Building projects of lately.

So the big, strong and amazingly clever Mr. Payne (I am not biased) never rests! He has built this very cool stable for our horse (which is hopefully coming soon), and now him and my equally clever and amazing father has started on doing up the big kids' room upstairs.
Soon the girls can move in to a fresh and spacious new room, hurrah!

River deep, mountain high.

Yesterday took us on a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride, as life does sometimes (though not often wrapping it all into one day).
In the morning: We woke the girls up at 6 am with the birthday song for Ronja (8 years old!), a small breakfast in bed, and then presents in the kitchen (yes, Freja had some presents too..). Among the gifts were a baby fox figurine which was to be united with its mum (whom has resided here for a while).
Little did we know that Mr. Fox would affect our day in other ways as well, later on.
Finally, it had snowed in the night, and the girls screamed with happiness as they ran out to play before we had to leave for school and work. Ronja said It has been a wonderful morning! as we said goodbye at her school, our birthday girl, full of expectations for the day.
At work, I watched Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal with my students. In that, there's a character called Death, whom slowly sneaks up on people, depicting the black plague and mass death that followed. Little did I know that this would also be a sign of what was to happen later on.
I left work, picked Ronja up at school, she'd had a great day and was excited about the next event - pizza in town with the whole extended family.
More celebration, more presents, more singing!
At home, we jumped out of the car to greet Mr. Payne and Freja whom had just arrived. He came out of the barn door, and said Come and see what the fox has done to our chickens, and we instantly realized. It was like an explosion had happened. Dead chickens on the floor and outside, live chickens spread all around the farm, and even down at the neighbours'. We lost our three favorite hens (Juanita, Lola and Eggedoris) plus another two, four of our baby chicks and two of our teenagers. It was very, very sad.
So then, after a lot of crying and tidying up, we went to our awaiting birthday celebration, had pizza with our folks, cheered up, came home late and tucked the girls in bed, lit the fire and just sighed.

Sometimes it's just a little bit much, but I guess foxes have to eat, too.

Yesterday's party.

So our biggest wonder is 8 years old tomorrow! The only thing to really say is WOW, and keep on enjoying the ride as she grows and changes and surprises us again and again. Our amazing, big little person.
Yesterday was the big day for having her friends over, and we repeated the success of last year (with the same excellent weather!) of hosting the party outside only. It is the stress-free and healthy way of throwing a party if you ask me; no need to clean the house (before or after!), and the kids can run and shout and go crazy as they please. We make a bonfire, grill sausages/ marshmallows/ bread dough, drink hot choc, have a combined treasure hunt/ nature quiz, play hide and seek on the farm and generally enjoy the fun of a good old day out.
Ronja happily said that It's the best birthday party I've ever had! when it was over, and nothing pleases a mummy's heart more than that.
Photos by me except for the one of the girls in the woods by my friend Eli. :)

Something magical.

Yesterday, as I was driving to work, it was a grey and windy and chilly morning, just a normal, anonymous Wednesday morning. One of those days. I was feeling tired, sleepy, exhausted even though the day had just begun, negative thoughts speeding through my mind.
Suddenly I thought I wish something magical could happen right now, something that will wake me up, something that can give me spirit, I want to see a big elk, right now!
The thought of seeing a huge beautiful animal trotting along the road seemed to me the perfect image to transport me out of my self-pitying and grumbling mood,
to be reminded of the wild.
And then, a couple of minutes later, in the middle of the road, there stood a beautiful young deer buck. He just stood there, like he was posing, and as I came closer, he trotted elegantly out into the field.
I blew him a kiss, thanked him, drove to work, and my day had changed from grey to a little bit magical.
Wish for an elk and you get a deer - not a bad moral to the story, is it?

Under the weather.

When the most part of the family are feeling a little out of sorts, the only solution is to stay in, play, sleep, make yummy stuff in the kitchen, watch movies and just snuggle up. So that's what we've been doing the last couple of days. Tomorrow's a new day, and I think we'll all be ok by then.
Good Monday wishes to you all from this snotty, feverish and sore-throathed gang!

These days.

(I'm going through a bit of an Instagram craze at the moment, so my trusty Nikon has been brutally ignored the last couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll come around again.)

While playing with the treasures from summer, the vivid colours of autumn have played in our outside views, and now, the leaves have almost all blown away from their trees, and that naked, grey time is approaching. November. Not my favourite month.

The mornings now are darker every day, and I make sure the candle is lit on our breakfast table, no matter how much in a rush we are. Ronja makes sure a little piece of fridge poetry is left behind when she goes to school, and when she comes home, she is happy, but tired, and her hair is messy from wearing her wooly hat. She does her homework, she tries hard.

As this is written, she is out fishing with my dad in the pitch dark, I expect a breath of fresh air sweeping through the house as they come back, and her excited energy which will soon transform into sleepiness. It is late, the house is warm from the fire being lit.

Mr. Payne is in the barn. He's been there every evening this week, and I can hear him hammering away in there, I see his shadow move across the room through the window. He is making a stable for our horse. I make him apple crumble with fruit from our garden.

Freja is asleep, the baby in my belly is awake, my eyes are sore. I have knitting to do. 

Love!

The latest fashion.

Freja figured the best thing to do was to get properly dressed, and then read a book to Billie. Good Sunday activities indeed!

Important project in the making.

From the sky.

The mist in the morning is amazing, magic. It embraces everything, covers the valley in a thick blanket; and then suddenly the sun breaks through and burns it all off in minutes. It's like watching the day begin in fast motion. And in the hour or two spent inside while the mist was still enveloping us, we've lit the fire, had warm oatmeal and tea, done some knitting, and most certainly done a whole lot of jigsaw puzzling. And then, instantly, it's time to go outside. We pack our little rucksacks with a thermos and a blanket, and head off to the distant shore of our fields. There, the hunt for stickmen and mushrooms await. And some very curious sheep!
Yesterday, as we were out walking the fields, we stood on a hill looking down towards a lower field, it is surrounded by trees of all sorts. Suddenly, the wind caught up, and hundreds of yellow leaves let go of their trees and danced like snowflakes all over. It's snowing! And as the leaves fell towards the ground, we could see that they looked like little parachutes, slowly spinning towards earth. It was beautiful. Ronja ran around trying to catch them all, laughing out loud and free.
Soon, there will be real snowflakes sailing down from above, and we'll laugh up at the sky again, catching them with our mouths.

I gave in...

...and joined Instagram too. If you want, you can follow me there on @progrocket!
We have Grandad over from England, the fire is lit, finally we have the woodburner installed (oh, I'm going to have to Instagram that!), chocolates are waiting to be eaten and the sofa is calling.
Happy Friday!