Book piles

 So many books, but so little time. Lots of books has been bought this summer both for studies and for recreation. The recreational books will have to wait for a while now because the semester has began and there is lots of reading and writing ahead. This is a pile of books that has to wait it is; The whole Harry Potter series, I will read them for Alfons at bedtime (it's great that he says the books are better than the movies), The Steampunk bible (couldn't resist), Flood of fire (bought at the Steamcon), The diary of Årstafrun (a diary from 16th century), American Gods, and Sustainable living by John Seymore. The pile actually tells a lot about my interests.

Here's a few books read this summer that I wanted to review. Hollow city was bought earlier this year in English because I didn't want to wait for the Swedish translation, but didn't have time to read it until the summer vacation came. I actually prefer it in the original language. Hollow City is the following book after Miss Peregrine's school for peculiar children. It is full of adventure and dangerous enemies. The book is actually a long escape that starts in the first book and I do think that this particular event could have been cut down a bit. Maybe the writer wanted to include all the photos and weave the story around them. 
I can tell you that this is not the end of the story, it continues in a third book not ready to be sold yet. 

My heart beats for chemistry and this book is amazing. I haven't found it translated wich is a darn pity. It tells about poisons and the darker aspects of chemistry. Like, what happens when a corpse is decomposing, how long does it takes ( wich is cruical for the forensics), how to preserve a mummy, odors of hell, drugs and poisons. All the substances are scientifically described and their consequenses along with real and fictional stories. So if you can read in Swedish or maybe find an English version, I higly recommend "Ond Kemi" by Ulf Ellervik. He has also written a similar book about the chemistry around joyments (sex, food and feelings).

This is my non-feng shui-view while reading books in the bed. Piles of clothes, unmatching curtains and a skeleton. My book shelves are brim ful and today I will go to Ikea to buy another book shelf for my student books. 

Me and the boys went to a town an hours drive from home last friday, because the youngest would start the bandy season. It was a warm evening outdoors and very cold in the arena. When you have kids training sports it's necessary to be an attending parent, it is also necessary to get along with the other parents to make everything go smooth. I really tried to talk to the others, but was completely ignored, it's not the first time this happens. I must have looked like a fool not worthy to talk to or something, maybe it was that I didn't wear any sporty leisure clothes. While the others sat on the rood loft I was by the ice, fetching balls (bandy = balls, no pucks) and lacing skates, who was the sporty parent now?

Oh, before I stop my babble I will recommend you to read my other blog Along the green road where I write about healthy food, vegetables and a bit of gardening. If you have a citrus tree I give you a tip what you can do with the leaves.

Look the firework has started! I love my African lily, Agaphantus.

Festival weekend

You asked for a photo with my dreads in. I'm sorry to show a head not filled with dreads. I have to make more of them. The blurry photo below is shot with my phone in the bathroom but I hope you can see the back of the hair. The real hair is shoulder lenght.

This is my outfit for the thursday with the dreads. My fav Eva I Walla skirt a simple top, stripey tights and army boots (Invader). The short necklace is a raven claw grasping a marble. I look goofy on the other photos Johan took because he was making faces to make me laugh. 

Most were dressed down at the festival, wich made my simple outfit look dressed up, wich is dissapointing, would love to see more cool outfits.

Arkona was a nice surprise. The singer was very energetic and dramatic with her gestures and a whole wolf skin wrapped around her. She demanded people to make a moshpit in front of the stage and then played russian folk songs in Ska pace.

Friday was a migraine day, horrible, so I wasn't able to arrive until 8 pm to see Amorphis that were great. I love their melancholy tunes.

For saturday I styled my hair in 50's style with Ali's brooch as a hairpin. Johan bought a top hat at one of the stalls and they took photos for their Facebook page on us wearing hats. 

 Sabaton were great. They played a double set with all songs from Carolus Rex in Swedish with eight Carolus soldiers on stage. It was supposed to be a part from a play, but since the play based on the songs of that particular record were so popular they had to prolong it and therefore could only join with 8 soldiers from it and no acting. The second part was played with lots of fire and fireworks in the same style as every year.

One thing annoys me with this festival. There are so many different bands playing but I saw very few people from Falun (hometown). Those who were there all days was people from far away. Just one hour Sabaton played the normals entered with their baby carriages and kids and left directly after even if it was yet one more band to play. The good thing with this festival is that there haven't been a single fight or argue, everyone is happy and friendly. 

It's the little things

...that makes you happy...

Back at work for a short week because we will go to the local festival; Sabaton open air. The band list this year isn’t very good, too tacky power metal or death metal is not my cup of tea, but there is a few that I really want to see like Revamp, Sabaton and Amorphis.

It was a slow start at work and I don’t feel useful or important, so I’m happy to have a meaningful spare time.

I’ve been busy making wool dreads from wool received from a friend a few years ago. The wool is carefully washed in cold water, then dried. The wool isn’t combed this time and it works fine just by pulling the lumps apart, by that you get rid of the rest bits of grass and sand.

Arrange the wool in a thin row in the length you want the dread to be and spray with a mix of water and soap. Squeeze the wool together a bit before you roll it between your palms quite hard, add more wool to the thin parts or to the thickness that you want the dread to have.

