Memories of Scandinavia

JWise Photo of the Day

Scandinavian Foods in Phoenix, Arizona

I should concede that Caroline and I, in our addiction to travel, are loathe to let go of our experiences. The tens of thousands of photos and millions of words I’ve penned are not the only connections to our adventures. Rare is the day that we’ve not fallen in love with other aspects of those travels, such as Caroline’s obsession with Mayan clothing from a trip to Chiapas, Mexico, a couple of years ago. This past summer, we became once more enamored with the usual stuff: nature, people, history, traditional clothing, and food.

Sometimes, what we desire, though, is hard to find in the United States. Take herring, not pickled, canned, or creamed. I wanted fresh herring, but that is not to be found. Caroline, with her relentless sleuthing skills, found a place that sold salted herring. After our recent experience with bacalao (salted cod) and the success of desalting it, I felt that salted herring could offer me what I desire, so we bought five pounds. Shipping was going to be pricy because of the weight, so if we are already paying for 2-day delivery, we might as well throw some other stuff into the package. We had originally found the Scandinavian Specialties shop up in Washington before Christmas, but they were sold out of many of the items we wanted.

By early February, things were restocked, and we were able to order a variety of caramelly goat cheeses called Brunost, another cheese popular in Sweden called Prästost (Priest cheese), and different types of crispbreads. We also just had to buy crispy onions as we’ve come to believe that Scandinavian crispy onions must be the secret ingredient in their amazing pølser (hotdogs). The photo shows our Scandinavian life-savers that bring us back to last year’s summer vacation. Daniel Espinoza of Scandinavian Specialties assisted us with our order and was incredibly helpful. He’ll also play a key role when we will order a cured winter lamb specialty called Pinnekjøtt towards the end of summer. These little luxuries are incredible reminders of just how fortunate we are.

Two Birds

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise and a bird in Arizona

Rarely a day passes where a bird doesn’t fly into Caroline’s orbit alighting up on head, shoulder, or hand if she extends it. From ungainly seagulls trying to balance on her oval skull to owls and hawks on her shoulders, to the finches, robins, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, grackles, and other small birds that look for one of her dainty fingers to land on for a break and what we assume to be a moment of communion.

I remember a day some 15 years ago as though it was yesterday, we were on the Oregon coast when a pelican approached opening its beak pouch to offer her a fish as though Caroline was its chick. Fortunately, she’s never been the curiosity of vultures, though we are both aware that the day will arrive when their species will feast upon her, since being a Zoroastrian Parsi, she’s made it clear she desires a sky burial.

Things Will Be Haywire

JWise Moments, Photo of the Day

Crazy stuff taped to a pole in Phoenix, Arizona

The astute reader will have noticed that I went 40 days after New Year’s Day without sharing a post, and it was not because I fell from the Earth. I fell into writing, writing something bigger than usual, and no, this photo is not part of my effort. While the date on this post is the 8th of January, and the date of the photo was from the 2nd of January, this is actually being posted on the 11th of February because that’s the day I opened a new office document and began penning a thing.

I do find it peculiar not to be sharing anything on a regular basis. After years of pushing so much out here, it appears that our lives have taken a pause if the frequency of posts was considered a measure of our activity. Rest assured, we remain quite busy with Caroline working on a number of fiber arts projects and I, well, writing as I’ve already said. We’ll return to traveling as soon as I feel that I can afford a window of distraction while still being able to fall back into this work that, from where I sit today, looks to become my most ambitious project yet. I have to admit, writing that feels link a jinx of sorts, but I’ll try to keep the superstition at bay.

Hopefully, this will be the one and only allusion to this plan to use many words to accomplish the goal of creating/penning something I’ve never attempted previously.

So, please understand that for a while, the missives here on the blog are likely going to be few and far between but not so few that I’ll be left feeling years from now, when I look back at 2024, that Caroline and I took time off from busy, adventurous lives. Stuff will happen, and stuff will be noted.

Coming To Your Christmas

JWise Photo of the Day

Caleb and Jessica Aldridge, Caroline Wise and John Wise in Phoenix, Arizona

If we were to celebrate this annual American ritual of Christmas, this would be the image that would have accompanied our Christmas cards. On the left are Caleb and Jessica Aldridge, our son-in-law and daughter/stepdaughter, who were returning to California from a two-week cross-country road trip that took them over to Florida. Due to circumstances related to Caleb’s naval service and being stationed abroad combined with the natural forces of life that take people here and there, we’d not seen him in about ten years, and while they were only able to spend a few hours with us, it was a great reunion, and we hope it won’t require another ten years before the four of us get together again. The funny thing is, this photo almost didn’t happen as we were all so happy to see each other and talk about their big adventure that I forgot to take a photo of the happy, possibly weird, and maybe a bit dysfunctional family. Caroline and I ran back downstairs after them to pull them from their car as they were heading out and insisted on showing the world our happiness.

First Gingerbread House

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise decorated her first gingerbread house

Go ahead, Caroline, overthink things, build up a bunch of stress, and convince yourself that this was a bad decision, but then finally accept that you committed to something and get on with it. And so it was with the first ever gingerbread house my wife decorated. What compelled her to do such a thing? A competition at work to celebrate Christmas cheer. Aside from minor engineering issues surrounding the effectiveness of using icing to glue the walls together, she ultimately had fun and was proud of her creation. And although she didn’t win, I believe she looks forward to potentially decorating another gingerbread house in the future. [I did get compliments for the roof because I added frosted shredded wheat cereal pieces – Caroline]

Big Sur Eucalyptus Soap

JWise Photo of the Day

Big Sur Eucalyptus Soap

It’s likely somewhere around 20 years now that we’ve been using Big Sur Soap and specifically: its eucalyptus scent. We’ve tried other fragrances from them, but this one is a great reminder of all our moments driving along the Pacific Coast on Highway 1, admiring the towering eucalyptus trees, and basking in their beautiful aroma, ensuring that they are never far. Sheila Hillman, the proprietor of this brand, can’t always predict the popularity of the various scents in her repertoire, and it has often happened that while in the Big Sur area, the shops we relied on were out of eucalyptus, and we’ve come rely on ordering directly from Sheila. Even then, it’s not uncommon that she’s sold out until the next batches are done, so this time, I put in an early order for ten bars. Upon their arrival, I stored them in vacuum-sealed bags to prevent further curing and evaporation. Depending on how well this works, I might buy another ten bars to ensure we have the wonderful scent of the Central California Coast for many years to come.