A text written in early September 2018 Perched between the low medieval buildings of old Visby and the steel-grey Baltic lies a tiny botanic garden. For being so small, though, it manages to accommodate a great number of different plants. Cared for by the association DBW (De Badande Wännerna = the bathing friends), it hasContinue reading “The Botanical Garden of the Bathing Friends in Visby”
Author Archives: Katja
a (very late) brief pop cultural summary of my 2018
The older I get, the more on edge with time I seem to become. I cannot estimate how long things might take to complete – but also, I cannot let go of the things I thought I would have time to do. I used to be better at it. I did not use to comeContinue reading “a (very late) brief pop cultural summary of my 2018”
waiting for rain
[Written on August 4th] At the cottage. The smell of lingering dust, memories of mornings in the desert. No rain for six weeks. Reading “Grief is the thing with feathers” by Max Porter. It is short, so simple – and carries the heaviest on its shoulders. Death, sudden, to be left behind. It is aContinue reading “waiting for rain”
honouring the lives not lived
Some time ago, I listened to a podcast interview with the Swedish actress Eva Röse. When I was a kid, in the Swedish version of the Mickey Mouse Club, there was Alice, Johan and Eva. Every Friday evening, my parents made me TV dinner and let me watch these lively youths present loud American cartoons,Continue reading “honouring the lives not lived”
living in the age of humans
It has been an exceptionally hot summer, dry, an extreme high-pressure system stuck, looming over our parched Nordic soils. I found it tough. Working in July, walking through the oak groves around university, seeing trees start to drop their leaves. Hearing news about the largest forest fires in Swedish recorded history, crops failing, animals havingContinue reading “living in the age of humans”
two seasons in the Bergius Botanic Garden
You know my thing for botanic gardens. I have a neat collection now, 28 gardens on four continents. A bit surprising, then (or maybe, absolutely not) that I have not yet written a proper post about the botanic garden just next door: the Bergius Botanic Garden, run by Stockholm University. There is one post fromContinue reading “two seasons in the Bergius Botanic Garden”
in the process of creating science
I will forever associate the April, May and June of 2018 with writing my extended research proposal. About one year in, at the research school where I am enrolled, the PhD student is supposed to write a detailed plan, including a theoretical background and literature review, of the PhD thesis that they intend to complete.Continue reading “in the process of creating science”
forgive us our crazy and unease
It’s been more than half a year, now, but at the hostel in Oaxaca, in the mornings before the adventurous twenty-something backpackers had woken up yet, I read. In the tiny inner courtyard, with the small mossy fountain and potted plants, there were hammocks and the black cats would walk by, stroke their sides againstContinue reading “forgive us our crazy and unease”
Oaxaca epilogue: Journeying through the mountains
The conference ended with an extravagant party, with food and mezcal and performances. And it was like everyone was floating on the wave of a successful, inspiring conference – and now, the wave broke. An extreme discharge of energy. Everyone dancing, from master students to world-renowned professors. And I will forever remember this: Dancing salsaContinue reading “Oaxaca epilogue: Journeying through the mountains”
thoughts from a session: Telling stories for more hopeful futures
To wrap up about the PECS conference in Oaxaca, let me just tell you a little bit about a part of the research presented there that really speaks to me on an emotional level. It is research about stories. We are a storytelling species. (This is so true for me! Anyone who has known meContinue reading “thoughts from a session: Telling stories for more hopeful futures”
Katja Malmborg 