Ingela Bohm's Blog, page 2

Back on the wagon

Why is it that when we need time to recuperate and be a little less productive for a while, some of us beat ourselves up for not reaching our “usual” standards? And why is it that “usual” standards are often the level we manage when we are at our peak? Shouldn’t it be some kind of middle ground instead?

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Sometimes we need to do nothing. To know that yes, in a few days we’ll have to do well at something or other, but that’s way over there in the future. For now, we can rest.

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Bujoing has helped me see the things I actually do instead of the things I don’t do. Maybe it can do this for others as well. Instead of constantly focusing on the future and what we haven’t done, we can go back over the pages and see the things we dreaded last week, the giant hurdle we braved last month, and feel satisfied that we pushed through.

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And while on the subject of bullet journalling, why beat yourself up over the gaping holes in your habit tracker? So you needed a few days off. Who doesn’t? Be sensible: you’re not going to clean the house every day for the rest of your life, no matter how much you believe it while you’re drawing up your habit tracker.

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By all means reach for the stars and reach the treetops, but don’t reach so hard that you dislocate your shoulder. It’s fine to fall off the wagon. The wagon will be there when you want back on, and guess what? You have the perfect getting-back-on list in your habit tracker. A few tasks in and you’ll feel like you were never off track!

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Be kind to yourself. You never know when you’ll pay it back.

Love among the stars

So I heard it was a special day today – February 14. I haven’t really caught on to that whole thing, but I do have a brand new excerpt from my upcoming release to share! Yay.

Saturday walk

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Crystalfall

You know, I really am quite lucky to have “thinking” be a part of my job description. Today was bright and sunny, so I took my embryonic ideas with me into the forest and snapped a few pictures while I mulled over them.

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Some tiny creature passed this way before me.

Wolf winter

So this year is a real “wolf winter” with lots of snow and cold. Way overdue if you ask me. The only thing that makes six months of darkness worth it is the glitter of snow and days like this, when an icy breath rises from the stream and hovers in the sunlight.

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[image error]I love when the sunlight picks out each branch and twig in the forest. It happens on days when they’re covered in frost.

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But a winter like this also brings specific challenges. Snow weighs a lot, so today we had to remove some of it from the balcony so it wouldn’t break!

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We borrowed this electric thingumajig from a friend to deal with the worst of it, but I also used a big bucket meant for making wine. Use what you’ve got!

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Phew.

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And afterwards, make sure you hang your clothes up to dry!

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Crystalline

Testing, testing…

Yeah, I know, it’s been a while. We’ve had nothing but clouds here, like we were sealed in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid from horizon to horizon. And snow, oodles of snow. Every time you threw a look out the window there it was, dancing in the light of the streetlamps.

But today we got a glimpse of the sun, and I rushed out with my new macro lens to give it a whirl.

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No pro yet, but by now I know it takes a while to get to know a new lens. See what it can do, what it likes best, and in what light, at what distance, with which aperture, and so on. So these are just test images, but I thought I’d share them anyway so you don’t think I’ve abandoned you!

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Tried it out on some food as well, but I have a lot to learn… It was tasty, though.

January on paper and in pixels

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So my next week is all planned out, and I went for a candy colour scheme because why not. Outside is all pinks and baby blues, so this reflects in my journal.

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The rest of January is also set up by now.

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I have my calendar…

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… my project master list…

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… my complaints page, my list of things learned, the pat-on-the-back “Well done!” page, Today’s Bonus, and the menu/entertainment spread…

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… and finally my indispensable “home pages” where I jot down notes about all my projects.

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No excuse now to lose my way as I venture into 2018!

Incidentally, the way forward is equally clear outside, for which I owe a debt of gratitude to the snow mobile crowd: they create these perfect, hard paths through the woods. If they didn’t, I’d be knee-deep in snow on my walks!

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2pm sundown

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Lighting the tree

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Six months to Midsummer

This post and the links in it contain advertisements for my books.

This. This slope, covered now in snow, is the spot where Artedi was born. This very spot is where Christer and Henrik get a second chance in The Seventh Flower.

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An appropriate place for two people who – what are the odds? – both have a thing for the enduring friendship between Linnaeus and Artedi. These two lovers of history.

These two lovers.

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I’m a sucker for time. The wings of history, comparing then and now… And this frozen field where nothing grows – in half a year, it will be covered in grass and wild flowers. In just six months, the sun will only set a few hours over this spot. Now it only shines at midday.

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The rays are so yellow, so tired. The sun climbs just over the horizon and then sets again, too exhausted to stay, and the light never reaches its full potential. Just this yellow-pink, golden glow that leaves as soon as it touches the crystallized trees.

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To think that this is the landscape where Christer drives his car through the bright early morning mist, searching for Henrik! The landscape where they watch the sun rise together – at half past two in the morning.

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It’s frozen. Dead. Silent.

Beautiful.

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And in just six months, it will all be green again.