Dancing around the Christmas tree in (in Sweden) Advent After four weeks of Advent preparation, church bells chime signifying the start of Julaften, the Christmas period throughout Scandinavia. With traditional origins stretching back to pagan times, the Scandinavian countries celebrate the evening of December 24 with a Christmas feast and gift-giving. Songs are sung whilst… Continue reading Blogger Party Holiday Treats in Australia and Scandinavia – Friendly Friday Challenge
Jul or jol is the term used for the Christmas holiday season in Norway. Originally, "jul" (or "jol") was the name of a month in the old Germanic calendar, corresponding roughly to the time from mid-December through mid-January, and the concept of "jul" as a period of time rather than a specific event, prevails in… Continue reading Scandinavian Nisse Traditions and Christmas Blog Party
Meet Hans Olav - a real Viking Despite not being a major airport, for some of us, it's rather fun landing over water, flying low into the fjord at Stjørdal, landing on a thin strip of land that juts out between the two arms of the sea. The airport itself has an interesting history dating… Continue reading Værnes – To Hell and Back
I don't know when it started, but I developed a ritual of taking a photo of the plane I was about to embark on, just before boarding. It was a nice record and demarcation in my endless reams of google photos I would take when travelling to multiple countries. After a while, this ritual became… Continue reading Friendly Friday Blog Challenge – Airport Experiences
Extreme Weather Events It's a strange coincidence that Sandy chose "weather," for the prompt for this fortnight's Friendly Friday challenge, as my corner of Australia experienced several extreme weather events over the last day or so. Signs of climatic change? Freak weather events? Who's to say? Typically, the weather in my region is picture postcard… Continue reading Friendly Friday Blog Challenge – Weather
"We have more in common than we often realise." Christchurch - 2 weeks before the first earthquake, Cathedral square Just two weeks before the first dreadfully unexpected earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, way back in 2010, a Kiwi friend had hooked me up to meet Jan and John - two residents of this fair city,… Continue reading Friendly Friday Challenge- Meet Jan and John
Over half a century ago this happened: It's Friday 13th, one October, in the early seventies and it's raining hard, in torrents, as it does in summer in a tropical country, like Australia. Construction had started on the Sydney Opera House, (it took 14, instead of the predicted 4 years to complete) and Apollo 16… Continue reading Friendly Friday Blog Challenge – Look Back to the Future
Purple prose is flowery and ornate language. It sacrifices plot and clarity for indulgent detail. A piece of prose can be entirely purple, or it can have ornate bits sprinkled throughout. We call cases of the latter “purple patches. Purple prose is like showing up in stilettos to go on a hike. The language doesn’t… Continue reading Friendly Friday – The Colour of Purple Prose
Back in 2004, I jumped on a subway train in Norway. It was my first time visiting the country that was to steal my heart. I had little knowledge of where I was going that day, or what would happen, other than I was headed for a ski jump outside of Oslo, which had panoramic… Continue reading Friendly Friday – Meet Olav in Norway
Keukenhof is spectacular in bloom, Toowoomba is stunning during the Carnival of Flowers, as is Japan in Cherry Blossom season, but right now I'm thinking of Wildflowers, especially those that grow in the most unlikely or unusual places. Street light pop up in Helsinki Growing beside a bridge footing in Norway To say, I was… Continue reading Friendly Friday Blog Challenge – Wildflowers
DELFT Delft is a Dutch city renowned for its history of painting. So well preserved since the 17th Century, Delft is also famous as the birthplace of the painter, Vermeer, and home to the exquisite ‘Delft Blue’ earthenware. I took an English speaking tour at the Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, the Delftware factory dating back to… Continue reading Flashback Friendly Friday – A Journey to Delft
Tãby Church, Stockholm Almost a decade ago, I was wandering around the backblocks of Stockholm's upmarket outer suburbs and discovered a place of significance in Viking times. A living Time Capsule. Rune Stone Causeway in Stockholm At around 100 metres long, the so-called Jarlabanke's bridge, in Täby, Sweden, is a causeway or bridge, lined with… Continue reading Friendly Friday Blog Challenge – Time Capsule
Over at The Sandy Chronicles, my Friendly Friday co-host Sandy has thrown out the challenge for me to participate in the theme Road Trip. Not just with the usual written post, but with a custom video presentation via Canva. So, I know a little about Canva, but I've only used the trial version. Ah! This… Continue reading Friendly Friday Challenge – Road Trip
Something to Ponder About 
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