August Full Blue Moon and new stitching stash

Today I worked "half-night", from 5 p.m. until 1.30 a.m., and on my way home in the middle of the night I noticed that it was a Full Moon, and this August Moon it's not only the Full Sturgeon Moon/the Full Red Moon/the Green Corn Moon/the Grain Moon, but it's also a Full Blue Moon, the third Full Moon in a season. The night sky was almost clear and the moon was up high and spread its light, a lovely sight to see. It was a little bit chilly to cycle home this late, even if it's still summer warm during the days, the nights are beginning to get chilly, and you can feel that autumn is on its way.

I wonder if it was the Full Moon's fault that I had a shopping spree yesterday and bought some new cross stitch stash, as I do have enough stash in the cupboard for a long time of stitching. I bought all four of Janlynn's Seasonal Cat Samplers, I've been planning to sew something seasonal for some time and when I found the cat samplers I knew that I wanted to do them. I haven't decided which one to start with, the Autumn or the Winter Cat Sampler, as I also bought Coeur de Muguet (Heart Lily of the Valley) by Madame La Fée, which is what I will begin stitching as soon as I get it. It's something I've been thinking of stitching since my mother passed away in May 2008. There was a vase with a bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley on a table in her flat when I arrived there while she was at the hospital. She died just a few past midnight on the Sunday that was Mother's Day in Sweden. I decided then and there that I would stitch something with lilies-of-the-valley as a memory of her, but it's first now I feel that I'm ready to do that. I found the heart pattern already shortly after my mother's death in a French cross stitch shop and I liked it, but I also searched for other motives with lilies-of-the-valley, there are a few patterns I also liked, but I've finally decided that the Coeur de Muguet is the one I want to stitch.

2013 - A year of abdications

2013 seems to be a year of abdications, first it was a pope, Benedict XVI, who resign the papacy on February 28, two months later it was a queen, Beatrix of the Netherlands, on April 30, and two months after that an emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, on June 25, and finally today on July 3, a king, Albert II of Belgium, informed that he will abdicate on July 21, and we are only halfway through the year.

In 1848, the king of France, the king of Bavaria and the emperor of Austria had to abdicate after revolutions in their countries, and in 1918, after the end of the first World War several European monarchs lost their crowns, the emperor Wilhelm II of Germany and the emperor-king Karl I & IV of Austria-Hungary the best known of them, as the Russian tsar Nikolai II had abdicated in 1917. All those abdications were results of conflicts, and those monarchs were forced to leave their thrones, while the abdications this year happens because the monarchs wish to step down.

New books and a tablet

I went shopping Thursday for a new tablet, my old e-book reader/tablet have given up, so I decided it was time to get a new one. I already have an e-book reader but as it's not possible to use it for surfing the web, and as I want to be able to do that as well as reading books and magazines on it (as well as all the other things one can do with a tablet today) I bought a 9,4'' tablet, the screen large enough for reading PDFs and magazines. It's not from one of the major brands, but as far as I can judge it's a good one and suits my needs.

I also bought some books, as well as joined a reading circle in one of our local bookstores. The membership is for 12 months and during that year you can read up to 52 new books, and as most of the new books for the year 2013/2014 won't arrive to the bookshops until September, I can use the summer months to read books that were in the reading circle last year, as well as all the new ones too. The first book I choose was "Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar: 1. Kärleken" (Never dry tears without gloves: 1. Love) by Jonas Gardell. It's a novel about the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Sweden, the gay community and how people with HIV/AIDS were treated by the society and health care system during the first years.

I also bought two other books by Jonas Gardell, they are non-fiction, "Om Gud" and "Om Jesus" (About God and About Jesus), a biography about the five daughters of king Gustav Vasa of Sweden, and a book by Torkel Klingberg, "Den översvämmade hjärnan" (The Overflowing Brain) a book about the brain and the working memory in our modern society. The author is a cognitive neuroscientist and as I have studied cognitive science it will be interesting to read that book.

Most books I buy today are non-fiction, when it comes to fiction I mostly buy e-books instead, as they don't need any storage in the physical world, just a few kB on a hard disk drive.

Where is spring?

