This and That

Many years ago when we visited Fredrik and Annika in Göteborg and were out on a shopping round, we went to a Björn Borg store.  It was our introduction to this "upscale" shop.  Filled with sport ware, underclothes, bags and swim wear.  Some pretty "pricey" stuff.  Fredrik told us that he really liked the under ware.  Under wear is under wear I recall thinking, "pooh poohing" the high price.  So, years later after we moved here and I was at a loss as to what to get for David for some occasion, I surprised him with a pair.  David thought those were the most comfortable things he had ever worn, Freddy was right, there actually is a BIG difference from a pair of Heinz jockey shorts.

Kellie brought some back to California for Chris and for herself! Same thing, they "love" them, if you can say that about under wear.

For me, I must say that the most remarkable thing about this little story is about how strange life is.  Who would have thought that in the end, Björn Borg, this most amazing Swedish tennis player who grew up in Södertälje and came to be one of the WORLDS  BEST, would be remembered for his under wear!  In the beginning of his venture into the fashion world, his line was much wider.  Today it primarily consists of under garments, bags  and swim fashion.  Strange, how unpredictable  life is?  Sure can take some weird turns.  But  back to the under ware,if you wear those you end up having a gait like Clint Eastwood or Henry Fonda.... I swear, or why not George Clooney for good measure !

Wild dramatic weather here.  Sort of like in New Mexico.  If you don't like it just wait ten minutes.... we have sunshine, rain, sunshine,  hail then more sunshine.  We still have some Calendula blooming as well as  some Sweet Peas in the yard.  Nice.  The Aster roots have been dug up and put in storage until spring.  Yea, yea you Californians, just keep bragging about those eighty degree  days. It is not quite that warm here but beautiful none the less in the + fifties as I write this, almost Mediterranean!

On that note I want to include  a comment about Nordic Cuisine sent to us from my cousin in response to my Blog about Moster Helmi who dried rose hip for soup and tea.  Yes, she took us out to gather mushrooms and berries as well.   He is so right about how healthy Scandinavian food can be with it's inclusion of herring in so many forms, as well as salmon.  Fish with all the right Omega fats.  The root vegetables that would be harvested in the fall and could be kept in a cellar all winter are loaded with vitamins as is the cabbage.  The rutabaga also called "Swede" so full of vitamin C that sailors would bring it along, on their ships at sea and it kept them from getting scurvy!  Something I did not know until Jan-Otto told me.  "Limey's" I had heard of , all the while wondering, where did the Britts get the limes from ? Surely they  did not grow them on the island.  The back side of todays  common Swedish fare however is all it's cream, cream sauce this and cream sauce that, yummy for sure, but.......... sort of like Paula Dean and her   "everything tastes better with butter" philosophy !  "Sweden, the Land of Brown Sauce" was a recent  program on T V here, exploring  the traditional common everyday food culture.                                                                                                                                

Here is Jan-Otto's reply to  "Water and Wild Roses"    

Red the story about the rose hips and how to dry them and make good soup and tea.

Why do buy them manufactured by Ekströms when they are out there waiting for you.

Containing a lot of, I mean much, c-vitamins. In older times necessary to collect to survive long winters to avoid getting “skörbjugg”. And also all “rotfrukter” as carrots, swedes and potatoes. Able to save all the winters in cellars. Don’t forget the lingon berry. Also a lifeline in winters for people living I the north when there was not freezes and such.

Eating this kind of food including also marinated herring and other fat fishes with good fats for the heart is as healthy as the Mediterranean type of food some scientists says.

In modern culinary cousin it is very popular to use a small pink/orangecollored berry called “havtorn”. Contains more c-vitamins than kiwi I have heard.

There also are “ slånbär” which are good making liquor, aquavit and saft on when they are getting a little bit frozen after a cold autumn night. Not so easy to pick as the bush has shape “taggar”.

We are always so thrilled to hear your comments.  Thank you for your participation!   We are glad every time.                                                                                                          

Monica and Richard still pick berries and mushrooms in the forest that surrounds  their house. We all were out there, gathering chanterelle  mushrooms as well as blueberries and wild strawberries when Linnea, Ryan, Maud and I were visiting Uppsala together last.

Piles of chanterelles  at the out door market on Hötorget in Stockholm !