Inner journeys

I have wanted very much to keep in touch but for a great part of the last couple weeks I was just not feeling in the mood. I actually have spent much time close to 'home', trying to get out to local parks so Django can see other kids at a playground, or riding the bus up to Muswell Hill where we can get our organic foods. For several days I had extremely low energy verging on exhaustion, and some spells of mild nausea (no, I'm not pregnant). Other than those symptoms, I didn't feel ill. It's gone by and I feel fine now. I have no idea what it was.

I was also feeling very adrift, and was missing Los Angeles where I lived for almost 18 years before moving to Port Townsend, Washington. I think I was missing the place where I had more established things: friends, work, activity. I was also imagining that special Southern California weather, with magical golden light and warm jasmine and orange blossom scented evenings... (of course it's not always like that, but that's the BEST weather).

I have also been missing my father, who I have called by his first name, Bob, since I was five. He's Bob to me. He passed away on August 31st, a mere two months ago. We started traveling two weeks after he died. As much as I thought it would hit me when I arrived in Denmark and settled, it seemed distant, perhaps because I was distant. I could have just been away, could have just not talked for a few weeks. But as I write these journals, and send them out and get responses from many friends and family, his response is starkly absent. I know he would be writing me back about every post. I know he would be encouraging and happy for our adventure. I know it will take time for the reality and the permanence of this loss to be really felt.

Bob was so always so supportive of me and my creative pursuits, and was also very supportive of Simon and his music. Now when Simon has a record label behind him and things are really starting to happen, I wish we could share this with him. Perhaps in some way he knows and is present.


Bob in January 2009 with his Tomte (a mythical protective creature from Scandinavia)




I've had my energy back for several days, so I've been able to get out a bit, and Simon was back after 5 days out touring.
Regular travel blog to resume soon.
There will be one more post about London before Django and I head to Poland on Thursday! We'll be visiting with my cousin Dominique who is living in Warsaw. Simon will join us there 5 days later after a trip to Sweden to play two shows.

Alas, London!

On Tuesday the 13th of October, Django and I took a short flight to London. I was (only mildly) surprised to see military personnel heavily armed with major assault weapons keeping watch in the terminal. Some of them looked barely out of high school. Scary.
Thankfully our friend Richard was able to drive Simon to Gatwick to meet us, as a one-way train ticket would have been almost $30! It took about and hour and a half to drive to North London, where Richard and Gabrielle, our hosts, live. Simon brought all kinds of goodies in the car and we had a picnic on the way home, smoked salmon, fancy cheddar, hummus...
In the morning Simon presented me with some extremely dark roast beautiful smelling espresso grind coffee which I promptly brewed and enjoyed with very heavy organic double cream (probably the best cream I've ever had). Can you say decadent? Can you also say sweet husband?!

Next morning Richard took us out to a local park. Django and I walked and went to the playround whilst (hee hee, so English..) Simon and Richard went for a run. There seem to be an abundance of really lovely parks in London.



The following day Simon, Django and I went to a different park and met some English ducks, geese, and swans. At least they were English on that day. I suppose they might be Spanish or Italian in a month or so.



Now one very very important thing to remember when in England is that people drive on the wrong.. I mean, the left side of the street. This is vitally life-preservingly important to remember. You don't even realize how second nature it is to look left before crossing the street, and so, this is why on almost every major intersection you will see this:



Traffic circle on Muswell Hill a short bus ride from where we're staying.



This is the neighborhood where we are staying. These are really cute old row houses with paper thin walls where you can hear your opera-singing neighbor belting out the classics at frequent intervals (not kidding)



Richard and Gabrielle's house, the one with the red door.



One night when Simon and Richard were out playing a show, Django and Gabrielle had a chance to bond. He started playing with her and engaging her and before you knew it he was on her lap. So sweet! He also tried corn on the cob for the first time that night.




Taking a walk in the park with Ataata. I love the old brick walls.



As you all know, Simon is touring, which is why we're here. Richard, our host, is a multi-instrumentalist (and singer songwriter) who is accompanying Simon on a number of shows. We haven't seen Simon much, and such is the challenge of having a touring musician in the family. We are extremely grateful to be close, though, so at least we aren't spending very long periods apart.

On our second night here, Simon played a show at a venue called Union Chapel, which is a beautiful old chapel (check out a panoramic view http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/panorama.php) which still holds services, but also serves as a music venue.


Simon has been opening for an artist called Jon Allen, who has a good following in the UK (Paul McCartney is a fan of his and he's cowritten songs with him!). I was fortunate to have Gabrielle's mum walk Django around the block so I could see the show. It was fantastic and Simon received a great review in The London Times!




Here's the text:

In tough times for troubadours, the secret to commercial success is in finding a new niche. Simon Lynge stands out because he hails from Greenland and played up the fact at every opportunity. Having regretted that there wasn't time for a chat, the singer launched into a lengthy spiel about autumnal shifts in air currents. Teaching Brits about weather was a task in his former job as a Greenland tourist guide and helped to cast a spell on the crowd.