It's almost mid-April but it looks like it will take time before spring will arrive here, as when I ended work this morning I was met by snowflakes and cold winds, it felt more like early March instead of April. There are still some patches of snow left, where the sun doesn't reach it during the day, and as the temperature still gets below 0 degrees Centigrade many nights, it looks like it will take one or two more weeks until all the snow is gone. The winter of 2009/2010 we had a lot of snow here, more than 70 cm, and it took time for the snow to melt away, I remember seeing the last patch of snow on May first, on the north side of a building, but this winter we haven't had that much snow but it still lingers as both March and April have been unusually cold this year.

I'm tired of snow and cold weather by now, and just hope that spring will come soon with warm and sunny days, with flowers, green leaves and green grass. 

Villa Muramaris

I just read in the paper that the Villa Muramaris outside Visby on the island of Gotland have burned down, in a possible arson. The house was a listed building in Sweden for its cultural and historical value, it was built in 1915-1917 as a summer home by Johnny and Ellen Roosval, he a professor in art history, she a painter, sculptor and musician. The house was built in an Italian style surrounded by a baroque garden. One of the main features in the house was an open fireplace in lime stone, made by Ellen Roosval, I hope it have survived the fire, as well as some of the sculptures in the art collection also survived. The present owner hopes to be able to rebuild the house.

I visited the house and garden several times while I lived in Visby, the house was lovely, situated near the sea and surrounded by a formal garden with statues made by Ellen Roosval. Near Muramaris is another artists' home, Brucebo, built around 1906 by the Canadian painter William Blair Bruce and his Swedish wife, the sculptor Carolina Benedicks-Bruce. Muramaris borders to the nature reserve Brucebo, with its protected bird sanctuary Skansudd.

Late night snacking

- or should I say eating, as the sandwich I made was more of a meal than a snack. I often work night shifts, which means that I'm used to eating in the middle of the night, and also often do that when I'm at home too. When I got hungry tonight I decided to recreate a sandwich I've eaten in a coffee shop, made with avocado, mozzarella cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. It's very tasty and it wasn't difficult to make.

I used a small baguette, sliced the bread in half but not entirely in two pieces, as it's easier to eat if only open on one side. Then I sprinkled a little bit of olive oil on the bread and put on some lettuce. Then I took a mozzarella cheese and sliced it, as well as a halved and peeled avocado and added to the sandwich, as well as some sun-dried cherry tomatoes in oil. At last I sprinkled on a little of my favourite herbal seasoned salt from Krusmyntagården. Well worth to make again.

I love the herbal seasonings from Krusmyntagården on the island of Gotland, I lived in Visby for eleven years, and even if it's almost thirteen years since I moved away from there, I still buy the herbal seasonings from Krusmyntagården and teas from Kränku whenever I can. Some of the teas from Kränku is available in tea shops where I live, but thankfully both have their own web-shop too.

A New Year is here

Now it's 2013 and I hope for a happy and prosperous year for all. For me the beginning of a new year is a bit exciting, as it's something of a blank page in a journal, we don't know what will fill the pages, we might have our guesses and hopes, but we can't see the full picture until the year, and journal, have reached its end and we can recollect the events and see whether our guesses and hopes were fulfilled or not.

Some of my hopes for 2013 is that my cats stays healthy, especially my bengal boy, as he has had far too many visits to the veterinarian in both 2011 and 2012, last new year he had a tooth infection, this new year he has an ear infection and is on antibiotics. Thankfully my two female cats have stayed healthy and I hope they continue being so.

I also hope to find more time to do crafts, knitting, cross stitch, sew and other things. There are so many things I want to do, but I haven't found the peace to sit down and do anything the last couple of years. Now I plan to schedule time for doing crafts, as I know it will help me to calm down and get more energy, something I know I need.

Other things I want to find more time to do is reading, I love to read, but as with doing crafts I've been too restless to sit down with a book and read in peace (well, as much peace I can find with three cats interested in everything I do). I want to read both books for pleasure and books to learn new things.

I also want to try more of all the food recipes I've collected, I like cooking and trying new recipes but it's been the same as with other interests I have, I haven't taken the time and made an effort to schedule time for trying new things, instead I've cooked the same easy-made dishes again and again.

Well, that's a few of my hopes for 2013, a year from now I will know how much of them have been fulfilled.