2022: A year in review – part 1

Not sure why, but having covid seems to just bring out the conjunctions in me. Yes, another bout of covid, and I’m bounding out the adjectives and stringing sentences together in the form of… A BLOG POST. My third one for 2022. ON. A. ROLL.

I bookended 2022 with the spicy cough, having had covid in January and December, with the December version being the most vicious. It has been a slow recovery, and the bad news for you is that I am now way well enough to type.

The world’s most lazy blogger now wants to blog her 2022 highlights – to preserve our memories and to give me something to read the next time I am bedridden.

It’s the highlights reel for sure, full of fantastic fun. We’ve had fights, fury, and final farewells to loved ones. We’ve lived in an unheated, messy home and had our share of worries, like the state of the world and the lunatics who are running it; we’ve loved work, we’re had work that sucks the will to live out of you, we’ve worked hard.

We’ve had it all, but I’ve saved the best bits just for you. Why not kick off a brand new year, with a long post about the year before. Welcome on board the 2022 Train of Reflection.

FEBRUARY

The poor Swede spent February and March recovering from Covid, so I was team lead for the most part. School, activities, the show goes on, but we survived with thanks to neighbours and friends helping out.

For the winter school ‘sports’ break, we decided to drive up north to visit grandpa and grandma and to do some cross-country skiing. Puppy in-toe and with Corona boy driving, we decided to cough up the cash and break up the 10-hour drive with stops halfway along. Best decision we made.

On the way up, we stayed at a pet-friendly AirBnB, Myskje Gård Gästgiveri, a hobby farm that also offered a five-course dining experience. Yumi met her twin cat; we jumped in the jacuzzi, enjoyed the food and in the morning, helped out around the grounds. We loved it!

MARCH

After a great week with the grandparents learning how to ski, we headed towards Stockholm, this time staying in a boathouse in Mellanfjärden. We loved it there, so charming and close to nature. There was even a local store based on the currency of goodwill – just take what you need and leave some money. (We even stayed here again later in December.)

Marigold turned 8! Where did my baby go? She stills loves Pigga who is alive, and she cracks us up with her one-liners. Later, the Swede, puppy and I had a weekend away as we celebrated a family 70th. Yumi stayed in her first hotel and was literally given a doggy bag, of course, she joined us for drinks in the lobby.

APRIL

Open house at the girls’ Waldorf/Steiner school, and signs of spring arrived just in time. We celebrated the Swede’s birthday with a trip to visit our family in Malmö, and were gifted a night out together by Tina Sparkles.

Whilst down in the south of Sweden thawing out a little in the sunshine, we grabbed the gang and headed out to a country house in Österlen to rejoice and rejuvenate for Easter. We loved it there, so peaceful, another great pet-friendly AirBnB, with the owner offering this sage advice as we were driving up the driveway, “you might want to keep the puppy on the leash, the house is on the edge of a wolf reserve”. DIDN’T MENTION THAT IN THE BnB WRITE UP.

More to come.

Perhaps.