2021

Sanna made this delicious celeriac soup for us today. Mmm! Topped with browned butter, dill, and hazelnuts. So tasty. 😋

Soup in an egg-shaped bowl. Topped with browned butter, dill, and hazelnuts.

A beta version of my new plug-in, Conversation on Micro.blog, is now available. If you want a “Reply on Micro.blog” link on your blog posts and are brave enough, check out the installation instructions.

Want “reply on Micro.blog” links on your blog? I have a working prototype running on my blog.

Should I pack this up as a plug-in? Let me know if you’re interested in helping out with testing.

A styled link with the text Reply on Micro.blog.

Humans, exploiting the fact that Lake Viken is currently frozen. 🧊

A frozen lake and overcast sky. Tiny looking humans can be spotted in the far distance.

My Reply by email plug-in is now available in the official directory. 🎉 Check it out if you want an easy way for your readers to comment on your blog posts using their default email app. Thanks, @manton.

Screenshots showing a reply by email link on a blog, a newly drafted email, and the settings for the plug-in. The settings available are: email address, link text, subject line prefix, and debug console.

It’s book launch day! My favorite author (and soulmate) just released her first short story collection. Does cozy Swedish horror pique your curiosity? Then go check out Sanna Lund’s Arkiv för upphittade anteckningar. For yourself or a friend. 📚

Hate typing on keyboards? Miss fiddling with pens and pencils? Wish you could publish a handwritten note to Micro.Blog? Thanks to Shortcuts and Live Text on iOS 15, you can go from scribbles to blog post in seconds! 🖋

Bent over backward to get this view of Saint Katarina’s church ruin in Visby. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get this shot straight. My back must be crooked. 😅

Interior of a church ruin. There's a blue sky and cumulus clouds. The photo is shot in panoramic mode with a visible warping defect due to the photographer lacking talent.

Are you yearning for a feel-good quick read about a bunch of quirky people repairing printers and other Apple hardware? Of course, you are! It would be best if you read LaserWriter Ⅱ by Tamara Shopsin. 📚

Illustrated book cover emulating a test print from a printer: gradients, vertical and horizontal bars in grayscale. The text reads Author of Arbitrary Stupid Goal. LaserWriter Ⅱ – a novel. Tamara Shopsin. Featuring an old reliable Macintosh repair shop.

A couple of weeks ago, I finished Bubble. A nicely illustrated, action-packed, sci-fi adventure; seasoned with a pinch of social satire. The elevator pitch? Hmm. 🤔 Monster-hunting in a gig economy graphic novel! 📚

Photo of a spread from a graphic novel. One page is a close-up of a woman grabbing a bite from a wrapped sandwich. The other page depicts a casual conversation between two friends in a bathroom. Despite a dead alien hanging from the roof, they seem carefree.

Here in Sweden, the word hygge is a clear-cut area in a forest. So that can cause confusion in conversations with our neighbors in Denmark and Norway. 😊

A smiling couple in a forest. Resting on a log close to a campfire.

A woman is standing at the edge of a cliff. Down below, the wind ruffles the water. The sky is overcast.

I love discovering the less talked about features in new iOS releases, like that you can get cozy rain and dark noise playing in your ears. 🤩 Set it up by going to ⚙️ Settings️ → Accessibility → Audio/Visual → Background Sounds.

What gems have you found in iOS 15?

Week 1,851

Thursday, we packed our bags and hit the road down south. We steered towards Brösarp and Talldungen. When summer comes to an end, we go there for a night or two. It has stuck as a tradition. We went for a swim in the Baltic Sea, talked a lot, ate, and drank well.

A weathered shed photographed against a clear blue sky. It has a brick chimney and a reed roof. In the window hangs a net, probably used for fishing.

We also played around with our cameras, snapping pictures of old fishing sheds, and tried catching waves on video. I’m pretty sure we’ll be back again next year.

Our favorite late-afternoon-wine spot on the in-laws’ porch. The weather was exceptional this weekend. The garden view was… interesting. 😅

A woman with a glass of red wine is sitting on a sun-drenched porch. A deep, excavated ditch runs right through the garden. A tiny excavator is visible in the background.

Just before sundown yesterday, we packed the camera and gear in a knapsack and biked to the edge of the forest. Then, by foot, we followed a trail to this spot. Sanna needed material for a new photography course. I tagged along for company, coffee, and a beautiful sunset. 😊

Silhouettes of trees during sundown. Calm water in the foreground. The sky is a gradient from charcoal to copper.

Today I read Everything’s Fine by Matthew Pridham. 📚 You know that meme of a dog getting engulfed in flames while proclaiming that everything is fine? Well, Pridham’s short story takes on the same theme, in a way. Loved it!

An e-reader on a tray, showing the cover of a short story, named Everything's Fine. It's illustrated with a skull wearing a tie. A tiny planet, maybe Earth, orbits around the head. The author's name at the bottom reads Matthew Pridham.

Another one from our trip to Haväng; a mini-wave coming for iPhone 12 mini. 😅 No smartphones were harmed in the making of this video. 🌊

This sticker was waiting for me in the postbox. Look at that beauty! 🤩 Thanks, @jean.

