ArneNews
 Older stuff    5 April - 31 July 2004

Welcome to our new website: www.larsen-twins.dk

2004
email: ar.larsen@get2net.dk

Dear friends

The 'News' page became so bulky that I had to park some of the older stuff on this extra page. 
 
 

31 July - High Summer

We had a lovely holiday week. Managed to do a lot of  paint work on the house when the weather was grey. The many full sunshine days were then spent on picnics combined with butterfly collecting and general sight seeing. A nice combination.

The tourists are flooding the island during summer and therefore we also see the road stalls mushrooming now. There are also many more fruits and vegetables to sell during summer of course. The strawberry season is nearly over but now we get a special sweet kind of cherries instead ('morel'). 

Here, Bent is selecting fresh cucumbers and potatoes from a cute road stall we found just a few kilometers from our home. We liked the cute design of the stall so we stopped to buy some stuff there. And get the photo into the archives of  course.

Bent checking out veggies at a local road stall

21 July - Birthday

The twins held their birthday. Perfect mix of work and party. Bent had the day off, so we got up early and painted about 25 % of the house woodwork. We are changing colour from dark brown to light grey, so it needs a few extra coatings to cover properly. Then preparations for a light party in the evening. Only the nearest family, as most of our friends are still on the way back from camping leave in southeast Europe. They called in on the cellphones from Timbuctu and congratulated of course. A nice day.
 

18 July - Annual bicycle tour

Our street arranges an annual bicycle tour to a summer cottage at the coast to make a braai, sun-tan, play badminton and football or just relax and gossip with good friends. The weather was good and we had a super day. Bent and I drove the supply-car with cool-boxes, coffee, lollies, etc. Pit stops were planned, 3 on the way out and 2 on the way back. It was mid-summer with flowers and green stuff all over.

Morning start from the street 'square'. 
10 fresh bikers ranging from 8-years to 75-years!
After a nice stay at the summer cottage with ample supplies of food followed by the traditional coffe table it was time to return to town. A few of the tired ones got a lift with a bakkie but the remaining struggled bravely on. They were so fast that we could hardly keep up with them in the supply-car! 

All Danish families have cars but we also have more bicycles than any other country - maybe apart from Holland. Denmark is really a bicycle country, flat and beautiful country with short distances to cover. 

Refuelling at the 5th Pit-stop on the way back 

2 July   A rainy leave period

This is the last day of Bent's unusually early summer leave. 3 weeks of frequent rains, but it seems a bit better today. We used the opportunity whenever there were a few hours of sunshine to take short trips to the beach or forests. We have plenty of that here. We packed a few beer and sandwiches and took off immediately the  weather was good. The weather has affected the leave periods for many others as well - many Danes have cancelled their leave in Denmark and booked charter tours to sunny countries. Charter tourism reports an increase of 25 % in overseas travels.
 

24 June  - Yesterday was Midsummer's Eve (St. Hans)

Yesterday was midsummer's eve - the longest day in the year - from now on the daylength will decline again. As usual the weather was quite awful many places, rain most of the day but it just cleared up in some other areas so they could light up all the fires. The entire country prepares huge fires and gather around these fires on that very evening. They burn a man-size figure of a witch (woman-size actually) - "sending her to Bloksbjerg" - which is an area far away in Germany. Singing and having a glass of wine or a beer. 
 
16 June  - Strawberries
The season for strawberries has now begun on my island - Fyn (Funen)
During the next 5-6 weeks Denmark expects a total harvest of 5-6 million kg of strawberries from 6-700 hectares. 

The quality is very good this year due to the many hours of sunshine in May-June that increase the sugar content and improve the taste.

The picking of strawberries is just for a short season and has therefore always been done by teenagers who earn pocket money during the summer leave. For some years it was getting more difficult to get Danes to take on this job but nowadays it is done by backpackers who come from all over Europe and have a few weeks leave in Denmark at the same time.

7 June

Another nice day. We have moved many of the cooler orchids out of the greenhouse so they can camp all summer outdoors. We also hung up yellow and blue pest strips in the grenhouse. We had the opportunity to get cheap strips and wanted to test them out. So now there is a lot of blue and yellow strips with a nasty glue on them to catch thrips and what have you.

On Saturday we have a grill-party in our little street - only 6 houses. All inhabitants have been delegated tasks - some write the songs, some bring flowers, some bring the grills and charcoal, etc. I think it will be a nice evening. The weather looks promising all week - otherwise we will do the braai in a garage.
 
