Recipes For Life

A new decade. A conscious effort from me to help this time of my life become better. I have noticed a need to write for a long time. So I thought I would reinvent this blog as a tool for this. Thoughts, ideas, dreams and just a need to ‘write it off’ is the main aim. Mainly for myself. A kind off log I guess. The past decade hasn’t been great for me, for many reasons. But I have a hope and wish for the twenties to be better. A decade where all the blood sweat and tears of the years gone by, have laid a foundation for something better. More about that later. Anyhow… happy new year….. happy new decade!

I miss the garden! Only a couple of months left until i can start sewing seeds 😉

Heres what we’ve been up to lately

And lots of work in the garden!

A large portion of this weekend was spent digging in the garden. With all this early Spring weather, we’ve been able to get a head start. We are enlarging the kitchen garden; a new large circle has been dug which I plan to segment like a big cake, and we dug up some old stone paving slabs that have been hiding under the grass. Not sure what we’ll do with these yet. It almost feels like cheating starting this early. Though it is still too cold to plant outside yet of course.

Here are some pictures.

It all looks a little brown and dreary just now, but it won’t be long until the bees are buzzing around the flowers and veggies. The easiest way to start a little veggie patch is by using pallet collars if you don’t want to dig. Just place them on the grass, cover the bottom with newspaper, then fill with good soil. If you want some inspiration just google ‘gardening with pallet collars’.

Thumbs up for the sun!

This weekend we were at Scandinavias largest garden show – Nordiska Trädgårdar.

It was just what I needed after a grey, wet winter. Spring is in the air, the soil is getting warmer every day, and today at least, the sky is blue.

Pictures speak louder than words, so here are some snaps I took. Hopefully they can inspire you, even if it is just a little.

Leksands Gästhem – ekologiskt inspirerat boende i Dalarna.

I thought I’d start adding some posts with recommended places to visit. Our little family visits this place at least a couple of times a year, and seeing as we like it so much, I thought maybe our guests would too.

‘Styggforsen’ translates loosely to ‘naughty rapids’ and is an enchanting little family outing. It is a dramatic waterfall and ravine located in a woodland area in the village of Boda outside of Rättvik. It is one of  the results of the famous meteor blast in the Siljan region millions of years ago. Read more about it here (in Swedish). In the summer time there is a little cafe which serves refreshments, but we always take some kind of picnic as we usually visit early spring or late autumn.

We were here yesterday on a gloriously sunny winters day, though it was much like Spring, and we sat on the top of ‘the goats back’ and ate our home made soup. It was one of those lovely outings that you hope to remember for a long time. Our son loves this place – and his outburst of ‘Mummy this is the life’, made my heart swell. It really is lovely and magical here with small pathways through the forest and a series of steep stairways leading to the top of the waterfall.

Here are some pictures from our outing.

Leksands Gästhem – ekologiskt inspirerat boende i Dalarna.

You can follow us on instagram too!

Oh my goodness, a year since the last blog post. Me bad. I’m going to start afresh with the whole social network tools thing. You can follow our blogg, facebook or instragram.

Here’s some pictures from our summer.

I usually get a smidge of the November Blues every year. The cold, dark, damp days ahead usually send me into slight despair. But this year they are not so bad. Maybe it’s because we recently had a much needed break back in England. Catching up with friends, family and mooching around London was a welcome break. But now it’s back to business.

Anyway, I thought you might like to see some pictures from our holiday back ‘home’. I say home, but if I’m honest, Sweden feels much more like home these days. Whilst I loved being back, I felt a slight panic whilst thinking back to my days working in London. And seeing how different my life is now to the life I once had, I felt a huge relief that I have escaped from that world. A part of me will always long for England, but my heart and soul are here now, living a life that I can be proud of.

This Spring I was lucky enough to have Catharina from Yra:Form here taking some pictures as part of a project we are both involved with. After spending some time clearing out my kitchen garden for the winter this weekend, my thoughts wondered back to Spring and all the veggies and herbs that were growing here. Luckily I have great pictures that Catharina took, so I thought I would share them here. I’m already planning for next year!