Vacation in the Norwegian mountains

There are years since we had summer as fine as this!

Staying at our wooden cabin in the mountains these days is truly a paradise. Especially for Lea who just loooves running in the mountains and playing in every little stream and pool she sees. And Tore have taken lots and lots of stunning photos :)

Lea's energy is amazing. Who could think this dog is ten years old and has cancer with spreading? She runs up  and down hundreds of meters in just some seconds. We people move just  too slow for her - and she gets really impatient!

Nothing is better than active vacation! Climbing up and down mountains, stretching, doing lots of "old fashioned" body work at the cabin and eating plenty of wonderful, healthy home-made food.  Good stuff!

Where is Edward Snowden?

This case is getting really funny. Is Uncle Vova going to outsmart Uncle Sam?

I am really disappointed about the honest nerd Eddy Snowden. I think he urgently needs a make-over. Just think a moment: a proper spy is ought to have at least a wig and a false nose.  But Eddy turns up completely au-naturel at Sheremetyevo, even without any false documents, full-heartedly believing in the goodness of people. Ha ha ha.

Outsmarting Uncle Sam may be a matter of prestige for Uncle Vova. So instead of hunting  down the man with the well-known face at the Sheremetyevo airport, the spies and journalists maybe should be looking for someone like this:

or like this:

or maybe.....

this?

Wouldn't it be great if Eddy already were in Cuba? Who would believe a Russian government man issuing a twit about an asylum in Venezuela, anyway? I wouldn't. But the press is quick to  "bite" any worm. Good for Uncle Vova.

For there cannot be a problem to transport a fugitive over the ocean on the direct Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Even if Uncle Sam gets the last-minute knowledge about Eddy being on board,

quietly relaxing among the luggage 

...or hidden between the packs of wonderful and tasty air food.

Russian pilots are tough enough to ignore demands from any country to land the aircraft. They know that no government in the would take responsibility of shooting down a civilian aircraft with 300 passengers on board because of some fugitive being among them. 

Holding my fingers crossed and waiting for the happy end :)

KAL's cartoon from economist.com - good as always.

Food decisions

Yesterday me and my fiancé watched the documentary "Forks over knives" on Apple TV.  The movie made us  more conscious about what we are eating.

Being a certified nutritional consultant and physical therapist, I am fully aware of disadvantages of animal-based food. Several years ago I turned vegetarian mainly due to my ethic considerations, even prior to my nutritional education. A a student I fought my fights with the teachers who were trying to persuade me to start eating fish oil, red meat and other unessesary and potentially dangerous stuff...

Because of my vegetarian life style my blood profile is as I were in my teens, not in my forties. My blood cholesterol is 3,7, sugar 4,4. I personally know nobody my age who eat meat and have blood values as good as mine. I believe this is only due to my life style, not my genes.

My mom unfortunately has cardiovascular diseases, overweight since her early thirties  and diabetes in her seventies. She has been a real meat-lover all of her life. Now she takes many prescription meds every day, like all of her friends.

At home we cook only vegetarian food but when we visit our non-vegetarian friends or go to fancy restaurants, we eat whatever is served.

Unfortunately I still am a milk-a-holic. I love milk and diary products and usually drink several cups of caffe latte daily. So does my fiancé. But the movie "Forks over knives" made us think really hard about abandoning milk and eat even less processed foods than we do.

I have been reading critics about this movie, the diet they advocate is really extreme: no nuts, no oils or oily foods like avocado and olives, no sauces of any kind... But there is no doubt this diet plan works in preventing and reversing cancers and cardiovascular disease. The research included millions of subjects over several decades.

So instead of finding arguments NOT TO, I would rather consider to make changes to my diet to make it healthier.

So today we went to our nearest veggie produce shop and bought lots of fruits and veggies. And we bought two types of veggie milk - organic  rice milk and non-organic soy milk (too bad they did not have organic).

As you can see, rice and soy milk have different colour and density. And the taste is quite different, too. 

I did not like the rice milk, it was too sweet and too little dense. The soy milk tasted not too good as well. But by mixing these two milks in different proportions I finally achieved a rather drinkable taste. In the end it was actually not too bad.

Later we did some experimenting on frothing this soy/rice mixture  for cappuccinos. Wow, the froth looked amazing! 

Worse was the taste. No, I could not drink THIS. 

Better stick to smoothies in the morning and indulge myself with one proper caffe latte in the weekend.

Today's dinner was as close as possible to the principles of whole non-processed foods as we could achieve: fresh baby potatoes with dill and sprinkle of the best quality Spanish olive oil (no-no, olive oil will not be abandoned here!) , marinated wild cucumbers, mushrooms and onion stew, and veggie salad with lemon juice and olive oil. 

No animal proteins and almost no salt. And this simple food tasted just heavenly. A good start for a better life style.

Four-Leaf Clover

Today when I played with Lea on the lawn and was about to pick up her toy from the ground - I found  this ...

The four-leaf symbol of luck.

I thought of all the blessings in my life. Not just today, but my everyday blessings. Which are so many!

And I came up with this little poem about the little things that bring happiness into my life.

Good Luck

Good luck is

To appreciate today. Every day.

To watch sparrows messing in the bushes.

