The Times They Are A’Changin’

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

In A Whirlwind

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

 

 

 

 

Hot Dogs and Crying Ladies

Do you celebrate Name Days where you live?

In Sweden, from the 18th century onwards, names used by the royal family were introduced to the Swedish list of name days, followed by other common names. The monopoly on almanacs, held by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, expired in 1972 and so did the official name day list. Competing lists began to emerge. However, widespread dissatisfaction with the confusions of different lists prompted the Swedish Academy to compile a new two-name list which was accepted in 2001 and in nation-wide use since then.

By old tradition, the week just gone by, 19-24 July, has six female names in a row: Sara, Margareta, Johanna, Magdalena, Emma, Kristina. (My middle name is Christina.) So it has been called Women’s Week, and also names like Tear Week, since it also has the rumour of often being wet and rainy.

We’ve had some rain this week, but also sun. Today the Crying Women’s Week is officially over. (Name of the Day is Jakob). But I woke up to 10°C (the coldest we’ve had in a long time) and heavy rain all morning. So obviously men cry too! I’m not putting too much trust in the old folklore…

So what about the dogs? Well, I learned yesterday from Ginny’s blog that in English this time of the year – not just last week but about a month onwards - is often referred to as Dog Days. I found this piece of information fascinating, and further research resulted in a post at my Harry Potter blog Through My Spectrespecs: Dog Days and Sirius Black. The connection is that the name “dog days” go back to Greek and Roman traditions, referring to the star Sirius, also called the Dog Star. And for those not familiar with the Potter books, Sirius Black is a character in the HP books who sometimes takes on the shape of a dog. For details, go read the other blog!

In Swedish, we also have a name for this period corresponding to the English Dog Days, but in our language and tradition it does not refer neither to dogs nor the star Sirius; but would simply be translated “rot month”. The month when things tend to go bad, one way or another. Especially before the days of refrigerators and freezers, it was difficult to keep food fresh during this often hot and humid period of the year. This also led to infections and diseases; the connection perhaps not always clear to people in the past. I guess it was also a critical time for harvests, which could either get too much water from above or too little. In folklore, it was also said to be a month when all kinds of sinister omens might occur -  like calves being born with two heads.

One hot dog who gets hot when it’s hot (and wet when it’s wet…) My brother’s cairn terrier, Harry. You can also see him at my brother’s blog Cutting Edge Easy Listening. As my brother pointed out in a comment: The dog’s full name is actually Harry Potter, but I had nothing to do with that! (He was named by the children at the kennel where he was born).

Still Hot

Photo from last year (town park).

We’re still having afternoon temperatures a bit over 30C /~90F in the shadow.  Indoors in my flat now 27C/ 80F.

Towards evening yesterday there was some thunder passing by, but at some distance – only a few drops of rain here. Today’s morning paper however told me that the fire brigade had a busy afternoon yesterday, with no less than nine fires started by lightning in the area.

Ginny asked about air conditioning. That’s not standard in the average private home here. For the most part of the year we are a lot more concerned about keeping warm than keeping cool...!

I have two fans going to circulate the air but they do not cool it down.

Luckily since I live on the 2nd floor I’m able to leave windows ajar at night (and when I go out in the day). Would not dare do that if I lived on the ground floor.

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Dad was transferred today to a short-stay nursing home across town from me.

And my brother called from dad’s house in the afternoon to say he had arrived there, after a long and hot drive (~300 km).

Tomorrow morning I’ll call the nursing home again (talked to them briefly today) to make an appointment for us both to see the nurse there to exchange some more information. The timing of my brother’s visit is as good as can be. He’ll also be able to help bring some clothes and things from home for dad. I might go out to the house some day this week too, while my brother is staying, so that we can look over some things together.  We’ll see how it goes. The heat wave does not really inspire to a whole lot of “activity”.

Breakfast Contemplations

My favourite summer breakfast! 

This perhaps should not really need any more comment. But one thing in this picture may not be what you presuppose it to be. The strawberries are strawberries, and the cornflakes are cornflakes; but the milk is soy milk, since I’m lactose intolerant.

