Why half-half?
The past few weeks we traveled to Belgium for Grafixx, friends, family, great food and so much more. “Vlaanderen vakantieland” (Flanders, a holiday country- but also the name of an old show on TV)  we joke sometimes – because we never saw Belgium as a holiday destination :-). Every time we pack our bags, we make the decision not to do too much and to plan it properly. We make lists of all the things we want to do, everyone we want to see and all the food that we want to eat. Then quickly realize it isn’t possible. Not even when we stay another week, apparently.
The meet up of Adopt Cretan Paws (where we adopted Lizzie) was canceled because of the terrible rain, I smothered the brakes of the van and it had to go back to the garage, I unexpectedly met a comrade from the old days, and it turned out that the fabric store where I arrived super enthusiastic was permanently closed (there are no certainties in life, haha). The cookies that we baked for the children lost their shape so we drove to Ikea last minute to get two gingerbread houses. (My house looked like an inflated circus tent so luckily we did a baking test a few days in advance.)
Because everything goes so fast, the traffic jams and crowds are overwhelming and there is so much to do in a short time, it seemed a lot nicer to fully enjoy all the moments we had been looking forward to. Dinner parties with family, baking and decorating cookies with my godchild and her family (including hot chocolate, early Christmas presents, pancakes and glögg), going to the movies where our whole Swedish town would fit in one room, laughing at old children’s toys and crazy instruments while we sip a coffee-tea drink on the floor, … We saw our woolly sweeties Eclips and Hummer again and even my Swedish was tested by the artist Jockum Nordström whom I met at Grafixx ?.

The other half was actually the disappointed half who was not so secretly hoping for a second autumn in Belgium, including autumn photos and perhaps a few beach shots. It looked very promising on arrival, rusty colors and here and there a splash of red made my heart beat faster. Here in Sweden, it goes from yellow-ish to gold via wet brown to full-time winter. Red and rust colors hardly occur.
The weather gods, however, had other plans and provided rain, that stubborn Belgian rain that I had almost forgotten.

That is why I put a few sunny photos on the menu today that I made shortly before we left for Belgium. After an extremely warm autumn, winter temperatures finally made their appearance. And for those who think these photos are made in the evening, this is the light around noon. Not so much later the sun quickly sinks away behind the trees.

For comparison:

Sunrise Belgium: 08h42
Sunset Belgium: 4.34 pm

Sunrise Sweden: 08h59
Sunset Sweden: 14h49

Have a nice week!

And see you later!
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