What a wonderful world .... En så'n underbar värld ....

IT IS a wonderful world: Mountains, water, rivers, lakes, creeks, the sound of bubbling water, waves, boats,  trees, flowers, yes, roses, sunrises, sunsets, the wind in your hair on a beautiful summer day, ice cream, apple pie, cake, cookies, chocolate, pasta, potatoes, bananas, carrots, love, love and love, colors, cars, bicycles, airplanes, language, music, guitars, clothes, and more .... and more ...

... and what would we be without all of the above?

In Swedish/På Svenska:

DET ÄR en underbar värld:: Berg, vatten, floder, sjöar, bäckar, ljudet av porlande vatten, vågor, båtar, träd, blommor, ja, rosor, soluppgångar, solnedgångar, vinden i ditt hår en vacker sommardag, glass, äpplepaj, tårta, kakor, choklad, pasta, potatis, bananer, morötter, kärlek, kärlek och mer kärlek, färger, bilar, cyklar, flygplan, språk, musik, gitarrer, kläder och mer ....och mer ...

... och vad skulle vi vara utan allt ovanför?

The Move - Flytten

Moving from Chattanooga to Nashville may not be a big step in a physical sense since I moved from Sweden, Europe to Chattanooga, TN, USA not too  many years ago. Nashville is a much larger city though. Let me put things into perspective: Chattanooga metro has 520,000+ residents and Nashville metro has 1,700,000+ (source: Wikipedia). A pretty big step for someone that lived in a rural area in Sweden where the population in the county is about 9,600.

I do like the conveniences of living in a big city: there are so many stores at almost a stone's throw's distance and the largest ones are open 24/7 and if you don't "feel like" cooking dinner, there are dozens and dozens of restaurants - fast food and others - to choose from very close by. Tonight we ate at a Pizza Hut only a few minutes from where we live. Now, to be fair, in Sweden, something there is not a lack of  are pizzerias. Every small village has at least one. No Pizza Huts though, only in the major cities. Hmm, how come I started writing about food again ...

Anyway, we have found our closest grocery stores and some of our favorite fast food places, unpacked almost all of our boxes, hung pretty much most of our pictures and bought a few new things to decorate or new home, so ... life is good. Thank You God.

In Swedish/på Svenska:
Att flytta från Chattanooga till Nashville kanske inte är ett stort steg på det fysiska planet eftersom jag flyttade från Sverige, Europa till Chattanooga, TN, USA för inte så länge sedan. Nashville är dock en mycket större stad. Tillåt mig försöka sätta saken i perspektiv: Stor-Chattanooga har 520 000+ invånare och Stor-Nashville har 1 700 000+ (källa: Wikipedia). Ett ganska stort steg för någon som bodde på landsbygden i Sverige i en kommun där invånarantalet är omkring 9 600.

Jag gillar verkligen bekvämligheten av att bo i en storstad: det finns så många matvaruaffärer i stort sett bara ett stenkast bort och de största är öppna dygnet runt. Om du inte "känner för" att laga kvällsmat så ligger det dussintals och åter dussintals restauranger - snabbmatsställen och andra - att välja mellan i närheten. Ikväll åt vi på Pizza Hut bara några minuters bilväg från där vi bor. För rättvisans skull så måste jag säga att en sak som Sverige inte lider brist på är pizzerior. Varje liten by har åtmonstone en. Inga Pizza Hut-ställen dock, bara i de största städerna. Hmmm, hur kan det komma sig att jag började skriva om mat igen ...

I alla fall, vi har hittat de matvaruaffärer som ligger närmast oss och en del av våra favoritsnabbmatsställen, packat upp nästan alla våra lådor, hängt upp i stort sett alla våra tavlor och bilder och köpt lite nya saker att dekorera vårt nya hem med så .... livet är gött. Tack Gud.

 All packed and ready to go ... Packat och klart för avfärd ...

There we go ... sådärja ...

In our new home ... I vårt nya hem

 A good investment (assembled it myself - born and raised in IKEA country as I am). We will probably hang the guitars on the wall.

