Dagliga Livet

Looking out of the train at windmills in the distance.  This farmland scene is very typical of Skåne - field after field and pretty farmhouses everywhere. Bike ride adventure heaven! 

Hello Love!

My inner-tourist hasn't quietened yet.  I hope this man didn't mind that I took a photo of his bike.  (I don't think he noticed.)  The trains are well equipped for bikes.  Note the special seat belt for it.  There are seat belts for strollers on our city buses too.

Here in Sweden most English speakers use a lot of British-isms.  My English childhood resurfaces all the time.  I find myself having to search for the right word to remember which way my kids speak.  Is it "math" or "maths", "spade" or "shovel", "band-aid" or "plaster"??   (S now uses the word "plaster")  E's reading books are from the UK so she's getting well-versed in all the little vocab and spelling differences.

Here is S working on her maths.  

Before we left the US we had a party and asked our friends to take photos of themselves.  We LOVE the photos that came out of that!!!  I put them in a photo album and we brought it with us.  The girls pull it out often.  They do miss every one of their friends back in SC and they love that they can look at the smiling faces in this book.

These apartments are near us.  Roofs made of grass is hardly a new concept here in Scandinavia but here it is on a modern apartment building.

Yet another playground.  Sweden really is the land of the awesome playground.  I don't know how E can ride this thing without getting sick.  She will spin and spin and spin and still be able to stand upright afterwards.  I tried out something similar to this in another playground and I had to get off immediately!!

Just hanging out

Awesome swing.  Looks like we might have tired a couple people out.  

I still have the urge to take photos of every street in town.  

W's morning commute.  Not too shabby, eh? 

Another path on W's commute.  This is uphill.  When you're pedaling the loaded cargo bike up this hill, it actually isn't as peaceful and relaxing as it looks.  

S spends much of her day looking like this.  

Favorite red boots.  Bike helmet.  Keys to apartment to jingle-jangle.  

She's ready for her day. 

A rainy day in the park...

Stadsparken (City Park) is just a stone's throw from our house.  We walk through it to get into town and we often go to the park playground so we are there almost every day.

Inevitably, on any outing that lasts more than 15 minutes, there will be a downpour.  Here we are taking cover in the park's cafe.  They have some of the yummiest muffins I've ever tasted.  And coffee!  What more could a person want?

This is the bench the girls were sitting on.  

There is something so quintessentially Scandinavian about this to me.  

Picture this scene:  I'm in the park, hanging out with a three and a six year old.  There has just been a downpour.  You know what comes next...

Puddle jumping!

This enormous (human built) bird nest has been in the park since we arrived in August.  For a while I was sure it was just a temporary exhibit but now that it has been there, wet wool and all, for two and a half months I'm starting to realize maybe it is more of a permanent exhibit.

Yet another moment when I realize my Swedish is really lacking.  There is a sign with a full description and explanation.  There are photos of the birds who build this kind of nest.  But everything is in Swedish so it might be a while before I figure it all out.

Here's E posing with the nest for scale.  We've seen some kids climbing in it but it doesn't really look all that sturdy me.

On this particular day we'd planned a longer bike trip but then the rain was kind of intense for a while.  So we puttered around the park for a while to see if we wanted to stay close to home or if we wanted to risk the weather and go farther afield.  In the end the weather did clear up.  In the meantime we did a scavenger hunt provided by the park.  E, our little Where's Waldo fanatic, was in her element.

Here are W and S catching up to us in the bike.

One of the fountains in the park, with the playground in the background. 

W and S pedaling around the playground looking for scavenger hunt items. 

Still hunting... 

...and still hunting... 

... and, well, STILL hunting.  (I was checking out all the options on my camera.)

Time to feed the ducks! 

Can anyone tell me what kind of duck/bird this is?  It hangs out with all the mallards but I've only ever seen one of them.  It is a pretty bird!

A New Picnic Spot

We often spend our weekends exploring on our bikes.  Here we visited a idyllic ravine, right here in town.  A little slice of perfection.

Listening for the ocean in a river rock. 

Heading home...

But of course we had to stop at a playground along the way. 

Outside Lunds Domkyrka

The cathedral is so big and so close to other buildings in the center of town, 

it is hard to get a good photo of the front facade.  

The front entrance

Door detailing

The oldest part of the building