Ett år i Sverige

Nu har vi passerat ettårsdagen sedan vi flyttade tillbaka till Sverige. För exakt ett år sedan började jag jobba på mitt jobb. Ett år sedan var det mycket kaos både i känslor med att bygga upp ett nytt liv och vardag här. ALLT var nytt. Ny bostad, nytt jobb, nya människor, nya rutiner, ny stadsdel, ny matbutik, ny träning. Hela ens liv känns precis lika kaosartat som ett hem fyllt med halvt ur-packade flytt lådor. Man känner sig vilsen på många sätt. Första månderna var vi helt slut om dagarna. Vi orkade inte göra mycket mer än det absolut nödvändigaste.

Att flytta hem är på många sätt som att flytta ut. Det tar tid att bygga upp hem, vardag och rutiner som funkar och som man trivs med. Det är lika jobbigt men lika nyttigt och lärorikt. Det har tagit oss ett år att få många av pusselbitarna att falla på plats.

Att flytta både från Sverige och tillbaka har fått mig att uppskatta nya saker både här och från Alabama. Det finns ingen fullkomlig plats som är perfekt utan varje ställe har sina fördelar och nackdelar. Det gäller väl att ta för sig av de bästa sidorna av det man har just här och nu. Det finns mycket jag gillar med Sverige som bland annat:

-att kunna cykla till jobbet

-att friheten att ta sig fram på många olika sätt

-att bo nära vatten

-att Stockholm är en underbar stad och en mycket vacker stad

-att man har mer semester här och slipper ta hela sin semester till att "åka hem och hälsa på" (jo självklart vill man men det blir trots allt inte riktig äkta semester).

-ett betydligt rikare socialt liv.

-den svenska sommaren.

Saker jag inte har vant mig vid:

-det svenska klimatet, vinter, mörker, kyla.

-behöva åka en fullproppad äcklig tunnelbana som en packad sill.

Men en sak är vi överrens om jag och C och det är att vi vill ha fler utlandsäventyr. Vi kommer alltid att älska Sverige och det kommer alltid att vara vårat hem men suget efter mer och nya äventyr finns där. Då chansen dyker upp tar vi den gärna. Det är nog det vi känner är tjusningen med livet att det finns så många underbara platser och äventyr som väntar där ute. Det gäller bara att ta för sig.

Grasse - Perfume Capital of the World

Grasse is known as the perfume capital of the world. It was here that Channel once upon a time created her classic "No 5". It's said that it is the Cote d'Azur's climate that nurtures the the flowers that thrive here. It is almost as you can feel the scent of orange blossom, jasmine, lavender and roses lingering in the air from the gardens and fields that surround this city.

We visited the Fragonard house belonging to the grand old Fragonard family of Grasse since the 17th century. Here you could see how perfume is made. But the real crowd was in the small shop. Here there was a heavy mix of scents in the air from perfume, soaps and candles. You could if you wished create your very own perfume by mixing different essential oils. In the shop you could get unique perfumes only sold here.

In the past the flower blossoms were laid face down in a lard-smeared tray, then soaked the essence away in alcohol. Today the scents are condensed in large copper stills. Only the essential oils are kept except for rose and orange water that is still kept. The scents are then blended by a professional "nose" who must be able to distinguish some 500 distinct scents and may be able to identify up to 3,000. The products then get to carry the big names of perfume houses like Guerlain, Chanel and Dior. Grasse has set up three factories that create simple blends and demonstrate some of the techniques used in the making of perfume.

There was a Jasmine festival going on as we arrived to Grasse. Everywhere a long the cozy narrow streets you could see these purple and yellow flyers about the festival. They had also set up cables of air diffusers that actually sprayed out Jasmin scent every five minutes or something like that.

We also visited the Musée International de la Perfumerie. Here you could learn about how new perfumes are created as well as getting the general history of Grasse and many of the famous brands. You also get the entire history of perfume making that started almost 4,000 years ago already by the Egyptians. You are guided trough the steps of production. You get to use your own nose at various stations to test the scents of many flowers, spices, and plants used in the making and blending of the perfumes.

