Kitchen Gnomes (Part 2)

 

On the small wooden corner shelf in my kitchen you'll find my wooden gnomes. (The other items are there all year round.) The shelf itself belonged to my paternal grandmother, and once upon a time used to sit in her kitchen. 

The wooden house (a model of a kind of storehouse that used to be common in the north of Sweden) comes from my mum's side of the family (my maternal grandfather was from "up north") - and so does the little carved dog. The boat-like thing next to the house is a souvenir bought on a family trip up north in my early teens - a wooden cup, a traditional Sami kind of item. The little ceramic deer and the "nutty" squirrel were presents from friends some time in the past; and the little grey gnome I think was originally part of some Christmas flower arrangement. 

The two gnomes to the left on the middle shelf I remember buying when visiting a Christmas market in a friend's church back in my upper teens. And the grey one on the same shelf was a Christmas gift from a Swedish penfriend some 20+ years ago. 

A random collection of things, but with one thing in common: 
They're all bearers of memories of family and friends.

The Kitchen Gnomes (Part 1)

 

I feel that I must have told this story before, but I can't find evidence  of it now. (It may have been many years ago.) 

I had a period in my youth when I more or less banned gnomes of all kind from the Christmas decorations in my own home. But then for quite a few years I had a friend and neighbour with whom I used to exchange the service of watering each others' plants when the other was away on holidays. Her apartment, in contrast to mine, was always full of gnomes at Christmas time. So we were both well aware of our different "taste" when it came to decorations. 

Then one year she left a little parcel for me, which turned out to contain a tealight candle holder surrounded by five little gnomes - accompanied by a message that these gnomes were "seeking asylum" with me... Ah well... Put like that, how could I refuse... 

Next time it was my turn to water her plants at Christmas time, I had happened to find (in some shop) a "toothpick" pack with tiny Santa figures on them. (Probably meant to be used to decorate food served for Christmas.) So I planted those tiny Santas here and there, in flower pots or where else I could think of, around my friend's flat...

Over a number of years afterwards, around Christmas time, those tiny Santas then kept wandering back and forth between our flats... Sometimes most of them were at my place, sometimes at hers.

Photo from 2015

When I moved to my present apartment in 2008, the majority of them happened to be hibernating in my box of Christmas decorations... And as since then, that friend and I have no longer been watering each other's plants, those ten tiny gnomes have remained staying with me. Well - in my basement storage room 11 months of the year... But invading my kitchen window sill for a few weeks every year around Christmas...

Ssshh - they're still asleep in the Santa House... 
But I might wake them up for 4th Advent Sunday!

Gnome on the Stone, and Elf on the Shelf

 Today was another grey day, but it wasn't raining, and I had nothing special "scheduled", so I decided to go for a walk around the cemetery around noon, to get the most out of the little daylight that there was. For the first time since my knee injury I walked all around the place - and then a bit extra. (All in all I was out for about 45 minutes - using both walking poles.)

And old ("returned") grave reused as flowerbed, with some plants that still add a bit of colour to this grey season. 
 

Hydrangea climbing on the old stone wall along one side of the cemetery.

The buds on the rhododendron bushes seem a bit too far gone for their own good as well (I made the same observation about some azaleas on my last walk there). Weather forecasts now indicate that temperatures will probably be dropping again next week, though...

From a distance, on a grave out in one of the "fields", I spotted something very bright red on top of a standing headstone. I couldn't quite make out if it really was what I thought it looked like - or perhaps just some red flowers giving me the illusion...? So I decided I had to go and have a closer look - and it was indeed something I don't think I've ever seen as grave decoration before: 

I decided to blur the name before posting the photo here, but (not surprisingly) the grave belongs to someone who died only 19 years old, and less than a decade ago. 

When I got back home, I got started on my own "final" Christmas decorations... (Got those boxes up from storage yesterday, which was also laundry day for me, so I had to make a few turns down to the basement anyway.)

I don't have a lot of gnomes and "santas", but I have a few, which are now up on their usual shelves etc around my flat. For example, the Santa family knitted by my mum...

 ... And as soon as they had settled in, Skipper came to visit them, and return the stray little yarn gnome doll which she has been looking after all autumn (ever since I found him under the sofa, where he must have been hiding since last winter)...

As reward for her faithful "babysitting", when back home on her own shelf again, Skipper got to decorate her and Barbie's own Christmas tree:

 

This one also lives in my living room. He was bought by myself some time in this century, because he reminded me of Dumbledore (from the Harry Potter books). Therefore he also gets the company of the two little owls...

I also have a few kitchen gnomes, but I'll save those for another post. 

The Sun Has Gone Away on Holiday

 "Sun so far in December"

The weather has been so extremely grey so far in December that Swedish Television has taken to show daily statistics of the number of hours of sunshine. Note that this (above) is not the number of hours per day, but for a period of 15 days... 

Over the past two weeks, our capital Stockholm on the east coast only had 30 minutes of sunshine altogether. Karlstad, situated on the north shore of Lake Vänern (and generally known as a town where the sun always shines) saw the sun for 2 hours and 18 minutes in total; while our 2nd largest city, Gothenburg (Göteborg) on the west coast, can brag about getting 3 hours and 48 minutes. (Borås, where I live, is only an hour inland from there, but I think our statistics would probably be closer to Stockholm's.)

Viewers can send in their own weather photos. The background above is not a blank screen, but a fog photo from Boden, far up in the north. 

Below, a silhouette photo from the province Hälsningland, in the middle of our oblong country. Beautiful, but kind of spooky - like an island appearing "out of nowhere"...

 

And as for the next couple of days - not much hope of improvement...
 

Muted Colours

It continues to be rather mild for December here - and wet, grey and gloomy. The photo above (from the cemetery) shows some azalea leaf buds in the foreground looking almost worringly green for the time of year. I hope they're not getting deceived to believe that there's spring in the air already! 

On Friday afternoon I managed a walk combining recycling with a visit to the one of our two small neighbourhood shops that also serves as "post office" (with limited service); to pick up a parcel (something I had ordered that was a little too big to fit in my own postbox), and to get my bunch of Swedish Christmas cards posted. 

Saturday and Sunday were so thoroughly wet, dark and dismal that I didn't set foot outside. I kind of went into half-hibernation, and can't recall that I "did" much indoors either... 

Monday today, and the sky still a very dense grey - but the rain stopped (at least for a while), allowing me a walk to the major post office down by the railway, to post a couple of large "parcel envelopes" (which I didn't want to entrust to the single postbox at the convenience store). The walk from here to there took me about 15 minutes, which is probably fairly normal (for me). On the way back, I took a detour into/around the cemetery, which prolonged the whole walk to 45 minutes all in all. 

It's been over two months now since I and fell and hurt my knee. It keeps getting better, and less swollen; but still not enough for me to dare try to walk all the way into town and back (which is what I'm really longing to be able to get back to). I don't go out without wearing a compression knee bandage, and using at least one walking pole for support (today I used both). I also wear a somewhat softer knee bandage (bamboo) all night.   

 A 'favourite' old house I passed on my walk back from the post office. (If you feel that you've probably seen it before - then you probably have!)