The serene setting of Union Chapel suited the 24-year-old, who exuded a Zen-like calm as he sang strikingly pretty, melodic songs with a debt to Paul Simon and James Taylor. Behind him, the multi-instrumentalist Richard Lobb provided inspired backing by taping and looping everything from mandolin, keyboards and drums to knee slaps, finger clicks and taps on the packing crate on which he was perched. Lynge's pure, warm voice was at its best on the beautiful, Beatlesy 'Love Comes Back to You' and his forthcoming first UK single, 'Infinitely You'. Both have already been picked up for films and adverts. With luck, Lynge could be this years José González.

Just a couple notes: no, he's not 24. not sure where they got that. no, he didn't talk about Greenland THAT much.

I haven't gotten this up before now for a couple reasons: one, this blog program was infuriatingly annoying in regards to placing pictures and text. I've figured out how to override it on the html edit page. two, Django and sleep. Not happening. Waking mama up many times a night and I've been so sleep deprived my brain won't function. Not sure when that's going to get better, but so it is.

More soon from the land of fish and chips!

Denmark addendum, slices of heaven

Ok, just a few more words (and pictures) on Denmark, then we'll go to London.

Perhaps I was a bit unfair calling Denmark (wait...scrolling down...) not "a very interesting landscape". I suppose I made it sound rather boring. Well, I DO love mountains and diversity in a terrain, and it is pretty damn flat, and maybe because there isn't a great variety to the landscape, it IS a little boring... but wait, I'm supposed to be singing a different tune here. O.k. All of those things said, I continued to encounter absolutely beautiful and special places. Places where there was more space, or more trees, and less buildings. More wildness, less construct. I kept encountering those little slices of heaven.

Let me tell you, in my world, heaven is very green, and it was the green that inspired me. So here are a few last images. They are as big as this page will allow, which is small, so I'm afraid they don't do justice to what I saw with my eyes, but here you are.

What Denmark used to look like,

covered in low-lying shrubs with not too many trees
(and cute little hobbit children running about in hoods)

Django by the lake near Simon's mother's house at sundown.












Look at that green mama!


It really was an amazing green. The picture doesn't show.



humoring mama and posing on a log

Django bounding down a mossy hill. The kind of moss that elf houses must be carpeted with, and the kind of sunlight that reminds me of Middle Earth (I might've been there! can you say for sure?)

Some happy horses!

Here we are at the North Sea.

Farewell for now Denmark.

(and now to London where they have dark roast coffee and beer with color!)

Art, Architecture and whatnot

So, tomorrow (October 13th) Django and I head to London where we will be reunited with Simon after three weeks. We've had a nice relaxing time visiting Simon's mother Lissy and her partner, Knud Erik. We've enjoyed lovely food and great hospitality, and gotten to see some really pretty places.

When you go to downtown Holstebro, the main attraction is a shopping street, closed to traffic. All of the stores have samples of their wares out on the sidewalk. The feeling is like going through an outdoor mall, less claustrophobic, but pervasively commercial. I am not a fan of shopping. I prefer to spend minimal time at it, even treasure hunting in thrift stores which I do somewhat enjoy. But what makes this downtown area very interesting, and quite a bit more appealing than the sale signs is the prevalence of public art.

One thing that is really great about Denmark is how the arts are supported (by the government, yes. there's that dirty word again, social***). They actually actively give money to artists and musicians. There are grants and funds to help generate a living for artists. It's quite wonderful I think. When Simon plays shows in Denmark, he actually gets paid, unlike, say LA where the tables are often turned. I even got paid when I played 3 songs at a songwriters show two years ago.

But I digress...

So there you are, and here you go. Some pictures of some of the downtown Holstebro art:

Nice piggy piggy...

this is a really cool bronze. There's incredible detail in it. Django was very fascinated!

Some of the detail in the wild boar sculpture.

Saint George and the Dragon. A whimsical fountain.

The hand to the right is a ground fountain. It's on a slightly raised round and water pours out of the hole. You walk right on top of it.

A pretty cool colorfully glazed brick wall pool.

This is a totally odd piece. Really strange figures, sitting atop a rock on pillars with water continually pouring out of the middle underneath, which doesn't seem to go anywhere and just gives the impression that a pipe is broken somewhere. Hmmm...

I suppose it could be refreshing on a hot summer's day, if there is a such a thing here.

It wasn't just the downtown area that was full of art, there's art in the playgrounds, on top of buildings... nice to see.

and now we come to the architecture part of the tour.

Well, briefly, almost every building is Denmark is made of bricks. They just don't build buildings out of wood here, which might be why the trees seem so happy.

A typical street with older style Danish houses. The newer houses don't have quite so many angles on them. I like the older ones best.

This house by an inlet has the old style thatched roof. It's a bit harder to spot these nowadays, but in some places they are still being made. Beautiful!

Another thatched roof. This was an old mill that for a while housed a museum, and is now an open space that people can freely use to gather or hang out.