It was fun to look at all those famous perfume bottles. They had divided them up into different decades. I recognized bottles that had been favorites of my parents and later on perfumes I had gotten and loved.

Besides perfumes there were also some lovley soap shops like this one. It is really hard to just choose one or two soaps once you enter a place like this shop.

There were also of course all kinds of perfume stores selling their own perfume and brands not found elsewhere like this store. Here you picked your favorite and then you decided on the size of bottle you wanted and they would pour it into your chosen bottle directly from these large glass containers.

I loved Grasse that was a very pretty and lush city. Yes the climate here does seem great. I am sure that I would also thrive here. It is true that everywhere you go there are flowers of different kinds. The inspiration to create new scents is everywhere.My nose really got to practice distinguishing many different smells this day.

Helgen

Detta har varit en riktigt nice helg. Jag är helnöjd med helgen som precis varit. Förutom Dolly konserten som var fantastisk så gjorde vi en mysig söndagsutflykt. Vi åkte ut på Ekerö. Det är riktigt vackert där ute. Man kommer ut på riktiga landet genom att ta sig ut dit med alla fina åkrar. Tyvärr glömde jag kameran (otroligt klantigt). Mycket hästar, kor, höbalar som var rullade och färdiga låg på åkrarna. Det finns väldigt mycket gårdsbutiker där man kan köpa ekologiska råvaror (frukt och grönt). Vi stannade till på Juntras Grönt som har både grönsaker och snittblommor.

Där köpte jag denna fina knippe med mixade morötter i olika färger. Sådana här morötter brukade finnas på den Farmers Market som kallades Pepper Place i Birmingham, Alabama. Men jag har aldrig sett sådana här morötter i vanliga ICA butiken eller andra butiker här. Vi frågade om de också hade majs. Men skörden hade ännu inte kommit igång riktigt. Det fanns dock några småkolvar som vi fick med oss för att prova.

Vi åkte sedan vidare till Äppel Fabriken. Det var ett supermysigt ställe med ett vackert café. Vi tog varsin kopp kaffe. De säljer massor med olika äppelprodukter här. Man kan även få sina egna äpplen mustade i deras cidermakeri. Man plockar sina äpplen hemma och tar med sig så fixar de äppelmusten åt dig och du får en BaginBox med din alldeles egna äppelmust. Lördag den andra oktober kommer de ha äppelpajstävling där. Det skulle ju kunna vara både kul och gott :-)

I fredags hade vi Calles föräldrar över på ett glas bubbel innan vi gick ut på middag. Det var en underbart vacker kväll och det kändes väldigt sommrigt. Vi såg många luftballonger som var ute och flög. De verkade flyga precis ovanför oss och ibland kändes det som de kom otroligt nära.

På håll såg det nästan ut som den rosa kanske skulle fastna i kyrktornet men det gjorde den inte som tur var.

Även Posten kom flygande relativt lågt.

När vi sedan var på väg hem från resturangen så såg vi att de på Luma torg hade spänt upp en storbildsskärm och visade utomhus bio. Rätt coolt. Det var någon av Pirates of the Carribean filmerna de visade. Det var en varm och ljummen kväll och folk satt bänkade här. Vi stannade inte så länge då vi var rätt trötta och dessutom hade kommit mitt i filmen.

Det har varit riktigt fint väder hela helgen också. En underbar sensommar helg. Lördag var så pass varm att det kändes mer som sommar än höst. Vi satt ute och åt frukost och även på kvällen så kunde man gå från konserten utan jacka. Tog en drink efter konserten på Thai Boat som är en flytande bar och resturang på just en gammal båt förtöjd på södersidan om Hammarby kanalen. Lite kul för de har en egen konstgjord sandstrand på ena sidan av båten.


Så här fin var kvällen då vi var på väg mot resturangen. Vi tog båten från Luma brygga som ligger bara några minuters promend från oss över till andra sidan där resturangen Zee låg. Maten vi fick var sååå god!

