A Brief History Of The Nordic Cross Flags

From Left to Right:

Finland

The white in the Finnish flag represents snow and the blue cross the many lakes of Finland. The flag was adopted after Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.

Iceland

The modern flag dates from 1915, when a red cross was insterted into the original white cross. The flag became the national flag when Iceland was granted sovereignty by Denmark in 1918.

Norway 

I found a deep history of various flags going back to the Vikings in the 9th century. The present flag of Norway was designed in 1821.

Sweden

According to Wikipedia, the blue and gold colors are believed to have been inspired by the coat of arms of Sweden with the design modeled on the Danish flag. The origin and age of the flag is unknown, but its existance is confirmed as of the middle of the 16th century.

Blue and gold have been Sweden's colors at least since the royal coat of arms of 1275.

Denmark

Not only does the flag of Denmark have a name, Dannebrog, it also holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest continuously used national flag. 

According to legend, the flag came into Danish possession during the Battle of Lyndanisse in 1219. The Danes were on a failing crusade in Estonia, but after praying to God, a flag fell from the sky.

As a result, their luck changed, the Danish army won and Denmark got its flag.

The Nordic cross flags represent not only their countries, but are also symbols of Christianity. 

And yes, there are several other countries that also have cross flags. 

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Sunday Morning Reflections

 

Puffy pink clouds to make you smile.

Have a nice Sunday.

Follow Up On Car Trouble

 

So am I ready for a horse and buggy? Not quite, but Bob's horses sure were a welcome distraction after my car issues. 

This is an update:

As some of your husbands told me in the blog comments, via their wives, the plastic knobs do indeed fasten the fenders on my car. 

Thanks for checking with your hubbies. 

Only good thing with having car problems is that you always learn something new. 

Something else also got shaken loose, so the car definitely will need to be towed to Honda in Lancaster. I have an appointment for Monday morning. 

As I made my appointment, I was also told that there's a recall on my Honda CRV Hybrid. I don't know the reason because the woman was hemming and hawing, like it was a big deal to find this out. So I told her to forget it, I will find out on Monday. 

So everything should be taken care of on Monday. 

Finally, a huge thank you to my friend Jeanne, who has helped me with many tech and computer issues and who helped me yesterday with my diabetes data upload to my doctor and will also help me today. 

You see, my phone is also not working right. It works and then it doesn't. I could be the SIM card, so she will drive me to the AT&T store in town. 

Thank you Jeanne, this artichoke flower is for you. Until I can figure out something that you can actually touch. 

                          By Jane B.

Thanks for listening to my problems. It will all work out. 

Enjoy your weekend. 

 

I Drove Into My Treestump!

 

I'm so happy I took some pictures of it for my blog just the other day.

Because now:

There it is, broken. 

I was so fond of my stump, don't ask me why.

I tried to righten it, without success, it's very heavy. 

So, shouldn't I be more concerned with my car, you may wonder. 

I am, it drives fine as far as I can tell. 

I found these things on the ground next to the accident site:

Little plastic knobs that I haven't seen before. 

Maybe something is coming loose underneath my car, I thought at first, but then, something underneath my car would not be secured by these tiny things. 

Or would it?

Because the stump was all the way under the front end of my car!

Jeanne, who knows about cars, is coming over this morning. I will ask what she thinks I should do.

Modern cars have that warning thing that comes on when something is wrong with the vehicle. I will drive it around here later to see if it comes on or if the car feels strange. 

I was soooo tired after I drove to Bakersfield and back, about 100 miles total the day before. 

And I was looking for my dog, and couldn't see the stump from where I stopped, hidden from sight by the front of my car.

With my short-term memory iffy, I simply forgot it was there when I started to drive again. 

Strangely enough, this is the first car mishap or accident I've had in my 58 years of driving. 

Funny/Sad memory: When my late brother-in-law, Glenn, sawed down the tree, he left the stump that high so I would be sure to see it while driving or walking. 

I asked him why he lesft it so tall. I remember that day well. 

I miss him so much. 

Horses Come To Visit

 

Have grass and they will come.

These are neighbor Bob's horses, he sometimes lets them wander free. 

Thank You

 my blogger friends, for your supportive comments after I messed up my blog. 

Special thanks to Sandra, Madsnapper, who is always willing to step up and help when things go awry. 

And I certainly managed to mess it up this time. By now, my  blog is pretty much the way I want it to be, with the exception of the header photo, which I would prefer be centered right above the main part of the blog, where I write my posts.  

I had also hoped to get a somewhat darker gray for the background. But if I'm stuck with my theme, Awesome, which has apparently changed since I chose to use it years ago, I guess this may be the way it stays. 

I wanted to change to get a cleaner look and remove all the photos, many sent to me by my friends, that have been there for years. Thank you Jane, Judy, Jeanne and all who contributed. 

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Finally, I had planned for this post to celebrate the National Day of Sweden today.

June 6th celebrates the end of the Danish-ruled Kalmar Union and the election of Gustav Vasa as King of Sweden in 1523. 

So in effect it signifies the foundation of Sweden as an independent nation. 

And, as an old Swede, I just had to mention it here. And post my  flag and my Dala horses in celebration. 

I just realized that next year it will be 500 years of independence for Sweden. I wonder if they will have big celebrations then. 

Not Doing Well With Changing The Design Of My Blog

 Please bear with me as some changes to my blog got saved by mistake. 

This is not my forte! For sure! 

Right now, I'm tired and giggling. 

As soon as I've got these changes done, if I can get them done, I will be back to blogging. 

I miss my pretty blog, I don't know where it went!

This is about how I feel

OR

maybe like this old stump!

But it will all work out...