Beyond the Lone Islands

Presenting Her Royal Highness Princess Estelle

2012-02-24T14:44:00.001+01:00

This is the only picture of her made pucblic so far:
Princess Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary, Duchess of Östergötland.
With her parents Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel.
Photo from the Royal Family’s Facebook page.

As soon as the birth was announced (see my news post from yesterday: A Princess Is Born), name speculations started. Today when I got home from my morning grocery shopping, I turned the TV on. The name had just been officially announced, and the TV hosts were obviously a bit surprised and bewildered at first about the choice. It took them a while to get their bearings and find the background for it. I wonder if I was the only one reacting with an “Of course!” and wishing I’d actually thought of making a serious guess of it…

If you look back to a post of mine from two weeks ago, Postcards from the Past, I think that’s where I first mentioned the fact that my p.grandmother’s half-sister Gerda was employed as chamber maid or similar to Estelle Manville-Bernadotte, American wife of the well-known Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte, related to/member of our royal family.

Folke Bernadotte (2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was grandson to King Oscar II of Sweden, who was King of Sweden 1872-1907 (and of Norway 1872-1905).

Folke Bernadotte also earned his own place in history as a Swedish diplomat noted for among other things his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II. After the war, Bernadotte was unanimously chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict of 1947–1948. He was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the Jewish nationalist Zionist group Lehi (commonly known as the Stern Gang or Stern Group).

On 1 December 1928 in New York City, Folke Bernadotte married Estelle Romaine Manville (born in Pleasantville, New York, 26 September 1904; died in Stockholm, 28 May 1984), whose family had founded part of the Johns-Manville Corporation. They had four sons, two of whom died in childhood, and seven grandchildren, all born after Bernadotte's death.

I have not yet found out at what point in history my great-aunt Gerda came to work for them. I’m hoping to maybe find some clue among the old postcards as I continue to examine these. If I don’t, I may try and think of some other way to find out, because I’m really getting very curious!

Anyway, my immediate reaction to the royal announcement today was that the name could hardly have been more perfectly chosen. It’s a stylish old name not worn out by recent popularity but not sounding too odd either. It’s got a French ring to it that goes well with the name Bernadotte. It’s got royal connection as pointed out above, but at the same time Estelle Manville was not born royal - just as the new little princess Estelle’s father Daniel was not! And it indirectly commemorates a member of the royal family whose life’s work really deserves to be honoured.

I’m sure my grandmother Sally would have loved it. She was a big fan of the royal family – partly, I suspect, because of her sister working for them! When I was visiting my grandparents in childhood, I used to go through old weekly magazines from the 1940’s and early 50’s that my grandmother had saved. They had lots of articles and photos of the royal family then living at Haga Palace (which Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel have now taken over as their residence).

Haga Palace, 2008 (from Wikipedia)

Our present King Carl XVI Gustaf (in the middle), with his four older sisters, at Haga in 1948 (from Wikipedia). Back then, the Swedish constitution did now allow girls to inherit the throne – so the nation kept waiting and waiting for that little prince…!

Flashbacks, flashbacks… They had the royal princesses as paper dolls in those old magazines and I cut them out and played with them, when visiting my grandmother. I think the magazines may still be upstairs beneath a lot of other rubbish in a closet. If I had not cut out the princesses (and other things) back then in the early 60’s, the old magazines might have been valuable today. But I did. So they’re probably not!!!

So the fanatic royalists are deliriously happy now about a new little princess at Haga; while some fanatic anti-royalists grumble and would rather have the family turned out on the street; and one or two feel sorry for the poor little princess who will grow up with no control over her own life as she is Destined to be Queen and will never know what it is to have a Normal life.

As for myself, I can’t say I’m a fanatic royalist – in some ways monarchy does seem a bit outdated – but on the other hand I’m very far from convinced that as a nation we’d really be better off with another system, at least for the near future. So I wish them well. I think as queens go, Victoria seems well qualified to do a good job of it. As for Estelle, she’ll get a better start in life than most, but no doubt her own share of troubles as well.

A Princess Is Born

2012-02-23T19:34:00.001+01:00

The photo is mine, from Sweden’s National Day 2011

The Associated Press
Date: Thursday Feb. 23, 2012 10:52 AM ET

STOCKHOLM — Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria gave birth to her first child Thursday, a baby girl who will one day become queen, prompting banner headlines and 21-gun salutes across the country.
The girl, who is second in line to the Swedish throne, was born at 4:26 a.m. (0326 GMT), said Victoria's husband, Prince Daniel. She was 20 inches (51 cms) long and weighed 7.23 pounds (3.28 kg).
Both the crown princess and the baby are "doing very well," an emotional Daniel told reporters who had waited for the announcement all night at the Karolinska University Hospital in the Stockholm suburb of Solna.
"My feelings are a bit all over the place," he said, switching to English mid-sentence.
"When I left the room, the little princess was sleeping on her mother's chest and they were looking very cozy," he continued in Swedish, folding his arms as if cradling a baby.
Victoria, 34, is next in line to the throne held by her father since 1973. Sweden changed the constitution in 1980, three years after Victoria was born, to allow the eldest heir to inherit the throne regardless of gender. Before that female heirs were excluded. Sweden's last female monarch was Queen Ulrika Eleonora, who ruled for just one year until 1720.
Victoria married Daniel, 38, a commoner and her former personal trainer, in June 2010.
As is custom when an heir to the throne is born, the Swedish Armed Forces celebrated the news with two 21-gun salutes at noon in Stockholm and other cities.
Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20120223/sweden-princess-has-baby-girl-120223/#ixzz1nELzQsvJ

BTT: Blogging About Books

2012-02-23T17:28:00.001+01:00

Booking Through Thursday: Deb and Yvonne ask:

What do you look for when reading a book blog?
Does the blogger have to read the same genre?
Do you like reviews? Personal posts? Memes?
Giveaways? What attracts you to a book blog?
And–what are your favorite book blogs?

Actually, I don’t regularly follow any blog/meme that is all about books except if you count this one (Booking Through Thursday, which deals with general questions about reading habits rather than reviews).

I only read book reviews online for two reasons: One is if I’m looking for something specific. The other is if I know the blogger and am curious to see what he/she reads – especially of course if I know that at least partly we share the same interests. (And okay, a third reason may be if I just randomly happen to land on one; but that happens with all kinds of blog topics!)

A personal blog post is usually of more interest to me than a book review written by someone I know nothing else about.

I quite like Booking Through Thursday though, because it makes me think a bit on my own reading habits, and widens my outlook too. I do usually go round to look at quite a few other answers to this meme, whether I comment on them or not.

I’ll take the opportunity to mention a new blog by a blogging friend in England:
Once A Librarian. (Also in other contexts known as Scriptor Senex.)

F for Flowers (ABC Wednesday)

2012-02-22T13:50:00.001+01:00

Above are the other Flowers (besides the tulips in Monday’s post) that I bought at the Florist’s this week.

On the left: A yellow begonia for my kitchen window.
On the right: a pink streptocarpus for my bedroom window.

I was very happy to find the latter, because this meant finally also learning its name, which I’ve been trying to figure out ever since I got a blue one last summer:

För mina svenska läsare: Kornettblomma är det svenska namnet.

Time for a Semla

2012-02-21T11:29:00.001+01:00

A semla (also known by a few other names in Swedish), is a traditional pastry in Scandinavia, associated with Lent (the period from now until Easter in the Christian liturgial year) and especially Fat Tuesday /Mardi Gras /Shrove Tuesday, which is today.

The name semla (pl. semlor) is a loan word from German Semmel, originally deriving from the Latin semilia, which was the name used for the finest quality wheat flour.

The first version of the semla was a plain bread bun, eaten in a bowl of warm milk. Today, the Swedish semla consists of a cardamom-spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off and insides scooped out, and is then filled with a mix of the scooped-out bread crumbs, milk and almond paste, topped with whipped cream. The cut-off top serves as a lid and is dusted with powdered sugar. Today it is often eaten on its own, with coffee or tea. Some people still eat it in a bowl of hot milk.

Nowadays there are some bakeries and cafés that have them all year round, but they still traditionally primarily belong to the period between February and Easter, and some still consider it ‘cheating’ to start eating them before the first week of Lent, or any other day than Tuesday.

In my childhood, in my family, we had them every Tuesday from Shrove Tuesday until Easter, as dessert after dinner (which we ate when dad got home from work, around 5 pm), and served in the old traditional way in a bowl of hot milk; the milk also sprinkled with cinnamon.

To me they’re still connected with Lent and I don’t eat them any other time of the year. I usually don’t eat a lot of them during Lent either because they’re not all that much of a favourite with me. But I guess I usually have at least one, some time during this period. Sometimes more; depending a bit on company (or lack of), and if I happen to pass by a bakery/café which I know have really good ones.

Yesterday, going home from the hospital/rehab pool, I just missed a bus in town and had to wait 15 min for the next. When that happens, I often pop into a bakery shop/café near the bus square (Lulu’s) to buy bread there – a bit of a change from the brands in the grocery shops and supermarkets. This bakery also happens to make a very good semla. Not that I’ve personally been round to all the bakeries in town tasting their semlor. But the local newspaper does that. Last year Lulu’s won. This year they were out of the competition and instead on the jury!

Anyway. As you might already have guessed, what this ramble is leading up to is that I bought (and ate) my first semla of the year yesterday. I no longer eat them with milk (for one thing I’m lactose intolerant since about 20 years back) so had it with my afternoon cup of tea. I have to say, that bakery does know how to make them. But they’re big, and very filling. After eating it, I was suddenly hit by an overwhelming desire for a rest. So I lay down on my bed to listen to an audio book for a while… and woke up around three hours later!

In my defense – and the semla’s – I did have rather a tiring day before that. First the rehab pool and then lunch and then going out again to buy flowers and then changing the kitchen curtains.

Tulips Tulips

2012-02-20T20:53:00.001+01:00

▲ For Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

20 February was my mother’s birthday. She was born in 1930; died in May 2009. I was thinking about her today as I walked to a nearby florist’s to buy a bunch of tulips.

Around this time in February is usually also when I get the urge to take down the last of my “winter” decorations and tablecloths etc and replace them with “spring” ones. Even if it’s still rather wintry outside, there is something about the light, the sun getting warmer and the days longer… So yesterday I started my colour changes, and today I finished off by changing back to my yellow kitchen curtains (from red-and-white in winter).

