A Place Like This......

The Yellow House Cafe

It is fairly well known that I love coffee. There isn't a day without a cup or two of the liquid elixir. Gula Huset (The yellow house) is one of the nicest secret treasures of Visby. Open only on saturday and sunday afternoons. This is a lovely retreat to spend a time reading a book, conversating with friends, or just catching some rays.

A walk by the sea,

Through the botanical garden,

 

say hello to my new friend

A little saunter up the street will lead us to Gula Huset

and now for a little refreshment.

To the Wall !

There are just a couple more days left on blogging from Sweden. So with time at a minimum I thought it was high time I did something I've always wanted to do......and that would be to climb "the wall" which wraps itself around the city of Visby Gotland.

This desire started when I was about 7 years old. I would look at a place mat photo that my grandmother had in her kitchen and I would tell her with great confidence,"I'm going to climb that wall one day!"

"What will you do once you get up there?", Gram asked.

" I will see everything and look all around because I will be as tall as the sky."

This conversation went on like this for decades. "Aren't you ever going to stop thinking of climbing the wall?" No, I replied. "One day I will just put a tall ladder to this wall and climb up".  Gram just laughed and said,"I won't be surprised when I see you there then."

Many years later when I had grown quite a bit and was actually in Visby I found this hidden set of stairs. I bet this goes to the top of the wall, I thought. So up I went and.....it led to the top of the city. It still had a great view but not the view I was looking for.

A few years ago the city of Visby built ramparts to climb to the top of the wall on the Northside. So on my morning walk I vowed that today , in all it's splendor, I would climb the wall and be as" tall as the sky."

So Gram.....this ones for us. I made it ....I am as tall as the sky. Enjoy the view.

 View from the first level.

View from the second level. getting closer to the top .

Whoot.....I made it! All the way to the top.

Look at the sky view of the city.

Hello down there...you mere mortal !

Nothingness

We join spokes together in a wheel,

But it is the center hole

That makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,

But it is the emptiness inside

That holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,

But it is the inner space

That makes it livable

We work with being,

But non-being is what we use.

(Lao Tzu)

   

This week in "The Joy Diet" we have been working on doing nothing for 15 minutes everyday. The doing wasn't the difficult part, it was silencing the mind.

How hard can it be to just focus on breathing? I breath every single day without thinking about it and the moment I want to concentrate on it my mind flits all over. After a couple days of this I decided to show myself compassion.

Somewhere in my chattering mind the thought came how difficult it is to go from an active mind to a still mind isn't a logical progression. Everything in the natural world happens in stages. From day three on I decided instead of silencing my mind, I would observe it in the process of quieting down. There is such a beauty in the layers of the process and unveiling.

I also chose as my focal point a flower instead of my breath. This calmed my mind so I could observe the unfolding of quieting.

 (Photo by Per Svangren)

I think,perhaps, there is also a myth that to do nothing means emptiness. I've discovered that all of the items in my mind are still there but I have created space around them. They have now taken on a different perspective, like viewing a bird from afar and seeing it up close.

As each item in my mind takes on less importance silence comes and is welcome.

Everywhere I go, there's Vintage

Upon leaving the Hansgatan Konditori, I found this lovely little shop just across the road called, Acanthus. Here they mix old with new but honestly....I love the old. When I say old I mean really old. The cupboard in the photo was built in the early 1700's. There were many lovely items spanning many centuries. The only draw back is that they wouldn't ship. I got to keep a few more dollars in my pocket but sadly missed my newly found treasures.

A Room with a View for a Damsel in a Tower

Curious?   Finally, after many airline delays and transfers, I made it from Karlskrona Sweden to our hometown of Visby Gotland. I thought I would arrive in the afternoon but when I finally landed it was 10:30 pm . So under the cloak of darkness I found my way up the winding stairs to the tower. You see, Visby was built in the 12th century and is one of the most complete medieval cities in the world. Since I couldn't catch a glimpse of my walled jewel at night, I prepared to get the glimmer of first light. This required that I would have to be a damsel, not one in distress mind you, but a damsel in the tower none the less.

I don't care how many times I do this, it never gets old.

Here is my little tower window.....getting ready to open the curtains....

to see this incredible view.

What is needed now is a morning walk by the wall. Out through the front door, down the street, past the gunpowder tower and next to the sea.

 

This is always a tradition for me here in Visby. Every morning I walk by the sea around the wall and choose a favorite cafe location.

Today's cafe is the Hansgatan konditori. The front looks like any other cafe. It's when you walk to the back that you realize there is something very special about this place. There you will find the ruins of a 13th century cathedral.

 I have many memories of this place. We, my family and I , love to sit in this corner.

Today I am alone, however, enjoying the early morning for myself. I've chosen to sit by a lovely apple tree , who has proven itself to be possessed. Every five seconds it is dropping apples on me. What else can I expect from an apple tree. It's just doing what apple trees are suppose to do I guess. I'll take a few of these home to make some apple sauce.

