Hej!
A while back I was using my Google-fu to try to find some interesting and weird places to explore in the Los Angeles area.
One of the places I happened upon was the Murphy Ranch Nazi Camp, described as a World War II-era enigma hidden in a forest outside of Santa Monica.
The pictures and text I could find about the place made me itch to go there as soon as possible. Yesterday I convinced David we needed a sunday adventure at the Murhy Ranch.

On the site Atlas Obscura they describe it like this Now property of Los Angeles City parks, Murphy Ranch was originally developed to be a self-sustaining compound in the 1930s. It was originally purchased in 1933 by Jessie Murphy -- a person never seen nor documented elsewhere. Despite the phantom owner, the property was developed by Winona and Norman Stephens and a German national by the name of Herr Schmidt. The design implemented was an installation of several buildings, fuel tanks, and multiple massive cisterns. The entire complex, according the plans of Herr Schmidt, was to be self-sustaining even if it suffered years of isolation from the outside society. Schmidt's motivations, however, remain the focus of the lore.

Apparently Herr Schmidt wanted to create a Nazi holdout in America, but in 1941 the ranch is said to have been raided by United States Federal Agents that had kept an eye on Herr Schmidt and his work. The place has been abandoned ever since, with the exception of a few years in the 60's and 70's when artists took over the ranch.

The backstory piqued my interest, but what really made me want to go there was the fact that the only way to reach the ranch was by descending a 500 steps concrete staircase straight down the mountainside.
The pictures I found showed a hidden and secret place, and I was so excited to see it for myself!
We arrived at the start of the hike around 5.30 in the afternoon. It's been so hot in Los Angeles lately so we had to wait until it was starting to cool off a bit, but not too late because we didn't want to get stuck out in the wilderness in the dark.

The light was just perfect and I was already happy that we had came there, even if we weren't to find the stairs.
We met a few people going back down the trail who told us to keep going and the stairs would appear quite clearly maybe a mile ahead.

And there it was. In front of the most beautiful mountain view.

After walking down the stairs for a while David asked "Are we going to be doing this forever, Lotta?" The stairs just kept on going.

It felt like we were explorers in a forgotten world!

I even decided it was worth it to go up and down the stairs a little bit extra for some self timer photos. I didn't know what I was in for later, apparently...

Like a fairytale! Or an adventure movie!

And then we reached the end of the stairs and found the goal of our hike!

I like that among all the usual graffitied penises and swear words someone had written Fuck Hitler (can't be seen in the photo though, if you were trying to find it). To keep the vandalism topical, I guess.
We didn't have time to look around any more than this house, because the light was rapidly getting weaker and we needed to head back to the car before dark.
I plan to return soon though, and bring my real camera! The weather will just have to cool off a bit before though, because I want time to explore this amazing location!

After just a few steps we realized just how exhausting the way up would be. I was breathing so heavy and tried to find a good breathing rhythm to keep me going. Sweat was pouring and we kept chanting about the ice-cream we had decided to buy when we finished the hike.

We had to stop and breathe a couple of times.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STAIRS BEHIND ME! So sweaty and shaky. Our legs started to feel like spaghetti after a while.

When we finally reached the top the sky looked this wonderful! Like a painting!

Speaking of paintings, isn't this mountain side so beautiful?!
I love the texture and colours.

And another one (I have at least ten more photos like these in my phone).

And over there is Santa Monica in evening light.

Such an awesome adventure! I absolutely love to find places like this and I have already started to search for the next location to explore.
Also, I'm sure that the muscle soreness I'm feeling today is going to remind me of this excursion for at least a couple of days.

That was all for today, I hope you liked to tag along on our hike.
Talk to you soon!

/Lotta

There's a special kind of thought that pops into my mind quite often. You could call it a favourite thinking exercise, or a recurring fascination.
It's about those times in life when you've been right at the edge of something new, and you can see the change coming but you don't yet know how it will affect your life.
I revel in those feelings.

