Hello, Autumn!

The days are starting to get shorter, the leaves are turning, there is a delightful crispness to the air-yes, autumn is finally here! What's more, today is officially the first day of Autumn: the Equinox. In the Celtic calendar it's Lúnasa, the start of the harvest and an intake of breath before the great darkness descends. I can't get enough of this season. As one with pale skin and who is more comfortable in a good warm jumper than a tshirt, I always feel better when it's cold. I've got my new wool cardigan and polo neck ready to go!

Next week will mark the official beginning of the second year of my PhD. In some ways 'time is flying', but in general I feel incredibly happy, very busy, satisfied and sufficiently creative. I had the chance to host a workshop and documentary about resisting austerity in Copenhagen at the weekend, and that, along with fieldwork that is going swimmingly, has me feeling all sorts of good.

I'm excited for another reason too-Leo is joining me in Durham in just six days! It's five years this month since we first met, and one year since we have been separated, so it feels right that we are reunited in September, a time which for many represents the end of a cycle, but for me has always felt like the beginning of something fantastic (the start of the school year, the nature table, a new pencil case, new experiences, a new copybook).

New beginnings (again, and again)

The last few weeks have been hectic. Aside from the fact that I've been in Ireland spending time with my family, I have moved to a house in Durham town centre, There have been countless trips back and forth to the college I was living at, as few taxi journeys as possible, room painting, sorting through things and, mostly exciting of all, negotiating with Leo what he has to bring, as I am so so happy to say that he is moving to Durham in less than a month to do some further study. 

I am absolutely walking on air, this is the happiest and most content I have been in such a long time. It makes all the nesting, moving, expense and hassle of it all totally worth it, as I now get to share my home once again with my partner in crime and other half. 

On top of that, the season is most definitely changing, and I can feel that autumnal crispness in the air.  I am ready to embrace the seasons once again and enjoy all that life has to offer. I am ready for pumpkin and squash, coats and rain, falling leaves and darkening evenings. 

My time in Ireland made me realise how much I love and my miss my home and the people in it. It makes me so sad that for now I can only make the most of it through visits home, emails, phone calls and post. I can't wait to put down roots there, permanently. 

You never know how much you need something until it's taken away from you. 

Today I emailed for several hours, baked these delicious lemon drizzle cakes, and watched Halloween Town. I can't believe I'm moving to England in 2 weeks. There is so much to do.

the most relaxing sunday

I haven't had an at-home, total relax, normal person Sunday in a very long time. I would say a few months. I've either been working, had guests, or been on trips. I know, woe is me with my burgeoning social life, but sometimes all you want is one of those rainy, lazy Sundays where you bake, eat nice food, and watch endless reruns of Grand Designs. Yesterday, the change in seasons was clear. It didn't stop raining and blustering all day long. I started the morning by baking bread and a chocolate cake, as you do, while listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack.

In the afternoon, after some unfortunate studying and note-taking and delicious lunching, we settled down for a serious Grand Designs marathon. We have a projector, which makes the experience of watching tv a million times cooler, like having a mini cinema in your living room. Add to that some serious hygelligt couch and duvet action and endless cups of tea, and you have one cosy Sunday right there, my friend. I had to take a break after about episode 3, and started doing some clearing out. I did a trial run of packing my clothes to move to the UK, and in the process filled a black bag with things I don't use or need. I can't wait to fill at least one more and bring it to a charity shop. Downsizing always feels good. 

2 more episodes of Grand Designs, some snacking on leftovers from the fridge and cupboard (it also feels good to empty endless jars of lentils and cans of things that sit in cupboards for too long!), some nice Weisbier and a bit of chatting about the future, and it was the end to a very successful, relaxing Sunday, ready for the week ahead! I can't say this week will be a bustling hive of activity, I plan on studying, hoping to secure accommodation for when I move country all too soon, and sell some items. Oh, and pack for our 3 week long trip to Croatia. The stress of life, eh ;)

This was our favourite, a Japanese-inspired home for a Japanese lady and her husband in Wales clad in Japanese larch and Scandinavian spruce

Their outdoor hot tub with the man himself

summer's end

We're in the final weeks of summer over here. Flip flops every day is no longer a sufficient footwear choice, and we've had a few rainy/stormy days lately. Since I'm finished up at my job I'm supposed to be productive; preparing for my studies, 2 proposals, holidays, all that stuff. 