To stop and watch them a little more.

Even if it makes you to come a few minutes late

For work.

To smell the fresh-cut grass.

To kiss my dog's funny nose.

To look into my fiancé's beautiful eyes

And feel I 'm blessed more than anybody else.

Art: Latest painting

This painting is in acrylic, 80x80 cm.
Sorry for not too good resolution.

Most of my paintings are about  the woman, her light and dark sides. I must admit I find the dark sides much more interesting to deal with as there are lots of secrets and tabus here.

The left side of the painting represents the woman's past. The right represents the future. The dog represents the intuition, the dog is the spiritual guide. (As you can easily see, Lea is used here as a model because I can "place" her in any position I want).

The woman here is trapped in her past and refuses to look into the future. The past works as her jail. The woman  lacks courage to acknowledge her own power and get out of her self-destructive thoughts and actions. The shoes taken off symbolize the woman's denial of her own capacities  (sexually, socially, economically, artistically, etc). She has no face which also implies she may be seen upon as   an object.

Look at the dog: it is almost like it says: hurry up, come with me, I am leaving  if you don't wake up. I'm waiting maybe a minute more and then I'm gone.

But there also is a hope represented by the ancient ruin which is about to fall. We can see the first falling stones. One can find a parallel with "The Tower" card in Tarot. The card tells your present is about to collapse, and most people fear this card. But this is often a misinterpretation. In order to change one's life to the good, you often need to destroy the bad.

Contact me if you may be interested in purchasing this work, framed or unfraimed. I can provide high-resolution photo with all the details, as they are rather hard to see here.

The message

Our day began at the vet clinic X-raying Lea's chest. I got a lead coat and helped holding her head and paws as she had to lie down completely still.

My little girl was very well-behaved and we managed to X-ray her very quickly. One photo on each side, one laying on her back and one laying on her tummy. Four altogether.

Needless to say I dreaded the phone call from the vet all day. At times it was literally impossible to concentrate on work.

She called at one o'clock bringing the bad news: they found a pie-sized shadow in her lungs. Her last X-ray was in March and the chest was clear then.

We had a long talk about the chemo. It is the only option they offer Lea. Intraveniously every third week. The thing is that they cannot cure her, just prolong life for about 3-5 months. Tears, tears.

I am very lucky to have a very skilled veterinarian with a doctor degree in oncology who has been following my dog for two years, ever since she got her first small limp. I am very grateful the vet  is completely honest with me and informs well about what the options are and how the chemo works. It appears that the medicine kills not only the aggressive cancer cells but also cells of bone marrow and small intestines (as these cells also grow very quickly). The bone marrow and intestines recover but the dog will of course have symptoms and reduced life quality.

I asked for some time thinking about the option. But I am certain I am not going to say yes to the chemo. The money is absolutely no option, I have been paying big $$$ for Lea for the past two years on the operations that worked well. I would luckily pay again. But it has to give some meaning. With this treatment I simply cannot find any. Nobody can trick death. I don't know what's best: dying from cancer or from a stoke or a heart failure being too old.

I hope Lea would agree with me if she could talk, she hates being a patient. I know she would prefer running and playing as long as she can instead of lying down miserable and throwing up all day. I would wish the same if I were her.

This is what Lea wants :

In the afternoon we went to a beautiful walk. Running, swimming, playing.

 No leash, just good time!

And raw beef for dinner. Yes, dog life can be perfect, too :)

Midsummer weekend in Sweden

We had a wonderful Midsummer weekend in Sweden visiting my friend Angela and her family at their beautiful house near Malmo. According to the Swedish tradition the  Midsummer weekend  is celebrated in the countryside.

On the midsummer Friday everybody leaves town, the shops close 14:00 and after that time the towns look strangely deserted. We do not have the same tradition in Norway, so this weekend was very special to us.


Just arrived and very excited :)











After a wonderful meal  there was Kubb - a typically Swedish physical game with wooden sticks  (where we untrained Norwegians were doomed to loose). Actually, the more wine the easiest to hit the cube. I guess we just did not drink enough :)

Lea run like crazy all day chasing cats and playing ball. She has so much energy! 

After physical exercise - some mental exercise, too! Lots of fun and mental challenges.

Next morning the bravest of the two house cats showed up.

Lea just cannot figure out why they do not want to play with her. This is soooo egoistic of them, isn't it!

On Saturday we went to the old university town of Lund and visited the historic museum. 

We were amazed how beautiful and lush the old Lund looked. The town was originally Danish, this explains its continental look.

Lea, alert curious as always, at the museum cafe. Here with my friend Angela.

After this a wonderful meal at Angela's home, an evening run at the bird reserve and just good  relaxing evening. We played Kubb, hitting a bit better this time.  And Lea was having most enjoyable time.

Sunday began with a morning run. After breakfast we went to a guided walk at the 500 years old Torup castle listening to the dark secrets of the past. 

After a little lunch a 2 km walk in a wast castle forrest among magnificent old trees, dark swamps and light fields and meadows.

Unwillingly had we to say good-buy and drive 7 hours back to Oslo. 

We loved  being in Skåne. 

Thank you, Angela, my dear friend, for giving us this wonderful experience.