The Island of the Voices

Just A Reminder!

2011-01-17T18:55:00.000+01:00

Just a reminder that this blog has moved on…

from 3 January, 2011

See you there!

Taking The Plunge

2011-01-03T16:36:00.001+01:00

Yes, I’ve been talking about it for a while… wrestling with my own doubts… To sum up the story, I’ll soon be running out of space in my first Picasa web album; and instead of paying to upgrade, I decided to continue my two main blogs in a new account. I started with the Picture Book three weeks ago and I think that has worked out quite well so far. About 50% of the previous followers have already found their way to the new blog.

I’m a little more nervous about moving on from this one. But hey, the old posts that are already here aren’t going anywhere; that’s part of the point. There will be links back from the new blog.

We have just passed New Year, and what better time to take the plunge into “new waters”!

So click on the duck, or on the link below, to follow me…

Beyond the Lone Islands

See you there!

Happy New Year

2010-12-30T22:24:00.001+01:00

I just realized that if I’m going to wish you Happy New Year I shall have to do it NOW, because the rest of the weekend I’ll most likely be busy. Tomorrow on New Year’s Eve I’ll be having friends over in the evening; and if the snow situation doesn’t get too much out of hand, I’ll also be spending Sunday with family and relatives.

So looking back in the rear mirror on the year 2010, as well as any attempts at gazing into the future of 2011, here on the blog, shall have to wait until… well… some time next year…!

♥Gott Nytt År! ♥

Monica

BTT: Annual Book Review

2010-12-30T13:50:00.005+01:00

Booking Through Thursday, December 30, 2010

Deb asks:
* What’s the best book you read this year?
* Worst?
* Favorite?

These questions made me realize that over the past year I’ve slipped out of the habit of keeping a list of all the books I read and listen to. For years I kept such a list on my desktop computer, but then that computer crashed back in November 2009… Eventually I got the old documents from it back, but in the meantime I had failed to start a new reading list. I think the problems I’ve been having with an eye (PVD and “floaters”) contributed too. I’ve been reading mostly by ear (audio books) lately and many of them have also been Swedish books not available in English; which makes it meaningless to review them here.

Among the English books I enjoyed this year, the first that come to mind are the first three novels in Alexander McCall Smith’s series 44 Scotland Street. (Link goes to a previous BTT-post of mine.)

I don’t think I find it worth the time and effort to try to recall what might have been the worst!

Happy New Reading Year!

Using the Inner Eye

2010-12-28T06:00:00.000+01:00

Struggling along the icy streets in town today, it occurred to me that I almost feel I don’t believe in summer any more.

Please tell me I’m wrong…?

“… blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.
John 21:29

Quotation of the Week (52/2010)

2010-12-27T06:00:00.000+01:00

“I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.”

Taylor Caldwell

Weather Or Not

2010-12-26T13:31:00.001+01:00

In this part of Sweden (inland from the west coast) we cannot claim to have been really snowed in over Christmas. We got a thin layer of extra snow on Christmas morning but that’s it. Otherwise around here it just basically stayed cold, -10°C plus icy winds blowing.

The really nasty snowstorms seem to have kept to the south-east over Christmas (now moving north). Down in the SE all trains were cancelled on Christmas Eve, car queues on the roads got stuck in the snow for hours, and military vehicles were needed to get home care/medical staff out to patients in remote places, etc. The main problem was the strong winds which caused the snow to drift. They had to give up even trying to clear some of the smaller roads while it was at its worst.

Collage from news scenes on my TV screen

Myself I even got out for a bit of a walk in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, but I have no photographic evidence of it, since I got problems with the camera card. Maybe it froze or something! Anyway I had to format it to get it sorted and the few Christmas Eve pictures I had on it got erased. Never mind, nothing important. (And my main errand was to pick up a parcel from the post office rather than to take photos.)

On Christmas Day I only went outside for ten minutes or so, which took me as far as the end of our street, from where I was able to take this photo of the sun setting behind a house across the road.

Today I won’t be going out at all. If I had any thoughts of it, they went away just now as I turned from the computer screen to look out the window in my study. Guess what? It’s snowing…

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T12:37:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 24 December

Wishing all of my blogging friends a Merry Christmas,
and hoping that Santa will find some extra special gift
in his bag for each and every one of you!

The 24th is the last door in the traditional Advent Calendar. And at least here in Sweden, Christmas Eve is also the main day of celebration, because that’s when Santa comes bringing presents. Yes, that’s right. He starts his work already on Christmas Eve here in the North. He usually doesn’t bother with going through the chimney here – he just knocks on the door, just like any civil person would do. There, however, the normality ends, because what other guest would start the conversation by asking their hosts if they’ve been GOOD all year? Honestly, that’s enough to cause a child nightmares rather than joyful expectation (and I’m speaking from personal experience here!).

However, I blogged about my issues with Santa last year, and so I’ll skip repeating all of that again. Over the years, we’ve come to a better understanding; which means he rarely turns up in person on my doorstep any more, asking silly questions; but on the other hand I no longer boycott all images of him. And I still get presents…! Some came through the mailbox earlier in the week and are waiting under my little tree to be opened this afternoon or evening.

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I hear some little santa-gnomes making a noise in the kitchen, complaining that I forgot to let them out of their house… Better go and do something about it…

Almost There

2010-12-23T15:38:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 23 December

It’s the Day before Christmas Eve, and I just put my Christmas Ham in the oven before starting on this post.

The Swedish word for Christmas is “Jul” (the same word as the old English “Yule”, dating back to pre-Christian times). Christmas Eve is “julafton”. However, we also have an alternative name for that day, which would translate “Dipping Day”. This refers to a tradition of dipping bread into the broth left over from cooking the meat.

Traditionally, there is sort of a count-down going on the week (or so) before Christmas, which makes today “the day before Dipping Day”. With just one day to go, that’s not much of a challenge; but for example Monday this week would have been “the day before the day before the day before the day before Dipping Day” – etc. (The only limitation for when to start the countdown is really your own ability to keep count.)

(Picture from Wikipedia)

You may be familiar with the concept of the Scandinavian smörgåsbord (in English spelled smorgasbord) - a buffet with a wide variety of dishes. (“bord” literally means “table”) Well, the Julbord is similar; only more of everything, and extra special Christmas dishes added.

What should be included in the “julbord” varies a bit between different parts of the country, and from family to family. If you’re interested, read the Wikipedia article, because this is one subject which I’m not qualified to write about. Our family traditions were rather modest in this respect – especially in later years - and my own even more so!

It probably says something about how strong the tradition of the ham as the centerpiece of the Julbord is, though, that this is just about the only thing that I sometimes do bother to make myself. (Christmas without ham is for us like Thanksgiving without turkey for the Americans. Or at least that’s my impression from Americans movies and sitcoms!)

In spite of the ham, Christmas food fanatics would probably feel deeply disappointed looking into my fridge. Not that it’s empty, but since I’m not much of traditional Christmas food fan myself, I’ll be quite content eating other things - and hopefully not much more of them than I usually do.

In fact, the only other thing in my fridge that really shouts out “jul” is a couple of bottles of Julmust. This is a special soft drink made from a secret recipe. It was created by a father and son Roberts in 1910 as a non-alcoholic alternative to beer. It is still made exclusively by the same company and the original recipe is said to be locked up in a safe with only one person knowing all the ingredients. The beverage is closely associated with Christmas, is also sold at Easter but traditionally not at all in the summer. In the Christmas season however, Julmust outsells Coca-Cola in Sweden, and not only that - the consumption of Coca-Cola drops by 50% during the same time.

One more thing that is a “must have” for me at Christmas is gingerbread cookies, but I do not bake them myself any more (too hard on my neck-shoulder-arm problems). What I did do a few days ago was bake a cake with the same spices – less hard work, but still gives the right smell ;)

I also like a special Christmas blend of green tea which I buy at my favourite tea shop.

So: Christmas ham, Julmust, gingerbread and Green Christmas Tea… I’m all set! ;)

As for the expected snowstorm, it has not showed up yet in the area where I live (inland south-west). It now seems it will hit the south-east coast the hardest. The snow that is already here is not going anywhere though! The outside temperature is –8°C. Just nipped outside to dispose of some garbage bags… Brrr, quite a wind blowing too… I’m staying in…!

The Christmas Tree

2010-12-22T10:57:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 22 December

They say there is a shortage of Christmas trees in Sweden this year. This is because snow came so early this winter, and never left. Which means a lot more work for each tree that has to be cut. For customers who want to choose their three before it’s cut, I imagine it also involves some difficulties in judging what the tree might look like without the snow. Not to mention finding a place for it to thaw before taking it inside…?

I have no statistics to prove it, but my guess is the sale of artificial Christmas trees might have gone up this month.

I was not really out looking for Christmas trees, though, when I took those first two pictures... Not trees to take in, anyway! My own artificial little tree (60 cm high) is celebrating its 24th Christmas with me. It’s usually the last of my Christmas decorations to get put up. I decorated it on Monday afternoon this week. Then on Tuesday some presents to put under it arrived by mail from a friend!

The custom of the Christmas tree can be traced back to 15th century Estonia and Germany. A decorated tree was put up in the market square or the guild hall. People danced around it, and the edible decorations were given out to the children on Christmas Day.

The Christmas tree is said to have been introduced in Britain and the US in the early 19th century. The first report of a Swedish Christmas tree is from 1741, but it did not get really common until the late 19th/early 20th century. The early Christmas trees in private homes were usually small, table-sized ones.

Long before the introduction of the Christmas tree it was common to take in just branches for decoration.

All Prepared…

2010-12-21T12:11:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 21 December

I posted a picture of this wall hanging last year, too, but I thought I’d show it to you again, in more detail.

The artist who made it was my mother. (Although she would never have called herself an artist.) I think she must have made it back in 60’s or early 70’s, although I cannot recall where it used to hang. (The house where my parents lived during the last two decades is not the house where I grew up.) Anyway… looking closely at it now, she put quite a lot of work into details:

… like candles, Christmas tree, and hyacinths in the windows!

Quoting myself from last year’s post:

“The landscape reminds me of another Christmas decoration from my early childhood which I think was found not worth saving when my parents moved in the early 90s. It was a little village of home made cardboard houses, church included, and little people made of home made play dough (flour, water and salt), dried in the oven and then painted with water colours. Each Christmas, my mum cleared the top shelf of my bookcase, rolled out a layer of white cotton wool over it, and then we placed the houses on top and built the village. There was also a little dam made by a mirror, on which people were “ice-skating”. When we'd built the landscape, we finished off by sprinkling some boric acid crystals on top to make it glitter like snow does when it's really cold outside.”

Today is that kind of day. When I got up around 8 in the morning, the thermometer outside my window showed -17°C (1,4 F). All the weather forecasts now seem to agree that Tuesday (today) and Wednesday will be very cold; and after that there’s another heavy snowfall coming in, lasting all through Christmas Eve…

Personally I’m all prepared now to let myself get snowbound over Christmas. I hadn’t got plans to go anywhere anyway. Not expecting visitors either. And after some initial bewilderment about how to feel about that, I think I’m now totally okay with it. Actually more than okay: Looking forward to it as a time of relaxation, with no obligations to fulfill.

I was able to pay a short visit to dad last week, together with two cousins of his. I could tell from details I noticed when I was there that he is being well looked after where he is living now, and that he has not been forgotten by old friends and acquaintances in the village either. (Several poinsettias and other Christmas flowers on the windowsills and table.) It’s a relief to know that he’s in a “safe” place this winter rather than living alone in the old house depending on home care staff making their way there through the snow. And in this kind of weather, I really also feel better knowing my brother won’t have to spend half the weekend out on the roads!

I’m pretty well stocked up with food and other necessities. I’ll be able to get out for some “extras” this afternoon. After that, I could stay snowbound for a week or more, if need be.

My indoors temperature is also back to normal lately. I think I mentioned here that a few weeks ago, it was so cold in the flat that I went out and bought myself an electric blanket to keep myself warm. But shortly after that, the indoors temperature went up again to a comfortable 22-23°. I hope it stays that way. (If it doesn’t, I still have the electric blanket!)

My Christmas decorations are up. I have plenty to eat. If I don’t like what’s on TV I have lots of favourites on DVD. I have unread books, lots of music, computer games and the internet...