Dolly Concert

Saturday night I went to Dolly's concert. Wow, what a voice she has! Even if I have never been a huge fan of hers I was totally taken by her voice and performance. I am so glad I decided to go to this concert. She is a true star, a legend of music and a veteran that just has amazing talent and creativity.

The concert took place in the Globe arena here i Stockholm and it was packed with people as you see. I must say our seats were quite good. I managed to take all of these pictures from where we were sitting. I went with a work friend of C and a another friend of hers.

This was a spectacular show and Dolly sure knows how to entertain and captivate the crowd. Besides her voice there is just so much more musical talent to this fantastic woman. She plays so many musical instruments. During this show she played:the piano, the guitar, the banjo, a harmonica, a flute and the saxophone!

She looks amazing at her age and she has so much energy. It is hard to believe she is a day over 50. She jokes and says it takes a lot of money to look as cheap as this and spreads out her arms.

Something that I liked was that she also told the audience about some of her childhood and about growing up in the Smokey Mountains of TN. She talked about the Grand Ole Opry. I sat there and was so happy I had been at these places she talked about. I have seen the beauty of the Smokey Mountains and I have felt the magic of the Grand Ole Opry. She talked about her parents and her 11 siblings and about singing and practicing singing with a tin can on a stick on her front porch.

I actually all of a sudden realized how lucky I have been so far in my life to have been able to see and experience so many things as I have done. More than many others do in a life time.

The crowd sitting on the front row sure were swept away. These must have been the true Dolly hard core fans.

She is so tiny but has such a big personality, heart and voice. She sure still looks great.

The concert started at 7:30 and around 9 pm there was a 20 minute break before she continued to play until 10:15 pm.

One of the last songs she played was the super famous 9 to 5. I love that song. She played a great mix of both old songs as well as brand new songs from her new CD that has just been released. I liked several of the new songs. There were songs I recognized very well just that I never realized that she had made them as they had been played by many others.

Beautiful Friday

My first working week after summer vacation is now done. Ah such a nice feeling to finally get to the Friday. The first week back is always a little harder to get trough. Today we are going out with C's parents that have come driven up to Stockholm from Karlskrona. We are going to try a restaurant in our neighborhood called Zee that has gotten very good reviews so I hope it will be good. Me and C have only been there for a glas of wine as an after work thing earlier this summer. The view from there is very nice. I think I took these pictures when we were there.

We have invited C's parents over to our place first for some pre-dinner drinks. I remembered to put the champane bottle in the fridge for cooling this morning. Even if we are not really celebrating anything in particular I thought it would be nice with some champagne. Sometimes it is nice to make things a little more festive just because. Sometimes life calls for a splash of fun and a little glamour just because.

This morning I actually stopped by the small coffee place on my way to work that I have wanted to stop by for such a long time. Every time I have passed it I have always longed to stop because it just looks so cozy and the sandwhiches and other baked goodies just looks soooo good. Today I decided I would take the time and make a stop and have some coffee here at least. I had a cup of cappuchino. I was not disappointed. This was one of the best cappuchinos I have had. The foam was rich and very artfully decorated with a leaf and a small heart. Next time I am going to have a bigger splurge and also have one of their sandwhiches as well as their special juice drink that I am very curious about. It was made of apple, orange, carrot and ginger. Mmmm doen't that sound interessting?

What Friday plans do you have? I have also been thinking about the Friday theme as we are a group of blogg writers that have been doing that now for quite a while. Isen't it time to pick it up now again? How is next? Anyone taking September?

Have a good Friday!

Movie and Crawfish but not together

This past weekend I rented this movie. I liked it even if it was quite different from most other movies. It is filmed as a documentary. It is about this guy who meets and becomes friends with a young girl (Abby) over Face Book and their friendship also comes to involve the rest of her family. The guy falls in love with Abby's older sister. The whole thing evolves not only to involve friendship only on the computer but also by phone calls and sending letters and packages. All the time we get to follow the guy (Nev) trough his friends that are filming and interviewing him.

