This year we celebrated Swedish Midsummer in Düsseldorf.  Düsseldorf has a Swedish community which organize annually very nice traditional Swedish Midsummer. This year it was in Rosengarten down-town Düsseldorf. They had arranged Midsummer pole, games, quiz walk and Swedish fika that everyone attending brought some Swedish pastry, dessert or sweets to.  The weather was great and we had fun and for the first time we actually came in time for the dancing around the midsummer pole. 

Det har varit mycket åhh nej är det dagis idag inte bara det senaste året här i Tyskland utan hela dagistiden faktiskt. Det är mycket ska bara som 5-6 åring och behov om att påminnas om varje steg och varje moment för att få kläder på sig, håret borstat, äta frukost, bli färdig med frukosten och sedan borsta tänder, få på sig skorna, komma ihåg cykelhjälm och cykeln. Nu har nedräkningen till sommarlovet börjat och tack och hej till Mila's dagistid som snart är förbi Helt galet hon börjar skolan och ska aldrig mer gå på dagis. Så till hösten får jag tjata på en skolunge ist och dessutom börjar hon en timme tidigare då - herregud hur ska vi klarar det ?! Hur ska jag klara det?

Mila is leaving preschool and doing the big leap to school in September. It is a big move and a important milestone for every child and for their parents. Here in Germany it is also a lot of ceremonies and fests connected to this important move. In April started the preparations and plannings. The class-parent organized such a nice evening with snacks and wine - yes wine for a parent evening is super cool and not heard of in Sweden. I did my best trying to follow what was said. The main topics were: T-shirt for each kid, group photo, present to the kindergarten on environmental theme, summer fest, presents to teachers, to write a song or performance and balloons or no balloons to let go on summer fest. We decided that as a leaving present to the kindergarten we would give a birdhouse and I said that I can organize and paint it.  Said something like "Ich kann eine Vogelhaus gemacht.." We had some inspirations from Internet of how to make it a nice present that will stay in t...

Käpphäst straight translation into English = stick-horse, but as I was gonna do this post I googled translation and realized is is actually called hobby-horse also in German is it called Hobby Pferd...  A friends daughter here in Düsseldorf turned two years old a couple of weeks ago and I decided to try to make her a little hobby-horse with pink mane. My last attempt to make a hobby-horse was a big failure so I was a little skeptical that I would manage. I used a blue cotton fabric as the main part and then made ears out of a stretchy jersey fabric. Pillow stuffing as filling and as made I made small mini tassel's from rainbow yarn. I went to Bauhaus and bought a wooden stick and cut it in the lenght I wanted - approx 75 cm. I thought it ended up pretty cute and the right size for a smaller rider.  When I send a picture to my friend back in Sweden I got a picture back from her daughters hobby-horse she made in kindergarten... I love it next one I ...

I love books and reading or at least I love to read in periods and during those periods I read quite a lot. My plan is to read in average one book per month  (fiction for adults = all kids books I read are extra) I guess I read mix of different styles and authors but lately I have mainly been reading in Swedish. So I will present my latest reads in Swedish. Här kommer en kort presentation av de senaste böckerna som jag har läst. 1. Silvervägen - Stina Jackson  Mycket spännande och välskriven kriminalroman som jag läste dom sista sidorna ur igår sent sent - kunde inte lägga ner boken förrän jag läst klart. En berättelse och ett skrivande som fångade mig direkt och den höll ett grepp om mig som läsaren in i det sista. Jag gillar att den följde två olika parallella stories i varannat kapitel och som sedan kopplades ihop men inte förrän efter mer än halva boken.  Kan rekommendera den mycket! Från förlaget har detta skrivits om boken: Sedan tre år tillbringar Lelle de lj...

This year is running so fast. It feels like yesterday it was February and  I started studying German here in Düsseldorf. Now it is beginning of June and I had my last week in school last week. Very happy that I decided to start studying and grateful for meeting great people and that I have learned a lot. Maybe I will continue B1 & B2 this autumn we will see.  From this semester in Berliner Allee I will mostly remember 1. The big German map that we used a lot. A way to get a leg stretcher and to navigate through Bundesrepublics and cities in this big country. Also interesting with a for me new view of Europe where focus is on Germany and where Sweden is not even included.  2. Our lessons with Nadia where she was playing us good German songs with poetic lyrics. The Goethe text we read and watched over and over. And all the art lessons where we learned art history in German.  3. The Kitchen with many clean up notes which was strictly not...

I made this illustration a couple of months ago. Spring came early here in Düsseldorf. It was warm and t-shirt weather already in February-March. Trees were blossoming and everything going from brown to green. But May has been a very cold month and we have been using down-jackets and gloves again and Summer feels far away. 

I thought I would do an update how my German is coming along. My dream is to read this in a couple of years when I will be pretty fluent in German and smile at this update. I started my German course week 7 this year and it is organized by Internationella skolorna Düsseldorf  which is a language institute and a foundation connected to Folkuniversitet in Sweden. Basically Swedes can move down and learn German language and culture here in Düsseldorf for free and German students can apply and learn Swedish - basically it´s a cooperation between the two countries. The school is located very central in Düsseldorf on Berliner Allee on walking distance from Könings Allee and Altstadt. I am studying German for beginners, A1+ and A2+. I studied French in school so I have no experience more then that I have been to a lot of horse shows in Germany and can say my names is and I live in.... My German studies are full time which means minimum 4 hours tuition each day and a lot of interestin...

Easter has been and gone long time ago, but anyways I thought I will write a few words about our Easter 2019 here in Wittlaer, Düssledorf. Actually it was our second Easter here. It was Easter time 2018 when me, the kids and my dad came down first time to Düsseldorf to see our new neighborhood and house which Loren had picked and already lived in part-time for a couple of months. He was nervous that we would not like it and I was nervous that we would not like it. The house was pretty empty because our furniture moved from Sweden during the summer but anyways we got a good feeling and felt positive that the move to Düsseldorf will be a good move. A year later and we feel like this is our home and know our ways around. Easter 2019 was summer warm - 25 degrees and sunny A childhood friend of mine and her son came to visit us. Anything special you want to do or see I asked and she said " Enjoy the city feeling and see tall buildings" And so first day we went with U-bahn into...

I started this post about one of our favorite spots in Prague, Lethna, I think roughly four years ago. I was putting together pictures from different seasons from Lethna and the best view of Prague. When we lived in Prague we spend a lot of time up here in the beergarten, in the playground, walking through the park, showing family and friends the view etc etc. Every season in Lethna is special. Here is some of the pictures I have taken from different seasons, although missing pictures from spring and summer when the beergarten are full of people and dogs which is the most common view of Lethna. Lethna Park / Letenské Sady is a large park on top of Lethna hill looking down on Pragues beautiful historic center and Vltava River and besides Prague Castle. The hill is in Holesovice and Bubenec quarters of Prague 7. On one side of the park you find a big and popular beergarten with  a great view and on the otherside of the park an open space where today you find a lot of people on skate...