Today we are chatting about how to keep our spirits and energy up! Plus housekeeping dos and don’ts. What will you prioritise… Health and exercise or cleaning? Plus an update on the new Danish Lockdown, a new Christmas tree tradition for 2020 and last, but not least, a look at our Saint Lucy tradition on the bathing bridge!
Happy Friday! A quick check-in from dark, wet and windy Copenhagen with some recent outfits and seaswim photos!
And in skinnydipping-seaswimming news, the sea temp is currently 9c/48f, air temperature has been lower (today was around 4c/39f)…
If you’re looking for a capsule wardrobe system, I can thoroughly recommend the Dressing Your Truth system (there is a free course on the website). Your best colours and styles are determined by your facial features/inner energy (my primary energy type is 1 with a secondary energy of 4). It has been lifechanging for me and makes getting dressed so easy! (I’ve made several YouTube videos about my wardrobe, see below.) I use the Flylady system to keep me organised and my daily routine includes choosing my outfit a day in advance (I check my diary/weather forecast to see what’s ahead). I hang my outfit on a hook on the back of our bedroom door and am ready to go the moment my feet hit the floor the next morning. I love having a morning routine which sets me up for a good day!
Have a fabulous Friday! Keep wrapped up and warm out there!
Let’s chat across the kitchen table! The most popular Danish baby names, a new winter exercise challenge for 2020 and my shiny sink ritual – my teatowels and handtowels (where I get them, how I use them)! Grab a load of laundry to fold or clear out an office drawer and let’s chat!
LLAP! May the Danish hygge be with you! Hugs!
Diane
If you’re interested in winterswimming and winterbathing, see my Health and Exercise playlist!
Happy Sunday! Schools were closed this week for the autumn break so it’s been rather quiet in these parts. Had some lovely sea swims with my Besties (start of the week was mild and sunny, by midweek it was blowing a gale and we needed our fluffy socks) and the sea temperature is now 10c/50f. And hubby and I spent a couple of wonderful days at our Swedish cabin. All in all a great week!
Red and pink cosy sweaterWearing my Granny’s crystals for some good energyHaving a little fun making an Instagram video in Flylady Zone 3Our Swedish neighbours cat, who always spends time with us at our cabinHubby on the jettyBy the sea, my happy placeDon’t be fooled by the sun, air temperature was just above freezingThe Oresund bridge connecting Denmark and SwedenSun is shining!Hold on to your hats…another blustery day by the sea!Love my best friends!
If you’re looking for a capsule wardrobe system, I can thoroughly recommend the Dressing Your Truth system (there is a free course on the website). Your best colours and styles are determined by your facial features/inner energy (my primary energy type is 1 with a secondary energy of 4). It has been lifechanging for me and makes getting dressed so easy! (I’ve made several YouTube videos about my wardrobe, see below.) I use the Flylady system to keep me organised and my daily routine includes choosing my outfit a day in advance (I check my diary/weather forecast to see what’s ahead). I hang my outfit on a hook on the back of our bedroom door and am ready to go the moment my feet hit the floor the next morning. I love having a morning routine which sets me up for a good day!
🎂🖐🇩🇰 Today is my 53rd birthday, woo hoo! As is the Danish tradition, my family woke me up – singing the traditional birthday songs in English and Danish- and brought me my morning coffee… 🇩🇰🎉☕🎤🎶
🚲🏊♀️ Then I showered and dressed to shoes (aqua jumpsuit and gold sandals/jewelry) and headed out on my bike for a birthday breakfast swim with my Besties, Helene and Vibeke. We swim all year round (we are vinterbadere) and have been celebrating our birthdays with a breakfast swim for the past 8 years 🎂🎂🎂 Helene and Vibeke have their birthdays in February, so usually there’s snow or ice then and we eat the birthday breakfast in the changing room at the bathing club. But for mine, we can usually eat outside in the sunshine and today was no exception. The temperature today was scorching by Danish standards…sea 21c/69f and air 27c/80f. And the heat is still rising this afternoon! ☀️☀️☀️ In Denmark they say that the weather is dependent on your behaviour during the past year…so I have obviously been a very good girl indeed! LOL!
We always swim in our “birthday suits” (yes, we are vinterbadere) and today I wore the “Birthday Hat” (and only the birthday hat…) when swimming, as is our tradition 👒 Afterwards we feasted on fresh rolls (with butter, jam, honey and cheese), a wienerstang (long log of Danish pastry) and lots of tea. Cheers! Velbekomme!