All I really wish for is that all of my friends will be safe and comfortable as well; not finding themselves stuck in traffic or waiting endlessly at some train station or airport.

~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

Quotation of the Week (51/2010)

2010-12-20T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 20 December

‘The White Witch? Who is she?’
’Why, it is she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!"’
’How awful!’ said Lucy.

---

‘Come on!’ cried Mr Beaver, who was almost dancing with delight. ‘Come and see! This is a nasty knock for the Witch! It looks as if her power as already crumbling.’

---

And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. --- Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world – the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make his look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.

‘I’ve come at last,’ said he. ‘She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.’

C.S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(Illustration by Pauline Baynes)

…

I’m not sure how it works for readers who live in a warm climate, but I think Lewis catches perfectly how closely connected Christmas has come to be with Winter for us who live in the North. Christmas is celebrated at Midwinter; it is the turning point, when we can begin to say things like “at least from now on the days will be getting longer again…”

The Christmas Gospel

2010-12-19T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 19 December

Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2:

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2:

¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The pictures are all of my own Nativity Scene decorations (and some extra angels) which I put up yesterday in my study. All the pieces don’t come from the same source, but I’m having some fun with that… ;)

♥ ♥ ♥

Listen at YouTube to Sinead O’Connor singing Silent Night.

♥ ♥ ♥

Dreaming of a White Christmas?

2010-12-18T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 18 December

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?

In Sweden, the early winter this year has already provided so much snow that the thought of even more of it is likely to cause nightmares rather than classic Bing Crosby sentimentality.

On Wednesday this week, we had had cold, clear day here in the south-west, around -13°C (8.5 F). In the night, the temperature rose to 0°C (32 F) in a few hours, and it started snowing (or raining, esp. closer to the coast). On top of that, a strong wind blowing. And it kept on snowing most of the day.

The top photo in this post was taken the day after the snowstorm; turned into black-and-white - not that that made much difference! – and the snowfall effect was added in Picnik.

The photos below were taken through my windows in the snowfall.

The media warned people in this area from going out if they didn’t have to. I did not have to, so I took the advice and stayed in. As the day proceeded, I was more than glad that I did!

The sudden temperature changes glazed some roads with ice, while others were blocked by heavy snowfall. Not for the first time this winter, trains stopped running and airports were closed. Accidents were multiple, especially along the west coast. Trucks went off the road and blocked the rest of the traffic. A bus turned over. In Gothenburg, pedestrians were unable to stay on their feet in the streets because the rain froze to ice as soon as it hit the ground. The Emergency Rooms at the hospitals were crowded. All ambulances were out picking up people in a never-ending queue, and they had to call in every orthopedic surgeon they could get hold of to take care of all the fractures.

Friday morning, I again woke up to -13°C, and a bleak sun sometimes peeking out from behind the clouds.

I managed to get into town by bus in the morning to get some groceries; and later a short walk to the small local shop as well. So if necessary, I’m all set to get snowed in again over the weekend! More snow is predicted, after which it will get colder again.

Most likely, Christmas will be white and cold all over the country. That is far from always the case here in the south.

My local newspaper had some statistics: In our town, looking back over the past 20 years, 13 Christmases out of 20 were NOT white. Last year was actually the first white Christmas we’d had since 2001. But December this year will probably turn out the coldest December in Sweden in 100 years - or even 150, someone just said on the news!

Christmas Horses

2010-12-17T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 17 December

… Really?! … Well, the first reaction would be “neigh”… (“nej” meaning “no” in Swedish!) … but on second thought …

These ponies I found in the Christmas market last weekend, and children could go for a ride around the town square.

“In the good old days”, when people went by sleigh to church early on Christmas morning… the sleigh was of course drawn by horses.

Photo from sverigesradio.se

I’ve mentioned before that pastry cutters for Christmas gingerbread biscuits come in all kinds of shapes – including the pig, and the yule goat. Many years ago on holiday in the province Dalarna in central Sweden, I also bought pastry cutters in the shape of horses.

This picture I found on the internet
(easier than finding my own cutters)

The province Dalarna is famous for their wooden horses (in the same shape as the pastry cutters), colourfully decorated with a special kind of folk art, kurbits.

My Dala-horse, and a model of a grandfather type of clock
from the same area; both painted in the “kurbits” style.

I mentioned in connection with Lucia, that the male participants in the Lucia processions, called “star boys”, are associated with the first Christian martyr, St Stephen. One of the songs often sung by the boys in the Lucia procession talks of St Stephen (“Staffan”, in Swedish) as an ostler or stable boy, taking care of his “five horses”, “in the light of the star”. The origins of this song are said to go back way further than the Lucia traditions and are based on a legend that places Stephen as a servant of King Herod around the birth of Jesus (rather than as the first martyr of the early church after Jesus’ death ~35 AD): seeing the star of Bethlehem he told Herod about it, and thereby aroused the king’s anger.

A medieval church ceiling painting of St Stephen and his horses
(picture from Swedish Wikipedia) ~ 1200 AD

The horse, just like the pig and the goat, also belongs in pre-Christian Scandinavian traditions. The Old Norse god Odin’s horse Sleipnir was said to have eight feet. He could run through the air as well as on the ground, and the stories also tell of him being ridden down into the Underworld to the realm of the dead (reigned by queen Hel). Horses were also used for sacrifices.

Looking at the medieval painting above, I doubt it is quite a coincidence that it can be seen either as two horses, or as one horse with eight feet and two heads, one pointing up, and one down. It strikes me that the painting was probably meant to recall ideas of descending into hell and rising into heaven, borrowing the imagery from the old religion. (A “revelation” that only dawned on me just now. I had no idea whatsoever when I started writing this post that from the ponies at the Christmas market I would end up with references to old Sleipnir…!)

The Yule Goat

2010-12-16T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 16 December

Hey, what’s this? Dogs?

No, not dogs… Dogs do not have horns…

They’re goats!

So why are there goats at the Christmas Market??
They’re Yule Goats, of course!

Just like the Christmas Pig, the Yule Goat in Scandinavian traditions probably goes as far back as to pre-Christian days. Goats were connected to the Old Norse god Thor, who rode the sky in a chariot drawn by two goats.

The Yule Goat nowadays usually only appears as a Christmas ornament made out of straw etc. The most famous Yule Goat in Sweden is found – briefly – each year in the town of Gävle. I say briefly, because it is traditionally always burnt down almost immediately. Not as an official rite, but an unofficial one.

In the 19th century, however, before ‘Father Christmas’ entered into Scandinavian traditions, it was the Yule Goat who came with Christmas gifts. In early Christmas cards, the Goat and the Tomte/ Father Christmas can also be seen together:

Christmas card by Jenny Nyström

A thought of my own (although perhaps I’m not the first to make the connection) is that in Biblical/ Christian tradition, we also have the Scapegoat…

“The rite is described in Leviticus 16. Since this goat, carrying the sins of the people placed on it, is sent away to perish, the word "scapegoat" has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. In Christian theology, the story of the scapegoat in Leviticus is interpreted as a symbolic prefiguration of the self-sacrifice of Jesus, who takes the sins of humanity on his own head…” (Wikipedia)

It kind of closes the circle of religious symbolism, doesn’t it?
The Scapegoat becoming the Bringer of gifts...

Christmas Market

2010-12-15T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 15 December

The smell of roasted almonds gives a special atmosphere to the Christmas market.

The red wooden market stalls are put up in the town square for the Christmas market from 1st Advent until Christmas.

More things to eat! The sign says “4 kinds of sausages” – reindeer, elk (moose), wild boar and – garlic?! (The last one does not really seem to fit in with the others!)

Hmm… I’m getting suspicious…
Why were Santa’s/ Tomten’s reindeer not in their stables???

Writing Christmas Cards

2010-12-14T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 14 December

Help. I’ve got so caught up this year in blogging about Swedish Christmas traditions that I’m getting behind with my own!

I got my few overseas Christmas cards sent off on time last week, but then yesterday I “suddenly” realized that I only had a couple of days left before I also need to post all the European and Swedish ones, which I hadn’t even got started on…

This year I ended up with a mix of cards; ordering about half of them printed from one of my own photos, making a few myself at home (but not as many as I over-optimistically thought I would), using some bought earlier in the autumn at a market, and having to buy some more from the bookshop. There is of course nothing really wrong with that - except that in my case it means too many last minute decisions! (who shall get which card etc)

As Paul Simon says in one of his songs on the album Hearts and Bones: “Maybe I think too much”. (Only in my case there is probably no maybe about it.)

Note to self: Next year, just order enough copies of the same card for everyone!!!

Oh well, I’m almost done now; I’ll put the stamps on tomorrow.

The two cards I chose for you in this blog post were painted by Swedish artist Jenny Nyström (1854-1946). She became famous as the person who created the Swedish image of the jultomte on numerous Christmas cards and magazine covers, linking “Santa Claus” to the gnomes of Scandinavian folklore. Some of her classic cards are still reprinted and sent around every Christmas.

These two hardly belong to the most commonly seen, though. Both are old ones in a small size which I’m not sure is even allowed to send in the post any more. I have a whole bunch of these small old unwritten cards, all different (and most of them by less well known or even anonymous artists). I’ve had them for more than 30 years, and they seemed old to me even then. They belonged to either my grandmother or her sister.

Quotation of the Week (50/2010) + Lucia (2)

2010-12-13T08:22:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 13 December - LUCIA

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”
~ James Keller ~

I did not get to see our town’s Lucia this weekend; but below is another St Lucia video for you, which was made for Swedish television in Mora in 2007, at the home/museum of famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920). This video includes Lucia and her maidens arriving by sleigh ride. You will also get glimpses from the kitchen, and get to see the Lucia carrying a coffee tray with the traditional buns and gingerbread cookies (see yesterday’s post).

Lucia Celebrations (Part I)

2010-12-12T12:19:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 12 December

Tomorrow on 13 December we celebrate St Lucia, or St Lucy’s Day in Sweden (and in the other Scandinavian countries as well). It’s not an official holiday, but a very popular occasion in Sweden, celebrated everywhere: at home, publically in the town, in schools, work-places and churches.

This year, as 13 December falls on a Monday, some of the official celebrations are likely to take place on the weekend instead.

But Lucia is also traditionally an early morning event so no doubt there will be Lucia celebrations on Monday morning too.

Photo from Wikipedia

The girl or woman appointed “Lucia” wears a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head. She walks at the head of a procession of other girls/women (her “maids”) wearing similar white gowns and carrying candles. There may also be boys in the procession, dressed up as “star boys” or (especially with younger children) sometimes in other Christmas-inspired costumes. As Lucia is associated with the Christian martyr St Lucy (283-304), the star boys are associated with St Stephen (the first Christian martyr). While entering the room, they sing a Lucia song describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness.They then go on to singing more Lucia and Christmas carols and songs.

Older Swedish traditions may have gone before, but the current Lucia tradition of a white-dressed woman with candles in her hair appearing on the morning of the Lucia day is said to have started in the area around Lake Vänern in the late 18th century and spread slowly to other parts of the country during the 19th century.

When the celebration takes place in private homes, Lucia traditionally brings Lucia buns, ginger biscuits and coffee.

Photos from Wikipedia

Some people prefer the Lucia buns made with saffron, some without. (I like them with saffron, although that was not the tradition in my home when I grew up.) The ginger biscuits come in all kinds of shapes, and lots of varieties in the ingredients too.

The modern tradition of having public Lucia processions in the Swedish cities started in 1927 when a newspaper in Stockholm elected an official Lucia for Stockholm. This spread throughout the country and every town now usually have their own. A national celebration is also broadcasted each year by Swedish television.

Below you can watch the beginning of such a Lucia celebration from Växjö Cathedral in 2009. (Växjö is in South-East Sweden).

Sweet Christmas

2010-12-11T14:48:00.002+01:00

Advent Calendar / 11 December

I forgot one kind of pig in my Christmas Pig post the other day:

The Marzipan Pig. Real Marzipan is made of sugar and almond meal; there are also cheaper varieties where peach or apricot kernels are used instead of almonds.

Here are some other typical kinds of Christmas sweets that many people in Sweden often still make their own at home for Christmas:

Knäck
This is a kind of toffee, made from
cream, sugar, syrup, butter and chopped almonds.
(Warning: Do not eat if you already have tooth problems!)