And then I also feel the need of some fresh flowering plants on the window sills (like a yellow begonia in the kitchen window) – and a bunch of tulips!

Me and my twin at the florist’s! (They have mirrors in the cold room where they keep the cut flowers… So that it looks like there’s MORE of everything. Me included! A bit confusing, but of course it tempted me to take out the camera…)

Sunday Sunset

2012-02-19T20:13:00.001+01:00

After a weekend of what we in Sweden call “un-weather” (‘oväder’) – around here a nasty mix of rain, snow and sleet, and icy slushy slippery roads, which I chose not to go out in – Sunday ended with a beautiful sunset (5:18 PM).
– For Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday. –

Before His Time, Whoever He Was

2012-02-18T16:14:00.001+01:00

In 1919, French artist Marcel Duchamp, associated with the Dadaist movement, made a famous parody of the Mona Lisa by adorning a cheap reproduction of the painting with a mustache and goatee. (the card on the left)

To this he added the inscription L.H.O.O.Q., a phonetic game which, when read out loud in French quickly sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul". This can be translated as "She has a hot ass" ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp

Imagine my surprise, when in my great-uncle’s postcard album I found a postcard which at first glance seemed to be a parody of Duchamp’s parody of Mona Lisa. But… The Swedish card is postmarked either 1901 or 1907 – long before Duchamp’s famous one!

The mustache and beard were added in ink by the sender, who did not sign the card with his (or her?) name, but obviously expected to be known by the recipient anyway.

Read more in my blog Greetings from the Past.

“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone;
the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world
by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and
thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”
- Marcel Duchamp -

Weekend Reflections + Skywatch Friday

2012-02-17T20:26:00.001+01:00

For Weekend Reflections & Sky Watch Friday

The ice on the river has been receding since I last walked this way. I wish it would do the same on the streets, but they are threatening us with more snow this weekend. There were some curious wave-shaped clouds on the sky today when I was walking to the supermarket; and I stopped on the bridge to take a photo.

ABC Wednesday: E for Engrossed

2012-02-15T13:58:00.001+01:00

… which I’ve been over the last few days, in the project of setting up a new blog, in which I intend to Expose and Examine a collection of old postcards from the Era of the first three decades of the 20th century, and at the same time Explore a part of my own family history, by Extracting ‘Evidence’ from the cards. I’m feeling quite Excited about this, Even if I Expect it to be a rather slow process. But at least the postcard collection Enables me to set a sort of frame for the project.

In the meantime, I’m also getting back to my physical Exercises in the rehab pool since Monday. Hopefully, that will bring me back some Energy rather than just Exhaust me!

A button at the top of the sidebar will take you to the new blog.
Or just click here:

Greetings from the Past

This is a photo of my grandmother’s travelling and card writing half-sister Gerda. The original photo as scanned to the left. With some improvements made by me in the middle (using Picasa). This photo was not in the postcard album; but when I turned it over I found that it was obviously originally printed on a postcard, and then cut to fit into a smaller photo frame. Luckily, the cutting has left the date – Lyon 26 October 1915 – and the dedication to my grandmother Sally, who would then have been 15 going on 16. Gerda was born 1881, so would be 34 in this photo. I can see the family resemblance between her and Sally in her features.

Valentine’s Day Greetings

2012-02-13T22:14:00.001+01:00

Flickering through the old postcard albums mentioned in my previous post, I happened to notice these two anonymous Valentine’s card sent to my grandmother’s half-brother Gustav (born 1878) while he was living in Galeton, Pennsylvania, in 1908. They seem to have been posted in Galeton, too.

Passing the loving thoughts on to my blogging friends!

♥ ♥ ♥

I’m working on the layout of a new blog for posting more greetings from the past – in the future…

I decided to put it on a separate blog account using a different signature. And yes (to those who wondered) it will be bi-lingual, if not word-by-word translation at least summaries. I’ll put a link in here as soon as I feel ready.

In the meantime – have a great Valentine’s Day!

Postcards from the Past

2012-02-12T19:23:00.001+01:00

As mentioned in the previous post, my brother was here for the weekend, and we spent yesterday at The House, getting on with various ‘projects’ there.

In the afternoon, I decided to look through the contents of an old chest that seemed to be filled with old photographs.

Most of these turned out anonymous and I didn’t recognize anyone in them. Those I put back in the chest for now and they’ll probably go to the local historical society or the town archive.

There were also a number of framed family photographs. Do you keep lots of framed portraits around the house? I don’t. My parents had some; my grandmother had lots (and most of the ones in that old chest were hers.) She came from a large family, with a bunch of half-siblings I never met, and I have a hard time telling them apart in old photos. The problem is that there are no notes in grandma’s photo albums either, neither who’s who nor what’s what.

Anyway… I made the decision to de-frame the family portraits, keeping the photos but letting the frames go to a future sale. So I spent a good deal of the afternoon yesterday doing that.

However, at the very bottom of that old chest, I made a find that I’m really excited about. Two old postcard albums from the early 1900s, which seem to have belonged to two of my grandmother’s older half-siblings, born in 1878 vs 1881; one brother and one sister. Both of them went off to America to live and work for some years back in their youth (not together, but separately, I think). The sister also seems to have travelled quite a lot around Europe.

I took these albums home with me and as I started paging through them last night - I’m hooked!

Unfortunately some diligent stamp collector in the past robbed every card of its stamps… But gently. (Steaming them off I suppose.) On many of them the postmark can still be read though. The cards themselves are of fascinating variety, and the writing on some of them will no doubt also tell a story – of a kind. The handwritings are not entirely easy to decipher, but I expect with practice it might get easier.

It seems the larger and most interesting album belonged to the brother; but many of the cards were written by the sister. I think the sister probably inherited that album when the brother died. (I know he passed away long before she did.) And then my grandmother about 20 years younger than both those elder half-siblings) inherited the album in her turn.

The sister is the one of whose story I know the most, and yet not enough details to puzzle it all together. I’m hoping the cards may give some helpful dates. What I do know is that later in life Gerda (as her name was) worked as chamber maid or similar to Estelle Manville-Bernadotte, American wife of the well-known Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte, in turn related to our royal family.

Looking things up a while back though, I found that Folke and Estelle did not get married until 1928, and Estelle was not even born yet when Gerda first went to America in her early twenties. I’m not sure if she was employed by Estelle in the States prior to the marriage; or got the job later, in Sweden. Perhaps the postcards will give me a clue. It seems she was back and forth between America and Sweden/Europe more than once.

Many of the cards have writing all over them. They are different kinds of cards and from various countries, some written in Swedish and some in English.

The smaller album contains cards addressed to Gerda, these are mostly Christmas, New Year, Easter and birthday cards. I’ve not really looked closer at the senders yet.

I’ll have to ponder a bit on what to do with this incredible find - besides sharing the occasional card on this blog… Actually I’m thinking that every one of them deserves to be scanned and preserved digitally. Since most of the cards are over 100 years old that should not infringe on any copyright laws!

There are about 400 cards altogether in these two albums + I also found some loose ones earlier.

Just now I’m thinking the best thing for me would be to give this project its own blog. That’s probably the simplest way for me to do it and a chance of getting some feedback along the way as well. One card at a time, each in a separate post… That would be like a blog from the past! (I wonder if Blogger can back-date to the early 1900’s?)

While thinking about details I might do a few test posts here.

---

PS. (10:25 pm)

Just did an experiment to back-date a post on my private test blog to 1912. Blogger says: "The post date must be between Jan. 1, 1970 and Dec. 31, 9999." I find that hilarious. I must do a post and pre-schedule it to 9999! What a treat for those who come 7987 years after me!

Weekend Reflections

2012-02-12T14:08:00.001+01:00

▲For James’ Weekend Reflections:
Me taking a rear mirror shot of my brother refueling the car.▲

My brother came down this weekend (I say ‘down’ because he lives 300 km north of here) and we had yet another round of trying to sort a few things in The House outside town.

On Saturday we had another visitor coming to have a look at various research material left behind by our dad; this time concentrating on getting some tips what to do with all the railway-related stuff. Dad wrote or participated in compiling four books on railways (“dead and alive”) in this area. Had his health not declined as it did in the last decade, there might have been one or two more.

Our visitor this weekend was a sprightly 84-year-old man who worked together with dad on some of the book projects. He certainly seemed to still have his wits about him while at the same time still keeping up a spirit of enthusiasm. He took a tour of the shelves in the study, gave us some hints what might be interesting to whom, and some names and places to contact. Per will follow up these ‘leads’. B himself seemed to know his own limitations, but he did take with him a disc that Per had compiled from dad’s computer + three boxes of slides seeming to relate to projects in which he and dad were both involved.

In the afternoon I dipped into a different kind of project and made a find of more interest to myself… But that deserves a post of its own, so I’ll get back to that!

Friday Fence

2012-02-10T20:33:00.001+01:00

Traditional farm style wooden fence, but here along a town street (not so common!)

Linking to Friday Fences at Life According to Jan and Jer.

Rollermouse

2012-02-09T19:41:00.001+01:00

About ten years ago, I got a wrist-rest like this with built-in mouse – called a Rollermouse – as a handicap aid to use with my computer. I got it on ‘permanent loan’ for free and very grateful for that, because back then I had very little money and an uncertain future (this was before I got my handicap pension) and it was a big help since I had (still have) problems using a regular mouse.

I should perhaps add that back then I had an old desktop computer. Now I use it together with a separate keyboard when I use the laptop in the study.

A few years ago, the Rollermouse showed a tendency to sometimes go partly on strike. It was the clicking of the roller-bar that stopped working. It was like that for a while, on and off, with my old laptop. But when I got my new laptop – ‘Bella’ - two years ago, then suddenly the Rollermouse started to work perfectly again with that computer; and has continued to do so, until a few days ago. I’ve connected and disconnected it any number of times during the last two years without problems. Until…

…. the other day it suddenly partly went on strike again, and wouldn’t reconnect whatever I did. When I realized how long I’d had it – really, 10+ years is quite a long time for any computer-related device! – I decided to just buy a new one of my own, since I can now afford it. Last night, I searched and found a web-shop from where I could order and pay by invoice, and on top of all it was on sale just now, and no extra freight cost. So I ordered one.

