Gækkebreve

I would like to share with you the Danish tradition of sending "Gækkebreve" (should translate into "Snowdrop letters"). This tradition dates back to the 1600s, started by H. C. Andersen, the children's book author, who was famous for his paper cutting.

It is a letter which you decorate by cutting the paper into patterns and send to someone before Easter. You then add a short verse of poetry (kind of like Americans do for Valentine's Day) and sign it with as many dots as the letters of your name. If the one you send it to guesses that it is from you, you owe them a chocolate Easter egg and if they don't, they owe you one, when you reveal that the letter was from you.

Many of the letters will contain a pressed snowdrop flower and the poem will often be about the snowdrop, one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, or about springtime and may contain a hint of the name of the sender.


Children began sending these to adults in the 1930's in hopes of getting Easter eggs and chocolate. Today, they are mainly sent by children who make them at school. You can also buy ready made snowdrop letters at the post office and bookstores. The handmade ones are really the best though. This is a wonderful tradition in Denmark.

With the Arrival of Spring...Comes the Motorcycles

3/29/2012
It is said that one true sign of Spring's arrival are the 5,000 plus motorcyclists from Denmark and Sweden (taking advantage of the bridge linking the two countries). They ride in celebration of the annual opening of Klampenborg's Bakken Amusement Park. A motorcycle convoy travels from Copenhagen's Klampenborg Station to the park's gates. 


Bakken is the world’s oldest amusement park. It is located in the middle of the forest, next to Dyrehaven (deer park). To many Danes, Bakken is the symbol of genuine Danish culture in line with allotment houses and cold beer.


Bakken has attracted people from the city for over 400 years. Originally as a Mecca for believers who thought that Kirsten Piil water source had a life-giving force. Soon all sorts of street performers and bag players lured to the pilgrimage place and eventually the numerous tents became permanent.

Bakken has many of the amusement rides that other amusement parks have – like roller coasters, 5D movies, haunted house, race-cars, archery, darts, football, handball and many more things.

It is also possible to buy a picnic basket in several of the restaurants, and walk or ride a tour in the park (Dyrehaven/ deer park) on one of the horse carriages.

Many people line the streets to watch the motorcycle mayhem!! I may go next year, but today, I will tend to my spring flowers and my garden :o)

Sharing Sun Beams

3/25/2012
Last night we sprung forward an hour...boing, boing, boing! Awoke to the most beautiful, bright and sunny day. Not a cloud in the sky and warm enough for t-shirts. While I had my morning coffee and checked emails, my girls, Maggie and Balcony stayed right with me. They couldn't get enough of the warm sun beam shining through the window!

I headed outside to work in the yard. I have a terrific flower bed right outside of the kitchen. It was so overrun with a ground cover, the kind that sends out runners and grows in pretty thick. It also had about 10 rose bushes, and only 2 were barely alive. I dug everything up and worked the weeds out of the soil. There were some small daffodils worth keeping, so I worked around them. I will move them later since I want to use this area for an herb garden.

"Before" pictures

Horrible, thick ground cover

Rose bushes were ignored many years

I love home grown, fresh herbs. Lavender is the best, especially for headaches and to use as an air and laundry freshener. Basil, thyme, rosemary and sage are wonderful and smell lovely too. I also love cilantro, it reminds me of the days I spent in Costa Rica!! I'm hoping it will grow well here and it's not too cool for it. Once I get the soil worked, I will pick up my herbs from the nursery down the street...it's within walking distance and they are getting to know my face very well in there...LOL! I will post "After" pictures once I have completed.

St. Patty's Day in Klampenborg

Today, St. Patrick's Day, while many were in Copenhagen attending the parade and other activities, we decided to visit Dyrehaven in Klampenborg. Corey had been to this park on several occasions, once to complete a hike for his Boy Scout Hiking badge, and was excited for us to return with him to see the deer. It was a beautiful day for walking, exploring and I had a chance to plant a letterbox :o) 


Dyrehaven was once a Royal hunting ground and today, a popular recreational area for activities like biking, jogging, picnics and animal watching. It is a beautiful mixture of grassy areas and majestic forests with centuries-old trees. 