 

31 May  - warm days 

We have had a warm period the last few days, sunshine from morning to evening and not too much wind - perfect weather for the little Pentecost holiday. Many Danes went camping as this leave is usually the earliest with acceptable temperatures. 

We senior citizens watered the orchids instead - lime-washed the greenhouse - and then went on a picnic to a nearby forest looking for butterflies. 

The afternoon was spent dozing around the barbeque waiting for the meat to roast. We like sun-tanning there in good weather. As you can see, Bent has got quite a tan already!

30 May - Bent is lime-washing the greenhouse to reduce the temperature and light
The forests are nice now. Fresh green with an earthy and herb flavour.

We went to a familiar spot where we have been visiting for more than 30 years. They have started some nature-regeneration so it gets better year by year. And the fauna and flora changes. Back to normal maybe.

This is the relatively rare butterfly species - aquilonaris - only found in a few bogs where the right fodder plant grows.Years ago we thought it was near extinction on our island until we started looking actively for it. On the contrary - it was everywhere we looked for it in large numbers. 

30 May - aquilonaris, a rare butterfly found in a few Danish bogs
Actually I begin to miss a decent rain. Just for a day or two. We often get a little drought period in May or June which negatively affects the grass and gardens.

20 May - Ascension day

It is a Public Holiday - again. May has surely got its share of Public holidays. And it is Pentecost at the end of the month. Pentecost is not celebrated in many countries, so for once we Danes have the famous 'comparative advantage'.

It is quite sunny today but the winds blows 7 pelicans as the saying goes. Is that 7 pelicans per hour? Anyway it is far too windy to make barbeque on the terrace. Everything will blow away. So we stay indoors or in the greenhouse.

The 'proprietor' (bro Bent) is busy in the green house cleaning up the orchids - he is expecting a brief visit by the local housewives organisation ! - they wanted to pop in and see his orchid greenhouse - it is the talk of the town to have anything so exotic around. A few years ago it was his turn to have the Orchid club members visiting. Neighbours still talk about the day when the entire sub-urb was blocked with all the parked cars! I mean, nothing much happens here.
 

DVD is the future?
We have just updated our antique 'multimedia systems'. We have never had a video - thought it was a strange thing to gallop down in the shop and rent a tape and later getting fines for delivering them too late back again. The other day we realised that DVD players have fallen in prices and are sold in every supermarket for next to nothing. So we put one in the shopping basket. And bought a few DVDs. It was quite a success, maybe because it looks to much more like the CD-ROM technology I am used to. We still don't want rubbish but just to make a small collection of high quality DVDs for rainy days. Such as 'Riverdance' for instance. Or the Chieftains 'live from the pub' or what it was called.
 

14 May - Royal wedding day

So, today is the big day. Many Danes gather in the streets of Copenhagen to enjoy the royal wedding (see below). Farmers have donated a humongous breakfast free for all participants. We are also many who look forward to the day as we may get our radio and TV back again for other communication purposes, hi.
 
Brother Bent brought home two hugetomato plants yesterday - in pots! Flowering and setting fruits already, very smart. We will dig them in along the greenhouse and then pick fresh tomatoes all summer - each plants is expected to yield 3-400 tomatoes.

Usually, Danes buy seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers in garden stalls and plant them out at this time of the year in their many tiny greenhouses. We just made a shortcut instead.

Spring is over us and gardening is the main spare time activity for now. We have sown most of the herbs by now and planted out a number of staked flowers as well. We rescued some Asparagus tubers from under the fence and planted them out in the garden itself. Too late for this year, but they will grow big for next year. yummi. 

New tomato plants in pots!

I am still busy scanning new versions of all orchid photos, now 75 % finished. I still optimize the pages for 800 x 600 pixel resolution because many of my colleagues still use this old format on their monitors. Maybe it is time to update to higher resolutions ?? What do you think out there - are the images too small for you ??

6 May - tomorrow is Prayers' Friday

Tomorrow is a Public Holiday in Denmark: Prayers' Friday. I haven't ever seen a correct translation of this day's name. It is always the 4th Friday after Easter. I looked it up to inform my esteemed readers. I thought everybody had such a day, but it may only be a Danish holiday. It was invented around 1680-90 as the most important day out of a series of prayers' days. The day was already then similar to a Public Holiday and bakers, for instance, were not allowed to bake on that special day. That led to a tradition of serving a special kind of white bread for that day - 'hveder'. That is impossible to translate but it is some dry bread that can last for some time and isn't that popular anyway. But people like that there is a tradition.