It’s just that… Guess what I just realized? In the meantime, the old one has once more mysteriously popped back into working order and is again responding as it should! Well, never mind… Actually the gel filled wrist-supports are getting worn too.

Anyway, it struck me that some of you might never have heard of the Rollermouse, and as I also happened last night to come across some YouTube demos of it, I thought I’d introduce it to you.

BTT: Only Five

2012-02-09T11:01:00.001+01:00

This week’s question from Booking Through Thursday:

shelovestoread asks:

If you had to pick only 5 books to read ever again, what would they be and why?’

I sincerely hope I never have to make the choice, but if I did…

The Bible. Sneaky choice, because I get 66 books in 1.

I’d like to be sneaky with The Chronicles of Narnia as well because I have those in a box set, and they are each so thin, surely they must count as one? No? Well, I guess I’d pick The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe then.

Three Men in a Boat by J.K. Jerome. I’ve already re-read that at least thirty times or so and know for a fact I never get bored with it.

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling. I realize there is no hope of getting away with all seven books in that series in one volume (it would need a suitcase of its own) so I just have to choose one. The Order is the thickest of them all ;) … But the reason it is my favourite is more to do with the fact that it was the one that made the deepest impression on me at first read.

Now I’m in serious trouble choosing the last one. I have a nagging feeling that I ought to take at least one to remind me of my own country, Sweden. Oh, all right. I’ll take Astrid Lindgren’s Seacrow Island. This is another children’s book but also with some memorable grown-up characters in it. Unusually, this was a TV-series before she also turned it into a book, and I’ve re-watched the TV-series more times than I’ve read the book. But I’m sort of assuming for the purpose of this exercise that only being allowed to take five books, I’m probably headed for some isolated place where I won’t be able to watch DVDs of my choice either! This book will help me recall images in my head.

I assure you I’m not happy to be leaving all other books behind, though. I can only hope I’ll never actually be put in the situation. Still, five books (or seventy) is better than none.

D for Diary (ABC-D Wednesday)

2012-02-07T21:17:00.001+01:00

Which of the quotes above fits YOU best?
Do you, or did you ever, keep a “Dear Diary”?
(If you did: Do you still have them? Read them?)
If your diary-habits changed – do you know why?

I never kept a proper diary for any length of time; and by that I mean the “Dear Diary” kind, i.e. recording feelings as well as dates and facts. The sporadic attempts I made back in my teens, I decided later in life not to keep. (Never regretted that so far, and I assure you it was no loss to the literary world.)

Somehow, I think I always preferred to have real readers in mind, rather than just writing to myself. So I wrote letters instead: The principle of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. (In Sweden we go even farther and say “more than ten”.)

[By the way – did you know that this proverb refers back to mediaeval falconry where a bird in the hand (the falcon) was a valuable asset and certainly worth more than two in the bush (the prey). I had no idea until just now when I looked it up!]

Even my attempts at just keeping short notes in a pocket diary show a clear tendency to be a typical New Year’s resolution never lasting beyond the month of March or so. Such diaries I have for a number of years back. But whichever one I pick up, I see the same tendency: I seem to be very busy every January and then gradually my life gets emptier and emptier until next New Year! (This, of course, is a poor mirror of Reality. All it really reflects is my diary-keeping habits.)

Considering this, I have to say I’m rather surprised at myself that blogging turned out a very different experience and that I’ve been keeping this up for over three years.

I think there are three main reasons. The first is that it did not take too long until I made contact with other bloggers; and as soon as I did that, blogging became more of a social activity than like keeping a diary. (By now I know that there are more than two birds out there in the bush.)

The second is that blogging is not really like keeping a diary at all. It can be, but it does not have to. If I don’t feel like writing about personal stuff, I can write about something completely different. Or quote someone else ...

… Or just post a picture! The third thing is that my blogging came to involve and evolve my photography as well as writing. And this too as an extrovert rather than just an introvert experience.

So thank YOU whoever you may be who took time to read this!

ABC Wednesday – D

Macro Monday: Icicles

2012-02-06T16:13:00.001+01:00

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.
~ Victor Hugo ~

For Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

SOOC: Winter Walk

2012-02-05T18:19:00.001+01:00

Looking ▲North vs. South▼ over the river from the same bridge.

To the north, the river is now frozen. To the south, it is not.

Here is what makes the difference:

Linking to Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday

Early Hours

2012-02-04T21:21:00.001+01:00

(Sunrise last Monday at 7:40, through my window.)

And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
~ Genesis 1:5 ~

Good News: Time was “back on” again this morning! The radio-controlled clock was still standing still when I went to bed last night, and seemed quite “dead”… but in the morning when I went to check, I found it innocently ticking away and showing the correct time again as if nothing ever happened. (Except the clock was still lying on my ironing board; which is not where I usually keep it!)

I guess it just needed a break!
[laugh, please]

When Time Froze

2012-02-03T20:00:00.001+01:00

I have a radio controlled clock. Or had. That is, I still have the clock, but it no longer seems willing to be controlled, neither by radio signal nor manually by me. Or else Someone Out There is seriously messing with Time!

Suddenly this afternoon I noticed that the clock was four hours behind. So I concluded it probably needed a new battery.

After I inserted a new battery, it moved forward a few hours, then stopped. I took out the battery and tried another. Then it moved forward exactly four hours, and stopped.

I took out the battery and reinserted the same one. The clock moved forward another four hours.

We played this game a few more rounds, then I gave up. Evidently there are now only three times: 12 o’clock, 4 o’clock or 8 o’clock.

Just thought you’d like to know…

Friday Fence

2012-02-03T16:27:00.001+01:00

Linking to Friday Fences @ Life According To Jan and Jer

BTT: Random Finds

2012-02-02T18:16:00.001+01:00

From Deb at Booking Through Thursday:

heidenkind asks:

“Have you ever read a random book left in a waiting room or on a park bench, etc., and did you like it?”

I can’t recall that I ever found and read a book left behind like that in a public place. (I think I’d probably assume it belonged to someone, so let it lie.)

However, I have of course borrowed lots of random books from libraries in my day; and also bought books without knowing a thing about them. (Link goes to a recent post.)

I also used to make random finds in my parents’ and (back in my youth) grandparents’ bookshelves.

In The House where my parents lived the last 17 years or so of their lives (and where my dad grew up), there was/is one shelf in particular that my brother and I suspect must host some kind of library ghost, because its contents seemed (and still seem) to shift between each visit; even long after mum said she’d stopped reading. (The last years of her life she was no longer able to keep track of the plot from start to end of a novel, so gave it up).

I guess maybe now it’s me who’s acting the ghost (taking the odd find home with me every now and then) – but I’m still not sure…

One of my finds from the magic shelf in The House:
A Swedish translation of Don Quixote from 1928.
There is a stamp inside this copy that indicates it was given to someone (I assume my grandfather) for a review in the newspaper. I know I read it back in my youth; it’s on my list of books to reread. (A list in my head which has not actually been put on paper…)

Thursday, but not Thirsty!

2012-02-02T13:14:00.001+01:00

… Thankful for Water …

On Monday there was a notice put up on the entrance door where I live, to inform all tenants that on Thursday, we would be out of tap water between 8 am to 4 pm because of some repair work.

Had this been back in my working days (when I was away from home during those hours anyway) I’d just have shrugged my shoulders and tried (but probably failed) to be prepared for hissing and splurting water taps when I got back home again.

No longer working and with nowhere to go (at least nowhere I’d feel comfortable to spend a whole day in mid winter!), my first reaction came close to (a moment of) panic.

First of all, shouldn’t an important message like that be put in everyone’s letterbox instead of just on the entrance door? Because there might actually be old or sick people living on their own who might stay in their flat for three days (especially in the winter cold of -10°C we’re having at the moment) and so never get to see the warning…

So I muttered on about that to myself for a while. But of course I never got round to calling the landlord’s office to complain – since, after all, I had seen the message...

Half way through the 8 waterless hours – I’m beginning to realize that I still over-panicked “just a little” in my own preparations. I just had no grip how much water I’d need to get through a day with none coming out of the taps! So before going to bed yesterday I filled just about every bottle and jug and bucket that I had… Don’t really know what I was thinking!!!

(I shall probably have to keep flushing the toilet manually the rest of the week to empty those buckets in the bathroom!)

Well - at least it serves as a reminder to be truly thankful for one of those everyday things it’s so easy to take for granted in this corner of the world: Clean, fresh, cold or hot water from the tap, any time of the day.

It strikes me that my somewhat over-panicky preparations may be subconsciously related to childhood memories. In the village where I lived then, whenever there was a power cut (likely to occur in the winter storms), we also had no water. So dad used to go round putting cups over the levers on the toilets etc, to remind us not to use them. This morning, just before 8, I found myself doing the same thing… Having just realized, going through my mornings routines, how much of it we do automatically, without really thinking about it. Flush the toilet, wash our hands, brush our teeth and clean the toothbrush under running water; fill the kettle in the kitchen; rinse out a cup or a glass; fill the sink to do the washing up… etc.

To finish off this post… a favourite family photo of my paternal grandparents, proudly posing at the water well on the property where they were about to build their house back in 1930:

C for Cars under Cover (ABC Wednesday)

2012-01-31T17:46:00.001+01:00

We’ve been having COLD weather here lately!

For ABC Wednesday - C

Macro Monday: Behold the Turtle

2012-01-30T08:50:00.001+01:00

Detail of the same sculpture as in yesterday’s post.

Linking this one to Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos.

Braving the Elements (SOOC Sunday)

2012-01-29T18:55:00.001+01:00

For Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday

Friends in a Box

2012-01-29T12:35:00.001+01:00

Scrolling back through my new timeline layout in Facebook I was reminded of another “in the box” story (compare yesterday’s post). In a FB comment just before New Year, I mentioned that I intended to have friends over for the occasion. Mysteriously, as I was writing, the word friends caused an automatic suggestion to pop up that maybe I meant FRIENDS as in the TV show!

Actually it was a little spooky, because I was in the middle of re-watching that series on DVD. But how on earth could Facebook know? And rather rude of them to suggest that I’d have nothing better to do on a New Year’s Eve! (Not to mention that the assumption on this particular occasion was actually wrong…)

Why it happened has remained a mystery – until now. I just figured it out. It so happened that when writing that status update, I used the phrase “me + friends”. It seems it was the + that did it! (Perhaps you already knew that. But I didn’t!)

