The Rose Garden and The Blog Cafe

Today I have the pleasure of taking you with me to the Rosehagen... which, translated from Norwegian means The Rose Garden.  This place was an old farmstead once-upon-a-time. In the past couple of years it has been converted to a cafe.  Another building on the property has been converted for overnight accommodations--ideal for those passing through our little town in the summer months. I am sorry for few photos.  Unfortunately, the day Dear Husband and I were lately at this lovely place, it was very difficult to get a good exterior photo, as the yard was all roped off for lawn fertilizing and maintenance... So to have a look at the place, see the Rosehagen website for a little more.

The interior of the place has been left intact...old wallpaper, antique and secondhand furniture & art work, fresh & dried flower arrangements on tabletops, candles.  It is very comfy, cozy... Like being at your grandmother's house!  During the week light fare is on offer, and at weekends hot meals.  When we were there, it was a very chilly day, so hot drinks and pastries tempted.  We had decadent chocolate-filled pastries.  I had a big cup of real hot chocolate with cream!  Dear Husband was happy with a steaming cup of coffee.  It's the kind of place where you can sit a while, lose time, conversation flows...

In a recent edition of the magazine section of the newspaper here, which comes with Friday's paper, there was a feature on people who won the lottery--won big... And how that changed their lives, what they did to use or, in some cases, lose the money.  Some were wise with their money.  Others lost much of their fortune to spending or unwise investing.

It got me to thinking, how there are times when I think maybe most of us are happy with our lot, happy with what we have... but that a little extra money from time to time would be helpful!

If Dear Husband and I won the lottery, we would pay off our house.  Perhaps buy a newer car. Give financial gifts to family, help them.  Give generously to charities. Save for the future. Travel a little.  Taking a chunk of time and traveling around the UK has long been a great dream of ours!  Some extra funds would happily make that possible!  But nothing HUGE, nothing grand, nothing flashy... Modesty would be our way with fortune.

What would you do if you won the lottery BIG?!

**Next week's Blog Cafe will be hosted by The Camp Spot! If you'd like to host the Cafe one week, please email us at: theblogcafe@yahoo.com  We'll get you on the list and give you a hosting date! **

Comments

[Sarah]

Hi Tracy,
That pastry looks delicious and the cafe sounds lovely. I would do much the same as you and your husband if I won. I would give up work so I could do art all the time but would maybe volunteer for a day a week as I would be out of touch otherwise. If only eh?!

[Kate England]

Rosehagen, what an idyllic excursion! One of those places where you can refuel and relax in beauty?! Love it!

If I won the lottery, I'd buy a house with a little garden. Share with my family and charities. Travel.

Speaking of happiness and winning the lottery, here's an interesting talk at TED on the topic: http://blog.ted.com/2006/09/happiness_exper.php

[Becky K.]

Hello Tracy,

What a lovely place to host today's Cafe. I love chocolate in any form and those pastries look awesome.

If I won the Lottery? Definitely pay off our mortgage and then buy a property large enough to build for us and our Moms. We would have a small farm and an RV so we could travel. Of course, we would have to have a hired hand to care for the animals while we were away. I think that should be a sweet young couple that would live in a sweet cottage on the property.

Dreams....how fun it is to dream.

Have a great day,

Becky K.

[margie]

what a lovely cafe. thank you for taking me.

[ellen b]

How lovely. I think I'd pretty much do what you would do with some unexpected money including traveling around the UK!

[lezlee]

The hot chocolate with real cream looks awesome, especially as it is unusually chilly here this morning in Phoenix so I could use that right now. :)

I have often thought about this lottery question...

One thing that I have noticed is that people have a strange relationship with money. Whatever amount of money you have - there's almost always someone else with more, and it seems that some people spend a great deal of time fixating on that fact.

A few stories of note:

Around 15 years ago I worked for an attorney as his assistant, and I did all the billing and even typed out a lot of their bills, so I was fairly intimate with their finances. And at the time, my husband was in school and we had very little money. And I kept thinking "I wonder what it would be like to have that kind of money? what would it be like to have so much money that you could have your parties CATERED? He never has to worry about money...how great would that be". And then one day he was talking with me about money and sort of expressing that he felt that compared with many of his friends he was not very financially successful. Which I found very perplexing. And then he said well - my friend Rich has his own plane! I can't compete with that! And that was the first time I realized that no matter how much you had, you could always feel like you were coming up short somehow.