So the “contemplation” is about how, since the early 90’s, when this began for me, it has become so much easier to find alternatives for ordinary dairy products – not in every little corner shop, but at least in  bigger grocery stores and supermarkets. Soy milk, oats milk, rice milk, ordinary milk that has been made lactose free...  And ice cream too! :) There is a whole range of choices now.

Hard cheese, luckily, I can usually eat without problems (most of the lactose disappears in the cheese ripening process).

Back in the mid 90’s there was very little (if anything) to choose from in any shops if you were looking for milk-free. During the first years I used to make my own ‘milk’ from sesame seeds with the help of the food processor and a sieve! It was not so tasty to drink “raw” (a little bitter) but it worked well enough for pancakes and some other things.

By the way, did you know (I didn’t until just a few moments ago) that ‘Open sesame’, the famous phrase from One Thousand and One Nights (also called Arabian Nights), “reflects the distinguishing feature of the sesame seed pod, which bursts open when it reaches maturity.”

 
Picture found on the internet of sesame pods.

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After a week of cooler (but still sunny) weather we are having another heat wave this weekend. Over 30°C (86°F) in the shadow again yesterday. It is also the more humid kind of heat this time…

One problem with this kind of day is that I try desperately to get all kinds of things done in the morning, because I know it will be too hot later. My study, for example, will feel like an oven in the afternoon. Not to mention the balcony. But the best time to go outside for a walk is also in the morning... Not to mention shopping, and… Well, you get the picture.

So far I’ve had my breakfast, washed my dishes, and removed the now very sad-looking pansies from a flowerbox on the balcony. In a few minutes I will have finished this blog post (the first half of which I started on days ago). I think I might attempt a walk next – to a garden centre to get something new for that flowerbox. If I go now… I should get there just as they open… (Hoping they are giving the correct opening time on their website and have not made any unannounced changes for July. You really never know, in July, in Sweden…)

Hot and Sunny

Saturday was the hottest day here so far this summer. I walked into town around 10 am to go to the library and one or two other errands. Putting on my movie star look again - wearing my sunglasses and a wide-brimmed white hat… ;)

In the town square there was a band playing. This is a summer tradition, every year in July some music students are employed by the town to give daily street concerts. I found a bench in the shadow so sat down for a while to rest my feet and listen. I also had ice cream in the park on my way home.

Back home I had a sandwich and ice tea for lunch – and strawberries. Too hot to cook!

In the afternoon the thermometer outside my window on the shadowy side of the flat showed 33°C (91,4 F). On the balcony a lot hotter… I had three parasols up but there were also gusts of wind coming so the one supposed to be standing on the floor kept flying off. It was on its way over to visit the next-balcony-neighbour last time I caught it! Had to take it down, obviously I can’t leave it up when I’m not sitting there. Which I can’t do in the afternoon when it’s like this, but I was hoping to protect the flowers…

Inside I have around 27°C and two fans going. Felt almost cool when I got in from outside, but not if I try to “do” something!

‘They’ say that it’s going to cool off again in a day or two, though. I hope they are right! Not much one can do about it, but I do prefer 23° rather than 33°.

Rainbow

The other evening after a thunderstorm had passed by, I looked out my kitchen window and saw a rainbow in the sky. I went across the flat to the balcony, and from there I saw the other end of the bow.

So I grabbed my camera (and a jacket, because it was still raining) and went outside to see if I could catch all of it.

It turned out that from the edge of the football field, I could see the whole bow, stretching from one end of the open field to the other… But I could not catch all of it in one photo. I doubt that even with a tripod I would have been able to put a full panorama together. (I don’t have a tripod.)

When I tried to walk further away from it,  fence and trees and buildings got in the way.

So I had to settle for taking pictures of parts of it. But I stood there quite a long time just watching… I can’t remember ever seeing an unbroken bow quite as impressive.

For quite a while, there were even two bows. A double rainbow has reversed colours in the outer bow. The darker space between them (I just learned) is called Alexander's band (named after the Greek philosopher who first described it).

In Greek mythology, the rainbow was considered a path between Heaven and Earth. Iris, goddess of sky and sea, was the personification of the rainbow. As the sun unites earth and heaven, she linked the gods to humanity and acted as messenger between them.

In Chinese mythology the Goddess Nüwa used stones of different colours to repair a slit in the sky.

In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is the bow of Indra, the God of lightning, thunder and rain.

