Spring-time is a comin'

Greetings from the other side.

Life moves on at its own pace here in the countryside. Spring is coming, and you can really feel it in the air now. It's a really nice feeling! Spring does something to you, I think. It revitalizes you after the long, dark winter, and helps to lift your spirit up. We are moving towards warmer times, and it feels great! I think we all need to stop sometimes, take a deep breath and just enjoy the now. That goes for all seasons, but perhaps especially for spring. Take the time to enjoy the blue sky, the sounds of the birds coming back to life, the sunshine on the green pine and spruce trees, etc. It can really help give you some energy back. At least, that's how I feel. 

Yesterday, we went to a jumble sale ('loppis' in Swedish) at the school where my fiancee's brother works. They are tearing down the old buildings and building new, so they needed to get rid of a lot of stuff. There were a lot of things there, and a lot of people. It was difficult moving around to look at things. We managed to get a couple of items though. I was hoping to find a guitar, but unfortunately not. Oh well, maybe next time.

After we got home from that we sat outside in the sunshine for about an hour, drinking tea, eating a cinnamon bun, and talking. It was really nice just sitting on the stairs looking out over the fields and towards the forest. It was warm, the wind was calm, and it is moments like that that really make you appreciate living in the countryside.

Last week I helped out in a different place to where I normally work. It was only Monday and Tuesday, but that was about all I could do since I also had my regular job that I needed to do. It was good to see a new place, meet new people and see how they did things. I really enjoyed my time there.

I keep learning new skills since I moved here. Latest thing I have tried is that I have cut down my first two trees using a chainsaw. It's a lot of fun, and I do enjoy the physical work. I'm still very much a beginner at it, but I am learning. 

This will be all for this time.

See you all on the other side!

Good times & hindsight

Greetings from the other side.

Last week was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The week before we had been away, together with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law, to a place called Ukkohalla on a ski trip.  The weather was overcast and the snow messed with our skis a bit, but other than that it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. When it came to the skiing we did the cross-country variant. It had been years since I last did any kind of skiing, and it was a bit of a strange experience being back on a pair of skis again. It was fun though, and I think I ended up doing something like 13 km in total. Compared to my fiancee's sister and her husband that was nothing though. I think they ended up doing something in the region of 86 km in total.

Among the first things that happened after we got there was that I managed to 'wreck' the bed. It's not as bad as it sounds though. Basically, I was trying to move the bed slightly to the side when it suddenly collapsed. It turned out that, unbeknownst to me, by moving it I had disturbed an upright-standing logg underneath it that was holding the length-wise running beam in place, which in turn supported all the lateral-running supports underneath the bed. I'm not sure if that description paints a good enough picture of what I mean, but I hope it does as my tired brain is currently struggling a bit to think of a better explanation.

Anyway, we managed to fix the bed fairly quickly again.

The trip to Ukkohalla was a lot of fun, and it is certainly something I would definitely do again some day. It was nice to get away for a few days and spend some time with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law.

In Sweden we have a saying that translates roughly to "Away is good, but home is best" (Sv: Borta bra men hemma bäst). As fun as it had been to be away for a few days, it still felt good to come back home and sleep in your own bed again.

However, starting the next day I wasn't feeling too well. I felt really stressed and tired, and not really myself. It's been a long time since I had felt that high levels of stress, and seemingly for no apparent reason. It took me most of the following week to get back to normal again. Hopefully that was a one-off thing, but I would really like to know what caused it. Maybe it was a lot of little things that just came together to cause it? I honestly have no idea. Whatever it was, it continued to influence my week though.

I am so glad to be passed that now. Hopefully it was just a one-off thing.

Yesterday I was pretty nervous though. I was set to work at a memorial service. Now, I have done that before, but this was the first time I was going to do it completely on my own. All sorts of thoughts were flowing through my head, and I was trying to remember everything I needed to think about and prepare. I'd lie if I said I wasn't nervous though. Looking back at it now however, I would say that I did a good job. So maybe I didn't need to be so nervous about it, but that's the benefit of hindsight and all that.

Yesterday evening, we had a couple of friends over and we all sat down and watched Melodifestivalen. which is the Swedish competition that decides which entry we send to the Eurovision Song Contest. Did the right song win? I have no clue. I guess we'll find that out when the actual ESC competition is held. After that it is really down to personal taste whether you liked it or not. The main thing though was that we had a great time yesterday evening, together with good friends. We laughed a lot and I think I needed that having been so nervous about the memorial service job earlier in the day.

It's been two week since I was able to really do any world-building or writing, but yesterday evening after our friends had left, I started sitting down with it again and it was such a good feeling. I've missed it more than I thought I did, so being back at it felt really good.

Until next time.

See you all on the other side!

A beautiful winter's day

Greetings from the other side.

Today is an incredibly beautiful day outside. The ground is covered in snow, the sky is blue and it is essentially a very beautiful painting as you look out over the landscape. Each season is beautiful in its own way, but I think that a really clear winter's day with blue sky and lots of white snow is among the most beautiful. We had guests over today and I spent a good chunk of that time looking out the window at the beautiful wintry painting that nature had painted outside.

This winter has been very mild, and so we haven't really had the amount of snow outside that I had wish we'd have. I guess that is why you notice a day like today even more. I've been spending some time outside, shoveling snow, bringing in fire wood, etc. It's a pleasure working outside in beautiful weather like this. :)

In other news my future father-in-law celebrated his 70th birthday last weekend. It was a very fun event, with lots of good people and good food. :) His children, grandchildren and sons-in-law and me sang a song for him as well.

