Weekend Coffee Share – Celebrating the arrival of spring

Welcome to the weekend coffee share! Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or if you’d rather I’ll make you a smoothie? 

I had a wonderful fruit smoothie with orange, banana, apple, and hemp seeds earlier today. I’d love to make one for you if you want to try one.
Since we are sitting at the balcony I’ll tell you that my tomato plants are doing OK, no tremendous amount of growth since last week, the weather have not been very warm (low 60’s.)
The different types of mixed salads on the other hand are doing great. We eat salad from the balcony as a side to our dinner almost every night.

This is going to be a shorter coffee share than usual. The weekend is almost over. We celebrated Valborg at Falu Copper Mine last night. 

The garden at the entrance showed some signs of spring.

Falu Copper Mine “Stora Stöten”

Valborg is a very old tradition and used to be all about scaring away witches and bad spirits through lighting big fires (majbrasor) for protection and making a lot of sounds to scare off evil forces. Nowadays, Valborg is all about celebrating that spring finally arrived.

Majbrasa- Valborg celebration at Falu Copper Mine

It was a very festive evening and night, and I really want to share some photos with you. This was the first time that my daughter got to participate in a big celebration, (due to the pandemic that’s been terrorising the world since we moved to Sweden.) It was a worthy celebration of spring, with hundreds of people. We both felt that it was a bit strange to be around so many people again, but strange in a nice way.

There was singing, and speeches, and happy people all around. Some of the speeches were about world peace, and the Ukrainian flag was flying high next to the Swedish flag. 

Falu copper mine is one of the world’s best-preserved mining landscapes, once the world’s largest copper mine, today a part of the World Heritage Falun, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have two short videos in my instagram post from last night, if you wish to see. It was a really cool place to celebrate at. We met many people we know, and it really was a great, exciting night. My daughter was wired up for hours after we got home, and we spent today relaxing at home.

I hope your weekend was great. I’ve already visited some of you for a cup of coffee, and I am going to try my best to visit the rest of you within the next couple of days. Work and school is crazy busy for a few more weeks, and we are starting to look forward to our summer holidays. Thank you Natalie for hosting the weekend coffee share. I’d love it if you’d tell me a little about what’s going on in your world!

Love,

Maria

Weekend Coffee Share – The feeling of the week is gratitude

Welcome to the weekend coffee share! Can I get you a cup of coffee? 

How are you doing? It’s been a short and busy week here. Everyone had Monday off due to Easter, and the kids had an Easter break all week. We’ve had very beautiful weather all week (cold mornings 28F/-2C and warm, sunny days 64F/17C,) up until yesterday (Saturday) when it was windy and much cooler (50F/10C) than the other days. I’ve been riding my bike to work all week, and then some. It feels great! 

Lugnet Nature Reserve

Yesterday I decided to do a little hiking at Lugnet Nature Reserve. It was beautiful, even though I met more people than I usually do. Many times I do not meet anyone at all, sometime I meet one, or two people, but yesterday I met around ten people. It was still peaceful and I enjoyed my forest bathing. 

When I got home I’ll admit that I was a little cold, and I choose to have afternoon coffee inside. At one of my favourite spots, next to the big window bordering the balcony (see the photo at the top.) The plants are doing good, we are still waiting for warmer weather, but it is warm enough for my container garden to be outside 24/7. Enjoying my coffee next to this window, or outside at the balcony, are my favourite places to sit down for a cup of coffee in my home. 

I’ve always been fascinated by root systems, and I sometimes takes this trail just to see this particular tree with its roots bare on the trail.

On Thursday afternoon, right after work, I enjoyed a cup of coffee and an audio book at the balcony. The sun was shining, and it was absolutely wonderful. It was so nice that I somehow fell asleep and woke up 30 min later, just in time to start dinner..

This weekend I’ve mostly been catching up on things around the house, something I really like doing, (and there are always things to do.) I find it very relaxing doing little things around the house, while hanging out with my daughter. This weekend we’ve been talking about the new school she is going to start this fall, and our (undecided) plans for the summer. Tell me about your week! 

This week I’m very grateful that both of my children had a wonderful Easter break, the hopes and dreams of a lovely spring and summer to come, and all the time in nature I was blessed with this week. The week ends with a feeling of gratitude. Sunday is BTW the last day of the week in Sweden. Thank you Natalie for hosting the weekend coffee share.

Love,

Maria