Ischoklad (ice chocolate)
50/50 chocolate + coconut fat

Mint kisses
Icing sugar, vinegar and peppermint oil,
with dark chocolate on top
(taste reminding of After Eights)

My Mum used to make ice chocolate, and another kind of toffee. We also made marzipan figures back in my childhood. I used to make the mint kisses sometimes, but I think that was not until after I moved away from home.

I don’t make any of these now; partly because if I do make them, I most likely also end up eating them! Some things I just have a very hard time resisting if I know I have them in the house…

None of the pictures in this blog post are my own,
the were all found by Google Search or Wikipedia.

Ten Minutes From Home

2010-12-10T15:43:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 10 December

… and also my post for: Friday My Town Shoot Out

“The theme for December 10th is a little different than what we are used to. 10 Minutes from Home. You can travel any way you would like, just let us know how you ended up 10 minutes from home. Walking, bike, drive a car, maybe ride a horse! --- After you get 10 minutes from home, show us what is there. So, in a way, this is a mystery for all of us!”

Unfortunately, 10 minutes walk in winter snow does not bring me quite as far as 10 minutes walk in the summer usually does. In the summer, I think 10 minutes would be enough to get me all the way into the little park beyond the white house on the left – the park I call my Butterfly Park.

This week (7 December) this was as far as I got in that direction in 10 minutes. Looking around, my eyes also fell on this snowy bike:

I’m sure it must be the same bike took a photo of last winter?! (More accurately: less than ten months ago.)

Has there really been a summer in between?
Or was that just a dream…?

The Christmas Pig

2010-12-09T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 9 December

The other day Ginny in her blog Let Your Light Shine had pictures of various strange Christmas decorations she had seen around where she lives; among them two pigs. I commented that the pigs were the least strange to me among those examples that she showed; and I promised to make a blog post including pictures.

Now after yesterday’s Advent Calendar post about the Christmas Bunny some people might think this is all a joke too; but today I’m actually into more serious research!

Pigs are quite common in Swedish Christmas traditions. As decorations they might be getting less common than they used to be, but unless you're a vegetarian, the Christmas ham is still the main course on the Christmas table. In the old days, and I think perhaps still in some restaurants, they used to decorate the pig's head with frosting, put an apple in its mouth, and have that on the table as well:

God Jul = Merry Christmas

One of the common pastry-cutters used for homemade Christmas gingerbread cookies is shaped like a pig:

There are also candle holders shaped like pigs:

and Christmas decorations with "tomtar"/gnomes riding pigs
(common on old Christmas cards I think):

No doubt the pig in the Christmas decorations goes back to pre-Christian Midwinter celebrations here in Scandinavia.

There was a boar Saerimnir in the Old Norse religion, which had sort of "eternal life". It was killed and eaten every night in Valhalla, the hall of dead warriors, where the god Odin reigned; but it was brought back to life again every morning.

The Christmas ham and the decorated pig’s head traditions can be traced back to sacrifices to the god Freyr for the new year.

The Christian faith is recorded to have been first introduced in Sweden by St Ansgar who founded the first congregation in Birka (near our capital Stockholm) in 829. (Links to Wikipedia.)

Sacrifices to the Old Norse gods were abolished as Christianity took over; but of course people still had to eat, and pigs were still slaughtered in time for Midwinter/Yuletide/Christmas...

Old and new traditions got mixed up in one another, as they so often do; until most people no longer know what’s what.

And so in Sweden we ended up with a strange mix of Baby Jesus in the manger, Christmas trees, candles, snow, pigs, Christmas gifts, the small gnome/brownie-like “tomte” and the Yule Buck mixed with the big jovial St Claus/Father Christmas and his reindeer... (And on top of that since 1960 every family glued to the TV screen every Christmas Eve between 3-4 pm to watch Disney cartoons – the link goes to an old blog post from last year.)

Oh, by the way… I mentioned in an earlier post that we also have a Christmas Calendar TV-show (a new one every year) running from 1-24 December. Guess who the “star” of this year’s Calendar is?

It’s a little pig!

None of the pictures in this post are my own;
they were all found by Google picture search.

The Christmas Bunny

2010-12-08T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 8 December

What? You never heard of the Christmas Bunny? Well, to me it makes as much sense as an Easter Bunny bringing Easter eggs!

Actually, the bunny sculpture stands in our town park all-year-round, but the snow gives him an extra interesting face expression. The Winter Wonderland surrounding him also enhances the associations with Alice in Wonderland (which inspired the artist).*

Here is proof that the Christmas Hare actually exists:

I saw him through my window one night last week. He was digging through the snow to get at the grass underneath, poor thing.

Then another one popped up in the gadget at the bottom of my blog page. Apparently there were Christmas Bunnies as early as back in the 16th century:

Snowy footnotes:
* The name of the the sculpture in the first picture is Mate Hunting,
and the artist Marianne Lindberg De Geer (born 1946).
* Thankyou to Picnik (now accessible directly from Picasa) for the Christmassy frames and the Santa hat.
* Apologies to Albrecht Dürer (1421-1528) and Random Classic Art.

A Thousand Candles

2010-12-07T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 7 December

Listen at YouTube to one of the most common Swedish Christmas hymns, “Nu tändas tusen juleljus” – “We light a thousand candles bright”. (Sung in Swedish by ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog and daughter back in 1980.)

Here is an English translation of the lyrics which I found at www.hymnlyrics.org:

We light a thousand candles bright, around the earth today,
And all the beams will shine across the heaven's grand display.
Yes, over land and sea tonight the joyful message brings
The birth of Him, our Lord and Christ, our Savior and our King.
Dear brightest star o'er Bethlehem, O let your precious light
Shine in with hope and peace toward men in ev'ry home tonight.
In all our house so cold and dark, please send your warmth sublime,
The warmth that comes from Jesus' love this blessed Christmas time.

Quotation of the Week (45/2010)

2010-12-06T06:00:00.000+01:00

Advent Calendar / 6 December

"It’s sharing your gifts, not purchasing gifts;
It’s not wrapping presents, its being present
and wrapping your arms around the ones you love;
It’s not getting Christmas cards out on time,
It’s sending any card, anytime, at the right time;
It’s not having the biggest and best Christmas light display,
It’s displaying the Christ light that comes from your heart;
It’s not Santa coming down the chimney,
It’s Jesus coming down from heaven,
and giving us the gift of eternal life."

~ Source: Anonymous ~

The maker of the wreath is also unknown to me.
The photo is mine, but feel free to copy it if you like.

Memories of Christmas Trees

2010-12-05T12:28:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 5 December

This is another page in my first photo album, from the Christmas when I was 16 months old. (Compare yesterday’s post.)

Mum’s drawing of the Christmas tree brings back memories, too. They used to have Swedish flags in the tree, like that, pinned into the tops of a twig. (Getting them in there, usually came with some - well, let’s call it ‘muttering between the teeth’ - because the end of that flagstick was sharp, and so were the needles on the spruce!)

I think the tree depicted might have been inspired by my paternal grandparents’ tree, because they used to have those old-fashioned sweet-wrapper kind of ornaments, and the small “tomte”/Santa figures made of yarn; and I think back in those days they also did still have real candles in the tree, not electric ones.

The tree at my other grandparents’ house was different. For one thing they must have had electric candles in theirs, because what I remember best about it is that they covered every little light-bulb with something called “angel’s hair”. I guess it was meant to resemble snow. I can’t find any picture of that.

Our Christmas tree at home was kept rather strict. Mum and dad did not want all kinds of ‘odd’ ornaments in it. I guess they thought that would disrupt the symmetry of things. However, when we moved into a bigger house, we used to have a second, smaller tree in the kitchen as well. In that one my brother and I were allowed to hang our own strange and wonderful creations from school, or other odd pieces of decoration. What those might have been, I hardly remember any more. Only that they were not to be mixed with the “proper” ornaments in the big tree.

- Now this is a “proper” classic Christmas ornament! -

The Christmas tree was not put up, or at least not decorated, until the day before Christmas Eve. Traditionally I think parents did this after the children had gone to bed, so that it was just there as a surprise in the morning. My memories, however, include a lot of muttering, not only about those flags, and the star at the top, but also about getting the tree itself to stand straight, and getting the light-chain untangled (it really is a mystery how a carefully folded light-chain always seems to manage to tie itself into knots all by itself in its box from one Christmas to another – but I suppose it gets bored, having nothing else to do for so long!), and then getting the lights evenly distributed across the tree, and… Well.

The first ten years of my adult life, I never spent Christmas in my own flat, and I never bothered about getting a Christmas tree. My own personal traditions came to be centered more around Advent than the actual Christmas. I was also somewhat “allergic” to Santa/gnome-figures, so for many years didn’t have any of those either. (I blogged about this last year in The Return of the Gnomes.)

Now since many years I have a small artificial tree, only 60 cm high, which I do decorate every Christmas. It serves me well enough! I usually put it up just a few days before Christmas. Never this early. The whole point of the Advent time in December for me is that it is supposed to be a gradual thing… Just like the Advent calendar.

Christmas Gifts and Memories

2010-12-04T11:18:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 4 December

Behind the door in my advent calendar today was someone who came bearing gifts.

♥ Were Christmas gifts important in your childhood traditions?
♥ Can your remember any special gifts in the past?
♥ What about now, how do you feel about Christmas gifts?

Thanks to my mother, I remember some of the things I got for Christmas when I was 16 months old. Besides putting photos in an album for me, she also added some extra drawings:

“Oh, so many Christmas presents!”

I remember some of these toys. The two look-alike dolls, one big, one small… They were both stuffed with straw, with celluloid faces; not quite as soft as many modern cuddly toys, and certainly not as washable. With time, they got rather worn and dirty, and I think mum had some struggle getting me to give them up eventually! (When, I cannot say.) The big doll was named Britta, and the small one Anna. That is not written down anywhere, that’s just still in my head. Both names occur in a well-known story by our beloved children’s book author Astrid Lindgren. But I can’t have known that at the age of 16 months. Can I? (At what age do little girls start giving names to their dolls?) The little round baby doll I have no memory of except for this picture.

The dachshund on wheels was made of wood and that one I think had rather a long life. Might even have been inherited by my brother (six years my junior). Or did he have his own? The leash used to get tangled up in the wheels. The cat was also made of wood, and that you could pick apart and put together again.

Nowadays I neither buy nor receive a lot of Christmas gifts. There are a couple of friends I usually exchange a small something with, just for fun… (Neither of us have any children or grandchildren.)

I can’t help it, I still like the anticipation of opening parcels… Perhaps I should wrap some for myself this year. Mind you, that doesn’t mean one has to go out and buy all new stuff… I’m thinking I might wrap up some of the DVD’s or books I’ve already got waiting, that I have not seen or read yet (or that I want to re-watch, or reread). Or CD’s I haven’t listened to for a while. If I make the parcels now, I might even have forgotten by Christmas what’s in each of them. It looks like I’ll be spending Christmas on my own this year. Or most of it, anyway. In any case, it will be different from Christmases past. I think it might actually be a good idea to prepare some half-random half-surprises for myself. Not all to be opened at once, but when or if I get slammed by the feeling that I don’t quite know what to do next!

Now Covered In White

2010-12-03T12:40:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 3 December

Now covered in white
are the paths I used to walk
watching butterflies

Advent Candles

2010-12-02T19:57:00.001+01:00

Advent Calendar / 2 December

Sorry I’m a bit late with this post. We’ve been having broadband problems on and off here over the last few days. Well – I guess I’m not really in time sync with most of my readers anyway… But it’s still very irritating whenever it happens. Not only does it disrupt my own posting – I’ve also not been able to make my usual “rounds” to read other people’s posts.

Opening the second door in my “fire prevention” Advent calendar, I found a wooden candle holder changed into one made of stone; and today’s message was to only use fireproof candle holders.

Three years ago I took some pictures of Christmas ornaments at my parents’ house. I think I may already have shown some of these last year, but never mind. Anyway, here are two classic candle-holders:

The Advent candle box: This has four candles, one for each Sunday in Advent, and is traditionally filled and decorated with white bog moss, pine-cones, evergreen sprigs etc. Even if the box itself is made of metal, the decorations are usually far from fireproof. Mum and dad were always careful to blow out any candles before they left the table, though.

The three-armed candle holder made of wood, often painted red is another traditional Christmas decoration. This one belonged to my paternal grandparents.