Hackney carriages, which in their time brought the Copenhageners to the Deer Park, are still an essential element of the Park's special atmosphere. To this day you can climb aboard a hackney carriage at Klampenborg Station or at the entrance of the Deer Park amusement park and go for a ride in the park along the broad forest paths...saw a few of these while walking.

It was King Frederik III who in 1669 decided to fence in an area, North of Copenhagen, with rolling hills and woods. He then had about 2,000 deer driven into the area and made it a royal hunting ground for the next almost 100 years until Dyrehaven was opened to the general public in 1756. 

Eremitageslottet or The Eremitage Castle was built as a royal hunting lodge in order to host banquets during the many royal hunts.

While King Christian V was in power, he had the park enlarged to almost 3,000 acres, with the intention that it be used for hunting with hounds. A pack of hounds was used to pursue the deer until it dropped from exhaustion, then a specially chosen hunter was given the honor of killing the game with a special hunting knife. Hunting on horse-back with hounds was popular among the nobility in Denmark for about 100 years. 


There are three types of deer in the park: the Red Deer, the Fallow Deer, and the Silkas. I believe we got a good look at all three while we were there. I thought it might be difficult to tell them apart but it wasn't. Although many fawns are born in the spring, the park keeps the deer population at about 2,100 in order to maintain a healthy population.


300 Red Deer
Red deer stags are the biggest of all the stags. An adult stag can weigh over 445 pounds. The coat is a reddish-brown in the summer and a greyish-brown in the winter. The hinds (females) and their fawns stay mostly in the southern part of the Deer Park, whereas the stags remain more to the north. There are also white Red deer in the Park which were introduced from Würtemberg in 1737. 

1700 Fallow Deer
The Fallow deer often stay together in big herds of several hundred animals and can usually be seen on the open plains. Their coats are three different colors: black, white and a brownish red. However the brownish red coats are the most common. The deer were introduced from the Middle East and are mentioned in written sources as roaming about freely in Denmark as far back as 1231.

100 Sikas
Sika deer are a little smaller than fallow deer. Their summer coat is a chestnut color with whitish-yellow spots, whereas the winter coat is an even dark-brown (females) and black (males). The antlers are similar to those of the Red deer, however they are smaller and never have more than 8 points. This breed, which has been in the Deer Park since 1923, was introduced from Japan. 

Several of the Silkas were engaged in antler clashing

While we were there, we witnessed quite a display of clashing antlers. Rutting season, or breeding season, is in October and November, so my best guess at this behavior would be that the young bucks were "rough-housing". If you turn on the volume for this video, you will hear the antlers clashing...

Although the deer are fenced in and kept in the park, there are no fences between us and them. They are used to people in the park but still see humans as a threat and will defend themselves. The biggest rule in this park is to stay on the trails and not wander too close to the deer, especially during rutting season! 

Many hinds (females) were foraging & resting

May be albino, or white Red deer, hard to tell

We are looking forward to returning in May and June, if not before, to see all of the baby fawns. There are usually about 700 born during the spring months!!

Howdy Neighbor!

3/16/2012
Friday was another beautiful day, sunny, and warm enough for a light jacket. After the boys left for school and Maggie and I had our long walk, I returned home to do a bit of gardening. Randell was later in coming home as he had a few meetings to attend. When he arrived, he stopped to talk to me in the front yard and to see what I was up to :o) 


Our neighbors who live in the house across the street, an older couple in their mid to late 70's I would guess, came over to welcome us to Kurvej. Our street is called Kurvej and is pronounced Coo-vi (long i sound). They are the sweetest couple and so happy we have moved in. I have a hard time pronouncing the man's name and wouldn't even attempt to spell it but the woman is Gretta. Both are Danes, but he is a retired German History and language teacher, and used to live in Berlin. Randell loves history, especially the period during WWI-WWII. I know the men will become famous friends. Gretta and I both love the outdoors and gardening, she already loves what I'm doing in the yard and as the weather continues to bring people outdoors, I know we will see much more of each other. I'm looking forward to developing our new friendship...

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. 

My Perfect Companion

3/14/2012
It's another glorious, sunny day in Bagsvaerd, Denmark. Maggie and I have just returned from our walk around the Bagsvaerd Lake grounds. She loves walking and admiring the beauty of the lake, trees, and creatures just as much as I do. Today we saw the most handsome swans. They were huge and so graceful, as the paddled by. Maggie sat and watched with curiosity and they seemed to be returning the same look. While she has seen ducks a plenty over the past couple of months, she hadn't ever seen the swan, Denmark's national bird (more on the Mute Swan in Flora and Fauna). 