A bookshelf filled with books and decorated with a green plant and a wooden owl. Center-stage is a round sticker branded with the Micro.blog logotype and the text Micro Camp. It's filled with emojis along its circumference.

Close to where I tried photographing waves the other day lies this shed called Vedalaboden. It’s an old ålabod; a place to take shelter and store gear when fishing for eel.

A weathered shed photographed against a clear blue sky. It has a brick chimney and a reed roof. In the window hangs a net, probably used for fishing.

Yesterday. A trip to Haväng for a swim in the Baltic Sea. 🗺 We also caught waves on our image sensors. As one can imagine, Sanna had no troubles. Me, on the other hand. Well, let’s just say my sensor ended up more below water than above.

Underwater photo. It's muddled with seaweed floating around. There are bubbles in the water, and at some places, one can catch a glimpse of the blue sky above.

Today, our MINI Cooper SE passed a funny milestone: 23,456 kilometers on the road. 🎉 Powered by wind, water, and solar. 🔋 Tomorrow, it will take us to the hills of Brösarp. 🗺 Keep it up, Skogsbullebilen!

The profile of a green, three-door car. It stands parked outdoors; there's a lake in the background, and it looks like autumn.

Week 1,850

The top half of a grandfather clock against an eerie black backdrop. The case's color is bone and the white clock-face features black numbers. Westerstrand Sweden can be seen at the bottom of the clock-face, and the hands show seven minutes until five o'clock.

I’ve gravitated towards the Micro.blog community for years now. A welcoming bunch of people, just blogging away and having a good time. Somewhat like Twitter, but nice! Actually, it’s not at all like Twitter. There’s no follower count, no likes, and the public timeline is curated by actual human beings. 😲 Can you believe that? It’s super cozy!

Four months ago, we visited Åkulla beech forests and stumbled upon this spectacular view during our walk. The hiker in the photo is Sanna, and the hill she just conquered is called Hiaklitten.

A nice, somewhat cloudy day. A woman looks out at a spectacular view from a hill. She observes trees, a stream, and a large body of water in the distance.

The other day, @zorn mentioned ROM hacking which threw me back to the summer of 2018. One hot evening, I asked myself: what if Tetris only had the straight tetromino? So, I fired up my hex editor and hacked together this thing. 😅 🎮

A game of Tetris on a Game Boy Color. It looks a bit weird! There's only one type of tetromino, the straight one. The pieces on the screen form the two-letter word hi.

Feel these words: bulletin board systems, dial-up noises, Commodore, and Nintendo. Now, this sentence: “a comic about ’90s kids making bad decisions over the early internet”.

Yep, you should add Incredible Doom on your to-read pile. 📚

A comic book cover. A biking paperboy hurls a newspaper toward a house. The illustration is mixed up with graphic ASCII symbols resulting in a digital look.

Let’s see if we can transform these ingredients into a tasty lunch. The frozen chunks may look like sorbet, but it’s not. Homemade chicken stock and… cava. 🍾

A still life. Cauliflower, chicken, champignon, and cheese. Two bowls are containing sorbet-looking frozen chucks.

This grandfather clock means the world to me. If you open the pendulum door and peek inside, you will find a piece of paper with typewritten words. Signed by my grandpa. The clock was a gift to him from his wife in 1961.

Every tick-tock reminds me of them.

The top half of a grandfather clock against an eerie black backdrop. The case's color is bone and the white clock-face features black numbers. Westerstrand Sweden can be seen at the bottom of the clock-face, and the hands show seven minutes until five o'clock.

Kantarellpizza: chanterelle, gruyère, and truffle mayo pizza. Mmm. 😋 What kind of pizza are you eating tonight? 🍕

A pizza topped with chanterelle, cheese, mayo, and chive.

Would you like links to the previous and next posts on your Micro.blog? I put up a short tutorial on the Help center yesterday. Check it out!

Screenshot of a microblog post. In the post footer, two links are leading to the previous and next post.

My view outside our kitchen window right before bedtime yesterday. Installing pipes for district heating looks like hard work! The folks down there worked through the night and were still at it when I drank my first cup of coffee in the morning.

A group of people hard at work installing pipes in the ground. It's dark, so they rely on artificial light.

Sanna read a couple of pages from The Labyrinth to me during breakfast this morning. Is it possible to start the day off in a cozier way? I don’t think so. 😊 Reading aloud to each other is underrated.

A breakfast table with eggs, coffee, and yogurt topped with blueberries. In the middle of the table is a book by Simon Stålenhag: The Labyrinth.

Week 1,849

Let’s see if I can get back into writing by posting on a regular schedule. Once a week. Cherry-picked tidbits from my life the last seven days. I’ve been alive for 1,849 weeks already, so, without further ado, here’s what happened in the thirty-third week of 2021.

I got my second jab! 💉 It went smooth, 5 minutes of waiting for my turn and 30 minutes of relaxing after. The arm felt a bit sore for a couple of days, but no other side effects.