Myself I never light candles in wooden holders now. I’m afraid I might get distracted and forget about them. Or fall asleep…

Below is one of my own favourites for a single candle – the one to the left. (It’s the same one as in yesterday’s picture.) It’s made of wrought iron and it’s made especially to be used for candle-ends.

Advent Calendar / 1 December

2010-12-01T18:35:00.001+01:00

When I went to the 1st Advent celebration in the town square on Saturday, some firemen were handing out advent calendars. Do you have them in your Christmas traditions?

The first printed Advent calendar is said to have been produced in Hamburg in 1902 or 1903. In 1908, Gerhard Lang, a printer in the firm Reichhold & Lang of Munich, made 24 little colored pictures that could be affixed to a piece of cardboard. Several years later, he introduced a calendar with 24 little doors instead. The practice disappeared during World War II, but was taken up again after the war by Richard Sellmer of Stuttgart, and from there got spread worldwide. Beginning on the first day of December, one door is opened each day, counting the days remaining until Christmas Eve.

The first door on my calendar today was found on the door, and underneath it was a Christmas wreath (on the door)…

There was also something written on the back. It said: “Make a drawing with the text ‘Don’t forget to put out the candles’ and put that on your door.”

Not a bad idea actually… I did not do a drawing, but I used a photo:

Feel free to print it out and put it up on your door if you like.

In the Scandinavian countries, we also get a special Christmas calendar show on TV every day in December. The first one was aired in 1960, I think that was the year we got our first TV (I was 5 years old). Some more memorable than others. Some were really good and fun for the whole family to watch. Others were really bad.

Anyway… I’m sitting here thinking right now that perhaps I should have my own Advent calendar here on the Blog this December…?

Let the first Revelation be that I still enjoy Advent calendars, even though I’m 55 years old and have no children or grandchildren to blame it on!

The Birds

2010-11-30T21:21:00.001+01:00

Watery Wednesday

On a cold winter day, the river might look deceitfully peaceful.

Beware though… If you get close to the water, and start fiddling with the zipper on your bag, the hungry ducks are expecting something a lot more appetizing than a camera to appear!

Help… I’d better get away from here before I find myself in a scenario resembling The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock… Some of the ducks actually flew up at me; and at the same time doves were beginning to move in from above… I fled!

Quotation of the Week (48/2010)

2010-11-29T06:00:00.000+01:00

If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires.
~ Horace Traubel ~

1st Advent Weekend

2010-11-28T06:00:00.000+01:00

So what’s going on in the town square on a very cold Saturday afternoon in November?

It’s the first Advent Weekend. Traditionally in Sweden we have a special Advent candle holder with four candles, lighting one for each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. The churches in our town unite in upholding this tradition by also lighting giant candles in the town square on each preceding Saturday afternoon, with a choir singing some of the traditional Advent hymns.

This year we had an unusually cold start to Advent. They actually had difficulties lighting the candles because it was too cold!

It was also very cold to just stand still and listen, so I took the camera as an excuse to wander around a bit and get pictures from different perspectives.

The lights are up in the giant Christmas tree as well.

SantaLand is also back, with Lapp cot tent and fires and whatnot.

You can also have a peek into Santa’s workshop. Santa himself seems to be either exhausted already, or just taking things easy, with five weeks to go to Christmas… He’s fast asleep in the window!

(I should really have put the camera on video for this because his tummy is actually moving up and down…!)

PS. I bought myself an early Christmas present: An electric blanket to keep me warm in front of the TV in the winter afternoons and evenings…

Getting Ready…

2010-11-27T10:27:00.001+01:00

It’s the 1st Advent Sunday this weekend.
The town is getting prepared, and so am I. At least trying to.

It was snowing Monday through Thursday this week, and then the temperature dropped even more to around -8°C (17°F). Forecasts say it’s going to remain cold. This means really early winter for south-west Sweden. Most of the years I’ve lived in this town (25 in January) we have not had snow for Christmas. Last year snow came to stay around Mid December. This year the first snowfall was 22 October, and it’s been more or less continuously frosty/snowy since early November. It’s going to be a very long winter! I’m not a fan of long winters. But there’s really nothing I can do to escape. Even the indoors temperature is lower than it was last winter. I feel like I suddenly have to bundle up like the Michelin man even indoors.

Thankful For Books

2010-11-25T20:49:00.000+01:00

I've been taking part in the Booking Through Thursdays for quite a while now, usually from this blog. With every week I'm getting increasingly aware that whatever the questions, there are certain authors and books that come more frequently to mind than others. Nothing really strange in that, I suppose. Just goes to show that those authors and books have made a special impact on me. This week's Booking Through Thursday question was: "What authors and books are you most thankful for?" Once again I found my thoughts wandering first of all to J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis. If you want to know why, go to my Harry Potter blog: Through My Spectrespecs. I decided to put my answer there this week.

Of course I could list lots of other books and authors I'm thankful for as well.
But I'll save those for some other time!

Blowing A Fuse

2010-11-22T20:16:00.001+01:00

“Sometimes, a series of temporary overages can weaken the fuse's filament, which means you could still blow a fuse without exceeding the amperage rating. Some fuses are designed to withstand a number of brief overloads before blowing, but others snap quickly after one sustained power surge. When you blow a fuse, it is important to unplug all of the appliances and devices from that circuit before installing a new fuse. The energy required to restart those devices may cause yet another blown fuse.”

I blew a fuse the other day, turning on the microwave in the kitchen. At first I thought it was a general power-cut but then I noticed the light was still on in another room. So I had to check the fuses. That, my friends, is easier said than done. WHY do they put the fuses UP THERE?! I have a step-ladder with a handle to hold on to, but I still don’t like getting up on top of it. And even doing so, I had a hard time seeing which fuse was broken, or what the little notes said. I’ve never had reason to look before because this is the first time it ever happened while I’ve lived in this flat.

The idea of using the camera, unfortunately, did not come to me until afterwards. (As a blogger, I’m rather ashamed to admit it. I don’t even have a picture of the blown fuse.) Of course the first fuse I took down turned out not to be broken, and having nothing to do with the kitchen. It just meant I had to go through the process of resetting the VCR and the DVD player afterwards…

Well, I got it sorted out eventually. Fortunately I did have some extra fuses. And I even knew where. I am that kind of person. (I.e. I usually do not wait until I’m completely out of something before I buy the next package – whatever it may be.)

However, I am NOT really fit for jobs of this kind – the kind that literally have to be done “over my head”. Fixing that electric fuse meant that my body kind of blew one instead. With loud complaints from my bad neck-shoulder-arm.

So I’ve had to cut down a bit on computer time (among other things). Shouldn’t really be doing this post either, I suppose... But I was checking the internet trying to figure out what made that fuse pop in the first place, because I really hadn’t been doing anything unusual at all in the kitchen. And then I found the text above: “Some fuses are designed to withstand a number of brief overloads before blowing…” I guess that might be it.

And then it struck me that the same is true about people, physically as well as mentally. Well, some of us, anyway. We might be able to deal with “a number of brief overloads”. But then… out of the blue, as it might seem… we reach a limit, and something snaps…

I doubt I’ll manage to completely unplug myself, but I’ll try to stay off overloading for a while.

Quotation of the Week (47/2010)

2010-11-22T06:00:00.000+01:00

“Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.”

~ William Feather ~

Same Window, Different View

2010-11-20T14:08:00.001+01:00

I’m glad I got the outdoor Christmas lights up on my balcony earlier this week (on a dry day), because now we have snow again.

Yesterday, I also changed the curtains in my kitchen, as the first step towards indoors Advent decorations. This is very common in Sweden – to change curtains for winter or Christmas. Especially in the kitchen. Mine are not too Christmassy, and I usually put them up from mid November and then let them stay up until the end of February/beginning of March. My kitchen in itself is very neutral. This makes it easy to shift the mood with decorations according to season. If one wants to.

… Here I spent an awfully long time searching through my photos for a summer view from the same window. I found it, and as a result this whole post is taking a different turn than I was planning. I had in mind a post with focus on decorations. But instead it will focus on the view that I see through the window.

Because the photo below does not only show you how the window looks with different curtains; it also shows you how the view itself changes with the seasons. In the summer I see trees. This is from late in May, 2009. The flowering trees outside are Lilacs, Rowan and Whitebeam. In the summer, I only see glimpses of far-away rooftops beyond the trees. But when the leaves fall off, the view changes, and I can see a lot more of the buildings some distance away, and even a bit of the road in between. The winter view actually has its own charm. In the summer I like the “all green” view, but in the winter it is quite nice to see a bit more of the town.

The view from the kitchen window was actually one of the things I fell for with this flat, when I first came to have a look at it.

This is from my very first visit to look at the flat. (So that lace curtain is not mine, nor are those plants.) This was towards the end of April. The trees had only just begun to turn green. I had no idea yet whether I had any real chance of getting the flat. But my heart said: Go for it, if it turns out you can!

PS. I can’t see the river, even in the winter. But it runs between those red buildings I see through the window. I know it’s there.

PPS. So much happened between starting this post and finishing it that I forgot that I originally intended to link it to What Karen Sees, and to Ginny at Let Your Light Shine. But their posts are about fall decorations and I’m way past fall and into winter now…

Lights In The Dark

2010-11-19T10:13:00.001+01:00

Booking Through Thursday: Borrowing

2010-11-18T12:59:00.000+01:00

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/borrowing/

Deb's question this week:
Who would you rather borrow from? Your library? Or a Friend?
(Or don’t your friends trust you to return their books?)
And, DO you return books you borrow?

I usually borrow books from the library, or buy them. I live quite close to the library, whereas I don't have any book-loving friend living close now. If do I borrow a book from someone it's usually because they suggest it. I don't borrow from friends unless I think I'll be reading the book fairly soon, or they say it doesn't matter if I keep it for a while. I don't think I'm guilty of not having returned borrowed books.

Going For A Swim On A Foggy Morning

2010-11-17T10:55:00.001+01:00

I had another Watery Wednesday post planned from my Picture Book blog today, but for some reason I’m having trouble posting that one. So I thought I’d put in another watery picture here and see if that helps me figure out where the problem is.

Out Of The Fog, Into The Light

2010-11-16T20:09:00.001+01:00

Woke up to a foggy morning today! I live in the background of this picture somewhere (all hidden in the fog).

Down by the riverside – more fog.

You could be fooled to think that this was a Photoshop job of some kind but it’s not. The fog is responsible for the effect.

The Christmas tree is up in the town square.

The Christmas lights have been put up over the streets.

Some of the trees in the town park are all prepared, too.

And as from today, my outdoor lights on the balcony are up as well. It is a bit early (1½ week to go until 1st Advent), but I got inspired from my walk in town and it was a good day to get it done (sunny when the fog had lifted). Who knows when the next snowfall may be (or rainstorm). Much easier to do it in still and dry weather…

Quotation of the Week (46/2010)

2010-11-15T06:00:00.000+01:00

I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know. Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven't said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.

- Tove Jansson -

When You’re Weary…

2010-11-14T17:14:00.000+01:00

See more photos of the bridge in my Picture Book

Bridge Over Troubled Water. One of my all-time favourite songs, since 40 years. I wonder how many times I’ve listened to it, and been comforted by it? Still sailing on…

A Reading Exercise

2010-11-13T14:43:00.001+01:00

Earlier today I sent off an email to a friend, and rereading the copy afterwards I noticed that I had managed to overlook several typing mistakes. Something that always bugs me - when the mistakes are mine, not so much when other people make them! But today it reminded me of something I read the other day... In Swedish, but I was sure there must be an English version of it somewhere on the web, and I was right - it was not too difficult to find. Here it is. If you haven't already seen it, I think you're in for a surprise:

Can you read this paragraph?

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

If you had any problems understanding, follow this link to Learn English,

Advice, Please!

2010-11-12T13:26:00.001+01:00

From my living room window: A deep and dark November evening. Only a couple of weeks to go now until it’s time to put up the first Advent decorations…

Checking my Picasa Web Album, it says I’ve used up more than 75% of my storage space. I’m trying to think ahead a bit, not to be overcome by surprise the day it suddenly says it’s full…

Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

I don’t want to pay for more storage space.

I don’t want to erase my old posts. I want to be able to go back to them myself, and I also might want to be able to link back to some.

