It's a cool Yule

Long time readers of this blog will know how I've always been quite anti-Christmas, but for the first time since my childhood I've actually enjoyed the run-up to it. Having a four year old has totally changed my feelings, as I've been reminded of how magical it all seemed as a child. Another thing that changed this year was that we decided to do Secret Santa for the grown ups, which took away the stress of finding everyone gifts and the whole consumerist aspect of the holidays. I also realised what a miserable month the darkest month of the year would be if we didn't have all those Christmas lights and decorations, and how baking and making stuff made staying indoors much cosier on dark, wet and windy afternoons. And I look forward to seeing if Father Christmas brings Oomoo what he wished for (he made me draw his wish list)! Happy Christmas to everyone who celebrates it and happy holidays if you don't - hope you have a good one!

F xx

House of fun

Last Friday we finally went to Junibacken; last time we were in Stockholm Oomoo was too young, but this time it was perfect. As a fan of Pippi Longstocking, Alfons Åberg, the Moomins and Pettson Oomoo was having a ball climbing around Pippi's kitchen, grooming Lilla Gubben and manning the ticket booth at a mini-cinema. I personally wanted to move into the Moomin house (second and seventh pic). I can't think of a place in London where they've built kid-size houses or towns (it's genius), I so wish there was one.

A Stockholm weekend

It's been two and a half years since we were last in Stockholm, and I found it unacceptable that come next summer it would be three. So last weekend we made our way there for an intense three days of meeting up with family and friends. Years ago I visited there one February, and it was so miserable that I swore never to go back in winter. But going in December is different; the whole city comes alight with Christmas lights and advent candelabras, which is fortunate, as it was hard to get used to the sun going down at 3pm... Here in London the sun goes down around 4pm this time of year, and believe me, that one hour extra makes all the difference! More Stockholm pics to come.

Back in Oxford

Following on from the previous post; we took my friends to Oxford and went to the Pitt Rivers museum, which is soooooo good, and wandered around some of the college compounds. The autumn colours at Christchurch College were just perfect.

Visitors

Two of my favourite people came over to visit us from the States at the end of October (yes, I'm a bit behind with my posts), and we totally lucked out on the weather. I was a good girl for bringing my big camera with me and these are some random shots from those days. Happy Monday!

A tribute

I took this picture with my iPhone last Tuesday and posted it on Instagram, where I later found out that Saul Leiter had passed away the same day. I thought it an amazing coincidence. Every now and again I take a picture and I can see as I frame it that I'm trying to channel Leiter's amazing (and in my humble opinion the best) eye, and this was one of those times. No other photographer's images has such an emotional impact on me and has me sighing in respect - the man took PERFECT pictures. He also seemed like a very nice man who didn't understand why people were making such a fuss about his photographs.

Here's one of my favourite quotes of his:
"In order to build a career and be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious. I much prefer to drink coffee,  listen to music and to paint when I feel like it."

Read the Guardian obit here
And here's a little film of him walking around his on retrospective in Hamburg last year (I so hope it'll be shown here one day). The documentary In no great hurry will very soon be out on DVD, in the mean time there are some screening dates here.

Saul Leiter
1923-2013
RIP

Party party

And of course we had a party! With cakes, jelly, musical statues and fiskdamm. During the party I was too busy to take that many pictures, hence more pictures of the house before the guests arrived :)

4

Woke up to find that the cupboard weirdly had some presents in it.

And then rode on one of them in the park (such a proud moment!)

Woody then drove us to lunch...

... which knackered him out.

We left quietly.

The Tower was pleasantly quiet. One of the very few perks of a November birthday.

Beaut!

One way of keeping warm I guess.

An old-school loft conversion :)

Guess where we're going for his fifth?!

How apt that the blog fell a-slumber on the previous post... Our household has been hit by endless colds and the like, but today I finally feel a bit better, so it's time to catch-up. Oomoo turned four a couple of weeks ago, and last year on his third birthday (right after we'd been to the London Eye) he asked if we could go to the Tower of London on his fourth. So we did.

Napster

Remember remember

Guy Fawkes night is another one of those yearly celebrations that (literally) lightens up the long slog that is autumn and winter here. Last Saturday the fireworks display was back on in our local park after a four year absence. For some reason I thought it a good idea to put a slower lens on my camera, and this is pretty much the only shot that worked out. Next time I'll "remember remember" not to do that again :)

Matchy matchy

We went to Tate Modern the other day, and to make the outing more fun for Oomoo we decided to find art that matched his jumper. I think we did rather well.

October 31st

Halloween wasn't something we celebrated in Sweden when I grew up (we did something similar at Easter where we dressed up as witches/old ladies), and it wasn't even particularly here in the UK either, but in the past few years it's become very popular. And I for one appreciate any sort of break from the everyday dreariness that envelopes us at this time of year. For several days before, Oomoo (who for the second year running dressed up as a cat) was so excited about going trick or treating with his cousins and on the night we all had great fun. Luckily he's already forgotten about his big bag of sweetie swag :)

P.S. How creepy is that witch in the fifth picture?? Answer: very. She opened the door like that and then continued to cackle until each trick or treater had left.