A sunny lake, friends and nature.

 After a long walk outside in the cold winter-landscape yesterday, I felt my body yearn for the sun and warmer days.

It yearned for birds to sing cheerful songs of spring and for the wind to be gentle on my skin.

I listened to the snow squeak underneath my boots, and even if this season dresses nature in it’s most beautiful white, I feel the need of some color.

Last October while on a visit to Utah, dear Ann and CJ whisked me away from the world and tucked me away in their cabin in the mountains.

 The sun was warm, the landscape golden and afternoon wanders and conversations warmed the heart.

I promised I’d show you more from my trip to Utah, but before I knew it, it was a new year, so lets rewind a bit and head back to 2011.

Evenings and nights at their cabin were spent talking, cooking, making delicious and oh so decadent smores in front of the fireplace.

It was the perfect getaway from the world.

The vast landscape was tinted in yellow and orange.

Fields, hills and mountains as far as the eye could see. It was perfect!

Friends are family you choose. They are strangers that open up your heart and before you know it become people you don’t want to live without.

Friends speak with heart.

They speak with tenderness and love.

They speak their minds and of wonderful days to come.

They speak truth and logic to moments colored by a chaotic dreams, and they speak uplifting words when the curtains to your soul have been closed.

I’ll confess I never used to be a nature girl.

I grew up walking barefoot in the summer at our mountain cabin, playing alone in the forest behind our house as a child and hiking the mountains as a teenager, but then I grew wings left the nest and started exploring cities.

Big cities, like Paris, Tokyo and Milan. They became brief homes, and I was and is trapped in their spell, although their magic on me has changed a bit.

I still absolutely love wandering the cobble stoned streets of Rome, writing postcards from charming cafes in Paris, and biking around Tokyo with nothing but an adventurous heart and a whole day in front of me, but my heart and soul have rediscovered nature, and there simply is no going back.

If I’m not outside one day it’s like I cannot breathe!

The city may make my heart pound faster with excitement and delight, but nature puts my fast paced heart at peace, and that is priceless;)

Now this year I’ll spend more time in cities than I have in a while.

I’m off to Milano at the end of the week, then Paris and then I’m spending one whole months in Rome this spring, so to store up on that peace only nature can offer I spend as much time as I can outside, walking , skiing and meandering.

And I cannot wait for it to get warmer, for the days to be longer and for some color to be reintroduced to the this white landscape.

Even if I try to be content with whats now, I’m 100% over-eager for spring to arrive!