Thinking Outside The Box

2012-01-28T19:23:00.001+01:00

“The Box” I have in mind just now is Facebook; while Blogger counts as Outside, because here I’m allowed all the space I want to think /rant /ramble…

On FB, I summed it up thus: “My life does not fit into the boxes.”

(No, I’m not moving again. This is a picture from the last time I did, 3½ years ago. I have no wish to repeat that any time soon!)

If you are a Facebook user, you have probably noticed that they are introducing a new layout with a Timeline. I decided yesterday to give it a tryout before they force it on me anyway.

Seductively, they seemed to promise me a chance of reviewing and changing settings before these were made visible to anyone else. This, of course, was not true. People may not have seen the new layout (perhaps!) until I pushed that special button, but my trial and error “activities” were obviously made public step-by-step just as usual. Not that it mattered much – I was just a bit surprised when comments started to drop in about things I did not think I had actually published yet!

Don’t get me wrong. I think the new layout looks good, and as for the timeline I can see that it has its advantages – especially if you want to use Facebook as a complete CV and summary of your life; rather than just a meeting place to say hi and hello to few people now and then.

It’s when you don’t want FB to be a complete CV that it tends to get complicated. Because the new Timeline suggests it should be.

Personally I signed up for FB mainly as a means to keep in touch with certain old friends (and a few new ones). But I’ve been a rather passive or irregular user so far and with no special wish to track down and reconnect with every person I’ve ever known.

Therefore I’ve also seen no reason to list the whole history of my life in the “About” section. The only things I put down was where I went to secondary school vs. university.

But after I had switched to the new timeline layout yesterday, I happened to notice that when moving the cursor over my profile picture, up popped a little box displaying not only my name, but also the name of the university from which I graduated back in 1985.

It seemed that because I made no entry in the Job section (having been in disability retirement for the last eight years), FB would forever pin me down as either student or working for the university in a town I moved away from 26 years ago.

Not that I really mind being the eternal student. Actually I think I’d much rather still be hallmarked as student than anything else! But being tagged to the university in a town where I haven’t lived for nearly 30 years did not seem quite right.

Listing myself as an ex-whatever did not appeal to me either.

For a while, I half-seriously contemplated to enter also having been a student at Hogwarts, Hogsmeade (“studying” Harry Potter 2001-2007). Or The Unseen University, Ankh-Morpork (Terry Pratchett’s Discworld). But then I chickened out…

However, after various trial and error experiments, I’m happy to say that I now seem to be successfully registered as a student at the University of Life. That I can live with! And the day I graduate, it will be Someone Else’s problem* how to enter the date!

*(Some years ago, I joined a heritage website, trying to sort out my family tree and timelines. The problem is, they made some access changes since I first joined. After my dad died last summer, I wanted to enter the date of his death; but was not able to do that the proper way. Why? Because while dad was still able to use a computer he registered himself on the website as well. Which means he needs to log in himself to make further changes in his own profile. Only… Well!!!)

By the way, do you know the background of the expression Thinking Outside the Box? Not sure I did… Check it out!

Nature Meets Architecture (Weekend Reflections)

2012-01-27T16:44:00.001+01:00

For the first time this winter, we’ve had snow staying the whole week. Not ‘too much’ of it either, and not too slippery for walks. I have to say I do love when the snow clings to the trees like this.

The photo is from yesterday (Thursday), when I went for a walk ‘along the river’ into town in the afternoon. (I can’t follow the river all the way, but part of it.) Today, I think most of the snow will probably have blown off these trees, as well as the ones just outside my windows. I could see the difference already this morning, looking out the window... The temperature is still below zero, so not thawing – but there’s a stronger wind blowing, and the trees are bare. I’ve not been out today; not so fond of chilly winds, and having indoors things that needed doing anyway.

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Linking to Weekend Reflections.

Friday Fence

2012-01-26T20:07:00.001+01:00

I’ve seen this meme/challenge around on other blogs…
Thought I might join in since I happened to have a fence picture.

Friday’s Fences

A Good Story Deserves Good Writing (BTT)

2012-01-26T11:29:00.001+01:00

Time for another bookish question from Deb at Booking Through Thursday :

What’s more important: Good writing? Or a good story?
(Of course, a book should have BOTH, but…)

Yes, too right a book should have BOTH! As all regular readers of this blog know, I’m not a fan of choices like this… It’s almost like having to choose between flour or fluid when baking!

I think I’d have to say good writing, though. Good writing can lift a feeble story; and a good story can be ruined by bad writing.

…

PS. Here’s a link to my recent review of a book that had BOTH:
Kate Morton – The Forgotten Garden

Feeling Sheepish

2012-01-25T20:40:00.001+01:00

23rd January (our calendar) was the Chinese New Year, and rumour has it that we then entered into The Year of the Dragon.

I’ve heard and seen this piece of info mentioned from several different sources lately, in the news as well as in blogs; because in the Eastern culture, the Dragon is a lucky symbol; and being born in the year of the Dragon is apparently considered a good thing.

One blogger I’m following who mentioned it a couple of weeks ago was Snowwhite from Japan, giving interesting insights into how the Dragon is viewed rather differently in Eastern vs Western culture.

Then on the Day, Scriptor Senex had a Happy Chinese New Year post; followed by GB blogging On Being A Monkey. I commented on both these blogs to the effect that I've never been a fan of or believer in astrology… but that following Scriptor’s link to Chinese horoscope personalities, I had to admit to being a little taken aback to find the following introduction of the Sheep (which would be my Chinese sign):

Sheep simply want a bit of peace. They enjoy carrying on with life in their own quiet, individual way, content to be in the middle of it all rather than to be leading it. Sheep are quiet and calm people. They enjoy cultural things and focus much of their energy on artistic hobbies. Sheep are easygoing and relaxed, happy to be going with the flow.

Not so sure perhaps about the ‘easygoing’ part… (I have to say – before someone else does! - that I feel rather fussy about some things sometimes!) But as for the rest, my soul said “Yes!” …

Of course the more one gets down to details though, the more one finds that could be questioned.

On the whole, I suppose I’m likely to remain a sceptic, whether we’re talking Western or Chinese zodiac. Even if there are some of the common keywords for my Western zodiac sign as well that might be applied to me… (But I’m sure they will also fit many people born at entirely different times of the year…)

I think I’m just not very partial to the whole idea of immediately trying to fit people too tightly into a certain frame or personality. So on principle, I always avoid giving my zodiacal sign in profiles or first introductions.

This, by the way, I just learned is probably typical of the Sheep!!!

They are private and do not generally tell you everything there is to know about them until they have tested the waters and are sure they want to reveal themselves to you.

And I who thought that was just good old Virgo scepticism…!

B for Bird’s Eye View (ABC Wednesday)

2012-01-24T20:51:00.001+01:00

Taking a lazy bird’s eye view with this week’s ABC-post, I decided to just scroll back through my photos until I found something beginning with B. Luckily I did not have to go back very far. This photo was taken only a couple of days ago, after a snowstorm. And there are at least three or even four B’s in it.

Birdhouse, bark (I love the texture of it!) and bare branches!

Kate Morton–The Forgotten Garden (Book Review)

2012-01-23T19:15:00.001+01:00

Back in November, I walked into the bookshop in the town centre one day and browsed through their shelf of English paperbacks. (I live in Sweden, remember! – so most of the books sold in our bookshops are in Swedish!)

I bought two titles from that shelf just on a whim, without having heard of neither the authors nor the book titles before. As it turned out, I loved both of them and listed both in My favourite books in 2011. (The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen, and The Distant Hours by Kate Morton.)

After having finished The Distant Hours, I checked our library catalogue (online) and *surprise* found that they actually had Kate Morton’s other novels as well (she’s only written three), and one of them even in English: The Forgotten Garden. So I ordered that one from the library. I just finished it this (snowy!) weekend.

Just like The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton is an intricate story, told from several different perspectives, stretching over four generations, and also involving fairy tales written by one of the characters within the book.

A maze plays an important part in this novel, and indeed the story itself can also be described as one. It gets quite tricky at times for the reader (or at least it did for me!) to keep all the “threads” together in one’s head. The author, however, manages to tie them all up in the end.

At the end of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A woman she only remembers as the Authoress had promised to look after her - but mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

In 2005, in Brisbane, Australia, Cassandra’s grandmother Nell dies, and Cassandra finds out that Nell left an unexpected inheritance behind which she never told anyone about: A cottage on the coast of Cornwall, England.

The story shifts back and forth between the perspectives of Cassandra (as she travels to England to inspect her inheritance), her grandmother Nell’s similar journey back in the 1970’s, the little abandoned girl back in 1913, the mysterious Authoress and her illustrated book of fairy tales vs the story of her own life; and the history of the inhabitants of Blackhurst Manor, to which the cottage used to belong, before in modern days the manor was turned into a hotel, and the cottage sold.

Homage is paid to the author of the well-known classic The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924), not only by the title of the novel, but she also appears briefly as a character in it. (No, it is not she who is The Authoress.)

I loved the book, even if at times it ‘befuddled’ me.
Remember my recent post about Dangerous Doorways?

“…when you pass through a doorway, your mind compartmentalizes your actions into separate episodes. Having moved into a new episode, the brain archives the previous one, making it less available for access. It’s as if you slam a mental door…”

That describes pretty well what it’s like to read Kate Morton, with each chapter taking place in a different time and place, and events suddenly seen from different character’s point of view. But with each move, the author manages once again to draw you into the fictive NOW, as if that’s all that exists at the moment.

Even after closing the book and knowing how it all fit together, I’m still intrigued as to how the author manages it!

That’s why, in spite of having finished it, I’ve just ordered my own copy of it, together with her first novel, The House At Riverton. (So I’m reading her books in reversed order; but since each novel is a separate story, that does not matter.)

Quotes from The Forgotten Garden:

She’d slept terribly the night before. The room, the bed, were both comfortable enough, but she’d been plagued by strange dreams, the sort that lingered upon waking but slithered away from memory as she tried to grasp them. Only tendrils of discomfort remained.

…

‘You make a life out of what you have, not what you’re missing.’

Macro Monday: A Christmas Survivor

2012-01-23T15:18:00.001+01:00

Poinsettia - we call it “Christmas star”… This one I bought very cheap before 1st Advent in a grocery shop, from a stand quite near the draught from the door, and I hardly expected it to survive Christmas. But it’s still looking quite perky!