Yesterday, a woman I do not know asked me for a ride home from church. I do not know why she asked me, I honestly don't know her name, nor do I remember seeing her there before but I said yes. And on the way to her house she was saying "thanks, this makes it possible for me to catch the bus to my job this afternoon, if i take the bus home from the church, I can't quite make the connection." And I said "oh, where do you work?" and she said quite proudly "Little Ceasars pizza" and she went on to tell me a brief version of her life, which included an abusive relationship and how she had never really worked in her life until now (and she's in her early 60s) and I dropped her off at her sort of sad little apartment and she was happy to have a job right now and happy that she was going to make her bus connection to get there on time. And happy that this great job had landed in her lap because she doesn't have the skills to qualify for anything as important or great as "medical billing or other important and good paying jobs like that".

So...

I have often and do often think about these questions about money. I think that once we live comfortably, and once we no longer have to worry about money or paying bills - then we feel "rich". But once we start making comparisons to others...we start to feel "poor".

If I won the lottery BIG I honestly don't think I'd do anything besides get a hybrid car. Then I would sit on that money for a while and really think about how it could be best used. My greatest wish would be to travel extensively. And after that I would truly try to figure out the best way to use it to improve other people's lives in ways that were meaningful.

I'm not trying to make myself sound like some kind of totally unselfish philanthropist type of person, but I've just seen over and over again that "things" almost never make a person happy. And I am lucky, I have enough "things" that the Little Ceasars lady yesterday made me feel kind of ashamed of myself and the luxuries I enjoy in my life compared to hers.

[Flower]

Good Morning! Hearing about your experience at Rosehagen and then what you would do with a lottery win..sends me into a thinking state. I would hope that I would use the extra money well..think of others and make a difference in many lives. Hmmmmm? I don't have many wants...so that really makes the thinking interesting! A shelter is needed in our community for people without homes....that may be the first thing to put in order.
A shelter with a great kitchen! :) Soups on!!

[JoLyn]

Good morning everybody at the Blog Cafe! It's so great to be here! I'm going to imagine myself eating that delicious looking pastry with a cup of hot cocoa--sounds so good....

What an interesting question, Tracy. It comes at a particularly poignant moment for me. We just returned from a humanitarian service trip to Nicaragua. I've come home feeling strong emotions about the drastic contrast in the possessions I have and what I've seen in the last week. I wonder why I'm blessed with so much. We are by no means wealthy. But we have a lovely home and everything we need, plus a lot of things we want. I compare that with the homes I visited this week--dirt or cement floors, no running water, no refrigerators. People who work each day just to buy the day's food.

If I won the lottery, I would want to fix it all. And I'm sure even all that money would only make a dent. But I'd want to start somewhere for someone, and hope I could make a difference.

I love what Lezlee said in the previous comment. I'm no unselfish philanthropist type either. I have things I want all the time. But now that I've seen these extremes in poverty, it's changed my outlook on wants and needs, necessities and luxuries, and all that. I hope I can find a balance in my life between wanting things and helping others because I've been so blessed.

Great topic, Tracy--thanks!

[Jenny-Jenny]

Oh, that hot chocolate looks decadent! Thank you for taking me here.

Winning the lottery? I would start with paying off the mortgage. Then add to the kids college and mission savings. Then I would do some redecorating, new appliances, maybe a little remodeling. And, buy myself a pink beach cruiser bike with a basket... When do I collect my money????

[Jodi]

Happy Monday Morning Tracy --

Oh those pastries. Yum.

Let's see, if I won big I would pay for my kids' education. And get them each their own vehicle so I could retire my mom's taxi service. And my biggest dream of all would be to see our house and move full-time to the lakeside camp. I would spend my days sewing and crocheting while watching the the seasons transform my view. Really -- nothing lavish or overboard. I could just afford to live a simple and meaningful life.

Isn't it fun to dream?

[Melanie]

What a lovely cafe. I like the 1950s pic showing just how little of the outside has changed.

There was a programme about winning big on the lottery the other week. Some expert was saying that those who came by the money suddenly and unearned frittered it away the fastest. So with that in mind I think I would fritter mine away by buying a house where we want to live and giving this one to a local homeless shelter to use. I would then set aside money for the childrens' education and setting up in life. Then I would support my current charities and hopefully have some money left to travel and explore more of the world where my money was ending up, as well as friends I've met online.

I am in 2 minds about telling anyone as I wouldn't want to be looked at differently, so I think there would be a few anonymous gifts to people.

Oh it is so nice to daydream. :-)

[HookdnTX]

If I won the lotto, I would Pay off grad school debt, but a 2 bedroom condo, pay for my sisters college, pay back my parents for school and put the remaining away in savings. I would like to have a big nest egg, a big coushin so that when I am ready to retiren in say 50 years, that I am good to go.

