The sweet, seducing scent of saffron is lingering this weekend. If we were having coffee I would ask you if you would like to try a saffron pastry. Would you like one? Are you familiar with saffron? It was challenging to find saffron to make these pastries for Lucia when I lived in the US. Here in Sweden every store carry saffron in December. It’s an expensive spice, with a very characteristic taste and smell, you either hate, or love it. Most Swedes love it. I made these pastries early this morning.
If you were here in my living room, we would sit in the red couch from Ikea that I assembled last night. I would ask you if you think I should add another sitting area with a couple armchairs, or maybe one of those hand carved wooden couches famous for this region, on the opposite side of the room? It would have to be after Christmas, with the Christmas tree in the room it would be too crowded for my liking.
The couch was the last piece of furniture I assembled for our new apartment. It now feels like home. Sure there are a few finishing touches to be made, like more lamps, and I am still waiting for the curtain-rods that I’ve ordered. I have beautiful curtains for all the rooms (seven big windows,) but no way to hang them yet. The curtain-rods were supposed to be here last week, but are slightly delayed, hopefully they’ll get here within the next couple days. I put Christmas glitter around my daughter’s windows, but all the other windows are bare, except for the blinds. I also need plants, lots of them 🙂 Fun details to be added over time, overall I am extremely happy with how everything turned out.
There are two bedrooms, and my son and daughter have those. The living room and kitchen are in one big, open, L-shaped space, and I’ve created an area for myself in the corner between the kitchen and the living room. “My room” have big windows covering all the walls, and the balcony is right outside. I’ve made “my room” with two sections of shelves. I imagine the section towards the living room filled with beautiful books, and the other section towards the kitchen like a wall of green (unscented) plants. I also imagine one bigger plant, standing on the floor, next to the section of books.
The balcony have glass all around it, in panels, like a greenhouse. You can open the panels, and they do have blinds that you can pull out for shade, if needed. The balcony is 120 sf, and I am going to turn the area into a balcony garden this spring. I am super excited about that! Right now I have two fig trees, a big sage plant, and a container with strawberries resting there, while waiting for warmer weather. I already have all the big containers I invested in this year to plant in, come spring time. The balcony roof is rather high and I can grow a lot of produce if I use the vertical space as well. Ooops, this is already a lengthy post, and I haven’t started to tell you anything about this week..I was planning on making this a short post, only sharing some photos from our new place. LOL.
It’s been an intense week, and I was looking forward to sleeping in Saturday morning, instead my daughter woke me up at 3AM, wanting to make a gingerbread house! I told her to go back to sleep. She did. I did not. Then she came to me at 4.30, just as my eye lids started to get a little heavy again..I told her to go back to sleep. She did, and I did. Then she woke at 6AM, and she made a gingerbread house. I did not get to help, but she wanted my company. I choose to see that as a blessing.
On Thursday we celebrated Alfred Nobel. We encouraged the children to dress up in their best clothes, and we (teachers) did as well. We discussed what Nobel has done for the world, performed some experiments, talked about the five different Nobel Prizes, and enjoyed an elegant three course meal. It was a memorable day. I filmed some of the experiments, and took many photos for the parents to be able to be a part of the day as well.
Would you like a refill on your coffee? Did you like the saffron pastry? The name of the pastry is Lussekatt. Feel free to have another one if you like. Lucia, the celebration associated with saffron, is today. It is a countdown to Christmas for most kids. We are having our lucia celebration at school on Tuesday, and we’ve been practicing our luciatåg every day. A luciatåg is a type of parade with Christmas songs, performed to brighten the spirit of the audience. It is common, in normal times without Covid, to sing at retirement housings and schools, combined with handing out gingerbread cookies and lussekatter.
Speaking of Christmas, our principal arranged a surprise Christmas party for us on Monday this week. Everyone was surprised! Once a month we have an evening meeting at work, dedicated to either discuss things about our school, or implementing new ways of teaching/learning etc. This meeting started out as one of those, and was transformed into a party, with an exquisite meal served at the end. It was a total surprise! If we were having coffee I would have asked you first about your week, before telling you all this, but please, go ahead, tell me about your life. Are you ready for Christmas? How are you doing?
Love,
Maria