Hang or put them aside. I usually can’t make more than three until the skin on my palms is too soft and slippery. When I have the amount of dreads needed I put on my rubber gloves and continue to felt(not necessary to roll at this step) and last wash them.

I dye the dreads with the cheapest hair dye I can find. If I have time to braid them in I will use them this weekend. Don't be afraid, it's not a tarantula spider, it's the dreads trying to crawl towards my hair...

The garden and the nature is very generous. I love this time when we can base our food on free vegetables and berries. All it costs is a little labor.

This soup throws me back to my childhood and my grandparents garden. Every year they made this soup. It’s called Ängamat, meadow meal (kind of translated).

The ingredients comes from the garden. Carrots, parsnip (instead of cauliflower that I don’t have) a few farmer beans, peas. What’s missing on this photo is parsley and a fresh onion. The stock is first made of vegetable stock and milk with a little flour as thicker. Cook the vegetables in the stock, don’t pour them all at once, carrots and parsnips first… When the vegetables are soft, whisk an egg yolk with a little cream and add along with chopped parsley and serve. Of course season with salt and pepper to your taste.

I have three promising head sized pumpkin growing. Miss Misantropia was so kind to send me some seeds of her. I guess that the dark green ones will be orange and the yellow will become beige or white when it’s time for harvest.

Etsy shopping tip and an update on the fire

 I will recommend you Ali's etsy shop for you who love things both creepy and cute. I ordered a few items and the quality is excellent and the shipping is fast. I bought a stuffed felt bone pin brooch, wich I promised my eldest to wear at a school meeting, tehe. -No, you wont!! he said. I also bought a coffin shaped purse adorned with a scull bead at the zipper, perfect size for make up, glasses etc and an illustrated novel. It's a lovely story that reveals the secret of the pigeons of Glasgow (ok, when I say lovely it's often including some kind of horror). She also sells beautiful prints of her illustrations. Here's a link to her blog.

Well I was maybe bit nuts. But me and the boys went to my birthtown to visit parents and siblings a couple of days. The small town lies in the wind direction from the forest fire not far away. This is how the street looks, covered in smoke. We had to stay indoors and with no conditioner it gets very hot and humid. It felt like a ghost town, not a sound was heard when I stepped out of the car. I met my bf's mother at the pizzeria and she was very stressed. They had packed to be ready to escape (she lives in that area) but for the moment she helped my friend to set up fences for sheeps from the fire area.

One man has died. Over a thousand has fled their homes head over heels along with cattle and pets, and buildings has been burned down not knowing how many yet. We had to wait almost a week before the water bombing planes arrived from Italy and France to help to quench the fire. The progress is finally better.
Today is Johans birthday and I beleive I have to do something about it, clean the house and fix a birthday gift. Bye

What a weird day

This was the warmest day this summer so far, 32 degrees C, and I'm glad that I don't have to work. So many offices don't have airconditioner and Johan had to work in 40 degrees.

By lunchtime when the kids finally woke up, I packed bathing gears. Alfons showed me a new place by the river were we could dip our bodies. 

There is a huge fire raging in the woods uncontrollably about 100km from here. Today we were affected by a huge cloud of ash and smoke from the fire. These photos were taken just before the sun were blocked by a thick smog.

The smoke were itching in the throat and they told on the news that it was recommended to stay indoors with windows closed.

We brought the bunnies inside and Alfons cooled them off with cold wet towels. Luckily the smog vanished after a few hours.

 I hope the rain will come soon to quench the fire. It is told that it is almost unstoppable unless we get rain. So far no one has been hurt or got their house burnt down, yet.

The positive side with this heat is that my pumpkins are growing very fast and the tomatoes are ripening.

My blacks do match

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Apparently this is one of the famous listed Goth problems; when your black clothes have all the different shades of black and you can't combinate them to get a uniform black outfit. Most people see the irony here, it's actually a joke, but I have also seen lots of tiny bats who describe it as a huge problem in their closet. 

 I think washed out blacks looks great with black black (silly sentence to write). I once had an oversized tshirt for ten years in pure cotton, it washed out quickly but looked very good with a vest, slim pants, winkle pickers and a wide brimmed hat. Literally wore it to pieces. I frankly do believe that most of us are a bit more laid back about this issue than those who dress in black for specific occations.


While googling “my blacks don’t match” except from a couple of goth blogs, I found question forums were people asked about matching suits with prom dresses or groom and bestman’s suits.


This site gives advices to male fashionistas, how to combine their black clothes, listing 6 rules for wearing black. It's worth reading, even for women, but please don't take these rules seriously.

A question from a lady who is about to go to a job interview asked if she can mix different black fabrics to create a suit. Why even try to put together a suit with different black fabrics? I would say that different fabrics gives the different texture that makes an outfit look more interesting to the eye and not just a black mass.

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Even The Lady of the Manners have written about this issue. I wonder have someone of you, dear readers, ever came across a brownish black unmatching a blueish black? I haven’t.  What is your opinion regarding this is it a joke or a real problem?

I have recently read two excellent posts regarding fashion that I would like to recommend you to read

Spooky University: Fashion and identity

The Neo Victorian Parlour: Is normal a subculture

It is Friday evening here and I finally have one week of vacation. I will rest and try to be social for once.

Looky here^! My lilies managed to survive the winter storage.