It was less fun to come home and find about 30 carpenter ants over the following 2 hours crawling around our living room and hall. We've had a guy over to look at the issue and take care of the problem. Unfortunately we don't know yet where they have their nest in the house, so we need to wait until we can find it. There is a problem with that though, and that is that it has been too cold so they haven't been very active since last weekend. So we'll have to wait until warmer weather comes along and they become active again before we can start locating their nest. We're hoping that will come soon.

As we understand it the nest in our house is probably a satellite-nest, with the main nest is located somewhere else in the vicinity. This means that unless we can find the main nest this spring/summer they might return. Wish us luck!

In more positive news, my fiancee and I are going away together with her sister and her husband this week on a bit of a skiing holiday. It's also to give my fiancee a chance to get away for a bit and rest up.

I think that'll be all for today. Feeling a bit tired so going to go rest my head a bit.

See you all on the other side!

A look in the rear-view mirror

Greetings from the other side.

A few days have passed since my last entry into this blog. It has generally been a calm few days, so I think this will end up being a fairly short entry, but it is an entry none-the-less.

On Thursday we went to celebrate one of my fiancee's nephews on his 20th birthday. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but nothing too big. We went there together with my fiancee's parents. It was a good evening, I thought. Good company, good food at a restaurant, and then we rounded off the evening with some coffee/tea at the birthday-boy's apartment. One of the things I love about my fiancee's family is that they are all so friendly and nice people. It has definitely helped my settling in here in Finland after my move.

I have to say, sitting in the car as it drives through the country-side over here, you could see patches of light on the thick cloud-covered sky. This light came from greenhouses on the ground below which were using what appeared to be pretty high-powered lamps to simulate sunshine for their plants in order to grow them all year around. It was interesting seeing that light reflected on the cloud-cover above though. You could definitely tell exactly where all the greenhouses were.

Went grocery shopping, and ran some errands, on Friday. It was a bit of a rainy day, but not too bad.

With Advent Sunday closing in, but my fiancee and I are eagerly awaiting the time when we can start 'officially' listening to Christmas-related music again, and plans are being made for decorations, etc. She's started baking in preparation for Christmas as well. Sadly, there is no snow on the ground anymore, but we are quietly hoping it will return at least in time for Christmas.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day in this household. I got around to start listening to an audio book by Brandon Sanderson called "The Last Empire". I've heard from friends that the Mistborn series, the series of which "The Last Empire" is part of, is really good, but I haven't had the chance to get around to it until now. I have to say that so far I am really enjoying it. It feels a bit strange listening to it as an audio book though, as I am generally a person who prefers to hold a book in my hands when I read. It's ok though. I might get the actual physical copies of the books later, rather than just have them as audio books.

I think that will be enough for now.

See you all on the other side!

A busy weekend

Greetings from the other side.

Today's post will be a short one. Will probably try and update with another post tomorrow, but today I am just exhausted. Have had some kind of stomach bug or something for most of the day, which hasn't helped matters either.

Yesterday I went with my gf to my very first wedding in Finland. It was one of her classmates from university who was getting married, and as with all weddings it was a very nice experience. I haven't been too very many weddings back home in Sweden, so it had been a few years since last time. It was nice meeting more of my girlfriend's friends, and getting introduced to them. They had only heard a bit about me, and the bride even refered to me as "the mystery man" (yes, she even used the phrase in english). Met and talked to some very nice people, and am hoping to meet some of them again some day.

There were only two downsides to the day. One was the 1½ - 2 hr drive to get there, and then the same going home again. We got home at about 1:30am. Which normally isn't that late for me, being a "night owl" and all. Though it's been a busy week at work, so I guess I was a bit extra tired. We got home alright though, and I had my gf there to help keep me awake on the at times very monotonous drive home - on straight roads with trees on either side of it for large parts.

The second one was the weather. It was REALLY windy all day, bordering on full on storm at the very least, and a bit of rain. Luckily the happy couple took it in their stride and that was the most important thing. :)

There's a cloudy sky outside today as well, but we do see some blue skies at least. Luckily there is no wind to speak off.

See you all on the other side!

Un-well knee & a roadtrip

Greetings from the other side.

My right knee has been acting up in the last couple of days. Not sure what is wrong with it. It doesn't hurt but it feels swollen, without actually looking swollen. Hopefully it is something that will go away fairly quickly with a bit of rest. I just need to be careful not to put unnecessary strain on it. Walking is generally fine, most of the time at least. It's worse when I try to negotiate stairs or slopes.

Today I went with my "in-laws" and my gf to a missionary celebration that the church apparently has each year. I was told that this year it was special because the celebrations themselves were celebrating their 60th anniversary. It was about an hour's drive to get there from where we live. It was quite nice. A small church set in beautiful, lush surroundings. Unfortunatelly, the church was too small to accomodate everyone who was there, but they had put up speakers and benches outside the church for those that couldn't get in. There were choirs singing, food, and merriment all around.

My leg didn't help much, so rather than trying to get a place  inside the church my gf and I decided to sit outside so I would get a chance to stretch my leg from time to time. This quickly proved to be a good idea, and both my knee and I are very happy that we came to that particular conclusion.

It was a nice experience, and we also ran into an old friend of my gf's that she hadn't seen in a while, plus some other members of her family, which was really nice. :)

We got back home around 11:30pm. My gf has gone to bed as she was really tired, but I decided to stay up a while longer, as the nightowl that I am.

That's it for this blog post.

See you all on the other side!