Maja's Magnolia Tree

Dear Charlie
Two years ago - alomst to the date - I lost a friend. My old roommate and friend for many years lost a long and hard struggle against the cancer.

At her last birthday - the 8th of May that year - I planted a magnolia tree in my garden. We knew she was dying. The people at the hospice did what they could to ease her pain. But everything went so fast. So at the 8th I planted that tree in the memory of her. I wanted it to plant it at her birthday, because I wanted to celebrate the day an amazing person came into this world. I wanted to remember her as she was in life. Not the way she was so close to the end - skinny, fragile and in pain. Shortly after that she died.

When I think of her, I want to remember her like the warm and carring person she was. She was a buxom, loving, funny and positive woman. She had an amazing laughter. It would resound through the entire house. Like an explosing of joy. She had the mildest and wamest eyes. And I still cannot believe that this wonderful person had to leave this planet at such an early age.

My dream for this tree came true. I wanted to have something that reminded me of her. And everyday I look out my livingroom window I gaze out at the Maja's tree. And I recollect all the times we spend together.

Today - very symbolicly - the magnolia tree started blooming.

Bright yellow May

My Dear Charlie
One of the many things I love about May is the bright yellow fields scattered across the landscape. I take about billion photos of them every year! Even on the darkest, coldest day they light up the countryside and make me smile. And I enjoy them as much as I possibly can, because I know that in a few weeks all the yellow dissapear and turn into green instead.

Yesterday was Mothers Day. And my daughter wanted to surprise me. And Oh boy she did. When I woke up I starred directly into a plate of potatoe salad that was held right under my nose. The sweet girl had made me breakfast. Okay - I admit it.... had I been the one to find it myself potatoe salad and sausages wouldn't have been my first choise. But she was so sweet and so proud. And it was served on a pink plate with a bright smile. So I had potatoe salad and sausages in bed.

We went to see my friend Anna and her three sons .... Three live wires! My son lent my camera so here is a couple of snapshots from an amazing sunday:

IF: Kernel

Today I love

The happy smile on my sons face in the morning.

A steamin' hot cup of cinnamon tea.

Apple trees in bloom.

Colourfull drinking straws.

The voice of Nina Simone.

A weekend ahead of me with no plans at all.

Oh... to have a sense of direction

My Dear Charlie
Sometimes I am astonished in how many ways my son is like me. You know he looks like me. We've got the same colour eyes and the same tiny nose. But it's not just on the outside, he looks like me. Also on the inside.
He's a dreamer and a big softie. Things he sees and meets affects him very much. He gets easily enthusiastically about things and he gets frightened easily too. He wants to be a superhero, when he grows up. When I was a child my secret dream was to be a countess and live in a castle - preferably in the 1800th century. And have two white poodles and a peacock. Both very pleasant dreams, but completely  impossible to fullfill....

 When people ask me of the directions of something, I go blank. As in completely and utterly clueless. Even if the poor people ask for the directions of one of my favorite places, the directions I end up giving are comepletely nuts. And now it seems that my son also inherited my awful lack of sense of directions too.

Yesterday he went to visit one of his playmates with a group of boys from his kindergarten. Both the children and the kindergarten teacher had an amazing time. When I picked him up at the kindergarten, I asked him, where his friend lived.

And he replied: " You go to the forest far far away, where there is a signpost with the number 3 on it .... and there is a gorilla too. That's where he lives"

I off course asked him about that gorilla .... but never got to solve that mistery. He simply insists that the neigtbour of his friend is in fact a gorilla.

I'll have to rely on, that the people we send in wrong directions, end up seeing wonderfull places they never knew existed.

Have you ever ended giving completely nuts directions? Sent people somewhere crazy?