Happy 2016 and new year's resolutions

Happy new year!

I'm sorry this blog has been deserted for so many months, but my life has been more busy than I would have liked. So I  chose to take time off from blogging. Spending my spare moments with family and friends seemed more purposeful than spending it behind screen.


What have I been up to?
I took an entrepreneurship course. It was a full-time course that lasted for 2.5 months.
At the same time I studied full time computer science.
I spent 2.5 weeks in Thailand.
I had all my health examinations re-taken. It took additional 2 weeks from my life, since I'm not supposed to take medicine while examinations and I'm not able to function at all while not on medication.
I spent Christmas with my family, cooking, talking and taking long walks.

Now I'm only studying for my exams, so I feel like I have all the time and energy in the world.

I took 2 resolutions for this year.
1. be a better person. This is a hard one, since it's so general, but it's also so important. I want to be a better partner for my Love, be a better friend, better daughter and sister. I try to stick more to my principles and to be more ethical.

2. spend less. Since I don't have a job and I wan't to finish my studies before finding a job, I feel extremely guilty when ever I spend money. I'm going to be more frugal so I wouldn't be burden to my family (and manage my guilt).

Of course I would like to meditate more, take photography more serious, spend more time on Coursera, read more, and so on.. but I do understand that the truly important thing is to be good to my loved ones.

One photo I took while in Thailand. Statues of Buddha in a hilltop temple.

I would be honoured if You would share your personal resolutions

Some photo sites I like

I spent at least an hour looking online photo pages this morning.
Serene places, happy people, beautiful food. It really picks up my mood to sometimes get lost in thoughts and look beautiful photos.
So I'm sharing some of my favorites from this morning. Maybe it will pick you up as well.

There are so many good photographers and image sites online (and so many of them are free to use so I can show them here:)

My favorite is as usual Unsplash. It just matches my style and idea of beauty.

My favorite food photos come from FoodiesFeed

hungry yet? :)



Last favorite today is  http://magdeleine.co/ and a few travel/nature-style shots.

...did I mention I really like photography and spending time enjoying it?

Welcome to my garden

This is my little garden I'm really proud of.
I'ts  a container garden around my apartment entrance door on around 2 square meters.

I started it last year with some spinach and flowers. And since it turned out really green and flowery on such a little area and it was space I created my own.. it felt really good to have and I started my garden again this spring.
I really enjoyed my spinach plant last year, but the seeds I bought last year didn't sprout this year. At least now I know that I need new spinach seeds every year :)
But I have a strawberry, tomatoes, salad, peppermint, parsley. Also flowers.
It's really amazing how much you can grow on a little area, given that you take good care of it.

Last year it needed investing in planters and seeds and I bought many bags of soil and needed to build some stuff. But this year it has needed just care, love and sunshine :)
I'll need to buy some more fertilizer. For aphids I just use coca-cola.

One thing that really surprised me was that at spring, when I start growing plants on my window ( you need to do that around here, because the summer is too short and the plants wouldn't reach maturity otherwise) I really need to fight for getting them big, getting enough light, getting them to sprout. But when the plants are already growing, and after planting them outdoors.. The main energy goes to fighting AGAINST the plants growing too much.. I still have to figure how much greenery is enough for my little garden.

So, this is my garden.
I often spend time sitting on my doorway and looking at the plants and bees flying around the flowers or drink coffee and read a book. I really feel like it's the best use for the 2 square meters I have around my front door and that this space gives me back a lot.

Will there be an ice age?

I just stumbled upon this news that probably there will be a small ice age in 15 years.
Living in far north, where the temperature 5F is considered normal in winter (-15C) and even in summer you will sometimes need to heat your home and  always take a warm jacket with you when going out in the evening.. this is not good news.
I do enjoy proper snowy winters with all the winter sports and beautiful scenery, but summer is as equally important. We all need some warmth.
Me and my Love have been playing with the idea to buy an apartment to somewhere southern country, rent it and move there when we're middle aged. This plan might come in handy.

Winter around here