Five years ago in Gothenburg David and I went to look at what would be our first apartment together. We really wanted to get it, it was big had two balconies and was close to the city centre, so when we walked from the apartment to the grocery store down the street we tried to imagine what it would be like if this was our neighbourhood.
It was still winter and the small cherry tree outside the store had yet to grow leaves on its bare branches. We stood underneath it and kissed with so much hope and anticipation in our bodies, and I remember imagining us standing at the very same place in spring, kissing beneath blooming cherry blossoms. There was also worry, that we wouldn't get the place, and that this part of town would continue to be a stranger to us and not our home.

When we finally got the call that the apartment was ours I went back to that feeling in my mind, tried to remember how the neighbourhood looked but not really knowing where the streets went and what was behind the buildings and parks.
Over the years since I've learned how the area looks, I know what is behind the grocery store (ugly apartment buildings from the 80s), I know every twist and turn of the cemetery where I like to go for walks or evening runs, I know all the cute little shops, which chef at the thai restaurant on our street that cooks the best Pad Thai, and I even recognize some strangers that pass through the neighbourhood as a part of their every day life.
And I still try to remember that feeling of not knowing how the future will look, but being sure it will change soon.
I try to see the grocery store down the street in the same way I did that day when I was filled with expectations and longing for something new, because I like that feeling so much, I want to keep it in me forever.
It's a surrender, of sorts. You know that you don't have all the information, you know things will change and that it will make your life different, so all you can do istrust and hope, and let go until you're there.
And then, when you're there, you can never truly get that feeling back because then you KNOW.

Before we came to USA we were in the same sort of unknown space. We knew we probably would be going, but we didn't know when and how it would all pan out. It was too big to even dream of, too huge to comprehend. We could just wait and see, put our lives a little bit on hold until the call came that yes, we should come to LA, in fact- could we come next week?
That period is still so fuzzy to me. Impossible to grasp. It was just a vacuum.
But then, when we came to USA at the end of March, we didn't even have a place to live and we stayed at a hotel until we could find a more permanent place.
On the day we came upon the tiny apartment we live in now I was struck by that very same feeling.
We knew the name of the street, but not the house number, so we drove down the street trying to get a feel of the area and guess where exactly our life would be lived the following months.

I think a move to a new place is a perfect example of this "knowing but not knowing" state of mind. It revolves around so much more than just the house you live in (a new job creates the same feeling of getting to know a work place as well as colleagues). It's about the surroundings too.
You can never keep that fresh naive look at a place after you've gotten to know it, so now when I walk to the grocery store fifteen minutes from our tiny home I try to capture that fleeting memory of how it was when this part of the world was completely unknown to me.

And now I'm at one of those edges all over again.
We're moving to a tiny, but not quite as tiny, home in a part of LA where we've actually been before. We have a favourite sushi place in that neighbourhood. It's close to many places where we've been; restaurants, stores, a theatre and old book stores.
But now there are also small and winding streets we will call Home for a few months. Streets behind all those spots we've visited without knowing that our future home was hiding in the hills back there.

And I can't stop thinking, what will it be like to have these streets be my streets. How will it look in a month when I've walked all over the place, mapped every corner and bump in the sidewalk?
When I look back at the day when we drove there the first time and everything looked so exciting and unknown.

When I will know.

Hej hej!
I'm back!
On tuesday and wednesday last week I was filming my scenes for Lights Out and it was AWESOME! I had so much fun and I loved every second of it. I might show you some pictures in a while, if I can be bothered.
Today though I'm going to share a million photos of sunsets over mountains. Among other things.

When Lights Out was wrapped David and I had the rest of the week off and we were in dire need of some serious relaxation.
So we rented a big cabin in the mountains, at Lake Arrowhead, and spent thursday to sunday there.
And it was heaven.
We both got a cold, because our bodies could relax for the first day in weeks, but it was still the best weekend ever!
We got a glimpse of what our retired lives might look like when we're old and grey. Amazing, is the word.
Let's take a look, shall we?
These are mostly shot with my Nikon D7000 but I'm sneaking some iPhone photos into the mix as well.