But I've been fairly lazy, if I'm being honest. I've been pottering around at home cleaning, doing laundry, making essential oil with my new lemon balm plant (!), entertaining guests, reading my Paul Krugman book (the closest relation to 'work' right now) cooking, and generally doing things not taxing on the brain. I also spent a good few hours cleaning up the computer, and sorting all 19,000 pictures into appropriate folders. Good grief.

Today is Leaving Cert Results day for all the school leavers in Ireland, and I'm thanking my lucky stars those days are long behind me (7 years!) because boy, was that a stressful experience. All the anxiety, stress and strain of it, just to be told you either get into a course or don't. From there it all starts at a blank page again. Conjugating irregular verbs and solving for x aren't much use for most of us in the real world.

Leo has managed to get his hands on a sourdough starter from a colleague in work, so later today we are making sourdough, blancmange, and some tasty Autumnal dish from the Irish cook book I picked up at the library. Our evenings are filled with swims in the sea, watching a Cold War documentary, and drinking a lot of tea, both breakfast and lemon balm. Life, it's pretty good.

 

Colour, Colour, Everywhere!

Autumn is really in full swing now. In other countries the local councils might remove the leaves that clog the gutters of housing estates and streets, but not so in Ireland. I'm grateful for it, though, because I love the burst of colour everywhere.

The last few weeks I've been occupied with the continuing saga of Learning To Drive. I must admit, every lesson is a vast improvement. I have a test date now, so I'm working towards that and praying to the gods that I'm fortunate enough to pass, I have quite a few travel plans which involve the middle of nowhere, and a car is always handy for such instances.

It's almost Halloween, and I've been making the most of the spooky season. There have been several movie nights, complete with popcorn, treats, and, in one case, Indian takeaway. After movie watching comes the ubiquitous dissection of the movie, and the reading of Wiki articles relating to them. Nothing like scaring yourself into not wanting to go to sleep, a strange quirk of our species.

On the weekend my friends and I had an old fashioned sleepover and we carved pumpkins (I saved the seeds and roasted them!), ate pizza, and gossiped.

I've also been making the most of the last few bits from the garden. I stewed a couple of different batches of apples with cinammon and I've been eating them with natural yoghurt. Unbeatable. When I have kids they're going to eat nothing but.

Here's an amalgamation of loosely connected images relevant to my life over the past few weeks. Excuse the grainy quality, I just have a Samsung Galaxy Ace, and my camera skills are thoroughly inferior to Leo's. 

HE'S SO OLD!!!

The weather has been absolutely dire the last few days. Torrential rain and strong winds mean I haven't been able to jog or cycle every day. I've been going out when there's a break in the rain, but boy, is it annoying.

I took that time to actually repaint my room. My childhood bedroom had not had a fresh coat of paint since I was about 14, and at least a month ago I ripped it apart and began the process, but never seemed to be able to motivate myself to finish it.

On Thursday I am heading to Copenhagen for a few days. Let's hope that I get my room finished before then.

Jerzens, Tirol

I spent the past week in the Tirolean Alps with the family. It was my first time being in Austria and Tirol, and, although I'd been the Swiss Alps a few years ago, this time was completely unique because the entire village and basically that whole area of the Alps were deserted save for a few of the locals. Everyone is taking a much needed break after the summer tourism season is over, and the winter one won't begin for another few weeks.

We flew to Memmingen airport, which Ryanair dubs 'West Munich'. This is a lie, it is over 100km from Munich, but was the best way for us to access Tirol coming from Ireland. My parents and I rented a car and before we knew it we were sailing down the autobahn, with the beautiful farmland and countryside of Bavaria whizzing on either side. Bavaria is one of my favourite places; I spent some time in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Würzburg and of course München the year before last, and I have beautiful memories of that part of Germany.

