Photovoltaic Kaisa ???

It's really odd, this time of the year I seem to be powered by the sun, like today, blue skies and a pink sunrise gives me a lot of energy. I feel almost photovoltaic (electricty generated from the sun rays). But when summer comes I really don't like the sun that much, I detest the heat and get really stressed by sunny days ( especially if the come to many in a row when I have vacation). Strange! I guess I have to work on my sun acceptance and learn to ease down.....
Well, today is no vacation day, so I should get going on my work...but the sun is so tempting :)
The picture shows a sunny day in Reykjavik, Iceland where
we had a really sunny vacation in 2005

I hope that your day will be filed with sun, joy and love!

See ya'!
Kaisa

Spring is here....

Already last week we had some spring flowers looking at us in the bright sun. But the weekend brought heavy winds and snow, hail and rain. So spring felt sort of far away....but today... bright blue sky, sun, flowers and birds anouncing that spring is here. Coffee on the deck outside our kitchen only and having to take of the sweatshirt ---yeah! I even was barefoot in my sandals, great feeling!

If you look closely under my links you will find the link to my knitting blog Kaisa's knitting need(le), since knitting is what enjoy as a hobby. Welcome also to that spot in cyber-space, eventually it will be crowded with yarns and needles as well as crazy ideas and patterns.


Enjoy spring where ever you are !

Kaisa

Blizzard - at work!

No winter for ever so long and last night suddenly snow and strong winds.... Silly I must say! I had made plans to bike to the train this morning but had to cancel. So here I am at work with the snow whirling furious outside my window, since I'm going to start an experiment soon (like when I finished this post) I think I will stay here tonight and get things done. I can sleep on the train home tomorrow, if they work then.
Well, except for the snow, life is as ususal I guess. Lot of things to do, more ambitions than can be fullfilled and a lot of sport activities going on. But I really enjoy having teenage kids ( this far) and being able to discuss things with them. Our bonus son is really good at discussing things and that keeps us up late sometimes. The major worry now is for me to find a permanent job (or income) and I feel quite desillusioned about it right now. But it will most likely work out.
If not I guess I have to start industrialized hand knitted crafts - felted computer cases and knitted friut bowls in steel wire, well I still have crazy ideas, so I will survive.
Now I can here the lab calling - Kaaaisa, so it's time to go.

See ya'

Kaisa

A now we are ... 5

Hi again!
Long time no see.... but a lot of things have happend. It was as usual an exciting fall, with million of things to do. Like turning 40, nice, thanks to all friends that allowed me to celebrate for 3 days in a row and my family who cleaned up. In mid-december, a fifth member of the family join in, Neil. Born the day before I started Chalmers ( the same day I first met Lena) and from Cinncinatti he changed our life... a bit. Most of all since he will stay with us for the rest of his year in Sweden (ends in June/July) we had to clean out the guest room....Nice!
We had a really nice Christmas with not only our family, Neil and my mum, but also Henriks parents and brither and Ingela and her mother Birgitta.
In the begining of January my mum had a hip transplate - and she is recovering well we must say....

Today there are bright skies and a big sun, so I close the blinds and start working, see ya'

Kaisa

Raspberry mango crumble oat pie

Serves 8
Turn oven to 225 oC

Mix in a large bowl:
6 dl oat flakes
1,5 dl liquid margarine or 150 g margarine or butter (melted)
1,5 dl sugar (brown makes the best)

Put half of the crumbs in a pie dish
Add 4 dl (frozen) raspberries and 2 dl mango dices (frozen is easy)
Put the rest of the crumbs on top and bake for aprrox. 15 min.

Eat with custard, vanilla ice cream or whipped cream....

Enjoy!

A long summer...

I'm back, if someone accidentally missed me. After my dissertation defense in late May I spent some weeks in Belgium and France. Thereafter I had a long vacation at home and started of work by going to North America. It all summed up to a nice and long summer, it is still summer warm days here in Sweden, but not as freaking warm as they were in July. But I have a cold...boring. After 2 ½ days in bed with really high temperatures I now is up in the middle of the night.
I hope I will recover soon, I would like to get back to everyday life - with work and routines. Which in all cases must be an utopia since my life never is very organized. I guess I nourish the dream oforganization therefore.

The long summer also resulted in a loss of 3 rabbits - sold to a nice young family with more enthusiastic kids, and no hens - they were to old. Leaves us with only the dog and my mum's crazy cat and the the two kids. Both of them at Junior high now, weird feeling. It was not long ago the started kindergarten.... Am I getting old??

I'll guess I should get some more sleep so I can conquer the cold/flu...
But before signing off I would like to invite you to the next post in my blogg ---which will be a recipe for raspberry mango crumble oat pie.....

See ya'!
Kaisa

Cilantro fajita

Today I, Cicci and Renny made some really good faijtas - try them - the recipe came from our wild inspiration and some tasty faijtas that Rennys fried Mini made....

You will need
8 soft tortilla bread

1 red onion
1 pot (or bunch) of fresh cilantro
3 breast filet from chicken
chili powder
herb salt

1 avocado
10 cherry tomatoes
balsamico vineager
olive oil

tomato salsa
sour cream

Grated cheese

Heat the oven until 225oC

Slice the onion and the chicken, fry the gentlyin pan
Season with chilipowder and herbsalt.
Chop the cilantro - put one ½ of it in the chicken pan.

Dish 1/8 of the chicken mix on each bread, fold and put in a ovensafe baing pan
Top with grated cheese and heat in the oven for approx. 10 min.

Make a sallad from the rest of the cilantro, avocado in pieces halfed tomatoes and a dash of balsmico and olive oil.

Enjoy with salsa and sour cream.

We hope that you will enjoy it, we found it very tasty.

Recovery day

I managed to register my application for research grants 2 minutes before deadline.....Puh!
Today I have spent half the day lerning to enjoy gardening. It is really hard, but our garden is hugebig (as both we Swedes and people in Tenesse say) so you better enjoy it....
Together with Mum I raked all the oak leaves from the gravel court. It looks really nice afterwards. The weather is still April-type warm - cold, sun - rain...but i hope it is good for my newly seeded lawn. I don't think that the dog Ruff runs back and forth over it improves the chances to get a nice looking lawn, but I hope it won't ruin it.

Cicci came home early today, they had some extra hours off from school, that made our afternoon enjoyable. She usually goes to swimpractice directly after school and comes home late in the evening. So it was a treat to have lunch and coffe with her at home on a weekday. I think I need more of these recovery days in my life. The question is only where to find them?

Now, I should be off to bed.