Blogtober Day Six - Weekend Happenings

On the weekend, I finally managed to get something done with a lovely little set of vintage swap-cards depicting different types of fruit that I bought at a flea market in Copenhagen. There are also cards of vegetables and nuts in the deck, but I like the fruit ones the best. I had had them just on their own on the kitchen wall, but then thought that framing them would be better.

Discovery! I started knitting with two balls of yarn last night, following a suggestion from the magazine I mentioned last week. You know I am but a baby knitter - I'm sure all you knitters out there have been doing this for ages! But I enjoyed trying out something new.

And so it begins...the first recipe tried from the Australian Women's Weekly Sweet Old-Time Favourites - Caramel Cornflake Chews. They are very like Anzac Biscuits but without the oats. I was going to post the recipe but I got scared after reading the copyright section of the cookbook! These are super yummy, though. Hot out of the oven - gooey in the centre. Oh yes.

How was your weekend?

Round our way

The skies are still rather foreboding around here at the moment. It is windy today, cold and spattering rain.

As always though, there is the comfort of thrifted goodies! I found this plate at a flea market in Copenhagen and I think I have finally found the right spot for it. I'm not sure that I want to find a spot, though. Once everything is put away, the holiday really is over!

I have also developed a strange penchant for thrifting ceramic money-bank pigs. The one above is a souvenir of Munich and the one below California (clearly). Such cheery little fellows!

And spring is on its way. The plum tree is beginning to blossom...always a lovely sign as the seasonal wheel turns.

Northern lights

I have heard a lot about the 'Scandinavian light' - that is, the different glow that the sun seems to cast on things in such Northern climes. And I really think it's true - probably even more so in the winter. Certainly I see a suggestion of it in this photograph I took in natural light on the windowsill of our accomodation in Copenhagen. A gentle, pure white light.

All a tremulous heart requires

Often while on holidays, surprising things happen. Now, I knew there was water between Germany and Denmark. But I had not really thought through how we would cross it. I just took it as read that we would. But as our train chugged along from Hamburg, I was rather surprised to be told our train would be driven onto a ferry, we would get out of the train and onto the ferry, make the crossing and then continue on to Copenhagen on the train. There is nothing like this in Australia. If you go to Tasmania, you fly or take the ferry. No trains. No train and ferry combos. And the ferry? I was expecting some utilitarian vessel which would take us over the water in practical and spartan surroundings. Uh, no. Restaurants. Shops. Lounges. All very interesting!

This cake, consumed in a cafe at the Tivoli, was covered in molten (and melting) chocolate. It was horrible. Just kidding! And the hot chocolate? Well. None of this namby-pamby-break-it-to-you-gently sweet stuff. This hot chocolate was serious, with just the right touch of bitterness. Lovely.

I don't do rides but I'm happy to watch other people nauseate themselves...

Dreamy...

And sometimes on holidays you do things that you wouldn't normally do. For me, one of those things was going to the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen (http://www.tivoli.dk/) It is in fact much more than an amusement park (oops, I sound like an ad for it). There are restaurants, shops, a lovely aquarium and a really terrific exhibition about the Titanic (though I did wonder about the Titanic souvenir t-shirts...who wears that??) It really seemed to be the place to go in Copenhagen for locals and tourists alike - far more so than, say, Luna Park here.

Holidays. You just don't know, do you?

Back Home

Why I fell in love with Norway in one photo...the quiet, mysterious stillness of the forests of Mt Floyen, Bergen.

This beautiful little heart is carved into the wall of a hut at Oslo's open-air Norwegian Folk Museum.

Hello! I am back from my six week holiday in Europe with my dear, sweet husband and getting used once more to the more familiar surroundings of the Yellow Wood! I have got beyond the just-back-from-the-holiday stage of home seeming like a bit of a novelty but it has certainly been a week of settling in. I would like to say I am glad to be home and of course all holidays must come to an end or they wouldn't really be special, magical holiday things but just, well, every day stuff, but we have returned to some very cold weather and we did have a lovely time overseas so it is a little hard not to be wistful...

On the up side though, the holiday did give me lots of good thinking time as holidays always do and I have clarified a few things in my own mind as to what I'll be up to for the next little while.

But! The Holiday. Well, first stop when we left Australia was Singapore which was as gorgeously tropical as ever. We were only there for a short time on our way to Europe so I'll come back
to that in a couple of days time, when I tell you about our week there on the way home. First European stop was Germany, where we were kindly hosted for a few days by my penpal Bodecea and her partner. Next on the list was our first foray into Scandinavia - Denmark. We stayed in the beautiful capital, Copenhagen, and then moved onto the oldest town in Denmark, Ribe. From there we took the train and the ferry to Sweden, stopping in Gothenburg, and then to our main destination of Norway. Oslo was our first Norwegian port of call and then to the beautiful, beautiful Bergen. I am still dreaming about Bergen! We spent another week in Oslo then and...our time was nearly up! Back to Singapore and then back home.

I've got lots of beautiful photos to show you (yes, it's the cyber equivalent of a slide night) and lots of travellers' tales to tell you. So, next post...Germany and Denmark!