Slutet gott på veckan

Underbart avslut på veckan med det fina sköna vädret! Några dagar av Indiansommar eller Brittsommar med ca 20 grader har vi haft senaste dagarna och som förväntas hålla i sig under helgen innan det blir lite mer vanliga hösttemperaturer igen. Soligt och vackert var det också då jag cyklade hem igår. Resturangen Flyt på båten här har precis satt upp sin banderoll om Julbord och det känndes helt fel och väldigt avlägset igår.

Det kändes mer som en vanlig sensommarkväll. Det satt mycket folk här och njöt av solen.

Jag och C bestämde oss för att gå och kolla in Vinbaren vid biblioteket här i Sjöstaden. Kolla om uteserveringen var öppen.

Vi hamnade här på vinoteket och fick njuta av en vacker solnedgång, vattnet i kanalen och ett glas rosé för mig och ett glas öl för C samt lite chilinötter. Vi satt kvar här ända tills det blev helt mörkt och då blev det lite väl kyligt att sitta kvar ute så vi flyttade in. Personalen var gulliga och bar ut kuddar och filtar till oss i början så vi hade det hur bra som helst medans vi satt här ute. Ett perfekt avslut på veckan.

Fredagstema

Sista temat för september från Olgakatt. Ämnet ”Om jag vann en miljon skulle jag...”. Nu vill jag inte börja med att var otacksam men jag inser att en miljon i dagens läge inte räcker så himla långt. Det ÄR mycket pengar självklart men samtidigt skulle jag behöva mer för att verkligen kunna förverkliga de större drömmarna. En miljon räcker inte för att köpa boende i Stockholm. Det räcker inte till att att kunna bli ekonomiskt oberoende så att man bara kunde ägna sig åt sådant man skulle vilja. Tio miljoner skulle sitta fint men hundra miljoner (then we are really talking). Men om jag nu ändå skulle ha lyckan att vinna en miljon så skulle jag inte ha några problem att använda dessa pengar.

Skulle kunna användas till boende. Men det räcker som sagt inte så långt. Jag skulle få flytta tillbaka till Alabama för att få pengarna att räcka långt då det gäller boende.

Jag skulle nog använda min miljon till att ta ett sabbatsår och resa. Ta ett år och leva på min miljon och skippa mitt vanliga jobb. Resa, gå fotokurser och ägna mig åt att skriva. Ägna ett helt år åt projekt och saker som jag skulle vilja prova på och förverkliga.

Lite höstbilder som jag tog imorse. Nu börjar de fina färgerna komma och träden skifta i rött och gult. Men vi har som sagt fått in en fin varmfront som bjuder på lite bittsommar med ca 20 grader. Igår när jag cyklade hem hade jag nästan en sommarkänsla.

Just nu har jag inget emot höst alls när det är så här vackert och milt.

Så här vackert ser det ut vid Norrabantorget just nu. Jag tog mitt vanliga pitt stop på favvis caféet.

Det röda gamla vackra huset på KI campus. Just nu omringat av lyftkranar. De håller på att bygga en ny stor aula till KI. Det byggs mycket på hela campus området faktiskt. Men just vid det gamla fina huset växer ett päronträd.

Ha en skön helg!

Hiking a long the west coast

The weather is kind of surprising currently. Today it is 20C (70F)and I love it! It is going to stay this way for a few days it seems.I could bike to work without any jacket or sweater. To me that is just great. I know the bitter cold is just around the corner and will not spare us later on. Still fall is here. The days are quickly getting shorter. Now the sun set already before 7 pm. I am feeling a slight panic but there is nothing I can do about it. I really do dread the long dark winter that is approaching.

Well let's turn to something more cheerful. I still have not shown all the pictures from our weekend with our friends when we drove down to the southern west coast of Sweden. We made this really great hike during the day that was 11 Km (about 7 miles). Even if the sky was kind of overcast it was really nice.

We drove two cars and parked one in the small harbor at Kattvik and then continued on with the other car to Torekov where we started our hike.

We walked a long the shore line following the coast past fields with gracing sheep and cows.

To me this is picture really represents southern Sweden with it's open flat landscape.

If I were a cow I would love to walk and enjoy the grass on a field like this one with these kinds of views. I wonder if the cows do find the grass more tasteful here and if they do appreciate the views.

You can tell that the strong winds shape the landscape here.

A beautiful Swan.

Even if I did say that much of the landscape down south is flat and our hike started out on low and flat terrain we faced quite a climb about half way trough. But the view once you got to the top was well worth the effort of the climb.

The typical black and white cows and horses gracing peacefully on the green slopes. Anyone that has seen the commercials on Swedish butter on TV can easily picture this landscape as the hills of the "Bregott factory". I am convinced that they probably did shoot the commercial here.

