After a more substantial lunch, we wanted something lighter and decided to have a delicious, golden chanterelle soup as the main course and pancakes with cloudberries and icecream for dessert. The children were happy to leave the soup to us adults and focus on the pancakes completely, but I have to say that I think they made a mistake. The soup both looked and tasted really good and warmed us to the core. A perfect winter meal...

These woolskin slippers from Shepherd have become my new favourites. It has been pretty cold in the apartment from the beginning (approximately 18-19 degrees Celsius... I need to do something about that) but when I received these slippers earlier today I realised that my feet won't be cold anymore. It's actually amazing how warm they are. Thank you, my sweetheart!

This is a detail of my living room of the dinner table and chairs. The chairs are brand new, but the table is, on the other hand, really old. It's a baking table from the 1850s and has been in my family ever since. The last two and a half years it has been stored at my parents' since I had no space for it, but now it's back and I'm happy. I hope we will have reason to use it a lot.

I have to confess to one of my weaknesses: Haribo's Goldbären. After having been to the old apartment for the last time and having handed over the keys, it's now time to kick back and relax a bit and I decided to indulge myself. My parents left this morning, equally pleased with the outcome, and tonight my partner arrives, joining us for what hopefully will be a lazy, slow weekend.

The children will be home in a few hours, but until then I will just take it easy, have lunch and eat some candy. Have a good weekend, everyone!

We've been skyping the entire evening, my partner and I. When we're apart that is what we usually do. We use voice and camera at times, but text chatting is perhaps even more frequent. And it's not as if we're constantly in dialogue. We discuss things now and then between preparing dinner, watching television or helping the children with their homework, just the way we do when we are together physically. Smileys are an important part of our online interaction. Sometimes entire dialogues can consist of emoticons alone and the two above are among the ones that are used most frequently between us.

...or for a few days really. It's time to do nothing. Relax. Unwind. Take a deep breath. Envision a sunny summer day. :)

Tomorrow my parents and I will take some time off from everything that has anything whatsoever to do with apartments or cleaning or something similar. I'm not sure what we're going to do, but my mother mentioned shopping. Let's see if we have the energy for that.

We're done now. The old apartment is empty. All the three bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the two small walk-in closets, and the hallway are squeaky clean and we're actually one day ahead of schedule. Everything has worked out really nicely and we're going to leave the keys to the landlord on Friday morning.

I still have tons of boxes to unpack at home (at least it feels that way), but it indeed feels good not having to go back to the "old" apartment and spend so much time with what has been. It's time to concentrate on the new now.

One thing is sad though: My parents will be leaving on Friday morning since they have to get back home in time for a funeral on Saturday, which means that they won't have time to see my partner who is arriving on Friday evening. We had planned a real get-together this upcoming weekend, but we'll have to postpone that. Let's hope it won't be for too long.

Two new books have reached the stores and one of them, Kunzelmann & Kunzelmann, is written by one of my favourite authors, Carl-Johan Vallgren. The second one is an art book, Mellan husen, featuring paintings from Norwegian Lofoten made by one of Sweden's most interesting contemporary painters, Lars Lerin, who lived there for twelve years.

Images from Adlibris.

My partner's sister and her husband brought me a present when they came here a week and a half ago. It was a really beautiful photo book of Denmark from the sky, Himmelskud by Jan Kofod Winther. The publisher tells a wonderful story of how these photos were taken: "Air photograher Jan Kofod Winther has found and kept reality from above with a manual Hasselblad camera. He always flies alone in his small, single engine airplane and takes photos with his right hand through the open window while steering the plane with the left" (my translation from Danish).

Images from Gyldendal.dk and Onion Blogg.

These tulips are getting a bit too old. I do think they are still beautiful, but they are on the verge now. It's time to buy some new flowers. My thoughts on flowers provide a pretty good symbol of my life in a more general way. A symbol of transition... a rite of passage...

It's time for my partner to find a new job. It has been for a while, but now it really is time, and I'm hoping that this will provide an opportunity for him to move here for real. For the last few years we've been spending a week together now and then, in addition to every other weekend (usually) and the holidays, always trying to get the pieces of the puzzle to work. Perhaps it's finally time for a new phase, when we can live together and not miss each other all the time. Perhaps it's time for something new...

My mother and father are here to help me with the final cleaning of the old apartment and we've managed to clean three rooms today: my oldest son's room, our bedroom and the living room. All three rooms are all completely empty now. We have vacuumed the ceilings and the walls, cleaned the windows and the doors, and made sure that there are no visible holes in the walls.