Moving one of the blogs to another account would mean messing up already existing links.

It also does not seem practical to have separate accounts for each blog since that would mean a lot of confusing logging in and out.

So I guess the best thing would be to leave the blogs as they are, and just continue with “part 2” on a new account. I guess that means losing a certain number of followers – but hopefully the ones who are really following will make note of the change and adjust to it. I know I have done so with other bloggers myself.

I have already started making preparations (setting up a new Blogger account). But I’d really appreciate advice and points of view from others, before I go ahead. Maybe there are aspects of it I have not thought about?

I suppose after New Year might be a good time to make a change. (It will then be two years since I started this blog.)

BTT: War Stories

2010-11-11T15:22:00.001+01:00

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/war-stories/

Deb @ 1:36 am: It is November 11th, known here in the U.S. as Veteran’s Day, formerly Armistice Day to remember the end of WWI but expanded to honor all veterans who have fought for their country, so … Do you read war stories? Fictional ones? Histories?

I live in a country (Sweden) that has not been at war since 1814, so we of course do not have this special holiday. My first thought was actually to skip this question, but then I started thinking... ;)

I was born in 1955, i.e. ten years after then end of WWII. But even though Sweden was not directly "involved" in the war, there were still a lot of references to it in my early childhood; especially when visiting the grandparents.

At my paternal grandparents' house, for example, they still kept an old wallet filled with food ration coupons from the The War. I used to play with that. Grandma was also in the habit of saving things like used pieces of wrapping paper and string... Out of habit from The War, when things were hard to come by. I suspect that's also where my own father's habit of collecting everything, and throwing away nothing, came from. He was born in 1931, so grew up in the shadow of The War. Even if Sweden was not "in" the war, it was all around our country, and everyone and everything was affected by it. That much I think I always understood.

Among dad's few childhood books were some about Biggles - First World War pilot. I read those several times over when staying in that house. At my other grandparents' house there were books aimed at Young Girls; books which had belonged to my mother and my aunt. Those were often about young women who went off to work at some farm, or possibly as nurses, while the men went off to war... Yes. I dare say the War (one War or another!) was there in the background in a lot of books I grew up with; and in later reading too. Just think about it. Many a great love story has been set against the backgrond of a war. Gone With the Wind... The Sound of Music... In addition to Swedish, English and American literature I've also read quite a few French and Russian classics. Besides being in WW I and II those countries also had their own Revolutions. A few years ago, I read Tolstoy's War and Peace.

I mentioned The Diary of Anne Frank in connection with some other BTT question quite recently. One of my early favourites; many times read. Her diary is about being in hiding, while the war goes on outside. We know she later died in concentration camp. I've also read quite a few survivor's stories from the Jewish ghettos and concentration camps. And then of course there are countless fictional stories involving spies, and prison camp escapes, and rescue operations etc. I think the kinds of war stories I've been most interested in are "ordinary people" struggling to survive, though, rather than actual stories from "the front" and involving military strategy etc.

Then there is the Bible. It's full of accounts of war. And then there is the world of Fantasy... War against Evil, in endless varieties: The Lord of the Rings... The Chronicles of Narnia... Harry Potter...

So yes, I do read war stories. Fictional and historical. Not as particulary interested in warfare as such; but because war is part of human history and reality.

An Ordinary Day

2010-11-10T13:29:00.001+01:00

Above and below: Traffic pictures from the local newspaper.

Yesterday we had a snowstorm again. I did not have any plans to go out anyway, so I just stayed in, and wasn’t really much bothered. I was rather surprised to learn in the afternoon that it had been so bad that it brought a total stop to all the bus traffic in town! It did not look all that bad from my windows. I could see there was a strong wind, but the layer of snow was not very thick. But apparently the roads were really icy, and lots of road accidents were reported from all over the area. And in town, the busses were standing still, and people had to walk, or call for taxis, or stay where they were.

Today I had a lunch date planned with a friend. Doesn’t happen too often and I was looking forward to it. The storm has passed, and the snow was thawing again this morning. I was all set on going out for lunch. But it was not to be. My friend woke up with a cold and called to cancel. So I guess I’m in for a less exciting and much more ordinary lunch today: Soup from a can…

Better get used to it, I suppose. All of it: Snowstorms, colds, cancelled plans, and canned soup… It’s winter.

Quotation of the Week 45/2010

2010-11-09T06:00:00.000+01:00

"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!"

~ J.R.R. Tolkien ~

(PS. As for the picture… Use your imagination!)

The Magic Number 9999

2010-11-08T11:41:00.001+01:00

This is the 9999th photo taken with my Nikon Coolpix 4600. It happened yesterday morning, while waiting for the bus to take me out of town for a visit to The House. (See yesterday’s post.)

I had no idea what number the camera was on until I transferred the photos to the computer and noticed that the count had started over from 0001 again.

I bought the camera at the end of April, 2006. Below is the second picture I took with it. Spring flowers on my balcony (different place from where I live now)

Over the next three years, I took on average 400 photos per year. But from July 2009 (six months after I started blogging) my use of the camera took a sudden “jump”, and since then I’ve been taking on average 550 photos per month. In spite of not having travelled anywhere.

No wonder that since then I’ve found it hard to catch up with my own filing and sorting of the photos taken (and all the edited copies and collages on top)…

Below is the new # 0002, taken as I got off the bus out in the countryside. I shall have to explain its message to my English-speaking followers, though: The name on this sign is “Intet”, which means “Nowhere” or “Nothing”. It’s kind of fun getting off the bus here, just to be able to say that one did…

Lost And Found: One Hour

2010-11-07T20:06:00.001+01:00

I’d been waiting for a morning like this for weeks. I.e. a morning when I’d wake up to a sunny day, feeling like I might just possibly have the energy within me to go out to the House; which stands empty since Dad moved to an assisted living group home two months ago.

An increased incentive for going dropped in through the mailbox on Friday. Authorities wanted me to put a sticker with a barcode on the wheelie bin. This, they claimed, will give us better service and be much safer. Hm. (I wonder how long before we’ll have to put a sticker on every garbage bag?)

Had the wheelie bin been in my own garden, this would have been a two-minutes-job at the most, no big deal. However, when the wheelie bin is in the garden of an empty house out in the countryside, and it takes me an hour or more to get there (by bus), and even longer to get back… For me, it’s a full day’s work.

However, the sticky little job solved one dilemma for me: Whether to pay a visit to the House, or to Dad, since the two are no longer in the same place. Sometimes “in my dreams” I manage both but the realistic me knows that without a private chauffeur I don’t. And sometimes I suspect myself of ending up not going anywhere as much from inability to choose as from other, more valid reasons.

So waking up this morning, feeling reasonably well rested, and seeing we had a sunny (and frosty) day coming, I decided to get the sticky job over and done with, and reassure myself that no big bad wolf had blown down the house since I was there last; and just combine that with a bit of a photography walk, and no other overambitious plans.

I got off the bus a stop or two early and took a roundabout walk down by the lake. It really was a great day for photos…

At the House, things appeared to be in the same order as when I last left the place. The roof was still on. (A few months ago some tiles were not, so that’s why I’ve been a bit worried during recent stormy nights.) After my initial round, I went into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. I was surprised to find how quickly time had passed. 12.45 already? Oh well… I had been walking rather slowly, taking photos, not thinking much about the time on my way there… So I decided not to rush but stay an extra hour. (Busses go regularly once every hour on weekends.) Found a pie in the freezer and heated that in the microwave for lunch. And had my tea.

The wheelie bin turned out to already have a sticker on it. In my eyes they looked exactly the same. I did not, however, compare the code bar by bar. I decided to just believe, for my own peace of mind, that they must have made some very important and life-saving (or at least money-saving) change there…

I also went through a few drawers in the bedroom and threw away some stuff no one is likely to miss (might as well make use of that carefully marked bin!).

Then I walked to the bus stop, and caught the bus back to town. Feeling that it had been a looong day, but that on the whole I had made good enough use of it...

Sitting on the bus, I glanced at my wrist watch. It showed 1.45 pm. Not 2.45 pm, as I had expected it to. At first I thought there was something wrong with the watch…

… But there wasn’t. While at the House, I had looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. Which was still showing summer time, since no one had put it back on winter time! Never occurred to me! And my “body clock” is still a little confused, as well…

So that’s how I lost an hour, and got it back again, in the same day. I was back home around the time I had originally planned. But somehow… I still feel as tired as if I had been away at least an hour longer…

I guess I’ll have to blame it on jet-lag!

I Sit Beside The Fire And Think

2010-11-06T18:22:00.001+01:00

I sit beside the fire and think
~ by J.R.R. Tolkien ~

I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
In autumns that there were
With morning mist and silver sun
And wind upon my hair

I sit beside the fire and think
Of how the world will be
When winter comes without a spring
That I shall ever see

For still there are so many things
That I have never seen
In every wood in every spring
There is a different green

I sit beside the fire and think
Of people long ago
And people that will see a world
That I shall never know

But all the while I sit and think
Of times there were before
I listen for returning feet
And voices at the door

BTT: Good Or Bad

2010-11-04T16:28:00.000+01:00

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/good-or-bad/

Suggested by Barbara:

I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?

First of all, let me say that among books I've laid aside have also been renowned classics and award-winning contemporary novels. Sometimes I might recognize stylistic skill, but the content of the book may still not be to my liking. The opposite is also true: If I find the story or characters or facts or ideas interesting enough, I might overlook certain deficiencies in language and narrative style.

That said, I would say that good writing includes the ability to capture the reader's interest from the start and keep it up until the end. Really good writing also leaves behind a sense that I might want to read the book again some day, even though I know how it ends. Or write down quotes from it, or recommend it to others, or discuss it.

Bad writing, consequently, would be the kind that never manages to get me engaged in the story or the characters at all. Bad writing also often includes things like needless repetition, too much predictability, sidetracks that take you too far away from the main story, introduction of things that are never properly explained, or last-minute "out of the blue" solutions at the end.

The Road Not Taken

2010-11-03T16:47:00.001+01:00

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

---

Mountain Interval. 1920.

---

The author Paulo Coelho had this poem by Robert Frost on his blog the other day (but with a different picture). On Facebook, Coelho added the comment: “ALWAYS chose the road less taken”.

Reading the poem, though, I felt less sure whether that was also Frost’s decided opinion? I searched a bit more, and then found this note:

Robert Frost on his own poetry:
"One stanza of 'The Road Not Taken' was written while I was sitting on a sofa in the middle of England: Was found three or four years later, and I couldn't bear not to finish it. I wasn't thinking about myself there, but about a friend who had gone off to war, a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't go the other. He was hard on himself that way."
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 23 Aug. 1953

---

I too know people who are hard on themselves that way. Occasionally perhaps I also tend to be a bit hard on myself that way. But most of the time I try to tell myself that not all choices are as clear as being a choice between “right” vs “wrong”. Sometimes… we just have to choose a road and see where it takes us.

---

Look closely at the pictures at the top. Which one do you like better? Actually, one is the mirror image of the other, before I framed them (in Paint Shop). You’d have to know the spot where the photo was taken, I think, to tell which is the “right” one.

The Song In Your Heart

2010-11-02T15:45:00.001+01:00

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."
~ Unknown ~

Does the picture above seem familiar to you? I used the “raw image” in another post just recently. We’ve been having rainy days lately and I have not been out taking a lot of new photos; instead I’m playing with my archives and photo editing software. (Picasa + Corel Paint Shop Pro X in this case)

The friendship quote reminded me of the line “take a sad song and make it better”… Google and YouTube were in friendly mood and sang it back to me:

Upside Down

2010-11-02T06:00:00.000+01:00

Quotation of the Week (44/2010)

2010-11-01T12:02:00.000+01:00

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”

~ Robert Frost ~

Lighting A Candle

2010-10-31T21:01:00.001+01:00

Besides putting our clocks back to winter time this weekend, we’re also entering a time of year that I always find heavy – and confusing.

I think I pretty much explained the why’s of my heavy feeling last year in a post entitled The Dreary Misery of Halloween.

The confusion, to do with dates, did not really come into it last year because then the dates kind of fell into place by themselves. This year they don’t.

We have two All Saints days in our calendar, and on top of that an All Souls day. The original All Saints was 1 November. Nowadays Swedish All Saints Day falls on the Saturday immediately preceding All Souls Day, which is the first Sunday in November. However, 1st November is still also marked All Saints Day in the calendar, whatever day of the week that may happen to be.