[rochambeau]

Thanks for taking me to the cafe Rosehagen. Yours is an interesting topic, about the lottery. I don't think it would bring me joy because it would be a responsibility I don't want.
Funny, isn't it? When I was younger I would have taken it for sure.

hugs dear Tracy,
Constance

[S. Etole]

I think I won the lottery when I found your cozy spot ... what a warm and inviting picture.

[Mandi Clem]

What a fun little cafe! I could use a hot chocolate myself. If I won a lot of money at once, I'd pay off our mortgage, by my dream truck (red Chevy 4x4 with custom rims, a lift, a sunroof, etc...), do somehting really nice for my parents, save some for the kids, travel and invest. Yep, that's what I would do!

[MrPuffy]

The Rose Garden sounds just my cup of tea!!! I'll have one of those chocolate filled pastry too - LOL

What would I do if I won the Lottery Big? Because I'm an accountant I would immediately pay my taxes! LOL Okay, seriously. I would save the majority but would immediately spend some on myself and on charity. For myself I would buy a custom wardrobe and a snazzy car and take a few trips with my family. Of course, I would also buy a lot of yarn :)

For charity I would fund education primarily. If you give someone an eduction it can never be taken away and will change lives and societies for the better. Who was it that said "ignorance and want" are the responsibility of us all. Dickens. And he was right.

[Mike J]

I'm a lot like the others. I'd pay off the mortgage, put more money into the kids college savings accounts but not pay for all of their college. There just something important about working hard to pay for your education (with help from your parents). Finally, I'd put the rest away for a later time. Then, when the time came I'd go on a cross country bike adventure with Jenny. Of course we would use part of our nest egg for all of the ice cream and pastries that we would use as bike fuel.

[Shell]

After paying off debts and giving money to my friends and family. I fly off to travel to Paris then Tahiti.

[Se'lah]

looks so inviting and the food, decadent indeed.

i'd travel the world to places less fortunate and help in any way i could.

one love.

[ELK]

travel . a new kitchen .. did I say travel?

[Pat --Mille Fiori Favoriti]

Hi Tracy

So sorry for the late visit. The Rosehagen sounds delightful! I like the looks of the pastry your husband had.

If I won the lottery I would probably divide the bulk of the money between my children, grandson,then give to our extended family, give more to my favorite charities, and travel on what is left. Other than that I think my life would more or less stay the same, as I'm happy with what I have right now. Health is wealth so I'd probably join a gym and get a nutritionist to help me lose a few pounds. :-)

Enjoyed my blog cafe visit!

♥ Pat

[❦TattingChic]

Tracy It looks like you really enjoy life! That pastry looks delish! I miss your emails! You'll have to send me one because I could not for the life of me remember yours...oh, that is bad...forgive me! LOL!
Hope you are having a marvelous week!

[clara]

Love the lovely name of the place. I remember being in a cafe with the same name where rosy drinks + pastries were on the menu. As you can imagine, the whole cafe was filled with tender rose scent. I kept their pretty namecard. I like to give, save, invest and spend no matter how much I have. :) Have a fun week Tracy!

[arizaphale]

I called in yesterday but the conversation was so busy I couldn't get a word in edgewise!!! hahahah (anyone who knows me knows that that's unlikely to be true! What's the weather like there in Norway at the moment? Is Spring springing? It's raining cats and dogs here in South Australia at the moment, which is a delightful change after 3 years of drought.
Now, the Lottery is such a wonderful concept. We all blythly trot out things like 'pay the mortgage', 'renovate the kitchen', 'travel' etc but I wonder how quickly we would do these things if it reeeeally happened to us? Some would no doubt put it quickly into a high interest bearing deposit and 'think' about it for a while. We would hope that we wouldn't go completely mad, buy a Porsche and take all our friends to Bali for a holiday before really considering what could be done with the loot. I loved what Lezlee had to say about feeling 'poor' or 'rich' being relative. I was intrigued too by Mike J's comment that he wouldn't pay for ALL his kids education because we want to teach them to work hard for things. I couldn't agree more. I must say the thing I'd want to do most of all (still want to do even if I don't win the lottery) is clear all our debt! This would mean my husband and I could stop working every hour in the day and spend some time with our family and with each other. I'd love to pay my parents back for everything they've done for me and maybe, when the time was right, invest time and money into an educational aid project perhaps somewhere in the Australian aboriginal lands. After all, charity starts at home ! Thanks for keeping a seat at The Rosehagen for me.

[Lisa]

What a lovely cafe to have nearby! I remember the delicious pastries from our time living in Norway.

Most people who win big in the lottery are not any happier. It is the simple things in life - family, friends, good health etc which are the most important. I would like to retire a little sooner so I could have more time to craft!