Separation goes away!

Untouched by any happening or event is the eternal 'I amness' that underlies all the manifestations. You can look at the manifestations and recognize yourself, the one in every manifestation. You recognize the beingness, not through words but through stillness. And in that moment you recognize yourself in the other and the sense of separation goes away that was created by excessive thinking. And there is love.
BY ECKHART TOLLE

Trevlig Midsommar!

This coming weekend Sweden celebrates the wonders of nature and life, where everything in nature thrives, the time of the year with the most daylight hours.

Midsommar refers to the period of time centered around the day of summer solstice and in Sweden it is considered the greatest festival of the year.

Families and friends often gather in community centers/ houses or private places.

Here is a small excerpt from Wikipedia on "midsommar":

In modern Sweden, Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day (Midsommarafton and Midsommardagen) were formerly celebrated on 23 June and 24 June, but since 1953 the celebration has been moved to the Friday and Saturday between 19 June and 26 June. It is one of the most important holidays of the year in Sweden, and probably the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated. The main celebrations take place on the Friday, and the traditional events include raising and dancing around a huge maypole. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole.

Raising and dancing around a maypole (majstång or midsommarstång) is an activity that attracts families and many others. People dancing around the pole listen to traditional music and some even wear traditional folk costumes. In addition, many wear crowns made of wild springs and wildflowers on their heads. The year's first potatoes, pickled herring, Chives, sour cream, and possibly the first strawberries of the season are on the menu. Drinking songs are also important at this feast, and many drink heavily...

***

Personally I think it is a fun way of celebrating the most lively time of the year.
How will we celebrate?
We'll be enjoying the nice weather, chill in our huge, nice garden and maybe check out some of the activities in or around Åhus. But only if we feel like it! *lol*

HASI worked hard the last few days and managed to get the rest of the firewood stacked and under cover. ♥
Now it's just a question of doing grocery shopping and mowing the lawn before midsommar weekend starts...

I went on a walk with Cleo yesterday evening and IT WAS SO NICE!
I love walking through the woods nearby where the birds make music.
CLEO sniffs her way along the trail, left, right, back and forth...
Sometimes we meet runners, horses and their riders, hikers and dogs.

We ran into a woman in a bright blue shirt and walking shoes. I am sure her goal was to get some fresh air, exercise and relaxation. I mean, I don't really know if she succeeded with all three cause she was wearing headphones...
I don't know what she was listening to, maybe some soft music or a meditation - and maybe it worked for her, but I just wondered.

A lot of people, young and old, walk through life with headphones on her ears.
I see them running, walking, biking, driving cars, sitting on the bus, they listen to music (or something else) sometimes even at work.
Why is everyone trying to escape?
What's wrong with listening to what is really around us?
That woman last night in the woods, she doesn't even know what she missed out on. The birds were singing so beautifully and the wind made his own music by flowing through the tree tops.

Listening to music is a fun thing, of course! I do it too. I have some on my iPhone and iPod.
But I like to sit still when I listen. At certain moments and times it can be a wonderful thing to do.
But not in the woods...
It would be a pity to miss
NATURE - LIVE IN CONCERT!

:)

This past week we were trained in first aid and firefighting.
We were given lots of important information about safety equipment and on how to use it.
We got to practice CPR on dolls and safe their lives with the defibrillator.

I just hope I'll never have to use this knowledge on real persons.
And IF I have to do so, I hope I'll be able to keep a cool head and help.




TREVLIG MIDSOMMAR!


♥

Most of it is stacked!

Remember this pile of firewood?
It got delivered friday evening and we thought it would sit there all week...

and now, Sunday evening, almost everything is stacked. 

This is the first part of the stack, we got it done yesterday...

And this morning we started the second part, just the two of us - with a little help of Aaron.

The only problem was that he thought he would help us by digging holes in the ground and carry firewood out of the shed instead of into it... *lol*

But luckily we got unexpected additional help after lunch... REAL HELP! :)

Little Edith and her parents came by and within one hour most of the pile was gone.

Look at this wonderful stack of firewood! 

My grandfather would be very happy to see that, he loved that kind of work. 

But I am sure he would have done it even nicer, he was very fussy when it comes to stacking firewood! 

:)

We couldn't have done it without the help of our friends, thanks guys!

I've mesured the stack and calculated how much it really is.
I couldn't believe that this is a little more then 10 cubic meters. Yeeha! Winter can come! :)

In the next couple of days we'll deal with the second, smaller pile right in front of the garage doors...
maybe we'll get help again! *lol*

Have a great week everyone!

♥

A thousand thanks!

About 10 days ago I got an award from Lois at "From Lois' Hands".
Obviously I was just too busy to post the good news...

Here it is!

Ta Ta!!

Thank you so much Lois for thinking of me and my blog, I am glad you enjoy your visits here and I am not only thanking you for awarding "hillybillyfarmgirl" with this BEAUTIFUL award, thank you also for leaving comments every time you drop by! ♥

So, here are 10 things you might not know about me...

1. My favorite time of the year is spring.

2. I don't like large crowds of people.

3. My favorite drink is and always has been cold milk.

4. In the winter I love to wear socks in bed. 

5. I never wear skirts or dresses, the last dress/gown I ever wore (many many years ago was long and dark blue).

6. My favorite brand of jeans is Wrangler.

7. I love the smell of grass.

8. I also love the smell of horse poop ;-)

9. I don't like beer and wine!

10. I love to cook, but I hardly ever use a cook book. I just look in the fridge to see what is there and then I create funny new meals! :)

So! That was that. 