I’m telling you this because it means that while in most countries Halloween has just been celebrated, in Sweden Halloween/All Saints is not until next weekend.

Since the American kind of scary parties and trick-and-treating etc do not really belong in our old traditions – even if picked up by some people in later years though the influence of TV etc – that just adds to the confusion. Internationally tuned people might have celebrated Halloween during the weekend past, while others wait until next weekend.

I have no idea so far what I’ll be doing next weekend. But today at twilight I did what I wrote last year that I might do if I was on my own: I went to an old family grave in the cemetery closest to where I live, and lit a “symbolic” candle there. Turned out that someone else had already also done so, and that felt kind of nice.

The Times They Are A’Changin’

2010-10-30T21:59:00.001+02:00

I’m going back through my pictures from the past year and it’s getting harder and harder to remember what I have already shared or not. Or on which blog. Or in a collage or as single picture.

Same thing with post titles. I suspect I may well have used this one before. Especially since it’s not mine to begin with.

But if I can’t remember, I guess there’s a good chance that perhaps you can’t either…?

This photo is one that I took on the first frosty morning 2½ weeks ago. Since then we’ve been going back and forth between frosty and mild weather. Less colour left in nature with every turn…

Tonight we turn our clocks back to winter time. I’ll be glad of it in the morning but less glad in the afternoon.

Here are some words I probably also quoted before:

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9

What’s On Your Mind?

2010-10-28T23:15:00.001+02:00

As soon as I get used to something it seems to change! The most recent example being the latest Windows Live Writer update… I don’t like it when instructions and controls on the screen get so small that I can hardly see them without using the magnifier tool, and won’t answer to ctrl+ … (grumble, mutter, grumble)…

I also don’t like it when changes in software get in the way of and delay my actual writing!

What was really on my mind before this happened was some more pondering about Facebook. (Two weeks of experience now.)

Facebook in English asks: “What’s on your mind?” Facebook in Swedish asks: “What are you doing right now?” I turned language into Swedish because most of the friends I’ve added to FB so far are Swedish. But the Swedish question annoys me every time it turns up on my screen. It seems to be presuming constant activity. It’s a question made for people on the run, using their mobiles. For me, the only truthful answer each time would be: “sitting at the computer”. Or possibly “lying”. In one sense or the other. (I.e. I might be half-lying on the bed instead of sitting. Or I might be making up another answer because always writing the same thing would be boring.)

Another question I never know how to answer is “How are you?” Especially when asked by people one hasn’t seen or talked to in years. I can’t even begin to come up with a good Facebook-sized answer to that one. (Someone just wrote it on my Wall. Again.)

In my opinion “What’s on your mind” really is a much better question to have as a starting point. What’s on my mind may or may not be the same as what I’m doing, or feeling (state of health etc). The mind is free to wander even if the body isn’t.

Right now for example it’s circling around how much the Facebook question really expresses the national spirit. Or language spirit, if there is such a thing? I got curious and changed my FB language a couple of more times. The Germans seem to take the same attitude as we do in Sweden. They also wants to know what people are “doing”. The French, on the other hand, just say “Exprimez-vous”. Express yourself. (I can almost see the hand gestures to go with that!)

In Sweden we really are very focused on what people are “doing”. Health and Work are major topics of conversation in almost any social context, as soon as you get past the more neutral topic of Weather.

When one has no job and does not want to get into details of health, that really only leaves the weather.

What do people talk about where you live? And if you have experience of more than one culture or language, can you see differences?

Booking Through Thursday: Skeletons

2010-10-28T15:08:00.001+02:00

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/skeletons/

In honor of Halloween this weekend:

What reading skeletons do you have in your closet? Books you’d be ashamed to let people know you love? Addiction to the worst kind of (fill in cheesy genre here)? Your old collection of Bobbsey Twin Mysteries lovingly stored behind your “grown-up” books? You get the picture … come on, confess!

I don't think I have any reading skeletons hidden in the closet. Most of them are sitting quite proudly on my bookshelves and I'm not ashamed to display them. There might be people who think I should have outgrown them but that's really their problem, not mine!

Referring to my love of certain children's books, still, at age 55... and having no children or grandchildren to blame it on. :)

But that's no secret to anyone who knows me well, nor to followers of this blog.

I do have one shelf of childhood favourites behind a curtain, but that's for practical reasons, not because I'm ashamed of them.

Since that's the closest I get to books kept in the closet, though, I'll have a peek behind that curtain. Most of them are real classics, like some beloved books by Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren; and a couple of other Swedish authors probably less well known to readers from other countries. Also my childhood Swedish copies of Winnie-the-Pooh, The Borrowers (Mary Norton), Little Women by Louise Alcott and Anne of Green Gables. And some girly books that once belonged to my mother and my aunt; and one that was even my grandmother's.

Here are three less well known, which I also decided to keep, when going through my bookshelves in my childhood home in my late thirties (before my parents moved away from that house):

Poo-Poo and the Dragons by C.S. Forester. Quotion from a web page I just found : "It was published in 1942, before the war impacted book production. Forester came up with the premise for the book while he was at home in the Berkeley hills, minding his two boys while his wife Kathleen was away. The younger of the two, 8 year old George, went on a hunger strike; he refused to eat. Forester made up the stories to tell during dinnertime, but would only tell them if George would eat. If George stopped eating, Forester stopped talking mid-sentence. By the time Kathleeen returned home and everything returned to normal, there were a number of Poo-Poo stories, and 3 dragons. Forester collected the stories in manuscript form and Little Brown published it." - My copy is a well-worn one in Swedish from 1952. Possibly it might have laid a foundation for a continued love of dragons...

Freddy by Miriam Mason. My Swedish translation is from 1958. I can't find any info about this book on the internet. Freddy is a rainbow rabbit. He runs away on adventures and keeps shifting colours, that's just about all I remember...

William the Superman by Richmal Crompton. Oh, I read lots of William stories as a kid. In Swedish he was called Bill. Most of them I probably borrowed from the library. There might also have been a few old ones that belonged to my father. Wikipedia enlightens me that the first book was written in 1922. The one I have kept is from 1968, and in English. I think I probably bought it in London on our family holiday there in 1969. (First time we went to Britain.) I reread this one a few years ago because there was something in one of the Harry Potter books that made me think of it.

For All Language Lovers...

2010-10-26T16:13:00.002+02:00

I got this sent to me on Facebook, and thought I must share it here as well. Two of my blogging friends came especially to mind... Rae and Scriptor Senex.

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language

Water and Wood

2010-10-26T06:00:00.000+02:00

My camera dragged me out for a walk on Monday afternoon because we had such a dramatic sky going. (See more of that in the Picture Book blog.)

Approaching the river, I noticed that some trees had recently been cut down, which offered a new view of the waterfall.

Then I had a closer look at the tree stumps…
Isn’t this one just wonderful? Like a piece of art.

Quotation of the Week (43/2010)

2010-10-25T12:00:00.000+02:00

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth,
so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.
To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.
To make a deep mental path,
we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862)

The Big Mystery

2010-10-24T19:04:00.001+02:00

What do you suppose this is? I bet you can’t guess.

While you think about it for a while, I’ll just take the opportunity to be grumpy about something which has nothing whatsoever to do with the picture.

At the supermarket where I sometimes do my grocery shopping they have been moving things around lately. Why do they DO that? (Don’t answer that. I know why they do that. Every shop does that. I just don’t like it.) It took me twice as long as usual to get together the few things I wanted today (few, because I walk, and cannot carry much). One thing I had to just give up on. Maybe next time. Or I should really buy it somewhere else, just to punish them. (As if they’d notice.)

Now, after that extra mile… Back to the picture. Sorry, but even I don’t know what it is. What I was trying to do (a week or so ago) was to catch the moon. Obviously I failed. What it was that caused that orange striped line, or the green dotted line, or the white curved flash… I haven’t got the faintest idea. There was nothing there, between me and the moon, except a very, very, very long distance.

If I was a famous artist, it would have been fun to exhibit the picture as a Work of Art and set critics wondering about my new Style.

Last Night A Full Moon

2010-10-23T18:12:00.001+02:00

Last night a full moon
shining on snow covered ground.
Today all is gray.

© DawnTreader

It Just Doesn’t Look Right

2010-10-22T14:14:00.001+02:00

It is not uncommon. We often do get a first snowfall in Mid October. It still doesn’t look right, though!

Doesn’t feel right either… Brrrr!

Oh No. First Snow…!

2010-10-21T20:32:00.001+02:00

Through my kitchen window, a few minutes ago…

Earlier today, a perfectly fine autumn day:

I was at my health care centre this afternoon and got the flu shot for the season. I’m suspecting it must have contained some real knockout stuff, because when I got home (sun still shining outside, and no hint of snow), I felt so tired I headed straight for the bed…

I’m sitting up just now, though. Got a bit of a shock looking out that window…!

Oh well. If need be, I’m prepared to go into hibernation for the weekend. Picked up a few groceries before I took the bus home…

Booking Through Thursday: Foreign

2010-10-21T14:14:00.001+02:00

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/foreign/

Name a book (or books) from a country other than your own that you love. Or aren’t there any?

Now that is so obviously a question from someone who has English as their first language...! I'm Swedish, and I've been reading books by English and American authors as long as I've been reading my own language; and books in the English language since my early teens.

So I'm going to make it more difficult than that for myself and come up with some that are neither Swedish, nor English, nor American, nor Canadian.

The Diary of Anne Frank - originally published in Dutch. (Have it in Swedish, read it the first time in my early teens, and have reread it many times since then. )

Momo by Michael Ende (German). I have it in Swedish, read it several times. I think I also read it in German once. The Never-Ending Story by the same author. Read it in German, I think at least three times. I have the lovely original edition printed in green and red, with illustrations.

The Moomin series by Tove Jansson (Swedish-Finn author; Swedish-speaking Finns constitute a lingustic minority in Finland. The books were originally published in the Swedish language, but in Finland.) I've read them all several times. As a child I read Moomin in the form of comic strips. The novels I came to love as an adult.

French author Jules Verne - read several of his books in my youth, and have reread some later. In my own bookshelves are still found From the Earth to the Moon, and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (in Swedish translations).

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia). I read many other Russian authors as well, especially in my youth - like Solzhenitsyn, and Chekov, and Tolstoy - but this particular book I know I read at least twice and liked. I still have it, in a Swedish paperback edition.

One book from different part of the world than Europe which I read perhaps ten years or so ago and that left an impression was The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Indian author). I can't find it now, I'm not sure whether I read it in English or in Swedish. I might have borrowed it from the library.

Moomin and some other little creature from the Moomin world.

“Hang On To Your Hopes, My Friend”

2010-10-20T14:49:00.001+02:00

“Autumn is a season immediately followed by looking forward to spring.”
(Anonymous)

2½ weeks ago, this maple tree was in its full glory of autumn colour. (Click on the link to see the first picture in the collage bigger.) Now, after yesterday’s rain, the tree is bare. Taking off my gloves to get the camera out of its bag for today’s photo, and fumbling with ice cold fingers to get hold of the zipper… I realized it’s probably time to dig out the Photography Friendly Mittens I bought last winter… Brrrr!

Listen to A Hazy Shade of Winter (at YouTube)

♫ … Carry your cup in your hand.
And look around.
Leaves are brown now.
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.
Hang on to your hopes, my friend.
That's an easy thing to say,
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again.
Look around,
The grass is high,
The fields are ripe,
It's the springtime of my life.
Seasons change with the scenery;
Weaving time in a tapestry.
Won't you stop and remember me
At any convenient time?… ♫

Paul Simon, A Hazy Shade Of Winter

Face To Face

2010-10-19T20:05:00.001+02:00

It’s raining again!

Are you on Facebook? If no, why not? If yes – how do you feel about it? Is it like mini-blogging, or just an extended 21st century version of the telephone book?

Put your answer in a comment, or if you prefer to expand on the topic in a blog post of your own, give me a link. (I’m not going to bother about introducing Mr Linky, considering the rather limited number of people who usually do comment!) I’d really appreciate your input, even though it might come a bit late… I already took the plunge! Although considering the whole sea of people out there, I guess what I have so far is really just a puddle. (Ha. I managed to connect to the picture, after all.)

