Today is Midsummer’s Day here in Sweden. Of all the holidays we celebrate, this might just be the biggest. Yes, even bigger than Christmas. This year, I spent it with my family in Åkersberga, the neighborhood where I grew up. It was a lovely day with great weather, lots of people, and of course, the iconic Midsummer pole. Part of the tradition involves decorating the pole with flowers and birch branches before raising it.
Photo challenge day 20: Gather 📷
Perfect timing with today’s prompt since it’s Midsummer Eve celebration here in Sweden today. 🥳🇸🇪
It’s been a couple of weeks since I moved my blog to Micro.blog, and it’s been a nice experience so far. I like the possibilities the platform provides without having to come up with half-baked workarounds. But, as with any platform, there are some things I miss. Here are some that first come to mind for me: Category Description I’d love to add some text to the categories I create. Nothing fancy, just a simple description with Markdown support.
My blogging workflow used to involve writing in Swedish and then translating it into English. I did it that way to make the writing process as smooth as possible. Today, I decided to try writing in English from scratch. It doesn’t feel natural, and it takes longer, but I want to give it a fair shot. Maybe it’ll help calm my recurring blogging overthinking (probably not). But the main reason for this change is that I think my writing will be more “true.
Photo challenge day 19: Equal 📷
From one of the stops during yesterday’s work in the archipelago. Silverpilen = Silver arrow. 📷
I’m dragging my feet when it comes to writing this post. Or rather, publishing it. Not because I find it embarrassing (well, okay, maybe a little). But mostly because I’ve touched on this topic so many times before that it’s starting to feel boringly repetitive. If you’ve followed my blogging for a while, you already know what it’s about: my ambivalence about blogging. On one hand, I love blogging. On the other hand, I never quite seem to figure out how I want to do it.
Photo challenge day 18: Texture 📷
Today I spent the whole day working in the Swedish archipelago. A colleague and I traveled around by water taxi, visiting several fantastic islands of varying sizes. On days like this, it almost feels wrong to call it work. It feels more like a vacation. Beautiful weather, open water, stunning nature, and places that seem straight out of a fairytale. Of course, not every workday looks like this. There are only a handful like these each year, but I’m just as grateful every time.
Photo challenge day 17: Warmth 📷
Jumped on the Google tram, but before I reached my destination, the AI voice announces: “Service canceled.”
One ongoing project for this new home of my blog is to move content over from my old platform—like I just did with the BlogBuddy shortcut. There’s quite a bit to go through, so it’ll probably take a while. I plan to bring over one or two posts every now and then; otherwise, it starts to feel unmanageable. This principle often applies to life in general. Some tasks feel overwhelming when we focus too much on the big picture.
Photo challenge day 16: Blur 📷
I recently read the autobiography of one of Sweden’s most well-known actors, Mikael Persbrandt. Among other things, he talks about his deep interest in cars and motorcycles, and how he finds something meditative in tinkering with them. It’s his greatest passion in life, and he mentions that he believes having a hobby is important. I agree. Even if we have a job we love or think, “my work is my hobby,” I still believe it’s important to unwind with something entirely different.
Just trying something with the beautiful Micro Social app 📷
Photo challenge day 15: TIE 📷
Photo challenge day 14: Twilight 📷
There are many reasons why I love my job. One of them is all the amazing places I get to visit. I make up to seven customer visits a day, so that’s a lot of places – places I never would have set foot in if not for my job. Yesterday, I spent the entire day out in beautiful Värmdö. During lunch, I visited one of my favorite cafés there: Stavsnäs Hembageri.
You probably recognize the inspiration behind the title. Even though Voltaire coined the phrase, most people likely associate it with Spider-Man: With great power comes great responsibility. That quote came to mind as I was thinking about my new choice of platform for this blog. Micro.blog offers many useful and convenient features: photo albums, a book tracker, sharing bookmarks, a natural way to post status updates, and more…
I started the weekend with a visit to a burger joint in my neighborhood. I took a seat on the outdoor patio, feeling grateful that this time of year finally has arrived here in Sweden. It was almost full. When a group of friends couldn’t find a table, I offered them to sit at mine. Since I was alone, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. One of them told his friends he wasn’t feeling great.