Things I missed about the US pt 5

In the school gym

The way i live now

Got a pair of cowboy boots from best neighbor Kateri and I looooove them. Superpractical. Now, she proclaimed, I am a real cowgirl! Just gotta get the hat.

Hiking to the olympic hot springs

Volunteering at Freedom Farms

Love this place. Found them when I was writing an article about horsemanship and how I am going to go every week, helping out. Today I was given a project horse called R&R to take care of and ride. Exciting!

Mary, who runs the place, is amazing. Really, truly inspiring. Today I watched one of the women ride her horse without anything - no saddle, no reigns, nothing, and it was just beautiful. The horse walked up to a barrel, stopped, backed up, walked up to it again, stopped - and then jumped over it, from standing still. Amazing!

Port townsend

Hiking Mt Walker

This time, with more sunshine and less clouds. Much nicer.

Garden!

I have absolutely no idea if I'm doing this right or not. But what's the worst thing that could happen? Pulled out the grass, put down some soil and planted potatoes (that were blue inside, is that normal?), garlic cloves and the herbs that have been growing in our window sill. Before: After:

St patricks day!

Linda, one of my oldest friends from Sweden and her boyfriend are visiting

The babies love their new kennel!

New wolf story on public radio

For the Swedes, again - here is my second wolf story for Swedish Public Radio.

Update: And here is a translated version for the Americans

Happy St Patrick's day!

Linda, a friend from Sweden, is visiting and we are going to be celebrating in style!

My favorite St Patrick's day video:

Things I missed about the US pt 4

Things really are bigger here.

Studying in the sun

Every now and then I nodd off, and I don't feel the least bit bad about it. Something I never could have done six months ago, when every second counted. It's not a bad life.

2 close calls

Today, we took the puppies out on the lawn. After 15 minutes, two hawks spotted them and started cirkling us, making noices so we had to pick them up and bring them inside.

Went for a run later on, just a normal day jogging on the left side of the small country road when I heard some sirens. Looked down on my ipod and wondered if it was part of the song, when a car just swoshed past me at what seemed like 120 miles/hour. I almost fell but got to the side and turned around just to see it being followed by a police car with sirens and lights.

Sat down on the side of the road and just cried hysterically, my hand's would not stop shaking. I have been hit by a car before and I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but even though I understood intellectually that I was really shocked and that everything was fine, it was impossible for me to calm down.

Luckily, I have awesome neighbors who know that hugs work wonders. Now, after a warm bath and some ice cream, I feel a lot better.

Swedish moment

Non-swedes probably don't know or care the slightest about Melodidestivalen (Jon keeps saying it's not worth being a Swede if it means he has to pay attention to 'that shit') but I love it! Basically it's a song competition and the winner competes in eurovision. My sister Emma is always a doll and puts together awesome score sheets. My fav? Swing fly! The real competition aired yesterday, but I couldn't watch it until today so I have avoided Twitter, facebook and all Swedish media.

Puppies

They are growing up soooo fast... Warning - this video contains nothing but puppy clips.

There is no audio, so you can add your own soundtrack!

At the u of w

Man, I miss being on a campus. At the unof Washington in Seattle to talk about reporters without borders.

Went to a lecture about the difference in visual framing in Arabic and English newspapers, looking at the afghan war and 9-11. God, I miss acedemia too.

Great books

One thing I really wanted to do when I moved out here was to read books. Now, I feel as though I am really living up to that. Reading everything from Doyle to E George and loving it. Currently on my night stand? The beekeeper's apprentice and A finer end. Such different books, both interesting and worthy of your time.

The only way to watch tv

Now isn't he just dreamy?

Of COURSE it took a Dane to come up with a goatee robot.

Equipage

Just finished up a story for Equipage, my fav Swedish horse magazine. Will let you know when the issue hits the newsstands!

Swedish media at its finest

March 5:

March 7:

What just happened there?

So, Fox News dig up an old story about a scientist claiming to have found proof of alien life on a meteorite.

Gawker publish an excellent rebuttal, point out that the story is several years old, that the science behind it is faulty and quote a professor from the U of M who says:

"Did scientists discover bacteria in meteorites? No. No, no, no. No no no no no no no no. No, no. No... this work is garbage. I'm surprised anyone is granting it any credibility at all."

Two days later, Swedens #1 paper Aftonbladet runs it as their top story. Great journalism, guys.

I guess I shouldnt be surprised, but still - Fox News? Really? And you didn't check your sources at all?

Update: Björn Westerberg Naucler pointed out that Dagens Nyheter (Swedish equivalent of NYT) also decided to play and published their own version - based on the Fox.com article.

Beaten up meat

I have never used this tool before. I have no idea what it is called, in Swedish or English, but we inherited it and I know it's supposed to be used to tenderize meat. So today I spent ten minutes beating up meat. Felt good.

Superchill saturday

Jon is having the time of his life. Playing civilization w brownie, spot, sleepy and porter (formerly big brownie)

My morning ritual

Every morning, I take the dog out, clean the mud room where the puppies are and put on some coffee. Then I give Jon a puppy-wake up (its the best alarm clock there is) and have some breakfast. My guilty pleasure in the morning? The Match Game. The smoking, the blatant sexism and thinly weiled racism - man, I am glad to be living in 2011.

When 6 become 9

Those other three ladies that I ranted about earlier decided they couldn't take care of them anymore. So now we have 9!

After rain etc etc

My first plant!

Tried to postpone my long overdue run by doing everything and anything else. Thought it would be a good idea to start the gardening process! These are primroses and hopefully they will like it at our house.

First Yellowstone story

For the Swedes - here is the first story from my Yellowstone trip. It is a piece for Swedish Public Radio on the pros/cons of wolf tourism.