"...they ought to make you wear a sign, Danger T-N-T..."

When I helped move some skaters into the place I like to refer to as the 'Derby Mansion', I did not realize that the house, and most buildings on the small island- once belonged to Albert Nobel.

Nobel was the inventor of dynamite, and in whose name the Nobel Prize is given.

The house was his laboratory.  There is a good cafe across the park which was the site of his factory.

When I first saw the house, all I could wonder at was that the owner left behind not just glassware, and expensive, lovely curtains but items such as a grand piano.

It was all very impressive - but of course if the internet is correct he had more than one factory over the years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel 

The whole area is pretty, and the coffee at the cafe is good. To get to the house or cafe you have to walk through the woods, and there is a water view from most angles.

I was curious to see how the house would fare for parties- as with six skaters virtually all of the league would be actually not casually connected by at least one person.

I managed to be sick the only time I felt up to going to a party there.

I am sure they have been good ones- but sometimes or maybe more accurately, often the idea of a large party and easily a 10-15 year gap in the median age just seems plain exhausting to me.

Vinterviken Cafe is now a favorite of mine. 

http://www.winterviken.se/conference-banqueting-stockholm 

I feel lucky when I come across some place by chance, or luck, or through derby.  I still need to take Zok there, but this place is on a list of several...better luck in 2013!

 

 

Christmas here, Christmas there...

Stockholm continues to have more and more snow.

I dug out our door that leads to the terrace to rescue some forgotten summer furniture and to dig out the BBQ.

However, we have had snowfall since then so you can not tell I did anything and the snow is piled up against the windows again.

Zok and I have decided that this is the most and the least Christmas-y Christmas of all time.  I love all the huge Christmas trees that are in almost every square. 

Mostly because we were both away from either home until the 15th, followed by Zok and I getting food poisoning from our (no longer) favorite Ramen place.  If we had made any plans we would have had to break them as Zok is still sick and this is day four.

I am better but Zok is mostly curled up in a ball- moaning or worse.

I was hoping Chester would have a dusting of snow while I was there but I was out of luck.

Meanwhile in the snow here we have a neighbor that is quite good at snow sculpting.

Merry Christmas to all-

We will soon experience the shock of traveling from weather that is -12 to +23...

 

...and the bell was ringing in the village square...

My relationship with snow is more accurately a sort of fake- movie and song lyric inspired relationship.  Sort of like when a person is such a fan they convince themselves that they truly are in love with this actor or that- when of course they can only be in love with second hand information and characters portrayed by said actor.

Okay, sure - I had a flirtation some time in the 1970s, in one of those midwestern states as in "maybe it was Ohio? No-no was it Indiana?..."

But how could snow love me? The kid from the coast that did not know about snow reports of school closures, sitting each snow day waiting at a bus stop until some friendly midwesterntype pulled over to say "Hey- Kid! There's no school today!".
 

But I know this- maybe other people are more constant, more present in your life but I am pretty sure I am the only one that actually sings  out loud as I tromp through your banks.  Who laughs when I slip on your icy bits. Who stands in the middle of the road thinking 'glitter! glitter! magic wonderland! sparkle! sparkle!' in perverse wonderment.