Snowy Weekend

2012-01-22T20:50:00.001+01:00

I took this shot out of my window in a snowstorm yesterday (Saturday). As you might guess, there was a dog attached to the leash… I wasn’t fast enough zooming them in. (No, that’s not my brother!)

As for me, I was inside, glad that I did not have to go out. Actually I spent most of the day curled up in/on my bed with a book; partly because that seemed just the thing to do on such a day, and partly because the story had me really hooked. (The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.) I think the book might deserve a post of its own so I’ll get back to that.

Today we still had snow. But the sun came out, so I did too! The snow might be staying for a while this time. If it keeps thawing and freezing, some of the walkways could get very difficult in a day or two… But today with fresh snow (and bare ground underneath) it wasn’t too bad; so I took the opportunity to walk to the supermarket for some fruit and vegetables.

No, that’s not me! Just ‘someone’ I met along the way…

Weekend Reflection: The Four Elements

2012-01-21T12:58:00.001+01:00

… Earth, Water, Air and Fire …

Another photo from the beach at the lake near my parents’ old home the other week. (Looking in this direction it always reminds me a little of a Scottish loch.)

Find more images to reflect about:
Weekend Reflections and SkyWatch Friday

BTT: Skipping Ahead

2012-01-19T14:44:00.001+01:00

Deb @ Booking Through Thursdays asks:
I saw this article the other day that asked,
“Are you ashamed of skipping parts of books?”
Which, naturally, made me want to ask all of YOU:
Do you skip ahead in a book?
Do you feel badly about it when you do?

I got curious and followed the link to the article by Robert McCrum in the Guardian. He discusses the viewpoint taken by Somerset Maugham 60 years ago in an essay, “The Art of Fiction”, where Maugham claims that skipping is perfectly fine because "a sensible person does not read a novel as a task. He reads it as a diversion".

McCrum, as I understand it, argues with this, claiming that Maugham “comes from a another time” in which the artist was paid to satisfy the audience (which would make it okay to skip if one was not satisfied). He also says “Writers today are taught to write to make every word count” – and seems to imply that modern readers too take reading more seriously (so less inclined to think it okay to skip).

I have to say I’m not convinced that either the writers’ (or publishers’) or the average reader’s point of view has really changed all that much throughout the past 60 years.

If anything – thinking of all the film versions made from old classics – I would say that in our time we’re more inclined to “skip” than ever. (I was reminded of this just recently when reading Helen’s list of books she read in 2011. There were some titles I’ve seen as film but don’t think I ever read the book.)

When I find a book interesting and entertaining and easy to read, then it rarely occurs to me to skip ahead.

If on the other hand I’m finding a book uninteresting, difficult or seriously confusing, and if I am reading for entertainment rather than as a “task”… Then I definitely feel free to skip both back and forth as much as I like, and also to quit reading. I might also try to find a summary on the internet, if I think that may help bring clarity. The only time I would feel bad about skipping is if for some reason I was supposed to read the book straight through from beginning to end, as a “task”.

I also find it varies whether it’s of any use trying to “skip ahead” in a book. I’d say that depends a lot on the structure of it. In the book I’m reading just now, for example, it is the book that keeps skipping (back and forth in time) rather than I!

Writing this post, I am reminded that three years ago I set out (not for the first time) to get through Tolkien’s Silmarillion. I even wrote two blog posts about it while reading it, to help myself get on with it. My reading of that book might be described as a task, although set up by myself. However, I still have a bookmark about 3/4 into it; which would be how far I’d got around the time my mother died… I wonder if I’ll ever get round to pick up again from where I left off then, and actually finish it!

Some years ago I used to have a postcard on my notice board with a list of “reader’s rights”… hmm… {googling} … Ah yes:

The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac
(the link goes to an illustrated PDF poster):

The right not to read.
The right to skip.
The right not to finish a book.
The right to read it again.
The right to read anything.
The right to mistake a book for real life.
The right to read anywhere.
The right to dip in.
The right to read out loud.
The right to be quiet.

A for Azalea / ABC Wednesday

2012-01-17T20:06:00.001+01:00

Monday last week – 9 January – I passed by this optimistic plant, which seemed to be expecting the arrival of spring any day now. I’m afraid it might have been rather disappointed by the snowfall later the same night; even if the snow did not stay very long.

If memory serves me right, it is an Azalea. * I can only hope it will survive the very confusing winter to show its true colour at the appropriate time – which should be in four or five months! (The photo below is from early June, 2010.)

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ABC Wednesday is starting over this week with Round 10.

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* PS. Just learned that English Wikipedia will be on black-out for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States.

In blogging, I probably use Wikipedia several times daily! Often I use it sort of like a dictionary, going from a Swedish article to the corresponding one in English, or the other way round. I find it very helpful, and wouldn’t like to be without it. I’m sure even the 24 h will be enough for a lot of people to miss it.

Macro Monday: Piece of Cake!

2012-01-16T13:52:00.001+01:00

Chocolate cake with mint chocolate icing… I baked it for Christmas/New Year + saved part of it for my brother’s birthday last week (with whipped cream – mmm!).
Now it’s all gone… All that remains is this tempting photo!

Anonymous chocolate quotes:

Put eat chocolate at the top of your list of things to do today.
That way, at least you'll get one thing done!

Man cannot live by chocolate alone but it sure is fun trying!

I would give up chocolate but I'm no quitter.

I don't understand why so many "so called" chocolate lovers complain about the calories in chocolate, when all true chocoholics know that it is a vegetable. It comes from the cocoa bean, beans are veggies, 'nuff said.

I have this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process.... It may not be true, but do I dare take the chance?

…

Linking to Macro Monday.

What-A-Week-Ramble

2012-01-14T17:34:00.001+01:00

What a week it’s been. Weather-wise Monday started out with almost spring-like weather, followed by snowfall in the evening. On Tuesday everything was covered in the white stuff; but the sky all grey (while forecasts had predicted sun). On Wednesday, not a trace of snow left, and the sun shining from a blue sky (while forecasts had predicted rain). Thursday back to heavy rain and storm! Friday sunny again, but still windy and very chilly.

My brother drove down on Monday and arrived before the worst snowfall set in. He and the dog stayed at The House outside town, but he stopped by here for a cup of tea since he had to go into town to pick up some things anyway.

Tuesday morning he came in again to fetch me, and we both spent the day at The House. The chairman from the local history society also came over (as planned), to have a look at our inherited “archives”…

… What?! I wrote “chair(wo)man”, and the “wo” turned into a little briefcase! That’s almost as distracting as walking through a doorway!!! …

… and she ended up relieving us of several carrier bags (not briefcases) full of old notes and photos from our granddad (who was a journalist with special interest in local history). The local history society will have a look at these and then pass them on to the Town Archive to be kept there for the future.

It’s still really just a drop in the lake… But it’s a start!

Wednesday was Per’s birthday, so I took him out to lunch at a restaurant in town. Later, back at the House, we went for a sunny walk down to the beach…

… er, what beach?! The water is so high this winter that there is almost no beach left to walk along! Compare the view in summer:

Thursday Per went back home. Outside it rained and it rained and it rained… Well, for my part I had indoors things to do anyway – like taking down Christmas decorations. My window lights may remain up for another week or so though: Gradual withdrawal treatment! … (Besides, I might need an extra week to make sure I’ve found all the gnomes…)

!!! … And the Winners Are … !!!

2012-01-13T17:09:00.001+01:00

Who says Friday the 13th is unlucky? Possibly a handful of people who commented on my 3rd Blogoversary Post last week, and did not win my calendar…

… But three people did win, and here they are:

Pauline of The Paddock – New Zealand

Eva Ason of Eva Ason’s Art Corner – Ireland

Lady Fi – Sweden

One funny thing about how this came out is that one calendar goes to a Brit living in Sweden (Lady Fi), and one to a Swede living in Ireland (Eva)! But one also goes all the way to New Zealand.

Photo: The folded “lottery tickets” on the bottom of the big tin I used to shake them about in and then draw from. Interestingly, the reflections create an illusion of the tin spinning, although I could not do that while holding the camera.

Booking Through Thursday Interview

2012-01-12T18:55:00.001+01:00

Every week Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks readers a bookish question or two. Or – this week – 15!

If you feel inspired to put your answers to these interview questions in a post on your own blog, please link to the original site Booking Through Thursday: Interview, Part 2.

Here are the questions with my answers:

1. What’s your favorite time of day to read?

It varies, depending on what else I have to do.

2. Do you read during breakfast? (Assuming you eat breakfast.)

The newspaper. Not books (not usually, anyway).

3. What’s your favorite breakfast food? (Noting that breakfast foods can be eaten any time of day.)

Tea with bread (toasted or not) and cheese and fruit.

4. How many hours a day would you say you read?

Can’t say. If you only count printed novels/fiction there are days when I do not read at all. And others when I do read for hours. But if you also count audio books (which I do!) it could be anything between half an hour to several hours, depending on what I have going. And if you add the newspaper and various internet texts (like blogs) then I read more.

5. Do you read more or less now than you did, say, 10 years ago?

An accident in the year 2000 that led to chronic neck pain was a major shift in all of my habits – reading included. While it led to less reading of paper books, on the other hand it also led to a lot more listening to audio books.

6. Do you consider yourself a speed reader?

No not really. Perhaps a bit more so back in my study years.

7. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Super strong like Pippi Longstocking! This because I’ve been struggling so many years now with problems lifting and carrying…

8. Do you carry a book with you everywhere you go?

No! I carry as little as possible! (See above.) Nowadays I have an Android phone though, which can carry audio books at no extra weight… (hooray)

9. What KIND of book?

In the phone, usually some English classic because that’s what I have most of as audio mp3 files.

10. How old were you when you got your first library card?

Can’t remember. 13? Before that I borrowed books through school or with my mum. We lived in a village outside town. At 13 I started going to school in town.

11. What’s the oldest book you have in your collection? (Oldest physical copy? Longest in the collection? Oldest copyright?)

A novel for “young girls” that belonged to my maternal grandmother, printed in 1907, translated from German into Swedish. Author Luise Glass. The original German title is Im Krähennest from 1905 – In the Crow’s Nest. The book is very worn and almost falling apart. It was also read by my mother and my aunt in their childhood/youth. For me to read it in my childhood or youth was somewhat of an achievement since it’s in old Swedish spelling from before a spelling reform in 1906. (I also have my paternal grandfather’s school reader from 1910, there the shift has been made.)

