Sagittarius Viking

Grab a cup of coffee, or tea and chat with me! It is still dark out this early Saturday morning. I’m enjoying my coffee black like any other beautiful morning.

This week I have some very happy news to share with you! I got one of the apartments I was looking at a couple weeks ago. My daughter and I got the apartment in the passive house, that was the one that both of us liked the best. If you are unsure of what a passive house is, and how it works, here is a great article that explains it in a way even I understand 😉

We are beyond thrilled! The apartment is beautiful with wooden floors, tiled bathrooms, the windows are big and deep, there is great natural light throughout the apartment, and it has a large balcony with removable glass panels all around (like a greenhouse that can be opened up.) It’s on the 4th floor overlooking a big green area, and the community greenhouse. It’s close enough to work that I can ride my bike to work every day. It’s a few minutes walk to downtown where most of the shopping and restaurants are situated, and the regions biggest hospital. There is one big grocery store (our version of Costco) very close. This is the perfect solution for us at the moment. I am planning on staying at my current work place for many years to come, and I need to live reasonably close by. My daughter benefits from being close to good schools as she gets older. The area have a lot to offer when it comes to both sports, art and culture.

I am very happy that we are able to lessen our ecological footprint even more. The plan is to eventually, in a couple years or so, purchase a small off-grid cabin/homestead where I can have a larger garden, while still living in the city when I work. I know that I want to grow more of our food, that have always been my goal, but for now I am happy having a smaller garden, the knowledge, and a plan. I’m thinking that my future cabin is within 1-2 hours from our town, a distance I could easily travel by bike, or public transportation, and sometimes renting a car for the weekend. This is the region I was born in, where my family lived for a long time. I did not grow up here, but I love it here. I believe this is the perfect solution.

Do you need a refill on your hot beverage? In a little bit my daughter and I are going to start baking a cake for a friend who’s birthday is coming up next week. We are going to celebrate her this afternoon with a Swedish fika (coffee and cake.) I’m sure there will be cake leftover if you drop by again later 😉

Tell me about your week! What’s the weather like? Our snow disappeared, it’s about 30F and raining at the moment. A perfect day for baking, and cozying up indoors. I am having a Halloween treasure hunt for my daughter today (I just finished up the last clues.) I was planning on inviting a couple off her friends, but the numbers of Covid-19 have increased this week, so I’m thinking it’s smarter to save inviting her friends for next year. It will still be fun. I’ve made a Halloween drawing/map with clues that is going to lead her to three different treasures inside the house. I mean The Witch Greta hid three treasures..

At some point today we are going to carve pumpkins, my daughter demanded that we save all the carving to today, making it into our new tradition to wait until Halloween before carving, not doing it a week before Halloween like we’ve always had. After carving pumpkins there will be some roasting of pumpkin seeds of course. I already look forward to the scent. I make mine with butter (or olive/coconut oil,) salt and pepper, 20 min at 350 degrees. Sometimes I add grated fresh garlic, I believe I will do that today. What is your plan for the weekend?

Love,

Maria

The coffee is excellent today, can I offer you a cup? Or perhaps some tea? It is cold and beautiful outside, and I have to say it is good to be alive! Everyone is happy and healthy. It’s a great week. Work had the right level of challenges to make it interesting, my colleagues were fabulous as usual. In Sweden the kids are enjoying a fall-break next week, and we decided to celebrate Halloween all week this week so that they (the kids that are fortunate to be at home with their families next week, some kids still have to attend school, if their parents work,) wouldn’t miss the celebrations. We made tons of Halloween crafts, decorated the school, organised a Halloween Dance (the kids could choose to dress up in Halloween costumes,) we watched a Halloween movie, we did a Halloween walk in the woods with tricky Halloween questions, and had a visit from a famous host of a Swedish Children’s TV show (a colleague dressed up as him hosting a “show” with the kids at our department. They thought it was the real deal, and it was pretty scary, but not too scary.) I am very pleased with how our work week turned out.

We also had our first snow on Tuesday, that is always magical. That snow is gone, but now it is colder again and it is snowing. I LOVE SNOW! I purchased new winter boots this week, so I am ready to conquer the cold.

As of now the snow is slowly falling outside my window. I do admit that I only went outside to take the photo at the top, I am enjoying my coffee inside with a warm oat ciabatta straight out of the oven.

It’s looking to be a great day today. If we were having coffee I’d give you the choice of an oat ciabatta, or Swedish Halloween candy as a side.

Can I tempt you with some eyeballs? A spider? Or maybe a finger?

I am planning on taking a long walk shortly, and spend the rest of the day reading, and hanging out with my daughter. I’m currently reading The Conqueror series, a series of novels by Conn Iggulden about Genghis Khan and his successors, set during the time of the Mongol conquest of the 12th and 13th centuries. Have you read the series? I’m reading the second book, and I really enjoy the series so far.

I don’t have any news about a new apartment to share…yet..stay tuned. Tell me about your week! What’s the weather like? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Love,

Maria