First of Advent again

Start of the Christmas Time in Sweden. And I can say: It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

In the shops it's totally Christmas, as well on the streets in the city and the private houses along the road. Only some weeks to go. Hoping for some snow to come.

I've been very creatieve last time (I was inside anyway 😜) and I have been working on Christmas decorations to create a real Christmas house. I like working with natural materials of course. I like them very much (the ferns, the mossa and pine cones) but it's also so difficult to buy suitable natural decorating stuff and very expensive too, when it is possible to buy it at all. Beside of that the assortment on the countryside in Sweden is very small, in the cities it is much better. 

For me it's always the best time of year. I like to decorate, to make new creations, to use new colors. It's like party time packing out all boxes with Christmas stuff. With a good herbs tea (filled up with pomorans, kardemomma, cinnamom and fresh ginger). a fresh baked almonds cake and a warm fireplace the ideal start of this time. When you need some inspiration, have a look on my earlier posts about Christmas decorations. And of course Pinterest is a good source to find extra inspiration. You can find me there too!

Meanwhile we take the time to visit some Lingonställer in the neighborhood, worth recommendation. Late Sunday afternoon there's the yearly Julskyltning in Ljungby. It's sort of partytime, with Christmas market, opened shops, Santa Claus and time to put on the lights of the enormous Christmas tree. 

We wish you lot's of luck next weeks. I know in working times it is always the most busy time of the year. We try to keep busy in the dark, starting to count down for Christmas....only 4 weeks to go.

By the way, we got just a little sun last week (just before going down again). I saw it on the perfect spot, at lake Flyxen. See you soon....😏

Typical november days?

Strange times, every thing keeps growing... So I have been cutting the gras again by hand, the robot was already in wintersleep so I did it myself. It is the beginning of november.... some years we already had snow. Or we had very grey days, below 7 degrees. But til half of November it was daytime 10-12 degrees. 

The birds start singing again, we even saw some flying around with nesting materials 😂. We are lucky too.... we have been sowing gras , its already growing. It looks totally green right now. We still could plant, also on the new empty places. 

Later it got a little more cold, no sun at all anymore and very grey, misty and wet as usual in November. Real Småland colors. Must difficult time of the year for us. It feels like being dark whole day, getting a little light late and very early dark again. Your body doesn't wake up anymore and wants to sleep all day. We tried to be outside as possible to get more light but we still needed our blue light again, to keep fit. We fixed all the before winter jobs, like closing the watertaps, empty the rain barrels and protect some special plants. I was very happy i could place them in one of my neighbors places for winter time. We also spread a lot of compost around the whole garden, covered by a leaf deck. It protects the plants for the frost and it creates a mulch layer for next year, so the ground won't dry out that quick. One of the last jobs was to clean the gras form leaves,which we managed, just in time.

Suddenly winter came and we got some very cold nights and snow. Beautiful, it really lights the days here in Småland. I really enjoyed the days outside, cleaning the paths (no more fitnesstraining needed now 😅) and making pictures from the snow, sending to friends and family. It is so beautiful, it filled my heart with so much warmth. And you know what? The good thing is, less then 5 weeks to go and the days will get longer and lighter again.

Time to start with Christmas decorations soon, let's put the music on....

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Advents Time is coming closer

Nearly time to go out and visit one of the Lingonställen in your surroundings. We are closed this time of the year but we recommend the places who have opened this time. You can find places of your interest here: Lingonrundan Jul 26-27-11 & 17/12/2022

It's really worth your visit! 

Very recently I saw already a glimpse of the Santa Claus office somewhere....Did you see it too?