate about this in the media lately.

I remember celebrating the same tradition in the Swedish school in Botswana where I grew up. I found it a bit troubling as I grew older since the boys not only wear robes but also a cone shaped white hat. I can think of a very prejudiced American group who dress very similarly so prancing around singing songs in a foreign langauge and lighting candles may not have been as appreciated by the local Africans as it was by the proud Swedish parents.
What troubled the girl playing the main character Lucia was usually how to get the candle wax out of her hair later.

The images below are from the "Lucia" celebrations in the village we live in. Lucia's candles were fortunately battery operated.







As for the young Santas, this is a confusion between the nordic mythological gnomelike creature and Santa Claus. Not sure how the gingerbread men at the back got involved.
These little guys reminded me of the saying: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.