12. Do you read in bed?

Yes.

13. Do you write in your books?

Sometimes. Mostly those I read for special study purposes though.

14. If you had one piece of advice to a new reader, what would it be?

Children just learning to read, or people who can read but just don’t…?? I guess to both I’d say: Read what you’re interested in!

15. What question have I NOT asked at BTT that you’d love me to ask? (please leave the answer to this one in the comments on Deb’s post, it’s she who is asking!)

I’ll have to think about that one! For now, I’ll just say that this interview could have been made to last 2 or 3 months… ;)

Z for Zebra at the Zoo

2012-01-10T19:37:00.000+01:00

The zebra’s stripes are unique to each individual. It was previously believed that zebras were white animals with black stripes. Embryological evidence, however, shows that the animal's background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions. (Source: Wikipedia)

At our zoo, the zebras roam a ‘savannah’ together with other African animals like elephants, giraffes and antelopes. (Follow the link for more pictures.)

ABC Wednesday

Macro Monday: Turning over a Leaf (or Two)

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000+01:00

Frosty leaves – New Years Eve 2011 – for Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

I have a busy week ahead which includes some ‘leaf-turning’ in a more literal sense. My brother will be here for a couple of days. We’ve also invited someone from a local history society to come and have a ‘glance’ at some old papers at The House. Hopefully a first step towards sorting out what should go into museums and archives for the future. (Our dad who died last summer wrote four books on railway history. His dad before him was a journalist with special interest in local countryside history. My brother and I inherited a house full of paperwork of this kind; but not the interest and knowledge and time to sort it all out ourselves.)

I won’t be around much in Blogland this week – but there will be a couple of prescheduled posts turning up. Like this one!

Swan Lake (Act 2)

2012-01-07T17:24:00.001+01:00

http://youtu.be/U_Drjw6qT1E

As promised, here is a video clip of the whooper swans from yesterday, with sound. [Some day I shall have to learn how to edit videos! For now I’m glad if I manage to upload them!]

Swan Lake (Act I)

2012-01-06T22:11:00.001+01:00

6th January is a holiday in Sweden. Our name for it would just translate “13th day of Christmas”; in English I think it’s called Epiphany. In church we focus on the visit of the three Magi or Wise Men from the East to baby Jesus in Bethlehem. I dare say, however, that for most people this day probably just signifies the end of the holidays. And for most people it is probably also less connected with specific traditions than Christmas or New Year.

My guess is that on this 6th January, in my town, probably thousands of people did almost exactly what I also did. That is: Slept late, had a lazy morning and a nice breakfast. Then, before getting dressed, we all stepped up on our bathroom scales, and a unanimous “Oh NO” was heard throughout the city.

Still in shock, we then all simultaneously looked out of the window, saw the sun shining down in a friendly manner from a perfectly blue sky, onto a very thin layer of powdery snow on the ground (only just enough to make the world seem bright after another rainy and stormy week; and not so much of it as to make life difficult); and we all decided that this must be the day to begin the healthier lifestyle we promised ourselves (or at least for a moment contemplated) last weekend.

And then it struck at least a few hundred of us that the absolutely best place and way to start this healthier lifestyle must be to go for a walk around a certain little lake beneath our open air museum park, which also serves a bird sanctuary.

Some of us also had the brilliant idea to bring the camera along:

I wonder if maybe someone behind me got a photo with three photographers in it?

This guy came really well prepared! He even had his camera lens covered with a knitted something...

While the walkways around the lake were filled with humans, the lake itself on this day would be worthy of the name Swan Lake.

It looks very peaceful, but in fact it was rather noisy. Most of the swans were Whooper Swans, happily whooping and shouting and splashing about in the sun (studying the people on the shores).

I actually also shot three short video sequences with sound. I have not yet uploaded these to YouTube, but if I succeed with that (it’s been so long since I last did it that I’ll have to “relearn”…), I’ll put in another blog post where you can also hear the swans.

Linking to Weekend Reflections

♥ ♥ ♥ 3rd Blogoversary Celebration ♥ ♥ ♥

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000+01:00

3 years ago, on 5th January, 2009, I created my first blog, The Island of the Voices (the forerunner of this one) and wrote my very first blog post: The Dawn of a New Year and a New Blog.

As blogging became a great boost for my photography interest, later the same year I also started DawnTreader’s Picture Book.

1 year ago, somewhat mysteriously having reached the limits of my free web album*, I started over in a new account and changed the name of my main blog to Beyond the Lone Islands; no longer feeling as lonely and invisible as when I first set sail to venture out into the Unknown. (As most of my regular readers know, my blog titles as well as my signature refer to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis – one of the seven Chronicles of Narnia.)

All-in-all, it’s been an exciting journey, making new friends far across the oceans, and learning a lot along the way!

♥ ♥ ♥ Celebration Giveaway ♥ ♥ ♥

Somehow (don’t ask why) I find myself with three spare photo calendars for 2012. So I’ve decided to do a giveaway (or three!) to celebrate my 3rd Blogoversary.

It’s a wall calendar size 20x30 cm, with one photo for each month. All photos by me. The calendar follows Swedish standard for holidays and name-days. The names of the months and days of the week etc. are in Swedish.

If you want a chance of winning one of the three calendars, just leave a comment on this post some time from now and one week forward (the last day = Thursday 12th January; Central European Time). Only one comment per person will be counted for the lottery.

Some time during the weekend after I will write down the names on separate pieces of paper, put them in a bowl or something, and draw three winners. I’ll let the winners know by email or blog comment, and of course also in a post here.

♥ ♥ ♥ Good Luck ♥ ♥ ♥

--- --- ---

*About the Picasa web album, I seem to have managed to make better use of my allotted space with the new account. Now in one year I’ve only used 8% (which includes my Picture Book blog as well).

--- --- ---

The photo in this post is from last winter
and is my January picture in the photo calendar.

Dangerous Doorways

2012-01-04T23:02:00.001+01:00

Ever since I first heard about it – less than a week ago – it just seems to be getting worse! Or maybe I’m just getting more aware of it?? - ‘What?’ you ask. Room Amnesia! Forgetting things as I go from one room to another. Sometimes also called… er… hmm… Well, you know what I mean, don’t you? Often supposed to be age-related…

BUT – here’s the news: It’s the doorway’s fault!

A team at the University of Notre Dame (USA) have done research on it, putting volunteers through various memory tests. The result shows that it is passing through a doorway that makes us forget.

…when you pass through a doorway, your mind compartmentalizes your actions into separate episodes. Having moved into a new episode, the brain archives the previous one, making it less available for access. It’s as if you slam a mental door…

It does not even have to be a real doorway. It applies to computer games as well.

And contrary to what is sometimes supposed, it does not seem to automatically help memory to go back to the original room either.

I heard about this on the radio last Friday. Not until today did I get round to checking up sources on the internet. You can read more at the Scientific American website.

My flat is not very big, but on the way from my bedroom to my study (or the other way round) I do pass through four doorways. No wonder I keep finding forgotten and unfinished ‘projects’ lying around…!

(Not to mention all the virtual doorways/ windows we bloggers keep popping in and out of!)

On some level I think I already knew. I’ve just been thinking of it the other way round, and as mainly a good thing: That having separate rooms for different activities can be of help to concentrate and not get distracted...

ABC Wednesday: Y

2012-01-03T16:42:00.001+01:00

On New Year’s Eve, after waking up with a yawn, I felt the yearning to go out for a walk. And since I was in the mindset that day to look “way over yonder” for strange and wonderful things, my eyes also fell on this birch tree in the shape of the letter Y. “Yippee!” I said to myself. “Why look any further? Here’s the perfect Y for the very first ABC Wednesday in the year 2012!”

Yours, Monica
a.k.a. DawnTreader

http://youtu.be/Hqx28TxMiZ0

ABC Wednesday - Y

New Year’s Eve: Mosaic and Macro

2012-01-02T12:11:00.001+01:00

New Year’s Eve I spent with basically the same little group of friends for the 12th year in a row; gathered in my home. (Five of us this year.) None of them like it much when I get my camera out - and myself I have to confess I prefer it behind the camera rather than in front of. But I think I might dare a little résumé in the form of two collages and a macro.

The end of an old year: The initially carefully laid tables have somehow mysteriously turned into a mess of dirty dishes, empty bottles, and litter to be thrown away. Whatever happened?!

One friend’s eyes grew big when she saw me pointing my camera at my ~~empty~~ plate… What was I taking photos of NOW?!

And that after we had just watched a film - Everlasting Moments - with fascination with photography and catching the moment as one of the main themes…

But she must be excused, I guess… Not being a blogger!

Quarter past New Year: Waiting for the banging of fireworks to die down outside, so as not to be hit by something (or going deaf) on the way to the parking lot… No snow this year to soften the sounds, so it was really LOUD!

Ah well. They say everything started with a Big Bang, don’t they?

So now we just have to see how the rest of the year develops!

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Mosaic Monday at Mary’s Little Red House

Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

Looking Into the Future

2012-01-01T20:33:00.001+01:00

Do you have any tradition of fortune-telling at New Year? In old stories I’ve read, they used to melt tin and pour it out in cold water, and from the shape they made predictions. Similar to reading tealeaves in a cup and such, I suppose. (Which I’ve never tried either, since I use strainers that don’t really leave a lot of tealeaves behind!)

What made me think of this was a radio program I listened to on New Year’s Eve, where someone did the same kind of thing with home-cooked fudge instead of tin.

Then it came to mind again today when I looked at some photos from yesterday of icy puddles. What do you see in them? To me they took the shape of various animals.

I see a duck, an elephant, a lion and a badger! The only conclusion I can draw is that I must go to the zoo again some time this year! (I don’t think they have badgers, though. Yet!)

Anyway, I sincerely hope that the first dream/nightmare of the year does not point to future events; because this morning I woke up from one where I had just spilled a full three months supply of all my various medical pills all over the floor. I guess I must be grateful that I woke before I had to start picking them all up!’

