Reflections

In Memoriam

I like wandering round in churches, and on a recent visit to the Church of Holy Trinity in Kristianstad, I spent my time perusing the gravestones that line the walls of the church. The church was built in the early seventeenth century, and as was the custom rich people were often buried directly under the

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When lightning strikes

Some days ago, a little boy here in Sweden died. Children do that now and then, however much we don’t want it to happen, but in this particular case the boy didn’t die due to an accident or to illness. No, he died due to being forgotten. After having spent the entire day strapped into

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And in the night there is light

In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about light pollution, this being the encroachment of electrical light on the darkness of night. I don’t think anyone denies the benefit of artificial light – for those of us that live in the northern hemisphere, life would be very, very, very (you get the picture, right?) dark

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Of dinosaurs and arrows – a reminiscence.

Having children is a good way of expanding your knowledge – sometimes into areas you never thought you were interested in. I guess most parents have suffered Dinosauritis in one degree or other, and even if giant reptiles are not my cup of tea, it is difficult not to be swept along when an enthusiastic

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In praise of spring and the returning light

Welcome to Sweden, staunch home of the Lutheran church as is displayed by the relatively large number of religious red letter days in our calendar. Not that Swedes are particularly religious – not these days. Neither are we pagan, but some rituals are hard to kill, and no matter Anselm (our apostle) no matter the

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Que será, será

“When I was just a little girl…” I desperately wanted to be a boy. Most of my friends were boys, my favourite pursuits were football and rugnby, and I just hated it when I had to do needlework at school. Or deportment classes. I don’t know if any of you, dear readers, have been subjected

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In honour of those that went before

We have recently cleared a plot of land of trees. The plot is about 1500 square metres, of a size with a potato patch large enough to feed a family of six over the winter – just. In total, we have taken down 150 odd trees. Okay, we haven’t taken them down. A man with

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To paraphrase Descartes: “I eat, therefore I am”

Given the title, this post is mainly going to be about food. (I think. My posts tend to live a life of their own at times… ) I am a food person. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a whole lot of other things person as well (mainly books & tea ) but food is definitely

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The sounds of silence

There is a contradiction in the title of this post – well, it was there already back when Simon and Garfunkel wrote the original song. After all, silence assumes that there are no sounds – it sort of goes with the concept. Silence may be mute but it can be tangible, like “a heavy silence

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