It was a good movie, an interesting one and enteretaning one but I would not exactly call it a thriller. It did not really make you sit and watch it with great suspense but rather it awoke curiosity. You wanted to know how it was going to end. This because suddenly something really does not quite add up that the older sister (Megan) has said. Nev starts to unwrap one lie after another and it leads up to something very unexpected.

Yesterday evening we had a crawfish party at my work. Eating crawfish in August is a nice tradition in Sweden. Actually I am really glad they had this crawfish party at my work as it gave me the opportunity to get to eat some this year. So far I just have not had the time or chance to enjoy crawfish. C is going to a crawfish party this Saturday to friends of ours. Of course I got invited as well but I am going to the Dolly Parton concert this Saturday so I would have missed crawfish in August if I had not had the ones I ate yesterday. I did not stay very late but still it felt later than it was as it is starting to get darker in the evenings now. I don't like that at all but for right now it is still pretty good as it does not get dark until around 9 pm. It is mainly when it gets dark before 5 or 6 pm that I find it the most awful.

Cassis and Camargue

A little more from our vacation in France. On our second day we made a brief stop in the small fishing port of Cassis also known as one of the prettiest coastal towns of Provence. It is also famous for it's delicate white wines as well as the turqcouise waters of the Calanques.

Small town with plenty of charm. Even the back alleys are filled with quiet coziness.

Provence to me was just as picture perfect that I imagined that it would be. Flowers, olive trees, old stone houses with wooden shutters.

From Cassis we did not drive directly to Camargue, this we did some days later on. Camargue are the vast marshlands stretching out towards the sea. This is a 30,000 acre nature area. Out here the French style ranchers live.

Here you find the white horses. There are plenty of horses to rent around in this area. Actually the American cowboys decended from the Provencial cowboys. According to history Horace Greeley advised them to "Go West" in the early 19th century. These Camargue ranchers did exactly that, shipping out to the French colony of New Orleans and from there they spread out as the first horse-wranglers wearing their black felt hats. They also wore their "bleus de travail" or blue jeans. So this is where the cowboys came from once upon a time.

Something else that is special "Pink flying flowers" or flamingos. They were quite shy so it was hard to get a good picture of them.

The Camargue is considered to be a bird watching paradise. There are hundreds of species here. The white horses and the birds seem to get a long great. One of the white birds is taking a break sitting down on the back of one of the white horses that seems totally relaxed continuing to munch grass.

I still have a little more our France Vacation so I will come back to some more of that later on.

Cover Girl Feeling

The company I work for just launched their new Website. Here is what I do. It was a total surprise for me to see these pictures. I feel kind of like the Cover Girl :-)
I really like the website when it comes to color and layout.

So when I am not blogging, taking pictures, travelling, cooking, working out or doing other things I enjoy in life this is what I do.

Skördetider

Även om jag inte vill att sommaren ska vara slut riktigt än så kryper ändå lite höstkänsla på. Svenska äpplen dignar på träden och finns gott om i butikerna också. Mina föräldrar har äppelträd på sin tomt och jag och C passade på att plocka med oss en kasse. C kokade sedan äppelmos åt oss. Hela köket fylldes av äppel och kanel doft. Det blev en "chunky" äppelmos variant. Tycker att det är godare med lite bitar i.

Mycket äpplen blir det på varje träd. Nu hittar man också äppel recept i var och varannan tidning.
Päronträd såg vi också med mogna fina päron. Just fruktträd var något jag saknade i Alabama. Fruktträd var aldrig något man såg i villaträdgårdarna någonsin där. Lite höstigt känns det allt med äpplen. Idag var våran semester slut också. Lite trögt känns det allt första dagen på jobbet. Vaknade dessutom upp till regn som smattrade mot rutan. Trösten var iallafall att det upphörde tills dess att jag skulle cykla. Jag fick ha regnjackan på mig ändå för det var lite stänk kvar i luften.

Denna jättegoda tomatpaj lagade vi igår. Den är minst lika god som den ser ut. Nu är denna måndag snart slut och det har faktiskt varit en bra måndag.