Every Day is Valentine's Day

This has been an unusual winter here in Denmark. More snow than an average winter, more snow than the Danes like, but I have been happy. Guess they prefer rainy days, dark days. After all, snow lights up the world. The past few days have been cold but really sunny (no snow left) and suddenly it felt like spring was just around the corner. After we had fetched Rebekka from kindergarten we went to the park and had hot chocolate and coffee in the sun, thinking just that - spring is on its way. Always the optimists. On our way home I went to the supermarket to fetch some groceries. I was inside for five minutes, and when I came out ... it was snowing. So much for spring being just around the corner.

February brings Valentine’s Day. I feel like every day is Valentine’s Day. It comes from being so lucky in love; there is Rebekka sleeping tight in the next room, Anna at a meeting, Ásta on holiday in Bangkok and Janke getting ready for a writing weekend, away from home. Not to mention my family and all my wonderful friends.

UFO ........

... no, a plane about to land at Copenhagen airport last night. We had just dropped our friends off, and I had the camera with me. Who can resist a full moon.

This past week has been hectic. Guests from Iceland are always a joy to get, this time 2 friends that stayed for a few days while doing some business here. They had a tight schedule, but we did spent the evenings together.

And then Sunday a family of 5 that flew in from Iceland at noon and left for Milano in the evening. We visited them last year and it was fun to be with them again.

The literature group I joined a while ago (link on the right) is busy with the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. I have started on her biography and poetry but feel way behind. The emails have kept flowing in these past days, and I managed to go through the first 10 today. It is thoroughly enjoyable, and it will be a joy when I manage to catch up.

It seems that my cold is subsiding, tiresome company, and two weeks is more than enough.

Lake Bohinj in Slovenia

From April 16th last year. It was raining cats and dogs that day, but in spite of that, I was able to take some pictures that show how stunning the Julian Alps are. Slovenia is a wonderful country - one of the most beautiful places I have visited on my travels.

Alfred Nobel, Dynamite and Peace.

In November we went for a little weekend trip to Oslo. You take the ferry here from Copenhagen in the afternoon, and the next morning you are in Oslo. I have visited Oslo many times and enjoy it enormously every time.

This time I visited The Nobel Peace Center for the first time. It is in a old station house down town and beautifully renovated. There were several different exhibitions going and all of them really very good. You find all about it at: http://www.nobelpeacecenter.org
It is a warming thought that some of the money Alfred Nobel made during his life, on dynamite among other things, is being put to good use. Peace is such a fragile thing. The consequences of the drawings/cartoons of Mohammed that were published in a Danish newspaper are disturbing. And now, several newspapers around the world have published the cartoons. Embassies are being burnt down, governments are apologizing, but not the newspaper. Still they think that freedom of speech means you can forget all about respect for others.

Back to Oslo, here is a picture taken just outside the center:

In the evening we drove to the boat again and sailed South. Instead of going all the way to Copenhagen, we had decided to visit Helsingborg in Sweden. And there we arrived very early the next morning. We really wanted to visit Dunkers Culture House in Helsingborg. The money that built the house was donated by a man whose family made a fortune. Rubber mostly, my wellies are made by Tretorn, so it was appropriate to use them as props for the pic below.

Several exhibitions going on, not the least Art Feminism. An excellent collection of art by Scandinavian feminists since the 70's. Please go to their website, you find most of it in English and the Art Feminism has had so many visitors, they are not closing it according to plan, not until April 2nd. http://www.dunkerskulturhus.se/

And after visiting all the different exhibitions there, we drove south to Malmö and then across the bridge to Copenhagen.

An enjoyable trip in every way.

Cold

It's cold outside and I have a cold. Wonderful sunny weather and we spent most of the day outside. We drove to the lake close to Esrum and from there north to the Tegner museum where I took this picture. To see the sculptures inside, we have to come back in the Spring, as the museum is closed during the Winter. Last stop was north of Hellerup to feed the birds. The new mittens are really good when I am taking pictures. I can just stick out one finger to click the button, and then there is a pocket on each mitten where I can put a small heater in. Today was the first time I tried it and it worked fabulously. I always have had cold hands (but a warm heart) so this is truly wonderful.
But to be able to take the one above, and many more, I had to lie down in the snow. That got me all wet and a bit cold. The heater in the car is excellent and with ginger/lemon/honey tea, I soon got warm again.

Watching the evening news was heartbreaking. The situation that has arisen after the drawings of Mohammed were published is getting worse every day. Now several newspapers throughout Europe have published these same pictures and some papers have made new ones. All in the name of freedom of speech. I honestly can not figure out what body part they use for thinking. The situation gets more complicated every day. A SMS campaign in the Middle East told people that the Koran was being burnt at demonstrations in Copenhagen today (just a rumour, not true). This resulted in the Danish embassy in Syria getting burned to the ground and then the crowd headed for both the Norwegian and Swedish embassy, or so I heard in the news.

Where will this end?

Could They Care Less?

Interesting how liberals make use of just about any excuse to get away with being disrespectful. Like calling it exercising their right to freedom of speech when you publish pictures of Mohammed. In this case, it means that their right to freedom of speech gives them the right not to respect other people’s religion.

Well. Since I mentioned the matter a few days ago, the Danish PM has apologized and the newspaper has apologized. But there is a difference. The PM has apologized for real, or at least close enough. The newspaper has apologized for possibly hurting someone’s feelings. They have not apologized for what they actually did, they have not said it was wrong of them. They have only said that they are sorry if what they did had a negative effect on someone in any way.

Let’s say that I punch someone really hard in the face. And then I say I am sorry my punch caused a black eye. But I do not say that I am sorry I punched the person in the first place, just sorry he or she has a black eye. Am I then really sorry for what I did?