30 April    Spring time

Sorry for not writing lately. I was so busy day and night scanning orchid photos and making new versions of the orchid pages - I am still doing it, will be for some weeks before it is over. I re-scan the many hundred photos at a higher resolution and then set them up as web-pages with the lovely Photothumb program. 

It has been such a good weather period - spring has begun. Whenever there is a free sunny period, Bent and I sun-tan for hours on the terrace with a P35 (ham radio slang for beer) - just like the porching we invented at Ogongo College in Namibia. Apart from that we still have to maintain the garden of course. Temperatures have come up and everything needs attending to, especially weeds of course. All neighbours are out gardening for hours as well, and we get a chance to talk to neighbours we haven't seen during the winter in-doors season. Most people are in spring mood and sociable. 

Gardening
I like gardening but gave it up in Namibia's desert because it was too difficult and expensive in water. I have now sown some spice herbs and also got more interesting herbs from one of our neighbours. Some garden stuff is not easily sown, it is better to get cuttings from some who already grow them. Or buy them in the garden centers. In modern life it is actually cheaper and easier to buy the foods we like in the supermarket but still it is very nice to grow your own. However, it is plain silly to grow your own potatoes and other bulk crops in Denmark. So I try to be rational and sow only things that you need very fresh or cannot get in the shops. That makes a funny list:
 

Smart garden stuff that we really need 
The no-no list
  • Herbs: Dill, Parsley, Spring onions, Chervil, Rosemary, Basil - you name it, we want it.
  • Radish (sown every 1-2 weeks)
  • Tomato (two plants are enough)
  • Bushbeans (you can't buy them anywhere)
  • Strawberry (traditional crop for my island)
  • Asparagus (nice, traditional, difficult)
  • Horse radish (hot type- we need only one plant)
  • Green Peas (grows well but a lot of work to peel)
    		•
    • Garlic (too much work and it is cheap in the shops)
    • Potatoes (too much work and cheap in shops)
    • Cabbage (forget it, we use one per month)
    • Carrot (cheap in shops)
    • Onion (cheap in shops)
    • Any bulk crop (easier to find in a shop)

    22 April -New Web page

    Last night I activated my new domain: www.larsen-twins.dk  I will then copy all files over on a web-hotel size 100 Mbytes. It will take some time before all files are over and all links activated again. You can use the same email addresses as usual.
     

    There was some Danish flag confusion today because two traditions collided. People asked advice on what to do. It was 9 April where the German attack on Denmark 9 April 1940 is commemorated with flying the flag at half mast until noon and then flying it at full mast the rest of the day. (Just like a funeral). This, however, conflicted with Good Friday which is the only day of the year where the Danish flag should be at half mast for the entire day. So the rules decide that religious flag-days override all other flag-days. I like my flag 'Dannebrog' so I use the chance to fly it here again - I only have it in a full mast version.
     

    5 April

    The weather changed to overcast with light rain. The garden likes it but we others stay indoors. I have started another rainy-day activity. Mammoth scanning of an old collection of orchid slides. It takes forever and a day but now I have finally scanned 320 slides. I use the HP Photosmart S20 which can scan mounted slides but still I occasionally get a major crash whereby Windows changes settings and everything goes hay-wire. Especially if I try to push the slide in too fast. Gosh, it is boring to sit and stuff so many slides into a scanner one-by-one.

    This slides collection was bought for a song from an attic somewhere on our island. No-one knows who originally made them but it must have taken a lifetime to grow these orchids (Paphiopedilums) and painstakingly make slides of all the species. According to the legend there are only four Danes who could ever have made it, so we are still investigating the case.

    The shops are building up to the Easter shopping now so the pile of adverts stuffing the mailbox is increasing rapidly. They would soon fill up the garbage bin so we stack it in separate boxes which we regularly drop at the re-cycling plant in town. Easter starts for most Danes on Thursday which is also a Holiday here! It is traditionally a start of the gardening season and most people would use the free days for gardening (if the weather is good). 

    The adverts are therefore full of garden equipment, seeds and other stuff you may need for the season. And lots of food and drinks of course. Buy - buy - buy, this is the land of plenty.We received a lot of adverts from the specialised German shops just south of our border. They specialise in bulk sale to ordinary Danes.  Prices are lower there because of lower VAT and generally lower prices. Many Danes have bought a trailer for the car just for mega-shopping across the border. So many people often drive to Germany and buy Danish beer on sale! In truckloads.

    Arne

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