When we checked out the cabin we realised the balcony on the middle floor would be our hangout for the entire stay. Because this was the view.
It was about to rain and the clouds and sun we're making weird shapes in the distance.

You see what I mean about Retired life? We will find ourselves a cabin somewhere with a nice view and sit there in our recline chairs for ever. I have no doubt.

An hour later it looked like this. *cue the angel choir*

Houses on the opposite mountain.

And then this. (This is an iPhone photo by the way. Mind blown.)
So soft and fluffy and soooooooft.

Just so beautiful!
(Are you tired of mountain views yet? Sorry, there's more...)

The morning after we both woke up with a cold. David talked with his family and friends back home in Sweden. Infront of the mountains.

Because THIS.

In the afternoon we went out on a tiny adventure to see more of the mountain roads.

And I took some iPhone self portraits.

This was close to a shooting ranch and signs said it was a No Parking zone. But we're rascals...

After a while we got hungry. So we drove to Sky Forest and had sandwiches at the Hungry Bear.
Don't you just love the names? Sky Forest must be the prettiest village name ever.

That's a Hungry Bear.
The guy taking our order asked us if we were "Locals? Veterans? Or just Cool People?" because he wanted to give us a discount. We agreed to the cool people. We also got free cake pops. And the guy had the best eyebrows I've ever seen.

They sure love their Cabin Chic style...

We drove randomly and stopped at a place called the Rim of the World.

The view was spectacular.

Took a Panorama with my iPhone to get all of the view into one photo.

And we were cute, if a bit tired.

Back at the cabin in the trees.

In time for another beautiful sunset.

I went out to catch the golden light with my iPhone and gorillapod.

I had a perfect view of David drawing and the mountain sunset from my seat.

I like the trees on top of the mountain. They look so cute, and almost painted there.

When it got dark we played Jenga.

And then, close to midnight, we went out on the deck and sat in the hot tub under the starlit sky, and it was magical with the sounds of the forest all around us and the clearest stars I've ever seen above us. No photos of that because it was completely dark outside.

On saturday I could really feel my cold. I sat under a blanket reading for a couple of hours (looking white as a sheet in the face).

We did nothing all day and then in the early evening we went to Stone Creek Bistro and ate a great meal as a sort of "End of the weekend away dinner".

When we got back to the house the sunset was coming. This is the view from the top floor/loft. That window wall was so amazing!

I decided to take some self portraits with the Nikon camera for a change. I got a new fixed lens for the camera (This one if you're curious) and I wanted to try it out with the self timer.

This place makes you feel tiny.

Doing some dancing.

And then one with the iPhone, for instagram.

Look at that smokey blue in the distance!

The gas stove was perfect for toasting marshmallows.

Uh Oh!

Then on sunday it was time to leave. I went out to get a photo of one of the HUGE pine cones there. I kinda wanted to bring one with me, but this one was lying in someones garden so I didn't dare to take it. Pineapple sized pine cones! Size 9.5 foot for reference.

Post card view before leaving for LA.

And I'll leave you with this cute as hell photo of David and me on our way to the cabin. The gorillapod is sitting on the car door, if you're wondering.
I love the 70's feel of this photo. And I love that man. So very much.

Hope you liked this glimpse into our weekend away and that you didn't get too tired of all the mountain photos, haha!

Talk to you soon!

/Lotta

OMG! I'm the worst blogger ever right now!
It's like time is just running through my fingers and all of a sudden three weeks have gone by.
Sorry for that! But like I told you in my last post I can't talk a lot about what happens on set and since that is about all that is going on in my head right now it's very hard to find things to blog about. Or even get the thought "I need to blog now".
But I realised today I actually DO have things I want to show you about what's going on in my life. So let's do that!

