Scientific experiments?

It is a well known and amusing fact that when you place a pen between your teeth, your mouth and facial muscles takes on a grinning posture and signals happiness to you your brain. It actually is said to make you feel instant happiness... Now, I wonder, if you take another pen and place under one of you breasts - assuming that you are a woman - and you notice that it sits there tight and not drops.. Will this knowledge make you loose and drop the grinning pen you happily keep clenched between you teeth?

"At this very moment.."

(Photo: The Boston Globe)

This link was mailed to me from Washington this morning. One of the most memorable sequences of photos of an instant "global warming" we will probably see: What people were doing from Croatia to Afganistan the very moment Barack Obama was installed. The initial pictures on the DC scene are also quite amazing! Give it two minutes and watch - I am sure you won´t regret..

The big grin..

..on the face of my richly ornamented main door of the old part of the house, amuses me. There is a man placed right in centre with a silver colored face and he is grinning particularly benevolenty at sunset. I think he is happy when the red sunrays for a few minutes turn his eternally silvery face into gold..

This is the glow of our northern sunset this glorious Monday on the old porch of the Gotland house.The blackbirds who tend to linger up here in the north in winter nowadays - instead of taking off for the south as they were originally programmed (sign of global warming?) - have happily cleared their throats today in a subdued twitter in what might just be interpreted as a initial prelude to spring..

The little lady in pink..

Thalia, Washington DC, January 2009

Here comes the sun..

Finally after endless days of grey - we rediscover the sun!
Like cats in a bowl of cream we northerners lap up these precious January sunrays
(This is how it looked like before..No.Check this greeat way how to make you photos look old! Click here..)

Sunlight on the old wallpapers on my loft overlooking the back of the garden..

The small veranda almost takes on the appearance of a conservatory.The few plants I have bought since I moved in were almost dying of hunger for light..

The end comes to a a lovely sunny Swedish winter Saturday with a bit of snow. The sun sets at 4PM behind my walnut tree displaying and enhancing its intricate network of branches.
There is hope! And I can´t stop humming "Here comes the sun.." for along time..

Bargains for the farm..

My new white sofa (containing two guest beds) arrived yesterday! It was bought here on Gotland at Farbror Fynd (Uncle Bargain) for a very fair price and delivered right into my livingroom. I invited Farbror Fynd and his assistant for a cup of coffee afterwards. The couch was gooddamn heavy! I really had to show them how very pleased I was. When they left I tried the sofa and fell instantly asleep! A good sign on its comfort, indeed! I look forward to a lot of interaction between the sofa and me for many years to come! Zzzzz..

My other bargain I picked up at the "Red Cross friendly second hand store" Kupan, in Visby - a kitchen table and four chairs. Rather ugly most people obviously thought so nobody was interested in buying it. But I did! Sturdy chairs they were and an extra bord for inserting in the table which will enable 8 people to sit around it , was also included. I payed 400 Sw crs (ca 60 dollars) for the set. And a checked table cloth (last picture below) was 30 crs (4 dollars) ..

I had some good material to give the seats a total makeover. This is easy and fun and a rewardingly quick
styling change..

Now, here is my kitchen furniture! Not so bad for a very small amount. It is quite a challenge to go flee marketing! The sky is the limit! Cheers for now -I am off for the sofa with a huge colorful book on home stying by Tricia Guild and a great cup of a lovely Gotland tea called "Kränku." (You can buy your own Gotland-tea here on the web)

If you do love Paris..

..and have not yet seen this wonderful film from 1965 - take some time and watch it! I assure you - it will make your day..I was inspired by Camilla´s blog . See links below. She too, was inspired by the Palm d´Or winning film (in Cannes 1965) and made one of her great naivistic collages on the theme.
By the way, this morning I was slightly embarrassed to find that Feedjit listed my blog "Tankar från routern" with the number 8 in their Geoblogsphere in popularity of the Stockholm blogs Must be some kind of a great mistake!
And now let´s enjoy this little poetic story with some links we can trace to our Swedish beloved author Astrid Lindgren. This little boy in the film might well be a French little Mio min Mio..

Le Ballon rouge by Albert Lamorisse 1965

Another gray day..

..and I hear myself groaning like Lurch while drawing the curtains this bleak January morning..
Enough of this now!

I want eternal sunshine on my spotless mind!

Remembering June in January..

Early Sunday morning I took a walk with my camera. There were almost no colors. Not really cold - but misty..
Almost no sounds.

..and I was counting the months to summer. February. Probably some more drifting snow and ice. March. Days are getting longer and the "light hungry" Swedes are rejoycing. April. The first signs of the early brave spring flowers show their little heads in the flowerbeds. May. Yess! Now we are talking! And June! Finally! The abundance of apple blossom and orchids! How we all long for summer in this northern part of the world! This photo is from June last year with the meadow in full bloom next to my house ..According to a sign posted right by my gate, the famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linné, the Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature, walked this very meadow to collect some of his many plants far back in the 1750s. Linné is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.

Cameras and carrots..

Today, I unpacked some of my old cameras I bought in Zimbabwe in 1982 - an era when a number of the white inhabitants fled the country in fear of the new black regime of Mugabe´s. (Sic!) They took off in for England, South Africa and Australia in a hurry and left their farms and many belongings they were not able to bring, behind. For the few people who moved down there in the beginning of the 80´s, like I did, and who believed in the new "liberation" of Zimbabwe, it was a great opportunity to acquire a number of beautiful antiquities left behind for sale by the fleeing farmers of British decent. I bought a whole box of old cameras brought to the country during Rhodesian times. In unpacking thoose old rarities, quite some memories return of the four years I spent in Zimbabwe when there still was great hope for this beautiful, rich - now suffering country..
I sometimes wonder what kind of pictures these cameras once took..

From cameras to carrots. (Sounds like a title of a novel or a film.. Cameras, carrots and cappucchino?) Today I bought this heavy bag of carrots for some 5 dollars (30 Sw crs). It will last for ayear! I happened to accompany my brother-in-law to a farm to buy 8 carrot bags for his and my sister´s many horses. And I was happy to "bag" one for myself and hurried home to my fruit juicer and mixed a healthy Friday drink! If you spot me around in a few weeks time sporting a slightly orange complexion - here you have the naked answer!