here we are. falling into winter. the air is removing its hand from any last pockets of warmth. the hats, the scarves, the long underwear, the one-piece snowsuits, are coming off the bench. candles light up each breakfast and each dinner.
our cold is not a midwestern cold however. we simply cannot compete with arctic blasts no matter how much further north we are. our one claim to fame is the early sunset. sometimes the light (when the clouds offer a continuance in their months long trial against our spirits) gets in my eyes at 2:30 in the afternoon. sometimes the light never comes out at all, and the sun sets without witness.
but it's not our first winter here. we know this darkness well enough and we know how to work around it.
and now i realize i have so many pictures that have waited to be put up on the blog that i must take you back in time, to the fall, if i'm ever going to share them with you. so enjoy the slight rise in temperature, the subtle shift of the northern hemisphere back toward the sun, and then we'll go forward, all the way to this past weekend and the start of christmas preparations.
i realize a few of these have already been posted on facebook, but the blog feels a little less impermanent for them.
a rainy day at henry's preschool. a flag raising ceremony. it was difficult for me to understand exactly what it was all about, but the theme was the environment. henry's hard to spot. look for the boy in the yellow rain pants...
before halloween, the children and parents in william's class got together at a local 'forest' boy scout camp to carve pumpkins and bake bread on a stick-- the danish approximation of roasting marshmallows... though surely roasting marshmallows is the american equivalent of roasting bread dough. the idea is that the kids tire of holding their sticks after five minutes or so and all the dads take over to finish it off. we were the corrupting americans who brought a couple packages of marshmallows and chocolate slices and as close to graham cracker crackers as you can find here. we figured if this was going to be a halloween event, we might as well go all out, u.s. of a.
william and half-baked bread...
halloween now... candy and popcorn from around the neighborhood...
at some point around halloween... note the pumpkin...
busted!
the weekend after halloween (i would guess... it's hard to remember now) we went back to the forest area to walk around. this will give you an idea of what it often looks like right now, on any given day...
the boys rode their bikes. we walked...
this little lake is always worthy of a few photos...
we took these next two shots because we were supposed to submit photos to a sort of parent yearbook so all the parents in william's class would know who everyone else is. the kids stay together for multiple years, so there's a big effort to bond. we failed on this one. they remain unsubmitted. but i submit them now to the blog so you can see how we've grown...
throwing rocks...
getting dark now. the moon is out...
and now... perhaps that next day.. a shot or two of a henry-mama adventure back to our old house and neighborhood. henry kept wanting to go back to our old house, so i took him back and we stood on the sidewalk and looked at it. he wasn't entirely satisfied that he couldn't go into the house or at least into the backyard, but it was the best we could do.
after that we went to a park...
up in the netting...
a few random shots now...
of the field with the cows that we pass to and from their schools. this was one particularly foggy morning after dropping william off...
and for a few days when picking henry up from school, he would get as far as this tree in front of his classroom window and stop and just hang out on the branches...
this is in holte, a suburb near copenhagen. i was particular struck by the door, for you don't often see doors unattached to walls...
now some photos of william in the various work spaces around his school...
whittling in the pioneer cabin...
sawing in the shop...
showing off his knight's costume in the fantasy workshop...
again in the fantasy workshop he made a small apartment where he's been housing his stuffed animal rat...
in his classroom, they all have little 'bamser'-- teddy bears. in the fantasy workshop he made a little sleeping cap and pair of pajamas for his.
the finished product...
goodnight little bamse...
i came to pick up henry from school one day and found him with a fancy handlebar mustache...
here he is again, clean cut, with his brother, waiting for the dentist...
and now, waiting for the bus to take them to the experimentarium. they are such good waiters...
at the museum...
lest you think we deprive them entirely of juice boxes...
4 p.m. museum's closed...
the library across the way...
apartments...
and now to last weekend. the first little christmas market at a co-housing community a few minute's walk from ours. they were selling christmas trees too, so that was just perfect. no tree on the bus this year. just the burley.
back home, getting out the ornaments... at one point william commented, "it's not about the presents, it's not about the snowmen or the feast. it's just this. i just love decorating the tree."
brothers...
put your stockings on...
light the advent candle...
and a couple more...
happy winter everyone!