Pinch Me, Someone

1.) The local archeologists (bless their trousers) have placed a constraint on the development of the field in front of us. Anyone wanting to build there will have to foot the bill for a major excavation first. Of course, there were rules against developing there already, because we live in a cultural-historically protected area, but the local officials, misguided in their greed, were trying to weasle their way past them. No offence meant, any weasles who might be reading this.

2.) We have lots of apples to store over the winter, but we lacked good racks to put them in. We could have nicked some bread racks from outside of any food store, but honest as we are, we've refrained. On our way in to our favorite second-hand store, I hoped to find some bread racks there. There have never been bread racks there, but I hoped anyway. Lo and behold, upon the shelf were no less than 7 bread racks, calling out my name in sweet harmony.

3.) Our dog insists on sleeping under the stairs in the "closet". Each time I sort through the cast-off clothes and the mending, and sort it into paper bags, he eagerly digs around and builds a new bed there, destroying any semblance of order. "Wretched, shedding cur!" I howl (though in Swedish), and sort through it again, too kind hearted to deny him his creature comforts. This time I decided I could take it no more. Cost what it may, I was going to procure those clever plastic boxes with the snap on lids, 31 liter size, and deter his nesting instincts. He can sleep on a blanket like all the other dogs in the neighborhood. I seized the add page from the department store in town, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but the very boxes I coveted, at half price!

4.) I said we had apples, and we do, but we almost didn't. We pick fruit in a 14 acre abandonded apple orchard, but this year it was defoliated and defruited by some nasty insect as far as the eye could see. On a whim, I wandered into a distant, inaccessable corner, and it was Christmas in October. Way up at the top of a steep hill were apples enough for our own needs and all those I usually pick for. Joy abounded.

Added to all this is the fact that the cucumbers have succumbed to frost and finally stopped growing, along with the tomatoes and beans and plums. Phew. I was getting a bit worried there. But I cannot help but wonder how so many things can go right at once. Am I dreaming?