Starry, starry sky

I don't remember the last time I saw the stars, but suddenly they were just there.

We're fast approaching autumn, feels like summer passed in a blur.

Sometimes I seriously wonder which stars enticed our ancestors to travel this far north...

No, I am not dead...

...though I see why you might think so.

The thing is.. the more I have going on, the more people I talk to every day, the less I feel the need to spill my guts on here. Between working, volunteering and negotiating my way through living with my parents - I'm all talked out!

But now it's summer. I've done nothing since the school holiday started three weeks ago.

Today my parents suddenly went off to Turkey for two weeks, my sister is moving home and the only thing I have to do is sort through my entire childhood in the attic and decide what parts of it to throw out.

...though I have a feeling there was something else...

Oh yes. Find a job. I definitely need to find a job.

Just sucks most jobs are in Norway when I don't want to be.

August

Summer almost over, rained away like autumn will.
Almost time to pick the cherries and the plums.
Not time to make cherry wine.

Me, I'm just bored. I should be bored. I'm stuck.
And I'm tired of making excuses.

I've got to kick myself in the butt and actually do something.

Just gotta figure out what.

Summer adventures

After a week at home I've realized how much I've missed spending some time alone. It's strange how some times you don't know what you've missed until it's actually there - and then you dread losing it again. One more week!

Although I've mostly been doing a whole lot of nothing, I did find one fun thing to do. I'm not quite sure where that thing is going, but at the moment I'm just enjoying the journey. However difficult the directions may be..

Now if it would only stop raining..
The sound of rain is nice enough when you're inside, but
inside does get boring when it's the middle of July and it's
supposed to be summer out there...

Note to self : Bikes

Do not go riding your bike for miles when you haven't been on it for longer than a mile in a year.

Also, do not go riding your bike for miles when the weather report says wind, cold and rain. Especially when you haven't even checked the weather report.

Man my butt hurts..


Time to snuggle up with a movie and something warm, hope I can stick it out for two whole hours!

Home Alone

For the first time in a year!

This evening the rest of the family leaves for the Canaries and I'll have the house to myself for two whole weeks!

What to do for two weeks?

My friend Sleepy simply suggested I host an orgy. Right. He's Dutch. I wonder what that would be like though, creating something like the infamous Plato's Retreat in a tiny town like this. Imagine the drama!

... I should probably stop watching documentaries starting well after midnight...


Two weeks and no plans.. any suggestions?

Meow she said

Kitten jumps in my window, sits there for a while looking out.

Kitten vomits some creature's insides all over the window sill.

Small creatures have long intestines.
Intestines smell ... bad.

I'm really not sure if I could get any more grossed out right now.

Horoscopes

I've always thought they were kinda fun to read, although I also always forgot what they said as soon as I flipped over the page. I don't believe in horoscopes and I think we find things that fit and things that don't in all the twelve signs - if only we bothered to read them.

It must have been almost ten years ago I read my horoscope for the coming year. It said I would have luck in money games the next 7-8 months so now it was time to go all in! I kinda lost respect for them even as entertainment when I read that, and couldn't help wonder who sponsored the horoscopes in that particular magazine..

I do still read them when I find one in front of me, a situation I'm finding myself in now. The summer horoscope is out and my mum's magazine was opened on its pages. I flip through to mine, wonder where the Libra is, what it will say about my summer. These are the hightlight; (and since reading about my life isn't all that interesting you can go to the bottom of the post to find your sign)

Nighttime Flowers

As the summer solstice has passed, the longest and brightest day of the year being yesterday, it will now gradually start getting darker.

In the previous post I wondered why the air smells so good at night, so full of flowery scents. It's quite a different experience from the daytime, and somehow it also seems warmer - probably because the cold winds stop as the sun sets.

The reason the air smells different at night is quite simple, to quote professor Natalia Dudareva;

"Plants tend to have their scent output at maximal levels only when the flowers are ready for pollination and when its potential pollinators are active as well. Plants that maximize their output during the day are primarily pollinated by bees or butterflies, whereas those that release their fragrance mostly at night are pollinated by moth and bats."

According to Judy Sedbrook at Colorado State University;

"With the setting of the sun, the nocturnal garden awakens and the night shift takes over. Many plants bloom exclusively at night. Many more wait to release their heady scent until evening."

It turns out some flowers only bloom at night, others release their scent only when dark falls. If you've heard some of their names before, that conclusion might be easy to draw.. at least in hindsight; among flowers that bloom at night are Evening Primrose, Moonflowers, Angel's Trumpet, Night Phlox and Evening Stock.

Among those that release their scent during the night are Night Gladiolus, Climbing Hydrangea and Honeysuckle to mention a few. Even Basil and Oregano-plants give off their scent primarily at night. There's also a long list of white and reflective plants which bloom at night, and seem to glow when they reflect the moonlight. For a more extensive list of flowers, you'll find one in the article entitled The Night Shift


- I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to have to go for a walk tonight :)

Midnight

It's as warm at midnight as it was at noon. It's just as light too. The only difference is it smells better. I don't know why, but the warmth of the night (and it does feel warmer at night) brings with it the most amazing flowery smells.

Maybe it's the quiet, maybe it's the light at midnight, maybe it's just magic. I don't know. Somehow the world smells better at night.. and I'm sure there's someone way smarter than me out there who knows exactly why :)

Lawn Mowing Behaviour

I think people mow their lawns every single day here. At least it feels like it - there's always a lawn mower going somewhere.