We have a favorite bench, near the lake, where we like to sit and take in the view. The trees that grow on these grounds are massive and must be well into their 300-th year. The castle retreat that once stood on this land was built in 1700 and these trees look like they have withstood the test of time. They are splendid and graceful giants. You may have heard the saying, "If walls could talk"...I wish the trees could talk! The sights they must have seen in all of their years...


We also saw many doves digging in the leaves and making a racket in the woods. We stopped to watch. From what I observed, they seemed to be digging and kicking up leaves to get at what was underneath, whether it was acorns or other nuts/seeds or even grubs? It was fun to watch and I especially enjoyed watching Maggie and wondering what she must have been thinking. She never pulls or wants to go after any of the animals, she is happy just to observe...the perfect companion on our nature walks.

Sunshine Warms My Soul

3/9/2012
Sunshine, pure, golden, warm sunshine...3 weeks of sunshine. Now, that is nourishment for the soul. Ever since we arrived back to Denmark from our trip up north, we have had sunshine every day for 3 weeks, that is... count them...21 Days!!


I have loved every minute of being outdoors, working in the yard and exploring my surroundings. However, a couple days ago the perfect record was broken when we had a sprinkle of rain. I guess that was okay since the newly planted flowers and all of the bulbs that are poking through the dirt needed a little drink. 


My body decided to use that rainy day to catch a cold...Boo!! I have been nursing a sore throat and stuffy nose for a couple of days now. I'm looking forward to feeling better, hopefully by the end of the weekend as the mailman told me today that we are expecting sunshine all of next week.


Wishing I had been feeling better today... Fridays in Denmark are full of activities as it is the end of a work week and Danes are excited to get their weekends started, not much different than in the US. The grocery store is usually a fun place to go on Fridays (except when you are sick) because of the hustle and bustle and the SAMPLES!! Our favorite grocery store is Super Best. It is a bit larger than the other stores and it offers more variety. Plus, I love to see the grocers in their bowler hats. It's so...hmmm...European!! 


Today the grocers were busily stocking and setting out samples. The butcher was cooking up some sort of sausage and beef (roast) to sample, there were chunks of cheese on toothpicks, and there is usually some type of spread on crackers. Finally for all of the wine lovers out there...free wine tasting! They usually have 4-6 bottles of wine sitting out and will pour you a sample from each kind, and they aren't stingy with it either. It really is a nice way to be able to decide what you like rather than buying a bottle and figuring out later it wasn't very good. I wish all stores did that.


However, today, I bypassed it all...sore throats and wine just don't mix.

Another One Bites the Dust

I would like to take a moment and thank Dave Ramsey for teaching us how to manage our money, "the smart way". Since we began following his plan less than a year ago, we have paid off all credit cards, loans and car payments. We just made a large payment on our car back home and are now the title owners :o)  We also have a savings account like never before and STILL we are able to travel and have a great time while exploring Europe. It does $$pay off$$ to live smart!! 

Welcome March

March 1, 2012
The past 2 weeks have been beautiful in Denmark. The sun has been shining every day, and although many are still wearing coats, I get by with a t-shirt and jacket. Today was the perfect day for gardening. I chose to start in the area outside of my bedroom and off the front patio. I thought it would be nice for my kitty and I to wake up in the mornings and watch the birds for a bit before getting out of bed. :o) 


I began with cutting back plants and vines that were overgrown and hadn't been manicured in a long time, if ever. I was careful not to cut too much because some are still a mystery to me as I'm not familiar with all of the things that grow here. I pulled weeds and raked old pine needles and decomposing leaves out of the flower bed areas. I raked the yard and got rid of a ton of twigs and branches that were previously just thrown into a pile.


I finished up by moving some rocks over to surround a tree and created a small rock garden where I planted pansies and violas, both frost hardy in the event we get cold weather. I filled a new bird feeder and hung it in the tree over the new garden. 

Now my kitty, Balcony, and I have many new birds and flowers to enjoy in the mornings.