Ruefully, we drove on, and although I would have loved to just stay in Bavaria our destination was somewhere equally idyllic; Austrian Tirol. And I soon realised it was just as great as Bavaria. Gently sloping farmland with sparsely dotted trees gave way to inclines, slight and then steeper, pines, Alpine lodges and eventually dramatic views and extreme winding roads.

We stayed in a family-run hotel called Landhaus Raich which is run by the bubbly and caring Birgit and her husband, who is incidentally the mayor of Jerzens. Small world. On our first evening she invited us for cakes and coffee, and some schnapps she made herself from the berry of a pine tree that grows locally.

She told us that, because of the huge amount of snow they'd had the week before, her friend over in Italian Tirol needed help harvesting her apples right away, so she would be going the next day to harvest, and two days after we could have some of her freshly made apfelsaft. The woman knows how to host, I'm telling you!

On the grounds of the hotel (I use the term 'hotel' lightly, it was more like a series of self contained apartments, each decked out in typical Tirolean style, within her huge house) there were stables for about 7 horses, a chicken coop, a play area for kids, a tiny swimming pool and a goat. It was heaven, and my 5 year old nephew, Adrian, certainly agreed with me.

In the chicken coop were boxes, one for each room, with a special lock belonging to the occupant of the room. In your very own box you could find eggs, freshly laid, for breakfast every day. It was a really lovely touch.

We enjoyed horse riding, swimming, hikes and adventure activities, Adrian and I spent a good bit of time in the playroom playing games and it was good to spend time together as a family. My brother and his family have lived abroad for a few years now, first in Germany and now in Switzerland, so I've come to take for granted that I'll see them once, maybe twice a year.

In the self-created busyness we tire ourselves out with, it was so grounding (is that a pun, considering the altitude?) to make time, to be in the fresh air, drinking Alpine water, feel consistent but mild vertigo, and appreciating life at a different pace, in a different style, with my very own family. Experiences like this make all the difference, rare moments of true beauty and calm. We all need to take more time to realise how lucky we are.

A Stupenduous Weekend

This weekend I am in Copenhagen (well, it's Monday and I'm still here, but think of it as an extended weekend). The 20th marked three years to the day since Leo and I met, and since we never officially started 'going out' I decided we may as well celebrate this date, as there is no more meaningful alternative.

Three years is an awfully long time to know someone, and not only that, but to be consistently overjoyed by that persons' presence in your life.

Enough of my babble. This weekend, was filled with deliciousness of all kinds, a trip to IKEA and to Sweden itself, cycling, saunas in the sea, cakes, a lot of coffee, and a lot of contentment. Hygge abounded. Det var meget hyggeligt, one might say!

I shall let a picture say 1000 words instead of meandering on. P.s. there are no pictures of the delish cakes we had in IKEA because they are on Leo's phone, and he is in work:

NO BALLOONS?!

This guy's house fell over because he had a party and had too many people on it. Absolutely mental! The guy in the kiosk beside it said they had to rush in and rescue a lady trapped in the toilets because she couldn't move and had only a little bit of airspace left. Omgeh!

'Lol'

This Sauna in the Sea is the greatest experience, it's my second time being there and it's so relaxing. You just feel reinvigorated afterwards. There are gender segregated changing and bathing areas and communal and segregated saunas. The only problem with the communal sauna is that the aged men that frequent it stare far more than is necessary. If I wasn't with my boyfriend, I wouldn't go in there. I think the gender separation is ridiculous. Grown ups are more than able to handle the nakedness of the opposite sex, it won't cause strokes or heart attacks.

We had both a dinner and breakfast buffet included in the price in our hotel, and let me tell you, they put on quite a spread. In typical thrifty fashion I brought enough breakfast foods with me from the buffet for lunch. Oh how I over-ate.

Leo forced me to watch the gaelic football final in a dingy Irish pub in Malmo, and I did not enjoy it. Dublin won, Mayo lost, but as far as I'm concerned in the petty sport of football, there are no winners.

Now I'm back in Copenhagen, having done some gift shopping in Tiger etc. and now it's off to the airport to head back to my beloved (or not) Eire.

Until next time, Danmark.