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PS (2 Jan) Photoshop still goes over my head but in Paintshop I managed to find a tool that did what I wanted! This is what I see:

Frosty New Year

2012-01-01T17:13:00.001+01:00

After a very rainy and stormy month of December, New Year’s Eve offered us a little bit of change in that it was dry, still and frosty. It was also foggy; but the frost and no wind was enough to drag me and the camera out for quite a long walk before noon. Not long as in going very far; but as in almost losing track of time getting into frosty photo shooting mood in the park.

Before I got as far as that, and the camera was still in my bag, I heard honking noises in the air above my head. It was a small group of swans seeming in a hurry to flee south.

They needn’t have bothered, really. Today we’re back to rain!

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Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday

Countdown

2011-12-30T16:16:00.001+01:00

Oops, a fresh new year waiting just round the corner. Some of you will get there sooner than me, and others later! That thought still feels a little bit strange, even after three years of blogging!!!

Anyway, I thought I’d better post this greeting a day early (from my point of view). In my tomorrow (New Year’s Eve) I probably won’t be around much in Blogland, since I’ll have friends from my other world coming over in the evening. And they expect to be fed!

Luckily the rain stopped, and the sun even broke through today. So I was able to get out and replenish my stock of ~~honey,~~ ~~more honey,~~ ~~lots of chocolate, cakes and cookies~~ acorns and thistles and other wholesome food that we might need to get us from this year to the next one. (Sorry, Pooh got a little carried away there until Piglet and Eeyore corrected him…)

The photo, if anyone wonders, is not last year’s fireworks. It is my neighbour’s Christmas lights seen through the opaque glass wind screen separating our balconies, on a dark and rainy night!

** Have a Sparkling New Year **

And it rained, and it rained, and it rained…

2011-12-29T20:28:00.001+01:00

… and he slept and he slept and he slept.

…

Two days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch, dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were four pots of honey....

Three days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch, dangling his legs, and there beside him, was one pot of honey.

Four days later, there was Pooh . . .

~Winnie-the-Pooh, Chapter 9~

BTT: Booking Through 2011

2011-12-29T10:46:00.001+01:00

This week, Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks:

What were your favorite books of 2011?

I did try this year to pick up the habit again of keeping a list of the books I read. Looking at it now, I have a suspicion I probably left some out. (I got out of the habit back when an old computer crashed a couple of years ago.) Well, never mind. When I look at the list, these are the ones that at the end of the year strike me as most memorable:

A novel by Swedish author P O Enquist, English title Lewi's Journey, (but I read it in Swedish), about the life of Lewi Pethrus: founder of, or at least very influential in, the Swedish Pentecostal movement back in the early 20th century.

A novel by Anna Gavalda (French author), English title Hunting and gathering (but I listened to it as Swedish audio book) -
"four people living in an apartment house [in Paris]: a struggling young artist who works as an office cleaner at night, a young aristocrat misfit, a cook, and an elderly grandmother"

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen, which I wrote about in an earlier BTT post (24 November). A feel-good novel with a touch of fairy tale magic to it, and leaving behind a delicious smell of newly baked cakes. (Almost, anyway!)

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. My most recent read. (How memorable it will seem in a year’s time… remains to be seen!) This book won “General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards”.

I mentioned it in my BTT post last week, when I still had 1/4 left to read, saying: “I’m still feeling that on the one hand I want to just keep reading to find out about the mysteries involved; on the other hand I want it to last because I so much like reading it.” I finished it over Christmas, and I have to say it did manage to keep up the suspense until the end. It is a story told from more than one perspective, and going back and forth in time, so sometimes a little hard to keep in memory or be sure who in the story really knows what. (Or, indeed, how much I as reader can trust what I know!) I would call it a modern Gothic tale, and from three real classics mentioned in it I would say it also picks a lot of inspiration from those three: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Mysteries of Udulpho.

Listen in this YouTube video to the author’s own introduction:

http://youtu.be/XGHOhbtykzs

Oh, and I should perhaps add that the last three (books and authors) were unknown to me before I picked them up.

A Narrow Escape

2011-12-28T14:37:00.001+01:00

I just had a narrow escape from getting stuck in the lift/elevator in my building.

I do my washing in a common laundry room in the basement, which I had booked for this afternoon. So at 12 I went down in the lift as usual. No problems in the laundry room; I just put my washing into the machine and started it. When I got out into the corridor, the lift was still down in the basement. The door opened to let me in. I entered, the door closed behind me, and I pressed the button for my floor. Then, quite unexpectedly, ALL the lamps started to blink, and the lift did not move. Help!

Luckily before I did anything else, it struck me to try the button that opens/holds the door – and that one still did its job. So I got out of the lift. After letting me out, it closed again, and from the outside I now wasn’t able to open it again. The lift was confused and did not know whether it was “here” or coming or going. (Three different lamps blinking.)

I, however, was free to walk the stairs up to my flat ;) – which luckily is no farther up than on the 2nd floor. Even if I also always bring my mobile phone with me when I go down into the basement (and had remembered it today as well), I have to say it was a relief to be able to make the call (to the service company) from the comfort of my own flat rather than from inside the lift…

So my only complaint is that now I have to carry my laundry up and down the stairs today. But just now I’m so grateful not to be stuck in the lift that I don’t really mind that minor inconvenience. (My problem is carrying things rather than the stairs as such; plus a rather heavy door to the basement. But for today I’ll manage just fine.)

ABC Wednesday: X

2011-12-27T19:47:00.001+01:00

Didn’t feel like diving into the dictionary today so I’m taking the visual perspective with the letter X. This is an old cellar door in our open air museum park; photos from back in the summer.

For ABC Wednesday

Christmas Update

2011-12-26T19:23:00.001+01:00

When I woke up this morning, I found that the rainstorm from last night had blown over. (Or at least taken a break.) From how things were at midnight when I went to bed, my mind was set on staying in all day today. But instead I ended up going into town to another church service today (same church as on Christmas Eve). Choral singing, organ music, traditional hymns/carols.

The 2nd day of Christmas (Boxing Day in England) is still marked as holiday in our calendar. Once upon a time that meant another day of ‘rest’ and no commerce. Nowadays it means Early Start of the Great Big Sale with 50% off on whatever the shops didn’t manage to sell before Christmas. (We know that, and still we continue to buy the presents beforehand; and then we go and get them exchanged after! Ah, the power of tradition!)

I’m not out to pass judgment; just making note of facts!

On the morning of Christmas Eve, I had expected most of the shops in town to be open – but all except one were closed.

Today, I had expected some to open at 12 (as on a Sunday) – but they seemed all to have opened at 10 (as on a weekday)!

I guess now I have the traditions updated!

The storm/hurricane ‘Dagmar’ did cause a lot of severe damage up North last night. They say the storm was among the ten strongest of its kind in Sweden in the past 30 years. 100.000 households were reported to still be without electricity this afternoon (at some point the figure was about 200.000). Lots of people won’t be turning up at work tomorrow because they’re stuck waiting for trains, or for roads to be cleared from fallen trees. Buildings have been destroyed by fallen trees too but so far no deaths have been reported.

A new storm is approaching tonight which might be nearly as bad. New warnings have been issued for very strong gusts of wind. Again the very worst of it will probably hit the northern parts of the country.

As for my internet connection, I have not noted any more breakdowns today. I’m not sure what the problem was yesterday. The Wi-Fi signal was also weak then, but strong now. Sometimes technology seems to be very much like us humans. It has its bad days, and its good days, and does not always choose to explain itself!

Christmas Macro Monday

2011-12-26T17:44:00.001+01:00

My mum knitted these, years ago. ‘Daddy Santa’ is ~ 17 cm high.
For Macro Monday

Storm

2011-12-25T22:15:00.001+01:00

We’re having one of those just now. By the sound of it bad enough outside my windows; and they say even worse up in the North of Sweden. Winds of almost hurricane strength are expected. Might be snow as well up there. Trains have been cancelled and various traffic warnings issued etc. Down here it’s rain.

I’m safe enough at home and don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow. The only thing is my internet connection seems to have gone into “off and on” mode again as well… Thought I’d better tell you in case it decides to go more decidedly “off”.

No White Christmas

2011-12-25T11:39:00.001+01:00

The thin layer of snow that fell over our town last Sunday was all gone before Christmas. Someone probably really wanted a white Christmas, no matter what, and had put this giant snowman to keep watch over the city from high up on a balcony yesterday.

Personally, I have to confess I did not mind the combination of blue sky and ice-free streets on Christmas Eve, allowing me to go out for a walkabout without fear of slipping and falling ;)

Also a quiet Christmas for the snow-plough-drivers:

Linking to Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

Let’s Go To Bethlehem

2011-12-24T20:42:00.001+01:00

This Christmas I did something I’ve never done before:
I attended a daytime church service on Christmas Eve.

As I grew up in a family that did not go to church, and I always spent Christmas with family (until now), going to church at Christmas never really became part of my own tradition either, even when I started going to church on other occasions.

Traditionally in Sweden, the main church service at Christmas used to be very early on Christmas Day (like 7 a.m.). Nowadays, many churches have changed to having a Midnight service late on Christmas Eve instead. But some of the bigger churches offer several different types of Christmas services.

This Christmas I’m free to do as I like, but since I’m really neither early morning bird nor night owl by nature, I was glad to find a church service at 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve, in the old church in the town centre, which I have blogged about a few times before.

This service focused on the crib scene, starting with an empty stable and then as the story was told, the children were helping to put the figures in their right places. It was really a lovely service for all ages – and the real babies/ toddlers sometimes stealing the attention just added to the charm. (So cute…)

I was sitting some distance from the front and had my camera on silent and no flash so as not to disturb, so the photos aren’t the best but they will still give you an idea I think. (The close-up of the crib was taken after the service.)

Anyway I’m really glad I went; for one thing because this was something that made my Christmas this year different by choice rather than just passive adjustment to change of circumstances.

* I wish all of you a Merry Christmas! *

Booking Through Thursday: Gifts

2011-12-22T14:32:00.001+01:00

Any books you’re hoping to get for the holidays this year? How about giving? Are you giving any good ones?

As usual the questions come from Deb at Booking Through Thursday.

Judging by the size of the parcels I’ve received by mail, no books. And I did not buy any to give away either this Christmas. But I did buy some for myself! One I even wrapped to put under my tree and have actually managed to forget the title even if I do still remember the author (a Swedish pastor/author, to my knowledge not translated into English).