In Old Norse Mythology, a rainbow called the Bifrost Bridge connects the realms of Ásgard and Midgard, homes of the gods and humans respectively.

In Biblical Mythology, the rainbow is the sign of God's covenant with Noah and his descendants, that “never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood”. (Genesis 9)

In Sumerian/Mesopotamian mythology (The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest known works of literary writing),  the rainbow is the jewelled necklace of the Great Mother Ishtar (goddess of fertility), that she lifts into the sky as a promise that she will never forget the days of the great flood that destroyed her children.

In Australian Aboriginal mythology, the Rainbow Serpent is a common art motif. It is seen as the inhabitant of permanent waterholes and is in control of life's most precious resource, water.

In Irish folklore, a pot of gold is said to be hidden by leprechauns (a type of fairy) at the end of the rainbow.

The End of the Rainbow is in fact a place impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which depends on the location of the viewer. When walking towards the end of a rainbow, it will move further away.

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I decided to also do a Rainbow post in my Picture Book blog today, showing a few pictures a bit bigger and with the black background. In that post, you will also find a short note on the colours of the rainbow.

Thunder and Lightning

 

I did not attend the official opening of the sculpture festival on Friday afternoon. The clouds were gathering around noon…

And then Thor threw his hammer again.

Thor’s hammer

In Old Norse mythology, the god Thor rode through the heavens on a chariot pulled by two goats. Thor was known for his quick and hot temper. Lightning flashed whenever he threw his hammer Mjollnir ("crusher") which would return to his hand again after being thrown.

Thor was foremost of the gods to the common man and widely worshiped. Hammer shaped amulets were worn about the neck well into the Christianization of Scandinavia. Molds have been found which contain both cross and hammer shapes, side by side. His name occurs in numerous place names; and also lives on in one of the days of the week: Thursday. (Swedish: torsdag) Thor is associated to the Roman god Jupiter, the German god Donar, and the Anglo-Saxon god Thunor.

 

*A flash of lightning, followed after some seconds by a rumble of thunder is, for many people, the first illustration of the fact that sound travels more slowly than light.

*Lightning is approximately one kilometer distant for every 2.9 seconds that elapse between the visible flash and the first sound of thunder (or one mile for every 4.6 seconds).

*A flash of lightning and a simultaneous sharp "crack" of thunder indicates that the lightning strike was very near.

Livin' on the Edge

After a few days of thaw and rain, yesterday we had a snowstorm going on all day again, leaving a new layer of snow on top of the freezing slush beneath. Today after a cold night the sun was back, but the temperature has stayed below zero all day (at least in the shadow).

Not having set foot outside my flat for three whole days (since my fall on Friday!) I gathered up my courage to get myself out again today, and on a bus into town to get a few groceries. In the town centre there are some streets and pavements kept ice-free (by heating pipes under ground). No such luck between my flat and the bus stop... But - not to keep you in suspense! - today I managed to stay on my feet.

Isn't my life exciting?!

(Mind you, grocery shopping can be as dangerous an activity as many others these days. I've mentioned before that the unusual amounts of snow have caused several roofs of big buildings like sports centres etc to cave in lately. Yesterday, this also happened at a big supermarket in another town. Luckily everyone inside managed to get out and no one got injured.)

I'm not sure I dare write it down, but for Thursday I actually have Plans. Unless new snowstorms or other calamities happen to find us in between, a friend and I are going to make an attempt to go and see an art exhibition. Wish us luck! (Not that it's far to go; it's just one of those things that we keep talking about and never seem to get round to, and now there are only a few days left before it closes.)

The photo at the top is not from today but might as well be.

It Just Goes On And On

Pictures above and below taken around 4 a.m. through the window.
The newspaper deliverers are having a really tough winter!!!



Since yesterday, we have probably had at least 30 cm of new snow on top of what was already there. It was also snowing earlier in the week. And it's still snowing! For today, there was a "class 2" weather warning (on a scale of 3) for a large part of the country.



I did go out for a very short breath of air in the afternoon today, but it was just too difficult to walk. My intention was to walk to the nearest letterbox and post a letter, but I gave up half way. The sidewalks hadn't been ploughed at all, and the streets were slippery with loose snow on top of treacherous ice. My friend will have to wait for her letter!

