The first of 2017

I realise Bertha’s Blog has been quiet for the last few months, mainly because there have been a lack of adventures to write about - don’t worry, that’s only temporary as there is another big one in the planning for this summer :-) I did go away to Dartmoor over new year but apart from that it’s just been the odd night here and there. So this weekend, 2.5 weeks into my new job I decided I wanted to get away and go somewhere new.

For Christmas I was given a book by my sister on Hygge – the Danish way to live happily which is a bit of a trend at the moment after the Danes were rated ones of the happiest nations in the world. Hygge, pronounced ‘hooga’ roughly translates as ‘cosiness’. It’s about friendship, home made goodies, nature, soft lighting, good citizenship – all things you can’t really measure but that make you feel warm and fuzzy. If something is Hygge it’s said to be Hyggelig. I’ve been to Denmark a couple of times and there’s something about it that I love, but it’s hard to say exactly what that is so the Hygge book has been an interesting read. One part of the book is about buying things not as soon as you want them or can afford them, but to wait until you have a good reason to associate your purchase with. The example the book gives is that the author had seen a chair they liked. They could afford it, but the Hygge way was to wait, so they waited until the day they got promoted at work and then went to get the chair, so that when they sat in it they would always associate it with the day they got promoted.

Now I’ve unpacked my kitchen stuff post-lodger, my rolling pin had disappeared (who knows, I didn’t ask..) It was on my mind that I needed to replace it at some point and whilst I was in Stow on the Wold on Saturday after a bike ride tour of the Cotswolds I saw rolling pins in a shop. I could have just gone to Tesco and bought one but each time I used it, it would just be a rolling pin from Tesco. As Hygge was on my mind I went into the shop and bought one. It’s just a rolling pin, hardly the biggest purchase I’ve ever made but every time I make pizza bases, bash biscuits or roll pastry I’ll think of my weekend away in the Cotswolds. A Hyggelig rolling pin, how Danish.