This is a very typical and traditional Danish church which you see all over the country. The Danish national church is Lutheran. A large percentage of Danes are members, but few are very religious.

And then there is the occasional castle...

this one is only a few miles from where Simon's grandparents live on the island of Mors

This is Simon's grandparent's house. His father has a very large garden which he still tends with dedication at the age of 81. He even sells some of his produce at market: potatoes, strawberries, and leeks are some of what he grows

Here we are visiting his grandparents the other day. Django got some more bonding time.

and since we're on the subject of things people make.

windmills. denmark.

they go together like sonny and cher, no wait... cheese and crackers, ummm...

wine and chocolate??

well, Denmark has been very prominent in the development and use of the windmill. It's nice to see these 'green' objects scattered about the landscape.

and now for a little WHATNOT:

Django humoring mama and lying down in a bed of moss so I could get a cool artsy photo.

what a kid!

'til next time, peace.

Janna

Dansk Food

Hello and welcome to my mama's blog about food in Denmark.

She doesn't have any pictures of food, but she's got a lot of pictures of me. Enjoy!

So someone asked, what are you eating? What do Danes eat? The two are not necessarily the same. Well, in general Denmark is a very meat 'n' potatoes kind of place. I don't eat red meat so I can't elaborate on that. The potatoes (Danish in origin) are very tasty though. They, the Danes, and we also eat a lot of salmon, or laks, and little tiny shrimp (what we sometimes call salad shrimp). Oh, and they eat herring-- pickled herring. Every time we're here Simon has to have what is a tradition (at least in his family) of pickled herring on this very traditional dense seeded brown bread, drenched in a curry salad creamy thing (Danish curry?? don't ask me...). This is accompanied by a shot of schnapps-- not some fruity gross thing that you got drunk on as a teenager, just good ol' alcohol flavored liquor. I guess it's a pretty cosy thing.

For breakfast you will not find a plate of scrambled eggs with toast and bacon on many Danish tables (my mother-in-law doesn't even own a toaster). People will very often eat fresh bread from the bakery with jam and very smelly Danish cheese that I just don't have the nose for. They buy it in enormous blocks that disappear very quickly for something that smells like dirty socks. It is also common to have yogurt (which is really good here), muesli, and fruit.

In Copenhagen you don't have to walk far to see a pizza joint (mostly run by Iraqis) or a shawarma stand, so the break from traditional Danish food is quite prevalent. Though there are many little cafes where you can get the traditional Danish open faced sandwich-- sometimes shrimp with little tiny asparagus and a cream sauce, mmm...

Here are some things you might find surprising about Denmark: It is very difficult to find good ice cream, good beer, and good (dark roast) coffee.

Now, good ice cream: That one really surprised me, what with all the cows dotting the landscape. It's as counterintuitive as not being able to find a good salad in the entire non-coastal United States with all of that farm land growing veggies (believe me, I've tried on four driving trips across the USA). But there it is. Not impossible to find, just difficult. I went to the supermarket on a scouting mission the other day, just to make sure. I did find a section of Ben and Jerry's, but it was over $10 a pint! One cannot afford to be an ice cream snob here, which apparently I am.

Now I am also a beer and a coffee snob (I would be a wine snob too if I could afford it).

Beer: what most people drink here is Carlsburg, kind of the national beer. In my humble (ahem) opinion it is one notch, maybe two, above Budweiser. Yes, I think beer should have color, or at least flavor.

Coffee: I cannot find dark roast coffee. I bet there are some specialty shops somewhere or maybe some high end cafes in Copenhagen that would cater to my Pacific Northwest snobby coffee ways, but here in Holstebro, surrounded by farmland, it is not possible. Even the espresso roast is far from the rich dark oily (have I mentioned dark?) roast of my wishes. Ah well, I make do.

Another thing Danes don't eat, peanut butter. Simon's mother had never had peanut butter until she visited us in the States last year. (I prefer almond butter myself, but whatever)

Oh, and Danes are huge, just absolutely huge on licorice. It is ubiquitous and comes in many forms. Today I saw licorice flavored icecream in a cafe. Ummm, no. I do like licorice, and for candy, it's kind of good for you actually. Just don't give me the salted licorice, eewwww...makes my bones itch.


Another very nice food related thing about Denmark-- not many fat people. There really aren't very many fast food joints. In this city of 40-some-thousand there is one McDonalds and one Burger King, and that's it. Good for them. People here are generally less sedentary than Americans. They ride bicycles everywhere, and many seem to exercise regularly.


Hmmm, have I covered it? Well, I'm sure I have far from covered it, but there is a taste for you.

Oh, one more thing. There is this absolutely heavenly drink here made from flowers, called Hyldeblomst saft, which comes in a concentrate that you dilute with water. I believe in English it is called the Elder flower. Oh. My. God. This stuff is good. All I can say is, Heaven. Beyond that, you'll just have to try it yourself.



Well this is food related. We went to feed the ducks down at the pond the other day.

But the problem was...

instead of feeding the ducks,

Django kept feeding himself,

again....

and again...

and again.

The ducks finally gave up.