We spent the weekend before shooting started at the production office. We haven't been there since, and I had a feeling it would be long until next time, so I went bananas with the self timer up on the roof. I really like those moments alone exploring, jumping around and running back and forth to set the timer/look at the photo I just took to see if it turned out any good.

David on the first day of filming! Look how cute!

I have been at the set every other day. I come and go as I want to and it feels good to have a couple of days for myself every now and then. When I'm not at the filmset I'm walking around in Burbank where we live and sit at cafés writing. Here's a pine tree lined street close to us that is mysterious and dark usually, but when someone has watered the street at the same time as their gardens, it turns into an even more beautiful scene.
I would get super bored if I would only do one or the other (alone days or hanging out at the set) but now as I can choose to mix it up I really enjoy the days I have on my own.
The movieset is super exciting with lots of people running around doing their thing and I find it so amazing to see David working so surely with experienced actors and film crew. It's such a huge leap to go from making movies just two people in an apartment to making a studiofilm in Hollywood. I'm beyond impressed with how awesome David is in this situation.

A couple of hands I found on a wall that are both cute and extremely spooky at the same time. Baby ghost hands!

When we had only been in LA for a couple of weeks our wonderful neighbours knocked on our door and gave me this shirt. They had found it in a store and had to buy it for me because it happened to have Lights Out written on it.
It has nothing to do with our film but I obviously feel like it's meant to be so I wore it on set and felt like a fangirl all day.

On the first weekend after filming started we switched the production office for the filmset. I found spooky places in the large building and obviously got good use of my gorillapod and self timer. I'm really fond of the light and shadows in this photo. I love using what is around me and this is a perfect example of how to get the surroundings to work in your favour.

And I definitely can't resist a good hallway.

On the last day at the first filming location they filmed some outdoor scenes and it was a lot of work before they could take a break for food. Since I do what I feel like when I'm there I fetched a cup of coffee and went up on the roof for some alone time. It was during golden hour so the light was just beautiful. I took some photos and then I realised I could see what the film crew was up to from my spot above.

Looking down at people who don't know they are being watched...

Then David walked past and I sent him a text that he should look up. When he saw me he came up on the roof too. He had a few minutes to breath (and make out) away from the hustle and bustle of the movieset. It was a perfect moment. One of those you'll remember forever.

The view was kinda amazing.

I have been taking a bunch of outfit photos as well. This one was to show off my new second hand blouse that stops at the waist, covers my shoulders and is made in a cool and breezy fabric.
Talking about clothes, I had my costume fitting for Lights Out last week. Such a cool feeling! And it made everything feel a little bit more real too. I got my visa so that I can work in the film and I have a part and it's just so amazing everything!
I can't wait until it's my turn to get infront of the camera. And I am actually the only one in this production that have been directed by David before this! HA! And I'm not intimidated by Mr Hollywood Director so I'm going to pretend it's just like when we make our horror shorts at home. Nothing more, nothing less (Let's see how that goes).

a self portrait on one of my walks to the closest Starbucks for some coffee and writing.

Last friday at the new filming location. I took a coffee break under some trees in the beautiful garden.

This monday, out walking, finding surroundings that match my outfit.

And yesterday at the filmset. They were shooting one of the most difficult scenes in the movie light wise. There was so much people running around and there was a lot of last minute details that had to be decided.
I love this photo of David all lit up when he's thinking real hard on how to solve a problem, and all those people around him, in the dark.

David (second to the left) and the producers talk through a difficult scene in the dramatic smokey film light.

Just a prop master with a plastic man over his shoulder.

So I hope you liked to see and read a little about what's been going on these past three weeks. My plan is that you won't have to wait as long until my next blog post, but who knows really!
It's probably the strangest time in my life right now and I have sort of decided to not force anything. This entire experience is so far from every day life that we just have to take every day as it comes. It's both scary and exciting, obviously. But I feel strangely calm about everything. But that's the true nature of an adventure, isn't it?
Talk to you soon, okay?!

/Lotta