In the picture above you can see that the layer of snow on the ground now goes higher than the seats of the park benches!

To look on the bright side (for me personally), I'm glad that my brother managed to come last weekend when the weather was fine.
He also helped me get some supplies home from the supermarket.
Good timing, considering the new attacks of snow during this week!
I managed to get to my physiotherapy (rehab pool) Monday and Thursday; the rest of the time I've just been staying in!
(Apart from that very short walk today.)

In spite of the blessings of the Internet (♥2U!) there are moments...

A winter's day
In a deep and dark December; [in this case, February!]
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island...

~Paul Simon~

However, Saturday afternoon always offers a treat: my favourite radio talkshow or panel game, which is the Swedish equivalent of British Just A Minute. I learn from the Wikipedia article that the British game started in 1967; the Swedish one has been running since 1969 so was not far behind. The object of the game is for four panellists to talk for sixty seconds on a given surprise subject, 'without repetition, hesitation or deviation' (and challenging each other if they think someone does not keep to the rules). It always gets hilarious, and serves as my weekly laughing exercise!

Wish I could give you an example. but not much point in directing you to the Swedish Radio podcast site. (Any Swedish followers I'm sure will find their own way.) So I got curious to see if maybe BBC4 also had their version on the web...? I found two episodes currently available on BBC iPlayer (limited listening time). So if you don't know the programme, you have a chance to find out what it's about.

Now having listened to one of the British ones, it seems to me that the Swedish version tends to have more detailed subjects; often long sentences which are kind of short stories in themselves. Like, the British programme I listened to had one subject entitled "what's in my handbag". While today's Swedish programme happened to have one about "how I came to discover what X keeps in her handbag" - and X in this case being the leader of one of our political parties (aspiring to be our next Prime Minister if they happen to win the next election), whose handbag has been much discussed in media lately because someone found out it was a very expensive one!

What makes YOU "LOL" - laugh out loud?

Gazebo

A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest.
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The word origin is unknown, it has no cognates in other European languages. False etymologies are proposed, such as the French Que c'est beau ("How beautiful") ---


Source: Wikipedia 

There are a number of these gazebos in between the apartment buildings surrounding a little park close to where I live. It is a very odd feeling to see them covered in snow. Like park benches, they are so typically connected with summer.

Weather report:

Down to -15°C again this morning, but a sunny day with
clear blue sky. (The gazebo picture at the top is from today.)

Ice

“Three feet of ice does not result from one day of cold weather.”
~ Chinese proverb ~

It's a dangerous world out there these days.
You have to look down, or you might slip on the ice under your feet.
But you also have to look up, or icicles might hit from above!





The River after the snowfall last week.

Still Reading Winnie-the-Pooh

I'm still in a kind of Eeyorish mood.

Today (at 1 p.m.), they have not even bothered sending the snow plough round yet. They (whoever they are) have probably come to the decision that what's the point, there will be more soon anyway.

Or, like Eeyore would say:

I shouldn't be surprised if it hailed a good deal tomorrow. Blizzards and what-not. Being fine to-day doesn't Mean Anything. It has no sig- what's that word? Well, it has none of that. It's just a small piece of weather.

"A small piece of weather." You gotta love that...!

When I'm feeling "under the weather", whether it is really because of the weather or for some other reason, there are certain books that help better than others. Winnie-the-Pooh is two of them. (Yes that is deliberate use of grammar.)

Weather Report

During the night, we had more snow falling at -12 C.
My guess is perhaps 15 cm on top of what was already there.
But since it's so cold, the snow is of the light and 'dry' kind.



Still -10 C and snowing a little, and the sky is all grey.
No real need for me to to go out today, so I may just stay in...

One More Day

One more day, and that will be the end of a year.
It has been a rather turbulent one, in some ways.

2009 included a lot of  worries, sadness, ill health, and death.
Looking forward, I don't seriously expect much better of 2010.
I dare say the new year will have its own share of all of those...

However, 2009 also included inspiration, and kindness. Some of it, surprisingly, from people across the world, who one year ago were still unknown to me. That is something I would not have been able to guess, the day before New Year's Eve last year.

And that brings me hope for 2010 as well:
Not every unknown thing that awaits must needs fall in the disasters and disappointments category!