It started with one or two friends inviting me to join. (I wanted to write ‘nagging’ me to join, but to be fair, I suppose that would be an exaggeration. I think one of them asked me twice!) Anyway, some time back in the summer I hesitatingly started an account. I got as far as finding my way to the inviting friend, but then I didn’t really have the time to check out the details. Wall? Profile? Messages? “Like this”? Who can see what?? Do I want to be seen at all??? Phew…

So two or three months passed before I even logged in again. Oops… Unread messages, and friend requests! (Because of my hesitations, I had created a separate email account just for Facebook. And I had not entered that account again either since the start.)

Getting a bit of a guilty conscience about the two people I had left “dangling”, I tried to make amends this weekend, with a more serious effort to get the hang of it all. Well. The basics, anyway.

It’s kind of hard getting the hang of it from just two friends, though. - Or is it…? Four days later, I’m up to nine; and through those, a considerable number of mutual acquaintances and strangers (friends of friends, in Facebook terminology) have also made their mysterious appearances on my screen.

Every so often now Bella (my laptop, remember?) says to me: “Hey, here’s someone else you might know!” And surprisingly often, she’s right in her assumptions. I don’t know how she does it!

I think, though, that the balance between ghosts from the past and random suggestions of complete strangers may have been somewhat evened out now by addition of a couple of people who each have about 500 other friends (of whom I do know some, but far from all 500).

I’m still hovering between fascinated and spooked. I can see how one can get caught up in it. It’s like a never-ending extended version of a family tree. Just keep digging, and somewhere down the line you’re bound to even find Adam and Eve!

---

The pictures in this post are all from last week.
No photo weather today!

Quotation of the Week (42/2010)

2010-10-18T06:00:00.000+02:00

“Time flies over us,
but leaves its shadow behind.”

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne ~

Entering the Ice Age

2010-10-16T19:25:00.001+02:00

I got an email today saying “soon you will be posting snow photos”. Help. Yes, most likely I will. But I don’t want to think about it. Not just yet…

Frosty morning lawn in the park

Not that one is allowed to forget. We’ve had frost at least five nights in a row now. Sunny days in between, but still... It’s getting cold.

Sunrise over frosty football field

I’ve been having an inefficient and indecisive kind of weekend, or at least so it feels. Haven’t really been in the mood for “doing” much, and on top of that, the things that most need “doing” are indoor things, while we’re still having the kind of weather that says: “A day like this should not be wasted indoors! You should be outside!” On the other hand there is only so much one can do outdoors this time of year, except keep walking; because it’s too cold to sit still. And there is a limit to how long I can keep walking, as well!

Yesterday I thought I’d combine the walking with some potential shopping. So I walked to a shopping mall that I don’t visit all that often. I kind of regretted the idea when I got there, because this is what I found:

Christmas decorations! Please. We still have three weeks to go to Halloween!!!

I did walk around for a while but ended up buying nothing, except a packet of paper tissues which I could just as well have bought anywhere. And a hot dog and diet coke to give me the energy to get myself back home (by bus). I should have known. Big shopping malls usually do that to me.

After deciding yesterday that there was nothing I wanted to buy; today I found myself walking into town and buying a pair of knee high leather boots.

There are persistent rumours lately (last repeated to me by the shop assistant who sold me these) that this is going to be the coldest winter in one thousand years.

How can anyone possibly know that? And how does that fit in with the global warming?

When I got home, I followed instructions and gave the new boots a recommended dose of spray-on waterproofing, out on the balcony. Maybe that will help adjust nature’s balance...

Permission To Move Hell

2010-10-15T14:18:00.000+02:00

Looking through my pictures of the inside of the old church at the museum park (see Unexpected Flashbacks), I also spotted this one (above). I have thought of posting about it before, but never got round to it.

In old churches with painted ceilings you often find Heavenly pictures, with clouds and angels. You can see an example of that in one of the photos in yesterday’s post, over the pulpit.

Sometimes, at the back of the church, like here over the organ balcony, they also included illustrations of Judgment Day and/or Hell.

In the village where I lived as a child, we had that kind of church. It was a stone church, not a wooden one. But it had a painted ceiling including both Heaven and Hell. Now my family weren’t churchgoers, so I didn’t get to (or have to) look at those pictures very often. I’m not sure I even ever took any particular notice of Hell (which just like in the photo above was situated over the organ balcony) until in junior high school I got a teacher who came from the same parish, and who loved to tell a story about it. It took place before we kids were even born. I don’t remember all the details now, but in the mid 20th century, the church was to go through a major restoration. I think the building was to be made longer, and the tower added. Anyway, it involved the old painted ceiling in a way which caused headlines in the newspapers: “Will X (=name of the parish) be allowed to move Hell?” And after long – and I presume heated! – discussions in the episcopate council or whereever such things are decided, the answer was presented in new headlines: “X allowed to move Hell”.

No small achievement for a country village church!

But of course the Church has always believed in the right to stir up both Heaven and Hell:

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.

(Matthew 27:50-52, NIV)

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended into hell.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen.

(Common Worship translation, Church of England 2000)

The earliest appearance of the full text we know as the Apostles' Creed is from around 710. Shorter versions go back much further.

---

PS. Yes, I’m moving this post up from earlier in the week. Since I also had another post that day, I think some of the regular readers perhaps missed this one. (If hell can be moved once, why not twice?)

Rewrite Or Accept

2010-10-14T15:27:00.001+02:00

This week's Booking Through Thursday question was
"If you could rewrite the ending of any book, which book would it be?"

Interesting question, but actually I couldn’t think of any book I’d really like to rewrite the ending of. There may have been books I felt that way about, just after reading them, but none pop into mind just now. Either I’ve forgotten, or the problem went deeper than just changing the ending!

However, the question did remind me of heated discussions about the last book in the Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, 2007). Reading some of the other BTT-comments, I saw that I wasn’t the only one. So I decided to expand a little on that; digging out some comments that I wrote in a HP discussion forum about six months after the publication. If you're interested, pop over to Through My Spectrespecs (= my own, not very frequently updated Harry Potter blog).

Season Moving Fast

2010-10-13T11:41:00.001+02:00

I’m walking slowly
through a season moving fast
the leaves are falling

♥

Scroll down or click here for my previous post today:
Permission To Move Hell

Unexpected Flashbacks

2010-10-12T18:56:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, I had a surprise, since suddenly on my Blogger reading list, a very familiar-looking photo appeared. But I had not posted it! Not recently, anyway… However, I knew that I had posted another photo of the same building only the day before. For a second or two, I was very bewildered indeed!

Then my brain started working again. I realized what blog the picture was on: Write With Pictures. A blog to which I have given permission to use my pictures. I also realized that in my recent Picture Book post (Museum Church), I had linked back to an older post (17th century church) where this photo was included. So the whole thing was not at all as strange as it first seemed!

The Write With Pictures ‘Monday Meme’ means sharing “what memories that come to mind” when looking at the picture. Hm! Since it was my own photo, and I had revisited the place only two days ago, of course it brought back memories!

So I wrote down what went through my head. And after having done that, I decided to go back here and repeat some of it, and add a couple of more photos. And words.

♥-♥-♥

I think it was ~~two years ago~~ one year ago that I last went inside, one day when the door was open. Coming in from the bright light outside, it was so dark in there that I had very little idea what I was taking photos of. But I did take some flash photos. Not until I was back home, getting the photos up on the computer screen, could I see the details.

Now this reminds me of two things:

1. Some doors are not always open.
We have to find them at the right moment.

When I was there last, the door was closed.

When I took this picture, the door was open.

2. Sometimes we do not really see things clearly until in retrospect.

Collection of old keys inside the porch; and a box, in which visitors can leave a contribution to the maintenance of the church. I think it is probably supposed to be St Peter on the pillar. Or maybe that’s just how my mind wanders because of the keys in the background. It was to Peter that Jesus said: “on this rock I will build my church” and “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world would not recognize him.” (John 1:9-10)

Quotation of the Week (41/2010)

2010-10-11T06:00:00.000+02:00

“You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.”

~ George Burns (1896 – 1996) ~

Another quote I came across while trying to find out who the man behind last week’s quotation was... American actor, writer and comedian who lived to be no less than 100 years old. I have no idea how old he was when he first uttered these words, though! ;)

About Haircuts and Years Gone By

2010-10-10T16:11:00.001+02:00

Earlier this week, I had an appointment with my hairdresser. Mentioning this to a male friend, he kind of assumed that meant ’an afternoon out’. I replied that if you include the time it took me to get there and back, which means a bus ride one way and quite a long walk back afterwards, it could be called that. The actual “hairdressing”, though, is usually a pretty quick and straightforward thing with me. About half an hour if I go to my usual hairdresser. With my neck-and-shoulder problems, what I need is a hairdo that requires a minimum of daily effort to keep up; and which also does not suddenly turn into complete chaos after six weeks. Hence, I’ve given up pretending that my hair is really gorgeously thick, or naturally curly, or quite the same colour as twenty years ago.

I know I’ve not been too generous with pictures of myself on this blog (or any other blog, for that matter). I’m usually behind the camera, not in front of it. One sharp-eyed reader with good memory recalled in a comment to yesterday’s post (where you did get a glimpse of me) that in my previous blog header I had appeared to be brunette. And now - subtly implied - I was not…? I had to laugh… For one thing, the picture referred to was from the early 1990s. For another, it was taken against the light so really just a silhouette, not revealing details. That’s why I thought I could get away with it… (LOL)

For you who might have forgotten, or joined me since I last changed my header, here is the picture I used:

1992 – south coast of Sweden near Ystad

Some years back, I had a “Memory CD” made from a choice of photos taken with my old Olympus camera (including the one above). Here are a few more:

1984 (age 28), in the flat where I was living then.

1988, on the west coast

1992, I think… (town of Borås in the background)

1995 - 40th birthday, with friends

50th birthday (taken by friend with her camera)

2010 – up to date, in my study.

I’m still trying to persuade myself some days that that’s ash blond, not gray. (Cameras can’t be trusted, right?)

Oh, who am I kidding…

PS. Two posts today. Scroll down or click here for the other one.

Licensed to Blog?

2010-10-10T15:41:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, it seems I managed to use a blog title from a meme I did not know existed. Had I been in a different mood when I was made aware, perhaps I would have joined in. But I’m not, so I won’t - not this weekend, anyway. Maybe some other time…

Today, in my morning paper, there was an ad for the college in the town where I live, with a list of courses they have to offer. What a lot of things you can study these days. How about, for example, a course called “The Theory and Practice of Blogging”…? (No, I’m not joking. There is one.)

Maybe I was too lighthearted and amateurish in my Tuesday post this week… Maybe in the future we’ll need a license to be allowed to even get started. No more playing around just to see what happens.. We’ll need to know all the Blog Traffic Signs first, and pass a Blogging Test to prove that we master the arts of Linking and Commenting and giving proper Credit, and whatever…

Weekend Reflections

2010-10-09T19:46:00.001+02:00

After a gray morning, today turned out one of those almost unbelievably crisp and clear and sunny autumn days. I had intended to go into town, but changed my mind, and went for a much longer walk. The long way round, and many photos later, I ended up in the town centre after all.

I just downloaded around 300 pictures from the camera to the computer. 200 from today, the rest from earlier this week. I don’t know where to start! I’m sure not all of them are of blog-worthy quality, but you might be seeing autumn colours on my blogs long after all the leaves have fallen from the trees outside…

I chose some “reflection” pictures for this post.

The first two were taken by a little lake which is a bird sanctuary. (Link goes to a post from last year.)

The third is a mirror reflection of the photographer (i.e. me), in town. The mirrors are on a wall on one side of the river, reflecting the trees in the town park on the other side of the river. So I’m facing the wall and the mirror, and the trees are behind me. (The link goes to a post in my Picture Book back in June, where you can see the whole mirror wall along the promenade.)

Turning around, facing the park, I got the view in the fourth picture.

The last picture was taken from one of the bridges over the river, looking towards another one.

In A Whirlwind

2010-10-08T18:28:00.001+02:00

Somehow this week seems to have flown by rather like a whirlwind of dry leaves. No special reason. I have been trying to take advantage of some fine autumn days – and even of one or two less fine. I have photos still in my camera that need to be transferred to the computer and sorted. I have thoughts in my head about which the same could be said! Some have found their way onto the keyboard, but into emails rather than blog posts. There’s a time for everything… I suppose.

