Happy New Year!

Today - monday - is the last day of 2012 - and tomorrow we will wake up to the new year, 2013.

So I wish all my readers - with this pic from my home in Sweden - a very Happy New Year! 

Ice outside - cat inside

Today it is so hard to walk out that I hardly can walk at all without falling. It it's ice everywhere.

And it's raining, so that makes it even harder to get somewhere. But the snow is melting, yes!!...

That makes my cat Kisse staying inside, he is sleeping in front of me, at my work table.

Horses in the snow

Just before this year is ower, here is some photos of two lovely horses in the snow. It is cold now again outside after a short rain.

Home now working and planning what to eat for the upcoming new years eve. And visiting the horses close by.

The horses likes to stay out even if it's cold. Can not understand that, but they carry fur...

Merry Christmas to you all!

With this photo from today in my dining room I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Just a photo of some Christmas lights - that make the darkness outside a little brighter.

Christmas is coming

For us here in Sweden it's just one day left for Christmas. Tomorrow, the 24:th of December we celebrate all day long.

This year I did not get a Christmas tree, but I took some branches from an apple tree and put up some lights and decorations in it.

Then I have to show you this pic of a bleak winter sun behind a tree and a lot of snow. Ans wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!

On my way home

This photo is taken just an hour ago, in my car on my way home in the snow and the cold weather.

As you can se it's snowing again. Not happy about that, but it's winter so what can you do...

And to remind me of nicer things - an old photo of my cat Kisse in the summer.

Just an old painting

And here is one old painting I have on my wall, not shure who did it, just that it's not that valuable. But I really like it.

The painting reminds me about the old murals in some of the houses in the ancient city Pompeii, in Italy, just outside Naples. A roman city that was totally destroyed by an vulcano eruption - Vesuvio.

Liquor made of sloe

As some of you maybe remember, this autumn I was out in the forrest to pick some sloe. Than I put them in a jar with some Absolut vodka and waited until now, three months.

I then added some sugar and poured it in this antique glass decanter - perfect for Christmas.

And here you have the sloe bush outside, before they got picked...

Stockholm - street with Christmas lights

This is Stockholm just now - with the Christmas lights hanging in the shopping streets and snow in the streets.

The first one here is a tree decorated with lights in white and moving ones in blue.

And the second one below is outside a shopping mall calles Mood, a place I pass daily to work. Christmas decorations everywhere really.

Sankta Lucia...

In Sweden we celebrate the Italian saint Lucia, we call her Sankta Lucia. In English St Lucy. And we celebrate her on the 13 of december every year.

A girl in a white gown and a red ribbon or sash on the hips and candles in her hair comes along with a procession of other girls and some boys. And they sing a traditional neapolitan song calles Santa Lucia, but with Swedish lyrics.

It's misty again

The cold weather makes some amazing views, with the snow and the mist in the background.

For me not so nice, since I don't like the cold, especially together with a lot of snow.

But I can not say anything about the pure beauty about it. Sweden rocks even in snow.

Two cats in the snow

Two pics of my cats, in the snow some days ago. Not that they like it but they don't mind follow me around.

One of them is really mine, Kisse, the red/yellow one lives now with me in my house. It used to be my mother's cat, but when she passed away...

And the other black stray cat that usually comes here to eat. It sleeps with the horses during winter.

House in the snow

Looks like a Happy Christmas postcard - but the little red house is here a yellow one.

The photos was taken a really cold day with the blue sky and all, and a lot of snow.

And here we have a photo of my garden - or rather- some trees in snow, cold but really beautiful.

Outside in my garden

My garden in winter - a big difference from the green lovely place in summer.

The photo was taken before the really big snow fall last week. But it is really white.

And just remember how it all looked in the much more colorful autumn....

Winter wonderland

It is really a winter wonderland just now here in Sweden. The whole landscape look exactly lika a picture perfect Christmas card.

But for me, winter is like a long - what should I call it - a prison sentance! Like one thing you have to go thru, like it or not. It is so hard for me to live a "normal" life in the cold. I dress well covered, but it just dosen't matter. I am still freezing!!!

Here is another beautiful photo - it is taken one very, very cold day, at noon, here in Sweden.

Visiting Knivsta

Yesterday I was in Knivsta, the little town just outside Uppsala and close to the main airport of Sweden, Arlanda.

The first photo is of the municipal building and the municipal library, open a saturday. There you can borrow books and films and surf on the net.

And this photo is of a small shopping street with a Christmas tree. And a lot of snow.

Snow everywhere

Just now it's snow everywhere here in Sweden, even on the flowers and plants I have, are covered by snow. This is on old hoseplant I have outside my home.

But in some strange way I must say it is almost magically beautiful too.

More winter

And here is two more photos of this long, cold and snowy Swedish winter. Cold it is, at this photo it was 10 degrees below zero.

But I must say, it is rather beautiful too. In it's own vierd way. I do not like winters, but I can appriciate an amazing landscape.

And here is another photo of a Swedish winter of my garden, before we got a really lot of snow.

Really snowy now

Yesterday we had a really snowy day, I could not get yo work, roads where blocked and no trains or buses. As I live a lot in the countryside I have a bit to go, but today it was possible to drive again.

And then take a train to Stockholm, here it's a photo of Knivsta from the train station - in the morning. You see all the snow!

My own work in oil

Strange it is, but it iI have painted this face. Not my mother, but probably can see that. It is nowhere close to my mothers art. She was the talanted one with the oils and watercolors.

The reason I difd this was a competition at my workplace, Svensk Damtidning, some years ago. All of us had to do a portrait of a famous Swedish artist Barbro Lill Babs Svensson. This was my entry.
Here is a photo of her, if you are interested from site I work at:
http://svenskdam.se/2010/07/bildspel-diggiloogolf-pa-hooks-herrgard/

First Sunday of Advent

Today we light up all the christmas candles - the real ones and the electric ones as uoy can see in the pictures here.

Because today is the first Sunday of Advent, a tradition here in Sweden that make us light up!

We have almost one Christmas light in every window. As you can se here.

And it's really cold

This morning when I woke up it was almost minus 10 degrees Celsius. Absolutely too cold and freezing for me to want to go outside.

But it is rather beautiful, like the photo here. Snow and a piece of winter sun.

And here is another photo just two weeks ago, a small pond with then still open water. Beautiful.

Winter is here

Really, now it's winter - even if I'm not a big fan of snow and cold weather I must admit it is really beautiful ouside.

Here is one photo from my apple tree garden today in the afternoon - with snow, a bit of sun and some degrees belove zero.

And here is a reminder from just a few weeks ago, with the apples on the ground.

Christmas lights in Stockholm

Now it's time for some Christmans decorations in the sity, here you have a shopping street in the centre of Stockholm, looking down at Sergelgatan.

It's cold and snowy now and you can almost feel the Christmas spirit. More to come...