I've always found lawn mowing behaviour to be kind of amusing. One afternoon you'll hear a neighbour start. Then a little while later one on the other side starts. And when they're done another neighbour gets going... It's almost like when they hear someone else doing it, they're reminded they probably should too.

Whether they realize they're reminded of it because they hear the noise, or whether they think they came up with it all on their own, is hard to say. I'm inclined to say most favour the second option, though I don't think that's what's really going on.

June once again

After a week of chopping, throwing, piling and transporting wood from the woods, I now have brownish arms and white legs. And one muscle. I think. I'm not quite sure.

The flowers are blooming, colours and smells everywhere; I can tell it's been long since I've been here this time of year. I keep deciding to put up the hammock but it's still just a little too cold in the shade.

I tend to lie there, between the cherry tree and the plum tree, dreaming of summer adventures. I know I should just do it.. whatever it is.. "seize the day", that it's "better to regret what you've done than what you didn't do". I just hold back. I always have.


June always holds such promise, such potential for the summer to come. Long summer nights, the smell of lilacs, short skirts and the big, blue lake.. all that's lacking is a bit of excitement. I wonder where to go to find that?

Summer in Spring

20 degrees, sun, a gentle breeze blowing in my hair... I imagine this is what heaven must be like.

Add to that I feel almost completely well, in record time (alcohol+garlic=win!), and my pale white has been replaced by a subtle shade of red around the shoulders.

The butterflies are playing and the kitten is eating bugs... we got a few perfect days in May this year as well, better enjoy the rest of it before the rain starts tomorrow.

Mmm... there's nothing like long, warm, bright summer days :)

The Horror of Alarms

I thought I'd left the car alarms behind when I left the city. Unfortunately, something seems to happen every spring and summer; new people come to town. Tourists, friends, relatives.. they come here from other parts of the country, they park their cars, and they turn their car alarms on.

Car alarms don't work here. Well.. they work.. a little too well, to be honest. Which is why they don't work - in the sense that you can't turn them on. This is the quietest little town ever, and people aren't used to car alarms. Neither are cats, dogs, birds..

Basically - if you turn your car alarm on, it's bound to go off. Usually in the middle of the night and it will keep the neighbours up. What you do then is turn it off. What you don't do is turn the bloody thing back on and go back inside!

When you do that it'll only go off again. In about half an hour. Trust me - I know. Leave it off, you won't regret it. Nobody is gonna steal your friggin car anyway, because nothing bad ever happens around here. Again - trust me. I know.

Forgotten Memories

We went to a football match today, the lil town's football team played the one from 20 years ago. Before the second half, my sister and I moved away from the crowd and over to the other side of the field.

After a little while a man walks up to us. He says hi to me, asks how I am and what I'm doing these days. Nothing unusual there... except I'm not sure who this man is. He seems to know me and after a couple minutes I recognized him as our science teacher from my first year in high school. He killed some rabbits so we could look at their hearts and lungs.

But that was eight years ago. I was one of over a hundred kids he taught each year. If he remembers every single kid I'm seriously impressed. Especially if he remembered me - even I wouldn't have remembered me back then. I was easy to miss. Easy to ignore. But for some reason he still remembered me.


I know I remember people who never knew who I was, but over the years I've realized there are people out there who for one reason or another seem to remember me too. I wonder... who are all those people I've forgotten through the years? Who lives on in my memories, while I have vanished from theirs? And whose memories am I still a part of?


“We do not remember days, we remember moments.
The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.”

Cesare Pavese

Sweden?

After a slightly messed up and rainy July it's been rather boring just staying in town. So how about a road trip? Just a few days and not far across the border, but it's better than sitting around here.

Sweden's a cute country, and I haven't been for a while. For some reason it always seems to be sunny over there... We're only staying a few days, coming back for the weekend. The annual fair in town (if you can call it that) starts Friday and I haven't been the past three years or so. Might be fun, hoping to see some old friends.


Unfortunately, there's been another death in the family, my father's cousin this time. He was in Sweden with his wife when he went for a walk and never came back. Like my uncle three weeks ago, he just died for no apparent reason. Unexpected deaths, although they can shorten the pain, they only seem to bury it deeper inside you...

Centipede!

I'm lying in bed contemplating sleep when a centipede comes wandering down the curtain a few inches away.

I'm not usually squeamish and I don't mind spiders - but centipedes, those buggers are the devil's creatures!

I trapped it in a glass and got it out the window... and now I can't stop wondering what else might have got in there.

I've seen the spiders, I've caught most bugs...
But is there another centipede waiting for me under the covers?

What DO you do with a million cherries?

You make cherry wine!

So yesterday we removed the pits from 18 kilos of cherries.

If you've tried it yourself (and I'm guessing you haven't), you'll know you get a whole different kind of sympathy for people working in the fields for minimum wage in the scorching sun..

This wine better be worth it!

Cherries

I've never seen this many in the tree before, we picked several buckets yesterday, 18 kilo, and that's just a fraction of what's up there.

What do you do with a million cherries?

Why does it always rain on me...?

We got back home a few days ago and I was looking forward to getting warm after freezing for a week. Not that it was that cold up north, but when you have 16 people in one house constantly running in and out, never closing any doors, well, it gets a little chilly.

Unfortunately, it's raining here. It's been raining a while and it's supposed to keep raining for another week.


I'm sure there's something fun that can be done indoors during summer... I just can't think of what that something might be.