Now I have to choose a couple of bloggers who I think deserve this award...

That is really the hardest part. 

And because I don't fell like making any decisions today (I wouldn't even know which one to pick or not...),

I'll just pass this award on to all of the bloggers on my personal blogger list!! 

Yes, to all of you! 

Congratulations to you all, every single blog is great and unique, any single one of you deserves this award! Enjoy!

:))

♥ Hillybillyfarmgirl

ROTW

For the first time in the 3 weeks that we are here in our new home it feels like we are finally organized.

We cleaned up the garden, adapted it to our and our animals needs, almost everything we need found it's place in the house and today we even managed to clean up the garage. 

It was a big mess! 

Boxes, tools, furniture, mattresses, all mixed up and in piles. 

There was absolutely no chance to fit a car in it! 

That has changed, the garage/shop is all organized and tidy. 

There is just one problem left, we still can't put the car in the garage because of this...

We bought some firewood, i would estimate it's 12 cubic meters.

There is one big pile sitting next to the garage and one smaller one in front of it and until we get it all moved into the shed the car will sit outside in sun and rain. 

We don't mind the rain but it's not nice to sit in a car that has been warmed up by the sun for hours. 

We are spoiled - I admit that. :)

Another big point on our daily agenda is the soccer world championship! 

4 weeks of soccer soccer soccer!

Ingrid loves to watch high class soccer games and the dutch team is luckily still in the race...

Tomorrow we'll go on stacking the firewood. 

Have a great ROTW (restoftheweekend) everyone! 

♥

PS: TODAY the swedish princess Viktoria got married -
with her fitness trainer who is now prince Daniel!
Congratulations! :)

Overnight Adventure

CATS are strange creatures!

Our MIKA is almost one year old now and we notice changes in his behavior. 

He met his first strange cat a couple of weeks ago - it must have been a very mean one because he ended up sitting in a tree... 

He did not even think about coming back down, even though it was already getting dark!

I had to climb up a ladder and "rescue" him.

But that is part of a cat's life, they have to learn that life is not only a vacation.

They want their freedom, make very clear that they need it and TAKE IT whenever they want. 

They only come when they are hungry or when they want to cuddle. 

The cat is the one who makes that decision and that is OK with me.

After our move here I had to rescue him a second time from a tree. We suspect the neighbors cat scared him and he was a bit in shock. Again. 

He took a TIMEOUT - the following 3 days we didn't see much of him downstairs. 

On the fourth day we encouraged him to go outside again, I mean there comes a point where you just think "get over it buddy! life goes on!"

He made a round trough the garden and seemed fearless again. 

We expected company that day and decided to take him inside for a while, and after our friends were gone we let him out again. 

He had a wild look in his eyes and was all enthusiastic spying on birds and climbing trees. 

I sat outside for awhile on the porch and enjoyed watching him, thinking that he was his old self again. 

It's so nice to watch a young cat exploring the world!

I called him but he didn't even have time for me and vanished into the bushes behind the cabin.

That was the last time I saw him...

WE went to look and call for him several times that evening but it seemed that he had vanished from the face of the earth!

Eventually we went to bed after sunset - worried. 

Our boy was on his first overnight adventure, all alone in the dark! 

We didn't sleep so deep that night, always kinda alert, listening...

I left the window open just in case.  

I woke up 5:45 am! That was when I heard a very loud and desperate MEOOOW!

I jumped out of the bed and looked out of the window and YES, there he was, our boy MIKA!

He was so excited to see me, I really think he was never happier before - AND HUNGRIER *lol* 

He ate and ate and ate... 

and we cuddled and cuddled and cuddled!

And now he's a very happy INSIDE CAT AGAIN. :(

I think he's had enough adventure for a while.

It's just so sad to know that he's upstairs all day long while we have such nice weather... 

He's taking another TIMEOUT. 

CATS are strange creatures!

♥

Aaron's second day in Kindergarden

The day after the move, our first day in the new house, we were just too tired to go to class with Aaron.
I remember the evening as it were yesterday.
We had moved most things on Monday with the help of Hilde and ML (Thank's ladies for working so hard with us!).
Tuesday we were on our own again, we went back to the house in Fjälkinge one last time to load one mort trailer and finish cleaning.
In the afternoon we came back...

This post...

...should have been posted a couple of days ago.
I was working on it for over 30 minutes and when I was ready to publish I got an error message from Blogger and EVERYTHING I HAD DONE was GONE!
GRRRRRRR!
So I dropped the whole thing and went to bed...

Today I am trying again. And please be prepared - it will be a long one and I hope you'll enjoy it!

The post would have contained many photos from and around the new house AND the animals.
I am of course adding those photos here again (if Blogger let's me publish this thing this time!) but first I'll give you the latest news on my bus-drivers license...

I really consider it a miracle that I actually...

We moved house :)

We have landed in our new home!

The last 4 days were tuff, we worked hard and our bodies were exhausted by monday evening (and we are still in the recovering-phase).
But everything went well and that is the most important thing.
We slept quite well those first two nights, we like the house and the animals seem to like it too.
This house is much smaller then the one...