Calm sea today
Cycled back home again to finish my Morning Routine (Flylady Routines keep me rolling along on the High days and holidays) and to open more gifts 🎁🎁🎁 Hubby bought me a beautiful bouquet of roses and knows me so well: I prefer pink roses to red 😊💝
And one of my gifts was a new tea cup! “Yarp”! Love it! Those of you who know my fascination with the movie Hot Fuzz will appreciate the immense pleasure I’m going to have all this year, if people ask my age, of being able to say, “I’m actually 53”! 😅
Time for a birthday nap! 😄💤 More of my birthday celebrations coming up in Part Two! 🖐🥂🎁🥳🎂☀️👒
LLAP! May the Danish birthday hygge be with you! Hugs! Diane
If you want to know more about celebrating birthdays in Denmark, here’s an old video of mine… 🎁🎂🇩🇰
Lots of great questions from you this week on YouTube and Instagram. Are you living in survival mode – how do we change that? What time I wake/go to bed. Winterbathing with my family. How to use the Flylady system with your partner or kids. Plus the Christmas ornament mystery is solved! Grab a cup of coffee or water and let’s chat!
The Big Day is finally here! Let’s start with our lunch, which was fairly light – sild (marinated herring) and æggesalat (egg mayo)…
and varmt leverpostej med bacon og champignon (hot liver pâté with bacon and mushrooms). Washed down with julebryg!
After lunch we went to church. Or at least we tried to. Because when we got there, about 15 minutes before the third service of the day was to start – you guessed it! – there was no room left at the inn! 😉 The church had brought in extra seats but, alas, by that time it was standing room only… Which wasn’t really an option for my DSM79 (Dear Scottish Mum, aged 79). Yep, that old chestnut about those crazy Danes never going to church except for the 24 December is truly alive and well! 🙂
So we came home and watched a church service on the telly. And then, after changing into our gladrags, it was suddenly 6pm and time to start dinner – consisting of duck with prunes and apple, red cabbage, caramelised potatoes and boiled potatoes, gravy and hot salted crisps.
After dinner we danced round the Christmas tree. Very carefully. Lots of pressies under there, you see!
And then the kids started picking out gifts for us to open, one by one…
It took us – with short breaks for drinks and konfekt (homemade sweets) – about 2 hours! And then it was off to bed after a lovely long day…to wake up to a beautiful white blanket of snow on the morning of 25 December!
Welcome to my My Danish Christmas Advent Calendar! Join me every day in opening a new door. Once again, I’ve got a host of goodies to share with you – traditional Danish Christmas recipes, traditions, songs, games, decorations, crafts and landscapes… So sit back, relax and enjoy!
12 DECEMBER
Just when the Danes are in the middle of stuffing themselves with æbleskiverand quaffing great quanties of snaps,julebrygand gløgg, they seem to stop for a moment mid-December and forget about Christmas for a few days (or at least a few evenings) and everyone is glued to the telly. Why? Um, because the European Women’s Handball Championship is taking place right now. And the Danes are c.r.a.z.y. about handball. Not really surprising as the modern rules were made up by a Dane (a teacher at our local school) way back in 1898, and the Danes just seem to be very good at it. Yep, interest here in Women’s handball is only surpassed by their interest in men’s handball – when the nation will once again be glued to their tellys in January.
Me? Not a handball fan. I get my kicks (as regular readers will know) from vinterbadning. Winterbathing, skinny dipping in the Danish sea all year round! 🙂 Here’s a photo from this morning, about 8.15am, just as it was beginning to get light.
And here we are, after our second swim…sorry about the quality, but as well as being very blustery it was also raining heavily! 😛
Here’s a better photo I took last week of the Christmas tree. Just hope it doesn’t blow away in tonight’s storm “Alexander”!
The water has been really quite ‘warm’ so far this year – no sign of any snow or ice yet. But to give you an idea of how extreme it can get, here’s a picture from when we were out swimming last January. Note the snow and icicles on the steps… You don’t have to be mad to be a winterbather but it helps! 😉
Keep yourselves warm, batten down the hatches for tonight’s storm and don’t forget to check back here tomorrow when we open the next door!
Unless you’ve been hiding underneath a(n exceedingly) large rock for the last week, you won’t have escaped the worldwide media coverage of the Scottish referendum on Independence. And if you’re a regular reader, it won’t have escaped your notice that I’m from Scotland 🙂
“Oh, you’re Scottish?!”, exclaim the Danes. Before launching into, “I studied there!/We’ve toured around the highlands!” Or, “It looks so beautiful!/We would so love to go there!” (On a sidenote: when I worked in Luxembourg in the 1990s, the first comment I always got from Frenchmen was, “Oh là là – the film – Braveheart!”)
Males Danes will then often make a joke about kilts.