All around me, others seem to be caught up in their own whirlwinds as well. Circumstances not behaving as we’d like them to. One minute, we think we know exactly where we are. The next… We don’t.

Hm. Apparently, the same goes for books. Between paragraphs I spent fifteen minutes or so looking for my Wizard of Oz book, knowing that I needed a quote from it. I can’t imagine where it’s gone off to. Must have been taken by a stormwind…

… Ah, there it is. (It had sought the company of Harry Potter, for some reason.) And here is the quote that I did not know I was looking for. Do you find that a contradiction? I knew I was looking for a quote from this book. Didn’t really know which one. Until now.

If you’ve been feeling lately like you’re being shaken by unexpected stormy weather, this is for you:

“The cyclone had set the house down, very gently – for a cyclone – in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty.”

L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Ch 2

Success or Exhaustion

2010-10-05T22:57:00.001+02:00

Now and then I find myself landing on some blog post or other which tries to define How To Be A Successful Blogger. Tips usually include things like: post regularly, keep to a theme, get out there and visit lots of other blogs, link, comment, interact… Just recently I came across one such post that a bit unexpectedly ended with the conclusion (rephrased by me): “sorry, readers, I did all this, and was successful - but I can’t keep it up”.

It made me ponder about how we define success. Not just in blogging! - but let’s stick to that for now, to simplify things.

Really: How many followers should a blogger have to be counted as successful? How many page views? How many comments on average per post? How many… Oh, never mind…

Every now and then I find that I’m letting myself get stressed by goals set up by someone else – and not set up for me, but for them. How stupid is that?

Every time I do that, I have to go back to my own beginning, and ask myself: What goals did I set for myself?

If we stick to blogging… In my very first blog post ever (January 2009), I wrote: “I really have no clear idea yet what hidden things I want this blog to make visible. But maybe if I start writing, I will find out...”

I had hardly even read other blogs until I started my own. I had never heard the word “meme”. I knew one (1) person in the blogosphere. It seemed unbelievable that anyone else would ever just randomly find what I wrote. (That took two weeks, I think.) But I was curious to explore a bit more. I wanted to keep up writing, and the English language. And if I made some friends along the way, that would be great. That was about it…

Considering those goals (which did not include numbers of any kind), I’ve been “successful”. I’ve done a lot of exploring. I’ve kept writing. I’m communicating with other people in English. Some people across the earth whom I’ve never met have come to feel like close friends. On top of that I’ve expanded my photo interest – a lot. And after nearly two years I’m still here, enjoying it, feeling inspired by it…

… except when occasionally for obscure reasons I start to compare myself to goals set by other people who are not me.

Why does one do that?!

Letting oneself get inspired by others is one thing.
Letting oneself get exhausted is another.

“The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads swiftly via the Internet. --- In simple terms, an Internet meme is an inside joke, that a large number of Internet users are in on.”
Wikipedia

The pictures in this post are all from today (5 October 2010)

Heather and Folklore

2010-10-04T21:47:00.001+02:00

Heather is one of our most common outdoor decoration plants this time of the year.

From my youth I remember being told by a Swedish friend (I can’t remember whom, though) that having heather in the house was supposed to be unlucky and connected with death. Happily unaware of this superstition I had been picking wild heather for indoors decoration, and someone objected to it. (Well, I never was superstitious anyway…)

Searching the internet now, I find the “unlucky” superstition listed in several Swedish web sites. In English, however, the connotations seem to be just the opposite: Purple heather is associated with admiration, beauty and solitude; pink heather with good luck; white heather with protection from danger.

In Britain, the idea that white heather is lucky was popularised by the Victorians. White heather is less common than purple/pink. Folklore suggests that it grows over the final resting places of faeries, or on patches of ground where no blood had been shed.

The origin of the Swedish superstition I have not been able to find, except that besides death, to have heather indoors also seems to be associated with “inviting poverty”. Perhaps that’s where it comes from: Heather being used by poor people for different purposes, and so becoming a sort of anti-status symbol.(?)

The Latin name is Calluna Vulgaris. Calluna is derived from a Greek word meaning 'to sweep', and the plant was used to make brooms. Vulgaris means 'common'.

Anyway, I just love that street decoration in the top photo above: the heather in the old milk can, which I found outside a shop in town.

The second picture is from a garden center, just to show you that we do buy lots of it – although I think still mostly for outdoors use.

PS. I forgot to add: In Sweden each province is represented by a flower or plant, and heather is the province flower of Västergötland, where I live.

Quotation of the Week (40/2010)

2010-10-04T06:00:00.000+02:00

“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”
~ George Burns ~

The Importance Of Sleep

2010-10-03T06:00:00.000+02:00

Readers who have been following me for a while know by now that I’m rather fascinated by dreams.

One evening this week, I watched a documentary on TV about sleep, dreams and sleep deprivation.

In the program, they followed a healthy young man who had volunteered for experiments involving sleep deprivation. Sleeping in a lab, with electrodes attached, scientists could follow exactly which stage of sleep he was in during different periods in the night, and decide when he should be disturbed or woken up.

For five nights in a row he was not allowed more than three hours of total sleep per night. After that, a series of tests were carried out. They showed clearly that sleep deprivation seriously affects physical health as well as the ability to concentrate mentally.

Sleep deprivation affects the levels of hormones which in turn affect things like appetite, insulin production, the cardiovascular system and the immune system. Had this young man gone on in the same way for some time longer, he would soon have been in the risk zone for diabetes, stroke and heart problems. He also showed very poor results in memory tests, and in driving tests.

In the driving tests, he was exposed to sudden events like a (mechanical) dog suddenly rushing out in front of the car. He hit it every time, unable to avoid it. In these tests too, the scientists were able to follow his brain activity, and lots of “micro sleeps” were registered. If I remember facts right, the driving test lasted for two or three hours, and during that time, this sleep deprived young man’s brain had actually been ‘asleep’ for a total of about 25 minutes.

Tests such as these prove that driving when not having had enough sleep is as dangerous as driving after taking drugs or alcohol. Lots of unexplained road accidents are likely to have been caused by tired drivers.

The good news is, when the young man was allowed normal sleep again, all of his hormone levels etc were also restored back to normal. This in turn proves that when the cause of tiredness is sleep deprivation, the answer is not to keep going with the help of drugs, but to find a way to get the proper amount of sleep.

Dreams were also mentioned. Scientists now believe that the function of dreams (or at least one of the functions) is to help the brain to store memories. Experiments showed that when people are woken up from their first round of dream sleep, in the late evening, the dreams are often not too difficult to relate directly to things that have happened during the day. Dreams that you dream towards morning are often a lot more complicated to sort out. The scientists interpret this as the brain then being further along in its sorting process, connecting the new memories with old ones.

All Still

2010-10-02T17:19:00.001+02:00

Took the camera with me into town today to try and make up for yesterday’s blunder. But of course there was no sign of any Living Statue in the town square today. It was all empty and dull, nothing special going on at all. So we had to settle for other things, camera and I. Like colourful autumn leaves…

Although… wait a moment, what is that… On the other side of the river, under the tree, to the left? Could you zoom in, please? …

No costume, but keeping as still as that guy yesterday!

There was a sign of some kind on the grass beside him. I could not read it from that distance. Curiosity took over and I went back across the bridge to the park and walked by on the path there, closer to him. Falun Dafa, the sign said. Same thing as Falun Gong, as I understand it (not that I claim to understand it).

Suddenly seems to have become very popular to stand or sit very still, in public!

Myself, I went home and practiced my own variety after lunch: Lying very still, in private…

Never Leave The Camera Behind

2010-10-01T20:38:00.001+02:00

I really should know better by now. Going into town today, I left my camera at home. It was a gray day, bad light for photography, an ordinary Friday morning, no special events day or market day, and I wasn’t going anywhere interesting (or so I thought), just to the pharmacy and the grocery store, and then the bus straight back home…

I really should know better by now. I really should.

As I crossed the town square on my way to the grocery store, I noticed something in the corner of my eye. A new statue? But oddly placed. And the summer’s sculpture festival is over. It was a figure of a man… natural size… silver coloured… but a very odd face? Sort of lion-like… no, not really lion… Wait. Wasn’t the whole thing swaying a little??? Yes, definitely… In a flash I realized that what I was looking at was a “living statue” (a mime artist posing like a statue, wearing realistic statue-like makeup).

I’ve never seen one of those before – not “live”. Only on TV. And I hadn’t brought my camera!!! (And I don’t have one in my mobile.)

20-30 minutes later, walking across the square again on my way back to my bus stop, he seemed still to be standing in the exact same position. On the ground beside him was a little golden bowl. I was in a bit of a hurry to catch my bus now, and didn’t stop to watch how long he could keep it up, or how other people reacted. I didn’t see anyone put money in the bowl.

This evening I took a look at some living statue clips on Youtube. It seems sometimes they move when you give money, and some make random moves to scare people…

Here, There, Somewhere…

2010-09-30T15:01:00.001+02:00

Sorry, I’ve had rather a busy week with all sorts of this and that, “flying about” and not able to spend as much time as usual in Blogland. Hoping to to catch up soon…

These birds and nests are found in a staircase at the service center where my dad lives now.

Quotation of the Week (39/2010)

2010-09-27T18:36:00.001+02:00

"Life is like a bag - it's empty and meaningless unless you fill it with something."

~Hans Alfredson~
(Swedish comedian, actor, writer and film director, born 1931.)

This quote is well-known in Sweden, but perhaps no where else (?) – until now! ;) The original context is a sketch performed by Alfredson in 1962, in which a church bell ringer comments on the new vicar of the parish, and quotes from his sermons about Life.

It popped up in my memory earlier today as I visited GB’s Eagleton Notes... And still lingered with me when I sat down again later to find a Quotation of the Week…

The picture is from one of my (I think maybe total of three or four?) park bench lunches this summer. The last time was actually Sunday a week ago. One of those rare warm and sunny days that sometimes come along just as you thought there would be no more days like that. (… or not until spring, anyway!)

Market Day

2010-09-25T11:52:00.001+02:00

Last weekend in September means Autumn Market in our town. Some of the streets are shut off from traffic and filled with market stalls. The regular stores have their own special offers too. I’m not really a “market person” since I’m not very fond of being in a crowd. If I go, I like to go early before it gets too crowded, and I usually get tired rather quickly.

But… My camera wanted to go… ;) So we did.

There are certain things I do sometimes keep a lookout for at these markets, if I happen to need them. Handbags for example, or woolly slippers, or gloves.

Traditional Swedish clogs. Top part leather, bottom wood.
( I never wear them now, they’re too hard for me.)

But I wasn’t really in need of anything just now.
The only thing I bought was some post cards…

Some extremely colourful doughnuts, which, for the record, I did NOT buy. ;)

… and a mug of popcorn. Photographers, take my advice: If your main purpose of walking round the market is to use your camera, do not buy the popcorn (or other food meant to be consumed on the spot) until towards the end! Unless you have someone with you to hold them for you… I was there in my own company, and hence, I have no photo of my mug of popcorn!

I was never one to enjoy fairground rides myself – anything going round in circles, or up and down ;) I always preferred to keep my feet firmly on the ground!

See more market pictures in my Picture Book.

What A Mess

2010-09-23T20:29:00.005+02:00

The final (?) result of the Swedish election has been announced. The Centre-Right Alliance gets 173 seats in the parliament, which is one more seat compared to the preliminary results on Sunday, but not enough to form a majority. The Red-Green opposition gets 156 seats and the new anti-immigrant party Sweden Democrats 20 seats, which gives them hold of the balance of power.

Appeals have been made for re-elections in some districts because of complications in the counting of votes. Some votes were “lost” and did not get counted, and theoretically that could still make a difference. The appeals will be examined by a special committee and that will take a while.

The whole election system has also been criticized, because counting all the votes together for the whole country instead of by district, the Centre-Right Alliance would have ended up with majority in the parliament. Changing the present system requires a change of law, however.

For now we are stuck with a minority government and the balance of power held by a party that none of the other parties really wishes to cooperate with.

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The picture: Bicycles parked at the travel centre.
Photo taken from the top of a hill/rock nearby.

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Scroll down or click here for my Booking-Through-Thursday post.