Gathering Spores, Setting Roots

I feel like I'm filled with so much life that I might float away like a balloon, or bubble over with some frothy glee that I hope will run into the streets and infect everybody with my happiness and energy. I've been working my ass off, but it's been wonderful. I am so grateful at the moment; my life feels complete and I couldn't ask for anything else. I am living in my favorite country in the entire world, I have a really fun, moderately well-paying job on an organic hippie farm tucked away in the countryside where I get to be creative in preparing beautiful, delicious food for people and work with kind, fun people, I have the woods and lakes as my after-work playground, I've fallen in love and I can wear all the stripes I want without being cast funny looks.

Yesterday I got the first portion of my paycheck, and started to move my things into the new room I'll be renting for a few months. It's amazing what can fall into place when you just trust the universe and let things be. I've been striving to attempt this don't-stress/ it-will-all-be-okay method and it's working beautifully. My friend is out of town for a while and I can rent her room, and her mom made little labels for all the shelves, cabinets and drawers that she cleared for me. I let myself into their flat yesterday after work and found those charming white tags reading, "Julia" hanging all around the house. I feel so welcome there! It'll be so nice to finally unpack my suitcases. After three months unpacking and repacking and moving around I am so grateful for a shelf and a closet, and a drawer to put my important documents. The nice thing about living simply or out-of-a-suitcase it that you appreciate the little things like having shelves, and they become amazing gifts.

Mushroom season is starting, and last week I found the first bounty of chanterelles in the woods. The woods, oh, the beautiful woods! I must have been an elf once upon a time, because I can't get over the charm of mossy forest floors, fallen, fungus-smothered trees, the hollow knocking sound of woodpeckers resonating betwixt the pines and birches, the gorgeous golden evening light mixed into the leaves of oaks and blueberries everywhere!

Last week I lost myself for a few hours after work and roamed through the forest with a basket, my pocket knife and a little book that I inherited from Hanna's mom called, "Ut i Naturen" (Out in Nature.) The book only lists a handful of edible and poisonous mushrooms that grow in Sweden, so I picked every edible-looking thing I could find, used my best judgement and brought my forage to Lars for proofing. He told me that the best and only way to check for the edibility of mushrooms is to pull off a little bit of the gills and test it on the tongue. If it causes a burning or stinging sensation, then it should be immediately spit out and then the rest can't be tested because the tongue is already tainted, so to speak. Wow, great way to not get poisoned. I did it and luckily no fiery feeling crossed my taste buds, although one of the mushrooms made me feel kind of funny. Plech blech spflcht lelelelelelelelele spit spit spit. I gulped down two glasses of fresh apple juice to get the feeling out of my mouth, but halfway through the second glass I noticed a lovely bubbly sensation in my mouth, and only then did I realize that bubbles in apple-juice meant fermentation. Which meant alcohol. I felt a little tipsy on the bus ride home and kind of funky. Not sure if that was from the weirdo mushroom I nibbled or the bubbles or just paranoia. I swear that eating some toxic wild plant will be the death of me.

The harvest is starting as well, which means succulent, sweet, yellow plums, velvety, tender beans, strong leaves of mangold, beets, squashes, cucumbers, onions that make you cry the instant you take off their papery skin. Ah, what a wonderful feeling to take in the fruit of the land. Nature is so good to us.

Fall is sneaking up on all of us. The nights are extremely chilly compared to the warm sun during the day, and an evening mist is beginning to frequent the land. I love the feeling of fall. The crisp air is enlivening and welcomes cuddling, coziness and striped sweaters! Everyone I meet warns me about this dreadful, oncoming Swedish winter and that I won't survive it. BUT I WILL. I have a cuddle buddy and some good boots so "Come at me, Winter. Show me whatchu got!"