Then straight after that comes the classic, “Well, hey, you must drink a lot of whisky!” To be honest with you, I can’t stand the stuff… Give me a g+t!
And then there’s the really weird stuff. Like when people start serenading me with that “classic” (and I used that in the loosest sense of the word…) Shubidua song “McArine” about the mean canny Scots who brews his own whisky… Cover your ears and run for the hills! 😛
But back to the referendum. Scotland said No (or “Naw”) to Independence. Why? Well, you know, some things are just better together. Like skinny dipping (vinterbadning) in the Danish sea. Here’s a selfie from this morning with my two bffs – my tartan scarf kept us nice and cosy! (Sea temperature was actually quite warm today, 16c/60f.)
And what did we have along with our cuppa (in addition to the usual cheeky banter) after our skinny dip? Scottie dog shortbread biscuits. Yep, got to love Scotland. Land o’ (yummy) Cakes!
Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend. Together!
What a difference a month makes… Spring officially started here in Denmark on Saturday (1 March) and, though we’ve still got the odd night of frost, the erantis (Week Seven. Sea or sun?) are out in full force and things are definitely beginning to look up! To give you an example… Here’s a photo I took of my sweetie-skinny-dipping-buddy V just four weeks ago (6 February). Freezing fog and ice on the bathing steps. Yep, you don’t have to be mad to be a winterbather, but we find that it helps… 😉
And here’s me this morning. The sun was out – hooray, hooray – and we had an air temp of 4c (39.2f). Okay, okay, so the water is still a tad on the chilly side – about 3c (37.4f). But we’re not complaining. In fact, the sea was so beautiful and clear this morning that we just had to swim twice!
And there’s more good news ‘cos apparently the Danish weather gods are going to give us a beautiful, Danish spring weekend with sun, sun, sun and temperatures up to 13c (55.4f). Time to head for the beach!
I don’t know what we’ve done to appease the Danish Weather Gods this year but – holy mackerel, Batman – we’ ve had the mildest winter since I arrived in Denmark 16 years ago!
Normally we have the first snowflakes in November. Hats, coats, gloves and thermal undwear are de rigueur through December, January and February. And, come March, we can be thoroughly sick of the white stuff, yearning for spring. Because a) it’s constantly c-c-c-cold and b) getting from A to B is a constant chore. Yep, even the short journey from home to school can involve hot chocolate and a sledge… 😉
But this winter has been ridiculously mild. Average daily temperatures of 6c (42f). Lots of rain. And long, dull, dark (and therefore pretty dreary) days.
But today the calendar says Monday 13 January. The first day we’ve awoken to a real, old-fashioned, woah-it’s-ch-ch-ch-chilly-out-there morning and a very hard frost on the ground.
And this afternoon we had our first big, beautiful snowflakes!
But, if – like me – you’re a winterbather, here’s a little word of warning. Watch your step! Here’s a video I made last week (that’s me in the green bathrobe). The noise you can hear? No, it’s not bad audio. It’s the howling wind 😛
Now, add to the above scene an air temperature of -4c (25f) with a windchill of -10c (14f) and – wow – this morning we had extreme winter bathing conditions. We ran down to the water’s edge, bathrobes flapping. Wearing gloves, hats and with extra towels around our necks – my sweetie friend H even had a fleece blanket wrapped around her waist! There was ice on the steps of the bathing bridge and on the handrail. Very slippery stuff! And your bathrobe and shoes are in real danger of flying away in those high winds. So make sure to take it in turns to swim/hold each other’s gear…
Here’a a photo I took of our bathing bridge in March last year. There was so much ice on the bridge that we had to walk into the sea from the edge… Yep, you don’t have to be mad to be a winterbather, but it helps!
Have a marvelous wintry Monday and let’s keep warm out there!
The Danes just love the saying, “Der findes intet der hedder dårligt vejr, kun dårligt påklædning!” (“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing!” – Alfred Wainright) And we have more than our fair share of the wet stuff around these parts… So a couple of weeks back, at the sprightly age of 46, I found myself investing in my first ever set of adult waterproofs. This morning the heavens opened (again, again, again) so I took them out for an intensive test drive!
Don't forget your waterproofs!
And where was I headed to in the pouring rain? Why, the beach selvfølgelig! To go skinny dipping in the cold Danish sea! Though, truth be told, the sea water felt warmer than the rain this morning: water temp 11c/51f and air temp 12c/53f. Now, you’ll remember from my Winterbathing Guidethat you also need to be suitably attired for skinny dipping. Here’s my sweetie friend H with her three essential items: bathrobe, brolly and wellies. Yep, there’s no such thing as bad weather…
