Sunset Clouds

View from one of my windows.

Summer

     

  

  

A more popular name for this sculpture is The Lazy Student because he is resting outside a college building. (He is somewhat larger than normal human size; something which is hard to get across in a picture unless you have an actual live person willing to pose with him. On this occasion I didn’t.)

This week – the first week in June – will be the last week of the spring term for a lot of students. Some of them may be dreaming of taking this position next week:
Just resting, and staring at the sky above…

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.

Ashes and Dust

The April sun went into hiding for the weekend. Saturday was all grey here, and very windy. All the sand that has not yet been swept up from the streets after the winter, whirling around... Suddenly it seemed much easier to "believe" in that cloud of vulcano ashes that has been putting a lock on all our airports in Northern Europe over the last few days; leaving people stranded all over the world, suddenly not being able to go where they intended to go. Bad enough for those who were going away; and even worse for those headed back home (expected back at work, and having spent all their holiday money).

Yes, I do know that the clouds I actually see now are "ordinary" clouds. The news just seemed all the more incredible when I first heard about it, and at the same time saw the sun blazing down from a perfectly clear, blue sky! (Ashes? What ashes?)

A powerful reminder that we really have very little clue what's going on around us, most of the time!



"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."

A walk earlier in the week (still under a blue sky) took me across the town's oldest cemetery. It has a lot of these really impressive graves with huge memorial headstones in enclosures surrounded by heavily decorated iron fences. (I always wonder: Why? Yes, I can understand the need to mark the place... But iron fences?!)



But in the same cemetery I also found the hepaticas (cf previous post), growing "wild" outside the fences, reminding of new life...

“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life”
~ Book of Common Prayer ~

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

~ Gospel of Matthew 24: 35, 36 ~

A Sunny Snowy Countryside Walk (2)

Behind the Mill, a path goes on over a small island, embraced by two different arms of the river. We continued our walk across it to the next bridge. The area is a nature reserve. In the summer, the island is a sort of meadow, with quite a few rare plants. This winter, it is a vast white field.

Hopefully the information on this signpost was not too important.

Half way across the island.

The other arm of the river.
This turned out to have its own set of ice formations.

On the other side of the river, the path leads on into the wood.

We did not go further this time, but turned around...

... and walked back towards the Mill.

A Sunny Snowy Countryside Walk (1)

On Sunday, while visiting our Dad, my brother and I went out for a dog-and-camera walk in the afternoon. We were lucky with the weather: Sun shining from a clear blue sky, over vast fields of untouched snow. The snow stays so much cleaner in the countryside than in town!

Usually, it is my brother with the dog, and I with the camera.

It is an even competition who makes more stops:
the dog or the camera.

On rare occasions, the dog and the camera trade places.

The goal for our walk was a nature reserve area at an old mill.

The ice formations at the mill-dam waterfall were amazing.

"Ice pancakes" was my brother's name for these.

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In another post, I will show some more photos from the little island behind the mill, and the other arm of the river - which turned out to have its own impressive set of ice-art.

I will also be showing photos from this walk at my Picture Book blog this week (starting today).

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PS 1/ Meanwhile, outside my windows, the sky is all grey and it's snowing again...

PS 2/ This is my second post today. To learn how we celebrate
Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras / Shrove Tuesday) in Sweden, scroll down!