Kim's guitar is back!

Yeah! Finally, we were able to get the old guitar back from the Paul Guy guitar body shop. Everyone is elated (and WC loves to dance whenever daddy plays really cool riffs)!

Kim: "It is an accoustic Ibanez AW85, with molded frets on a mahogany neck with a rosewood bridge and fretboad. The solid spruce top has grown over the years since I bought it in the mid 90ies, making the resonance much more mature now. It has a wonderful 'glow' and a deep subtle voice that can make me wanna just sit and play tunes for hours.
After extensive use for almost 15 years it was time to give it a few new parts instead of the ones that had been worn down. I went to guitar-builder/inventor Anders Thidell in the SoFo neighborhood of Stockholm to have it looked at. He replaced all the frets and adjusted the neck and bridge. The difference is astonishing! Not only is it sounding better with an entire set of new frets (duh!), the adjustment of the angle of the neck makes the strings follow the fretboard so much closer and it really enhances your feel for playing. I can 'tap play' without any difficulty and the sustain is awesome! I am so happy - and I sure could not find a better guitar builder; Anders Thidell has invented the tilted fretboard, called True Temperament, and builds guitars for numerous great guitar players, like Steve Vai, for example. I might not be able to play like Vai... but at least my guitar now comes from the same builder as Vai's TT guitar."

 (Svenska Dagbladet: Article in Swedish about the True Temperament fretboard.)

WC's first pulka ride!

With lots of snow coming down during the past week we finally were able to go and treat WC to his first pulka-sledding experience. As you can see in the photos he absolutely LOVED it! (A pulk (from the Sami language "bulke", or "pulka" in Swedish) is a Scandinavian short, low-slung small toboggan used in sport or for transport, pulled by a dog or a skier.)

Many towns in Sweden do not clean the streets or walkways of snow in the wintertime (nor do they sand, or use salt to clean off the ice and snow). Instead, it is up to the pedestrian or the driver to use good judgment when traveling across snow-clad streets and parks. This of course makes for wonderful winter-settings and perfect sledding environments pretty much everywhere.

Mom and son going through the snow-packed streets in the Nacka municipality. 

Snow sure is fun! WC thinks this is far superior to going in the silly baby pram.

Merino Wool

A Merino ram full of that soft, warm wool, perfect for cold days.

In an earlier post we were trying to explain the layered clothing technique when dressing for cold weather. (The idea is to trap warm air in your clothing while leading perspiration away from your body and shield you from wind and humidity.) And some of the very best base layers are made of Merino wool, like this (recent purchase), a thick but very light crew neck body top.  Merino wool is very warm (!), is almost itch-free and does not smell... and - best of all - wool is the only natural fabric that can keep you warm even when it is wet!

The world has certainly become smaller and the eco-trend is evident when it comes to farming and sheep shearing. Icebreaker, a leading manufacturer of wool clothing (and a Nilsson family favorite!) now lets you track and trace your wool garment, find the place of origin of your sweater, pants, whatever... and meet with the local farmer who brought up the sheep that contributed to your wool garment.

With the tracking code found in our latest purchase we now know that it was made by wool from three places in New Zealand: First of all Otematata Station, a homestead run by Hugh Cameron with 32 000 heads of Merino sheep in the Waitaki Valley . The farm is located on the slopes of the mountains at an altitude ranging from 1000 ft to 6000 ft in the south New Zealand alps. Second, a little farm in the Central Canterbury region called Lake Heron Station, run by Philip Todhunter and his wife Anne, situated almost 9 000 ft up in the mountain range on the south New Zealand island. And last; Mount Nicholas Station on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, where Dave Buston and his family have a magnificent little farmstead right across the lake from Queenstown.

Herd mentality.

This time of year, our son is always dressed in long-johns and a top, or a full body underwear, made of Merino wool. There are some nice manufacturers who focus on kids wool wear, for example Janus Kids. Sometimes we put on a second (thicker) base layer of wool or Merino wool leggings. For a sweater, we now have (through the grace of one of Kim's colleagues) a Lusekofta, a Norwegian knit wool sweater (with a specific, traditional pattern), that is very thick and warm (photos here and here). On really cold days we then add a thick fleece jacket and an insulated winter jacket as an outer layer, and insulated winter pants. But everything starts with those lovely warm fibres of Merino wool next to the body.

Thanksgiving!

 

WC trashes about in his Thanksgiving outfit, sent from Turkey Track Trail!

 

 Father and son after a lovely Thanksgiving meal, prepared by Mom. Turkey and mashed potatoes. After weeks of both Mom and WC being sick the family was finally thankful that these illnesses were now behind them.

 Ending the day by reading Three Little Pigs in the sofa. Uncle Chris' old blanket gives comfort when one is sleepy.

Engagement anniversary!

Today we celebrated the anniversary of our engagement, six years ago. And just like that time in a little restaurant in Georgetown, we enjoyed this year's version of Beaujolais (Villages) Nouveau, which they traditionally started to sell here in Stockholm on the 18th (the third Thursday in) November. Like always, this season's Beaujolais is made of 100 percent Gamay grapes and tastes of fresh cherries, raspberries and strawberries with very low tannin levels, making it a perfect choice for our chocolate dominated dessert! For the rest of the meal we had an old favorite, Les Fumées Blanches, a crisp Sauvignon Blanc wine from Languedoc.

The menu for the evening:

Starter

Noix de Saint-Jacques sur un lit d'épinards en ail.

Bay scallops served with garlic infused spinach and pea purée

Entrée

Velouté de chou-fleur avec cerfeuil

Warm cauliflower soup with parsley

Dessert

Crêpes Baumanières avec framboises et mousse au chocolat

Warm crêpes filled with homemade chocolate-flavored whipped cream and strawberries

A Night at the Opera - thanks to the babysitters

 While WC had a sleepover with his Swedish aunt and uncle (and of course his cousin Ingrid) Mom and Dad could enjoy an entire evening together. We went to the Stockholm Royal Opera House to go see the Händel opera Xerxes. We had lovely seats on the first balcony! Perfect!

 

Kim during the intermission in The Golden Hall at the Royal Opera House.

Outside of the main entrance of the opera house, on the bridge across Helgeandsholmen, leading to the Royal Palace.

Tara at a cute little French restaurant earlier in the evening. (It gets dark around 3.30 PM now...)
 We enjoyed duck (!) and pepper steak, and escargots of course!

Pure shoe-fetischism

What a soothing way of spending your weekend, by taking care of your favorite pair of Oxford shoes!
In the Nilsson household, the male part of the family use the better half of Sunday afternoons to care for his collection of shoes.
Kim: Just like in the movie - the first thing to do is to clean the shoes with wash benzin (if you want to avoid the saddle wash foam that takes a lot longer to soak up and get dry). Then I apply Kiwi shoe paste with a applying brush (and let it dry for a few minutes - the instruction movie keeps a faster pace...) and after it is completely dry I buff it with a buff brush. Then I apply shoe creme (Saphir Medaille d'Or Crème) which is made of beeswax that helps protect the leather. To finish off with a perfect shine I apply a dab of water and super-shine polish (Saphir Medaille d'Or Pate de Luxe) and gently rub it into the leather with a fine piece of polish cloth. The final result is somewhat close to the instructional movie above.

Happy be-lated Halloween!

Mom and son were able to enjoy cutting up a perfectly spooky Jack-o-Lantern on out kitchen counter!


Theme music for the occasion! "Trick or Treat or Die"