The cold in the outside world around here loosened its grip just a little bit over Christmas - the temperature going up to around zero for a few days, resulting in wet slushy snowfalls, and absolutely horrid state of roads (including pavements and footpaths) when that froze again. Since yesterday, it is again colder (right now -8 outside my window) and the ground is covered by solid, knobbly, unwalkable and treacherous ice. If you don't slide on it, you're likely to stumble...!

Going out for a walk just for the fun of it is not on the agenda just now. If you venture out, it is on some serious mission, like getting food supplies or medicine, or library books...

The cold inside my head and chest is still keeping its grip on me, too. A little less coughing today than yesterday I think - so far. But still basically hibernating, and drinking lots of tea!

New Year's Eve tomorrow I still hope to be celebrating "traditionally" - which in my case means having two or three friends over for some food and a film in the evening, and watching the inevitable fireworks from the windows around midnight. (Living in town, one thing is forever out of the question on New Year's Eve - any attempt to have a 'quiet night' and just go to bed early!)

.~. HAPPY NEW YEAR! .~.

Time To Hibernate

Typical Christmas: A lot of going back and forth by car...!

Yesterday and today have been no fun at all from weather/traffic point of view, the temperature around zero and sometimes rain, sometimes snow = slush. A lot of accidents were reported on the radio as my brother drove me back to town yesterday afternoon. I hope he got home safe today, from a considerably longer drive... (P.S. He did! Confirmed by text message...)

Myself I have had the luxury of not even having to set foot outside the flat today. Hopefully I won't have to do so tomorrow either. Eventually I suppose I will run out of either food or paper tissues (the cold is still hanging in); but until I do, or the weather improves, I will continue to hibernate...!

I have written a long letter to a friend, and talked to another one on the phone, and watched two episodes of a British crime series on DVD, which I got as Christmas present from my brother - Jonathan Creek. I'd never heard of it but got really hooked by the first two episodes. So from entertainment point of view I can easily hibernate a few days more...!

"Certain mammals have what many people might consider the good fortune to be able to sleep through the winter—to hibernate. They bed down in the fall and, for all intents and purposes, don't arise again until the spring." (Quote from a web article on hibernation. The picture is my own, from the zoo in the early autumn. I've used it before on this blog, but I think it's sooo cute...)

Quotation of the Week (48/09)

Swedish Whitebeam Trees, November

"You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down."
C.S. Lewis

I Got the Shot

(Photo from 27 October)

The last intense colours of autumn from a couple of days ago are all gone now. The weather started changing yesterday (Sunday). (See my other post from today.) This morning, there were just a few brownish leaves left on the trees, all was grey and wet, and the main impression is that NOVEMBER is upon us... And as the calendar agrees, what else is there to say?!

This afternoon, I went to my health care centre and got my first vaccination against swine flu. Remains to be seen how I will be feeling tomorrow...! On request, I got the shot in my left arm, because of the chronic pain problems I already have in my right arm (every extra pain on that side usually gets multiplied).

I have been getting regular flu shots every autumn for seven or eight years. Some years I've felt nothing, other years mild symptoms for a couple of days. Nothing compared to the rounds of real flu and aftermaths that I used to get...  Since I started taking flu shots, I've hardly even had an ordinary cold in the winter. The swine flu vaccine has been discussed a lot but considering my own experiences of other flu's I did not hesitate...

I'm prepared. I can hibernate the rest of the week if necessary. I've got food. I've got pills (which I take anyway). I've got handkerchiefs and cough drops. I've got films to watch and audio books to listen to. The weather report says rain tomorrow anyway...

Moon Shadows

On Sunday, clouds began gathering, and the wind started blowing... At the same time, there was a full moon rising... My camera does not really have enough zoom for pictures of the moon. I also have no tripod or anything like that... But I couldn't resist anyway. These shots were taken through my window yesterday evening, with handheld camera. (Slideshow made at Photobucket.com.)

Slush

This was the sight that met my eye when looking out from my windows this morning.



I do not rejoice. It is not really snow - it is pure slush. Icy cold and somehow even wetter than rain. There is no proper footwear that will hold against it and still keep your feet warm. It does its best to kill what was left of the glorious colours of autumn. It tells you that gloomy November is on its way...



See more photos from today here in my Picture Book.