This mornings fika (coffee time) includes the very famous saffranspankaka. It's a lovely cake like dessert made with rice and saffron,topped with jam and whipped cream. I had to add a latte with that as well.

How could the day not go well when one starts it off like this. :)

What Brings You Joy?

Greetings from Astrid Lindgren's house in Sweden,.....

and welcome to my second post of the day. I'm so happy to have quick internet again....that's what brings me joy.Sorry I missed you here on Friday but I'm here today. Hi, I'm Valarie, creative entrepreneur who loves to read books and travel. Along with these I'm also a wife and mom to three wonderful children and can be found knitting in public. I'm starting our bookclub while I'm in Sweden so I will be posting from there but I will soon be back in the States. You are most welcome to look around my blog to see what I've been up to. There are widgets on the sidebar to my other blogs. I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment.

I've been looking forward to this bookclub since the moment I found out about it. I met so many great and wonderful people during "Wreck this Journal". Once I started reading martha's book I really want to take the time to experience fully each one of these special words and chapters. I especially look forward to sharing all of our thoughts and experiences with eachother.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about.......

It's the start of another wonderful bookclub with Jaime Ridler. This past summer I participated in the "Wreck This Journal" bookclub and had such a great time that I've come back for yet another few moments of "Joy".

This Fall we will be going through "The Joy Diet" by Martha Beck. I greatly enjoying it .....will share more on Friday. Until then I will enjoy visiting all of your blogs so I can get to know you better.

A Morning Market Walk

Greetings. I hope this finds everyone well. I've had my fair share of bad internet connections,hence the status of being incognito. So where have I been? Well..once we left Stockholm we drove all the way down south to Karlskrona. In-between we had many stops and adventures which will come in later blog posts.

The one thing that impresses me with Sweden is the light. There is a certain quality and glow that I can't find in many places. This morning before our busy day began, a  little walk in the town square, which revealed a little market.

There, I spotted this rosehip wreath. It was just darling. The old woman told me that one could put it on their table or wall. If one wanted to preserve it for a longtime, you just had to spray it with hairspray.

These lovely rosehips were wired onto a straw wreath frame. If the rosehips haven't been sprayed one could use them for fresh tea as well.

Along with the cool air of autumn,lovely plums and apples, remind us that summer is gone. Happy autumn everyone.

Vintage Wanderings

As we were meandering along country roads on our way to the next castle, we happened to pass over hither and yon to find a very large red barn in the distance.

On the side was the word "Antique" or Antik, in Swedish. Who's in? I asked. The car was stopped. All car doors flew open and out popped the gang to venture into the "old".

As we walked in Swedish records from the 1940's were playing. It smelled old and it took my eyes a couple of minutes to adjust and then it was as if I was at my grandmother's house.

Old painted chests,oriental carpets, household items,wooden furniture,china,pottery.

Oh....all things I love and that are wonderful. They even had a "modern" vintage room with everything from the 60's and 70's. That's when we found the stairs, which would lead us two more flights up, each floor filled with old antique furniture,bathroom items, and......and......fabric. If I ever move to Sweden I will furnish my house from this barn. Until then,I only bought a couple of items for the Vintage Swap. Why don't you come join us for the global swap meet? It is being wonderfully hosted by Heather from Shivaya Naturals. There are so many fun and creative people participating.

Back tomorrow ..........oh, before I go, anyone up for revamping a swing set? This one needs some help.

The Art of Coffee

Greetings friends. Sorry to leave you for a few days without a blog-post. I'm in Sweden ,and the last four days have been a whirlwind. Aside from some serious jet lag, I've been spending most of my time catching up with friends. Here in Sweden we have great tradition called a Fika. This is a nice little word which means coffee break. At least once a day, sometimes twice, I meet with friends to share a fantastic cup of coffee and some sweets.

 

 

I had such an occasion with my friends the Svangrens, as we visited this beautiful manor house to taken in one of the best Fika's around. I now invite all of you to embrace this tradition.

   

   

 I want you to stop what you are doing, grab a friend, sit down, have a cup of something and catch up on all of your doings.

I'll be back soon with some more visions of Sweden. Until then, take care.

    

   

  

Out The Door

Everything is ready. Suitcase packed (check), other suitcase packed with gifts (check),camera case packed (check), briefcase packed with work,books,ipod and other things (check). So the question is...am I leaving or am I moving? So I'm not a light traveller but I'm not a heavy traveller either. I just need some stuff. I figure when I'm tired of hauling my stuff I'll become a light traveller. I try to remember that I'm always evolving. A little piece of dynamic motion, everchanging or hauling as is the case in this matter.

I hear that SAS now has internet on their planes. If this is the case, I promise to blog from 30,000 feet, just so I can say I've done it. It's better than jumping out of plane at 30,000 feet and blogging about it later. :)

Maybe our new bloggers moto will be :"Blog where you are". So with that friends I'm off and I"ll be blogging from Sweden for the next couple of weeks.