Yes, it's that time of year

It's friday and I'm packing for the annual skiing trip to Sweden, a topic I have covered in great length before - but I hope you'll forgive me. It's simply that I am always so delirious with joy that we are going, and can hardly wait. I get like a five year old, when I look at the images from the other years, to me it's better than Christmas (well, almost) and New Years put together, and the best thing we do all winter.

It also gives me an excuse to post silly or nostalgic skiing outfit pictures, so today I am presenting to you (above) the lovely Lady Clementine Churchill, in two piece wool, Hermès scarf and St. Bernard dog. 1937 in St. Moritz, of course, where apparently most truly stylish skiing takes place. She gets to go first, because I just watched the very see worthy 'The Crown' on Netflix, where she is portrayed in a very sweet manner. 

I adore these ladies as well....

However, I could not see myself doing much skiing in heavy wool trousers, fur and stiff leather boots. Skiing I find complicated enough as it is, and modern, functional sportswear are one of the reasons it is doable. 

Except this polka dot number from a sixties editorial in Italian Vogue. Now, that I could go for. 

(images are from Getty Archives and Condé Nast Traveller)

That Lucia time of year

If Christmas hasn't gotten to me yet, it always will at Lucia, on December 13th. I think it is one of the most wonderful of all Christmas traditions, and the story behind is beautiful as well. Read an old post about it here (and find recipes for saffron Lucia buns).

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a closet Swede, and when I think of Lucia, I do associate it very much with Sweden, but I am delighted that we have adopted the tradition here in Denmark.

Not many schools, kindergartens or shopping malls in Denmark today, without a parade of sweetly singing children, bearing (practical, modern and battery powered) candles and clad in white gowns (worn over their practical GoreTex outfits and winter boots.) Most of the kindergarten kids doing the parade, will make a round of retirement homes and hospitals in their local area.

In Vesterbro in Copenhagen, the church organize a large Lucia street parade, and another wildly popular event is the Kayak Lucia Parade, where hundreds of kayaks, all trimmed with lights and torches, paddle and sing in all the inner city canals. 

Happy Lucia, and may the light of love and compassion shine on you all. 

Photo credits: 
top: Nordiska Museet, Stockholm / unknown / Skansen Museum, Stockholm
bottom: street parade in Copenhagen: Kirken I København / kayaks: aok.dk

Lunch on top of the world (sort of)

I have covered the fantastic place I go skiing with my family every year in blog posts before, here and here, but there is this special spot we've become very enthusiastic about, and it's definitely worth it's very own post. So here's where we had lunch a couple of weeks ago.

Restaurant Tusen is situated on a quite steep mountain slope, and you can only get to it on skis or by snow scooter. But there it is, quite impossible to imagine how they built it - and you can have a very tasty lunch indeed (for instance a gourmet reindeer hot dog with creamy mushrooms, yum. See last image!), or a hot chocolate and a kanelbulle. And stretch those tired legs. 

Clad in birch logs, and inspired by a sami tent - or a kåta - it looks like no other skiing facility I've ever seen! It was designed by Murman Architects from Stockholm, and built in 2009. If you happen to swing by Ramundberget in Härjedalen, do visit this place!

From Ouch! to vintage skiing

Exactly a week ago I did something with my back, nothing much, I hardly remember the specific thing, but the result was days of almost crawling around, bent over in pain. I actually got so desperate, that I went and saw a chiropractor for the first time in my life, and he twisted and pushed me around, and massaged my lower spine with a small wooden instrument of torture.

And then he prescribed ibuprofen, weird little back exercises and lying face down on the floor with a bag of frozen peas on my back several times a day.

And I am so thankful it all helped, and very very happy about that, because today we are leaving for our annual skiing trip to Sweden, and that is the highlight of winter, as far as I am concerned, and I just love love LOVE it.

I made a post about it last year, and the whole thing just gives me a wild surge of fresh energy. The snow, the light, the stillness, the beauty of the mountains. The physical strain of cross country skiing, that leaves you utterly exhausted every day - but next day you just get up and do the whole thing over again. And the food, the wine and the good company. The happy kids. 

And the way that you wear practically the same clothes and no makeup for a week. You hardly comb your hair and you look a complete mess, but with rosy cheeks and stars in your eyes. It totally works for me, happinesswise.

Of course it wasn't always like that. So, let's enjoy some stylish skiing of yesteryear!

That guy in the leopard fur, huh? Have you ever seen anything like that? Cannot source the image, alas, but in a note it says 1927, and I found it on this blog, where you'll se many more great ones / the dad with his kid in a rucksack is from the twenties, and from Norways National Archives / the row of girls are American, and from 1925 / the last, pretty girl is in traditional Arlberg attire from Austria, and the photo is from 1935.

Lets round this one up with none other that Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman, both looking their finest in the slopes. Thus inspired, I feel that perhaps I will comb my hair, after all. Make a bit of an effort, you know.

The photos are collected over a long period from tumblr and elsewhere, and I have no credits for them. Please let me know if you have!

This is where I was about a week ago

For the last couple of years, in mid February, we have gone to Härjedalen in Sweden to ski, hang out and generally just relax. To me this is one of the highlights of the winter. I love the skiing up around or above the tree line, especially, the white vastness of the views and even - sometimes - the freezing, howling wind. And then I love to take the skis off and walk on sweaty, wobbly legs into a steamy 'våffelstuga' and sip hot coffee with waffles and jam. This year we didn't have a lot of sun (so most of my pictures were sort of dull and dark looking), but nevertheless had some really great trips, and lots and lost of fun. We also found time to do some crazy nail art, bake weird looking (but tasty) muffins and make pretty ice lanterns. Here are some of the better snapshots...

Below zero fun

I am packing for our traditional, annual skiing trip to Sweden, and just can't wait to be up there in the cold, crystal clear winter air! We go with this other family we know, in a larger group of Danish cross country skiing enthusiasts. We share a cabin with our friends: four adults, three kids. I love skiing, and we all do - but of course, you can't ski 24/7. Books are read. Small, electronic screens are usually turned on, somewhere. We cook a lot of nice, sometimes complicated meals, eat sweets and drink wine in generous amounts, and it's not a health farm, exactly.
But healthy for the legs, and very healthy for the soul.

We also tend to improvise strange creative projects, such as the ice-and-marshmallow mobile we made outside the window last year. We had a theory about these marshmallows; thought they would deform in some interesting way, in the freezing cold - but they just turned sticky. 

The heavy ice baubles, however, were just gorgeous! Wonder what we'll come up with this year?

Malmö

The usual christmas shopping expedition to Malmö - always a bit special, even though I go there several times every year. It is a lovely place for strolling, windowshopping and fika (= relaxing with a cosy coffee break). Fika is of the utmost importance, if you ask me.

This is one of my favourite fika spots in Malmö, Konditori Hollandia, smack in the middle of the central walking street. I happen to know of several people who regularly take an outing to Malmö and have never been there, because it looks a bit too old-ladies-with-hats-and-furcoats like, but that is possibly what I love about the place. Today I had something slightly perverse to go with my lussekatt - a saffron truffle petit four. Yum! Konditori Hollandia is warmly recommended.

The tree

Well, okay, not that tree. But one of my favourite seasonal ones. It is on Gustav Adolfs Torg in Malmö,
where I spent most of the day, and this particular light installation has adorned it in december for some
years. I love it, and I wish I had come up with the idea. You see so many clever ways of using light and
color this time of year, but I think this one is particularly charming.