I fell in love with the many apple orchards. We did stop to buy some apples and apple cider.

When we got back home we were tired but happy. Sitting in front of the fireplace enjoying some wine was just the perfect ending to a great day.

Treasures from the forest

This past weekend we just had the best kind of fall weather with sunshine, blue skies and pleasant temperatures. Sunday we decided to head out for a good walk in the woods. Just in case we would find some mushrooms we brought a bag with us. We did not have very high hopes considering we did not find a lot the last time and also considering there are so many people here around Stockholm that do roam the forest for mushrooms and berries all the time. We drove out to Lida national forest area with C's sister and family.

We actually did not have to look for very long before we found these "trattkantareller" (sorry but I do not know the English name for these).

Turned out it was a really good idea to bring that bag after all. I have actually never found such quantities. I think we picked about 10 liters (about 2.5 gallons) of these in less than two hours.

But we also found some blue berries. Perhaps the very last for the season. I was very surprised to find them at all this late. But I got enough for my breakfast.

Our walk was cut kind of short and did not turn out so long but on the other hand we came home with some great edible treasures.

I saw quite a lot of small rabbits jumping around. I guess some of them are house pets that have escaped and others previous pet rabbits that have on purpose been let out. We all know that rabbits sure know how to multiply.

The girls were very happy to help us pick mushrooms. Here is C with his youngest nice little Ella.

When we came home we had a lot of work to do cleaning the mushrooms we had picked. Iris helped us. I think we spent more time cleaning them than what it had taken us to pick them. Then we spread them out on towel to dry.

Copenhagen

Last week I was in Copenhagen, Denmark on a two day conference with three colleagues of mine. I thought I would share some of my pictures with you. I instantly liked Copenhagen a lot. It is a pretty city surrounded by lots of water and it has some real cool architecture. Danes are very good both when it comes to design and to making delicious rye bread.

We had a great stay at the SAS Radisson blu hotel located in the very city center. We had views over the main central station as well as the Tivoli area. The hotel has a very cool interior design all made by Arne Jacobsen. In the foyer area you can sit and relax in one of the famous egg or swan chairs.

When we were there the bicycle world championships was also taking place so they had closed off some areas of the city center.

Suddenly I caught a glimpse of "The Swede" I hope he did really well. In full action I caught a shot of the back of Mr. Portugal here followed closely by his team car.

The famous Danish sweet breads with chocolate.

Something else that seemed popular in Copenhagen was crepes. You could easily buy them as you walked a long at all kinds of places both small stalls as well as simple food wagons. They smelled divine as you walked by. This woman was making one here as I stopped and watched her for a moment.



The conference was taking place at the Danish Architecture Center. We were able to walk there from our hotel passing "Stroget" the famous walking street and main shopping area. It was a nice walk of about half an hour.

The Danish Architecture Center was a cool place. The meeting took place in their museum and book store. Beautiful large Le Klint lamps were hanging from the ceiling. A funny coincidence was that I happened to be contacted by a woman from the Danish Architecture Center just about a week before I was travelling here. She had found some of my pictures from Hammarby Sjöstad where we live and wanted to know if she could have my permission to use them for their Green Growth Leaders Conference in the middle of October taking place in Copenhagen. So I sent the picture to her and hopefully they will appear here later on. I had taken some picture on how recycling is done in the area where I live. Kind of a cool coincidence.

Copenhagen is full of cool and modern architecture but they have also kept many of the old beautiful buildings. I loved the mix of old and modern that you see here. We were taken on a river boat tour along the canals in the evening together with a Danish architect that served as our guide telling us about the buildings as we passed them.

In contrast to the very ultra modern buildings you then have these old charming houses that also are very colorful. It almost reminds me a little bit of Amsterdam in a way.

Some of the bridges we passed under where very low so you had to make sure you were sitting down on the boat or you would have gotten knocked off. Copenhagen is also a true biking city. Even if there are many people biking in Stockholm there are so many more here in Denmark.

The boat took us right up to the restaurant where we were having dinner.

After dinner it was very nice to finally reach our hotel and get a good nights sleep.The three of us girls shared the family room together.

The view from our room at 7 am sharp displayed by the large clock on the Central Station.

Unfortunately we did not have time to visit the very cool Sky bar at the top of our hotel but we still took the elevator up there just before we were checking out. The Sky bar was not open but we were allowed in to take a look at the view. I can imagine it must be very cool to sit up here having dinner or a drink admiring the view over the entire city at night.

Something I never would have dared to try is this carousel with swings at a great altitude over the city. I am scared of heights and I do get dizzy easily so this is not something for me.

I much rather preferred the visit we made at Starbucks at the airport.

Then we flew home getting a beautiful sunset.