En god investering (monterade den själv - född och uppvuxen i IKEA-land som jag är). Vi kommer förmodligen att hänga upp gitarrerna på väggen.

Working on my Chattanooga Bucket List

Nashville is calling and Chase and I will be living there from the first week of September, so we are working on experiencing things in Chattanooga before we leave. Last year we went to Lake Winnepesaukah http://www.lakewinnie.com/ and had a real great time, so we have that done already.
Two weeks ago, Aretha Frankenstein's http://www.arethas.com/ (GREAT pancake place!) was the destination and it was certainly living up to our expactations.
Our latest adventure was to go to Rock City. What an amazing and magical journey! A visual surprise was waiting around every corner. The beautiful views were breath taking. Time and money well spent.
http://seerockcity.com/

Lookout Mountain

The cliff The Lover's Leap ...

Suggestion: wear comfy shoes and watch your step

Happy explorer

Simply wow

View from the cafe over Seven States Flag Court

One tired hiker (no, just posing for the "dramatics")

... and the rest is downhill.

Favorite places to eat at in Chattanooga Part I

Souper Salad off of Gunbarrel Road. They are located at the same plaza as Best Buy and Hobby Lobby  .... http://www.soupersalad.com/. They have a great salad bar with everything imaginable. Not to mention their pasta salads ... especially their Fettuccine Pasta Salad ...  heaven for a pasta connoisseur like yours truly :-)  Soup, baked potatoes, tacos and pizza available as well. And all kinds of desserts. I'd do best to stay away from the latter though ... What I wonder now is why in the world I would write about eating and food when it was over five hours since I last ate ... sigh ... better bite the bullet and ... go to bed and forget about it. Dream about food? Who? Me? :-)

An enjoyable hobby

Some of my hobbies are to grow things, to enjoy life ... and food. Preferably vegetarian. I do eat dairy products and eggs and if it is absolutely necessary and nothing else is available I'll have chicken or fish.

Anyway, one way I enjoy food is looking at it, so why not capture the moments in pictures:

A home grown green bell pepper that soon becomes an ingredient in ...

... salads that my husband and I made. He prefers French dressing and I Ranch or Vinaigrette dressing. We got a little creative and put peach slices and strawberries in the salads this time. Delicious!

This made my day

I can't help it. I have to post a music video by one of my favorite contemporary country artists Brad Paisley.

It was while researching the nominees for the Music Row Awards and who to vote for that I came across it. Since I want to be fair I watched and listened to all the nominated songs on youtube before voting. Much to my happy surprise I saw that Mr. Paisley was running around in Stockholm Old Town in almost all of the video! yeeaay!

Now he can say that he has walked where I have walked ....



 PS. I did vote for this song, not for the Stockholm views but for the message in the song about broadening one's horizon.

Spring in the air/Vår i luften

  

Spring is in the air

 Here in Chattonooga they are saying that it has been the coldest spring since they don’t know when … main thing is that that it IS spring, and that everything is starting to burst with life: flowers are starting to bloom, the leaves on the trees are about to bud and birds are singing and nesting. Chase and I saw a bird that dropped a long straw of dry grass today, but Chase put it where the bird could pull it to the nest-to-be. A little later on the straw was gone, so I guess the bird made use of it after all.


The pear trees are blooming now and they are very pretty:

　

　

In Swedish/på Svenska:

Det är vår i luften

Här i Chattanooga säger de att det har varit den kallaste våren i mannaminne … huvudsaken är dock att det ÄR vår, och att allting börjar sjuda av liv: blommorna börjar att blomma, löven på träden spricker ut och fåglarna sjunger och bygger bon. Chase och jag såg en fågel som tappade ett långt grässtrå idag, men Chase lade upp det där fågeln kunde dra det till det blivande nästet. Något senare så var strået borta, så jag förmodar att det kom fågeln till nytta i alla fall.

 

Prydnadspäronträden blommar nu och de är väldigt vackra (se bild ovan).