Northern lights

Apparently the northern lights should be visible over Iceland soon, shall we run away together?

At the weekend my uncle who is a pilot told me he sometimes sees the lights from the sky! He also sails and gets to see the stars on a clear night with no light pollution!

How perfect!

Writing prompt #2

Here's this weeks picture, a favourite of mine from a little while ago. 

What is this crowns story? Did someone intentionally attempt to destroy it or has it been damaged by age? Was it worn by a lost prince or was it made by a loving father for his little daughter to play princesses with? I think it was washed up on the sea shore with other mysterious treasures :)

As always, feel free to leave me a comment with your writing, I love reading your stories, you guys are so imaginative! 

(picture super-lovingly taken from this lovely tumblr!)

inspire nordic

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Simple pleasures

Getting caught up in the pouring rain a mile along a deserted beach and returning home to a steaming bath and a large mug of hot chocolate <3

Testing blogging from my iPhone, sorry if the format is off - hope it works nicely!

What are your plans today, dears? :)

Gardens of Decaying Art

This morning I was lucky enough to spot this article by Lomography detailing an installation by a German architect. The landscape architect lay down piles of books, which have been left to decay in the Jardin de la Connaissance in Quebec.

It reminded me of my visit to the Carl Larsson garden in Sweden - you can find some information here but I'm sure I'll write a post about it soon! We spent the morning drinking wild strawberry soda in the little cafe next to the artist's house before taking a walk down to the river at the bottom of the garden. To the side of the garden there is a little wood, thoroughly hidden by the long, swooping branches of the typical Swedish fir trees. If you sweep these aside and sneak through, you find yourself in an eerie little forest, filled with decaying pianos. 

Covered in cobwebs with missing or broken keys, the decaying pianos were scattered about, as if abandoned and longing to be played. The often screechy, out of tune sounds produced from these instruments certainly lent themselves well to what was arguably the most perfect setting for a 50s horror movie.

Of the book installation, which was a part of the International Festival des Jardins de Metis, a Denzeen feature describes the work beautifully, in a way that is also very relevant to the abandoned pianos:

 "Invoking the mythic relation between knowledge and nature integral to the concept of ‘paradise’, we invite the emotional involvement of the visitor by exposing these fragile and supposedly timeless cultural artefacts to the processes of decomposition." 

(top picture lovingly taken from here)

inspire nordic

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PS: click here - I finally made a facebook page!

inspire writing

Since I love to inspire you guys, I thought it might be fun to do a few posts with writing prompts, since I have quite a collection of beautiful pictures. Here is my first one:

Who is sailing here? What do they see in the mystical arctic? Perhaps somebody is aboard the ship who shouldn't be. Perhaps this peaceful moment is about to be broken. Are they in the middle of an adventure, or are they finally returning home? 

What is this ships story?

(picture lovingly taken from here) 

If you decide to write a little something, I'd love to read it :) Just leave me a link or email me. 

Wishing you all a magical week,

inspire nordic

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PS: A very happy birthday to my sweet blogging friend Dana over at The Daily Dose!

"Let's try tae bo, it's probably not as hard as it looks''

Today I learnt three important things about myself: 

1. I am the most uncoordinated human ever to live

2. I go red in the face extremely easily. Not the attractive I've-just-been-doing-some-aerobics-please-admire-my-healthy-glow sort of red, I'm talking the full on I've-just-run-six-marathons-in-a-row-please-admire-my-tomato-face sort of red. 

3. I'm not Billy Blanks' hugest fan. 

While I was living in Norway, I met extra special friend number 2 - a Romanian girl named Raluca. Raluca is super fit. She looks like she's really strong too. Overall she just looks so pretty and healthy that one day I made her tell me her secret. It was Billy Blanks' tae bo. Given that I sometimes need help picking up my shopping bags, I figured it wouldn't hurt to gain a little bit of muscle and tone. Big mistake. It did hurt, a lot. 

Don't ever think that you can keep up with this guy. He cannot be human, he must be some kind of machine. Seriously. 

Do you like to do workout DVDs? I think I prefer running around outside, but I guess this type of exercise can be pretty funny if you do it with friends!

Picture (not so) lovingly taken from here

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Bye bye Olympics

Yesterday I took the train up to London to look round a little house I might be renting in September. The house is very pretty and it's only a 5 minute walk away from Primrose Hill. However, probably because of it's location, it's very expensive, so my days will be filled with thinking until I have to make my final decision at the end of this week. 

Have any of you visited London while the Olympics have been going on? I was super impressed at how clean and pretty the whole city seemed to be. And in stark contrast to usual London life, everyone seemed happy! I met a man on Primrose hill who told me he had come all the way from Texas. When he found out I was from England he was so pleased to meet me that he shook my hand! The whole city had such a lovely atmosphere. 

I'm not the most patriotic person - as someone who is so interested in foreign languages and culture I never really spend much time paying attention to my own country, but it has been quite sweet seeing Britain showing off its traditions. I'll miss all the themed sweets and cakes especially!

Have you been following the Olympics? What was your favourite moment? I loved watching the gymnastics and the swimming. It made me happy when other countries won the gold - countries who had clearly worked extremely hard and were getting great results.

inspire nordic

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