Two weekends ago my partner, his sister and her husband came here to help move all the large furniture (which was a huge task considering the fact that the old apartment is on the fourth floor and there is no elevator) and we have continued to move the rest of our things after they left. We're almost done by now and we're taking a new load (of smaller things) every time we leave the apartment.

This afternoon, while my mother held the fort in the new apartment, my two sons, my father and I went back there again to clear out the storage room in the attic and I was really proud of them all. They are really hard workers, all of them. Climbing the stairs to the fifth floor and carrying heavy boxes and other things all the way down again. It probably didn't take more than an hour before we were back here with things that immediately were put in the new storage room. Luckily there is an elevator in this building.

I'm amazed that everything has worked so smoothly and just so very grateful to all of them: my partner, his sister, her husband, my parents and my children. They are totally amazing people!

Image from Nowsourcing which has been tweaked by me in Photoshop.

If I had had the time I would have read this now: Hjem til jul (Home for Christmas) by Lise Septimus Krogh was released in December last year and I didn't even know about it before I received it as a Christmas gift from my partner's grandmother. It's one of these wonderful "feel-good" books and I really enjoy sitting with a blanket over me in a comfortable chair and some lit candles beside me. Still caught up in the hustle and bustle of moving, I just wish I had a fireplace in my new apartment. It's one of those things I really miss, and this book certainly reminds me of that. Thank you so much, Ruth, for giving it to me!

Images from Adlibris.dk and Amazon.de. As you can see the book is available both in Danish and German.

I really love Daniel Kessler's paintings of dogs and cats and I already own replicas of three of the ones above. "Celebrating Diversity II" was my first and it hangs in our living room. I bought "Teal Dog with Apple" for my office, but now I have brought it home and it hangs in our bedroom. "Green Dog II" has found a place in our hallway. I have to confess that I would love to have the last two shown here as well: "Rainbow Cats" and "Love Dog" (or anything else by Kessler actually). I love the colours and the quiet, yet playful feel to them.

Images from Kessler Art.

Early January. My partner and I on a "spark" (a "kick"), which I used a lot as a child growing up in a snowy region, whereas he had never even tried it before. It was great even though it was very cold. My father took this photo and my mother commented that we, in our fully clothed state on the "spark," looked as if we had travelled a hundred years or so back in time. We hadn't.

We've been carrying box after box for a week and a half now and slowly these boxes are now being unpacked. The only room that is (almost) completely done is our bedroom and it actually feels great. For once, I actually enjoy spending time in it. I enjoy sitting in the chair reading or using the computer, I enjoy having all my books in here and I enjoy having the possibility to close the door.

This is what it looked like when we woke up this morning. A new view. We've slept our first night on mattresses in the new apartment among boxes and otherwise almost empty rooms and it felt really good. Today I've been to the old apartment picking up cooking utensils and the last of the food we had there, and we're going to pick up more things later today.

Right now I'm making a cassoulet that we're supposed to eat tomorrow evening when my partner, his sister and brother-in-law have helped us move the rest of our things. It feels good to be cooking in the new apartment as well, as if it's evidence of us living here now.

I've been thinking of things I might want to or need to add in the new apartment. Above is a collage of things I find more or less necessary. I do seem to like leaves and flowers at the moment. :)

Images from: IKEA, ILVA, Designtorget, Inne Online and La Ninja.

Yes, I know it's only mid January, but the snow is gone (temporarily, I'm sure) and it's pretty warm outside (equally temporarily, no doubt), which is really wonderful since moving can be quite daunting even in the best conditions.

To cheer us all up, I've just ordered a few new items for our new apartment (all in springlike green) and I'm about to go to the flower shop where I'd like to buy some primulas.

Images from Ellos and dkimages.

There is no electricity in the new apartment yet (we will get that on Thursday), which means that the candles are essential as we move more and more things there. My oldest son and I just came back from a trip when we brought some photographs and paintings, newly taken down Christmas decorations and some boardgames and books. We will be bringing more essential stuff as the week progresses and next weekend my partner, his sister and her husband will join us in moving the larger pieces of furniture: tables, sofas and beds. Moving is indeed pretty hard work but somehow I do enjoy it; I enjoy the feeling of change and new beginnings.

I have received the keys to our new apartment and have begun to move (if only a few) things there. The first item I brought was this door mat. It says "äntligen hemma," which means "home at last" in Swedish. Let's hope this will characterize our new home.

I hope you have all had a wonderful beginning of the new year. We got stuck in bed for almost a week fighting fever and coughs, but now we are all better and we're ready to go back to school and work.

Today I went shopping as well and was lucky to find what I've been searching for the entire autumn and, to top it all off, they were even on sale. Finding new boots has really been a hassle, but now I finally found a pair that fits. I'm ready to face the snow again.