I also bought the complete works of Tomas Tranströmer, the Swedish poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2011. That book I did not wrap, but I haven’t had much time to look in it yet, except for the poem quoted here (recent blog post).

Over the past week or two I’ve been reading, and am still reading, The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, a novel which I’m thoroughly enjoying. 3/4 into it I’m still feeling that on the one hand I want to just keep reading to find out about the mysteries involved; on the other hand I want it to last because I so much like reading it. Which makes it just about perfect just now. (Because I have not had all that much time for reading. But whenever I’ve had the time, I’ve known I have a good book to return to!)

Next, I might be picking up either the one waiting under the tree, or Paolo Coelho’s The Pilgrimage, or a Swedish novel about a 100-year-old who climbed out of the window and disappeared (that’s the title! – I don’t think the book has been translated).

“Christmas Corner” in my living room

Footprints

2011-12-21T19:07:00.001+01:00

My favourite TV program this month has been a daily 20 minutes following a Danish TV anchor man (Mikael Bertelsen) walking the pilgrimage route El Camino de Santiago in Spain – “The Way of St James”. The documentary series is divided into 24 episodes and is being broadcasted in Sweden during Advent with the last episode on Christmas Eve.

I wasn’t sure if it was also originally meant as an Advent calendar but I just checked the Danish website and it appears they did broadcast it as such last year and they still have the 24 episodes online displayed like an Advent calendar. (I’m afraid if you don’t speak Danish though, you won’t be able to understand much of what is being said.)

Anyway… I have loved following this series and I have only missed a few episodes along the way. What drew my attention to it in the first place was that a friend walked this route (or part of it) earlier this autumn, so I wanted to see what it was like.

I know I wouldn’t have the physical stamina to do this myself, but somewhere within I like the “idea”. If nothing else, as a metaphor for Life. Being on a route, meeting people along the way, learning from each other, sometimes meditating over the purpose of it all, sometimes just concerned with everyday things like blisters and tiredness and finding a place to sleep.

The Way of St. James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem.
It is called the Way of St James because legend holds that the remains of the apostle by that name were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where he was buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela.
The route was originally a Roman trade route, nicknamed the Milky Way by travellers, as it followed the Milky Way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Still today tens of thousands of travellers set out each year from various starting points across Europe – and for various reasons - to walk El Camino. Whether Christians or not, many consider the experience a spiritual adventure to remove themselves from the bustle of modern life.

(From the Wikipedia article)

Even though I have not yet watched the final three episodes, I’d like to say “bravo” to Danish Television for the production of this unique series, and also to Swedish Television for broadcasting it this December. It’s been such a contrast to the usual time-of-the-year focus on Christmas preparations mostly to do with food and drink and decorations and shopping and so on.

W for Winter Solstice / ABC Wednesday + Watery Wednesday

2011-12-20T19:16:00.001+01:00

Since Sunday we’ve got a little dust of white. Still remains to be seen whether it will stay for Christmas or not. Probably not. But for now, it does make my world look a bit more wintry.

This year, the winter solstice falls on Thursday, 22 December.

Did you know the date varies? No wonder I can never remember whether it is the 21st or 22nd or 23rd… It changes!

The official time for sunset vs. sunset on that day, this year, in my town (in south-west Sweden), is 8:51 AM vs. 3:23 PM. The photo above is from 19 December around 10:20 AM.

In the far north of Sweden, like Kiruna, the sun literally does not rise above the horizon at all around Midwinter. I have to say I’m glad that down here, we at least have the chance of a glimpse of it now and then.

For ABC Wednesday and Watery Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday: The Dish World

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hilarious if you are familiar with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
(If not, then it’s probably just odd…)

For Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet.

Macro Monday: Leftovers

2011-12-19T18:09:00.001+01:00

▲ Recent find in the park▲
▼Back in the summer – I think they looked like this ▼

It’s Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

December Daisy

2011-12-18T18:35:00.001+01:00

Nature is not quite in balance this December. We’ve had an unusually mild autumn and wet early winter. From photography point of view, nature has been very dull lately. The only place where it has sometimes been worth while to bring the camera has been the town centre, with the Christmas market going on.

Yesterday was another grey day, but not raining, and I took the opportunity for a walk along the river into town. I was rewarded by this unusual sight: A wild daisy in bloom in mid December!

Shadow Shot Sunday

2011-12-18T00:01:00.001+01:00

Last week, Tracy of the blog Hey Harriet announced that due to time constraints, she had to quit hosting the meme Shadow Shot Sunday, which she has been doing since before I even entered the Blog World at all. I was glad to find this week that a team of other bloggers have already taken over and started Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

I usually take part in SSS from my DawnTreader’s Picture Book blog; but because of my Advent Calendar going on there now until Christmas (and already pre-scheduled), I’m putting this week’s shadow post here instead.

Truly, this December has been so dark and grey here that ‘proper’ shadows have been hard to find - unless you take the view that all darkness is shadow! But for this week I went back into my archives... A shadow cast on the wall by the sun shining in through my windows last January.

Wishing Good Luck and Much Fun to the new SSS-team!

Weekend Reflections: Mirror, Mirror on the Street

2011-12-17T17:15:00.001+01:00

For Weekend Reflections
Guess who went out Christmas shopping today?

This year’s ice sculpture – created only one week ago – got a very short life. Good thing I was able to take a picture of it last Sunday (and also of the artist at work on Saturday). Today’s morning paper reported it melted and collapsed already!

The artist takes it with a shrug though. An ice sculpture is not meant to last forever and it’s part of the excitement that you never know how long it will keep or what the weather will do to it.

Today, in the place where the sculpture stood last week, they had put up a lot of things for an auction.

I did not stay for the auction but I did have a look around.

Traditional Yule goat made by straw.
My parents had one like that but with shorter legs.

Maybe I should have stayed. Not to buy, but to see what people might be willing to pay for this kind of stuff. Considering that I/we (my brother and I) have a whole house full various articles of similar kind. What I really don’t need though is to get carried away by the general generous Christmas spirit and start bidding on someone else’s old cookie tins… ;)

Still Here

2011-12-16T23:35:00.001+01:00

Don’t worry, I’m still “on”. Just had a busy sort of day with my home getting invaded by angels and gnomes and whatnot. Now just looking at this one makes me sleepy… Good night! (11.30 PM)

Thankful Thursday: Back ON !!!

2011-12-15T22:31:00.001+01:00

Another extremely wet day today. There was a short break from the worst downpour in the afternoon though and I managed to take a quick walk to the nearest convenience store to post my Christmas cards and buy some fruit and vegetables.

The good news is that my internet connection is back ON without any more breakdowns since 3 PM yesterday.

Some people were wondering how I managed to blog at all while the frequent breakdowns were going on. The answer is Windows Live Writer. Since I prepare my posts off line, even if the connection happens to go down just as I try to publish, I don’t lose the post. So was able to try again whenever the connection was back on. Commenting directly online was a bigger problem!

As for what caused it, I don’t know. Only that it was nothing to do with my appliances, nor was the fault within my apartment. (I have cable internet).

Btw – having my Android phone as “emergency exit” now makes me feel less panicky when things like this happen. If the cable or computer fails me I can at least still check my email and let people know, using the 3G. ;)

Booking Through Thursday: Character or Plot?

2011-12-15T12:05:00.001+01:00

“What’s more important to you? Real, three-dimensional, fleshed-out fascinating characters? Or an amazing, page-turning plot? (Yes, I know, they are both important. But if you had to pick one as being more important than the other?)”

As usual the question comes from Deb at Booking Through Thursday.

[Sigh] I am never any good with “either/or” kind of questions!

I think that an intriguing plot is often important to draw the reader into a book. But at the end of the day, it is usually characters that leave the lasting impression.

I’d also say that in the best stories, the plot serves to gradually form and/or reform the reader’s image of the main characters. Sometimes we are deceived and undeceived about the true nature of at least one of them. Sometimes we get to follow them for a long time and see the major events that form them. Sometimes we are introduced to them at a later point in their life and get to know more in flashbacks.

I’m trying to think of books from which I retain an idea of the “plot” but not the characters… Certain classic adventure stories come to mind, like those by Jules Verne. A more contemporary example would be Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. (However, I wasn’t even that impressed with the plot!)

OFF and ON and OFF and ON and OFF and…

2011-12-14T11:43:00.001+01:00

Looking back through my blog posts the last week, it seems it was during the Storm on Friday that it began. Frequent mini-breakdowns in my internet connection. By frequent I mean like every 10-15-20 minutes or so. However, each time I restarted the modem, and the browser, it came on back again – for a while.

I blamed the instability on the weather situation and didn’t bother to call Support. After all I wasn’t totally shut off.

The problems continued much the same way over the weekend. And Monday. And Tuesday. Yesterday I was really on my way to call Support but the thing is, I had similar problems once before (last winter or spring) and went through a lot of trouble with changing cables and trying another modem on loan (so had to go into town to get it, and then again to return it), and all for nothing since in the end the problem turned out to be at their end anyway. And I’ve just not been feeling very keen on going through that whole process again. (“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” – “YES!!!”) (That question is the catchphrase for the British sitcom The IT Crowd.)

Meanwhile, I’ve taken to a new habit: Turning everything OFF at night before I go to bed. Somehow I feel more in control that way, knowing that it’s I who have shut off the world rather than the other way round.

So my new Advent Calendar lately is to start every morning by turning ON the whole system (modem, router, laptop, phone). With that system, I usually get about 20 minutes of hope before the communication goes down again.

This morning, however, the connection went down just after eight in the morning and was still gone twenty minutes later. Then I finally called Support; and they had no contact with my modem either. So he said he’d contact the technicians to check things out. Whatever that means.

Then around nine I noticed that all the right lamps on the modem were ON again. Yay – maybe they had fixed it?

Just about then there was a BIG BANG outside. Thunder again! So I found it best to leave the computer unplugged for a while. I had other things to do anyway.

Checked the Android phone wifi connection from time to time. Seemed to stay in touch… For a whole hour. I was just beginning to think it was fixed, when it went down again.

I was able to restart though. Now I’m keeping notes! 10.00 down, restart ok. 10.25 down, restart ok. 10.45 down, restart ok. 11.10 down, restart ok. Just now the clock on the wall says 11.35… Oh, surprise, it’s actually still on…

However, in ten minutes or so I’m going down myself – to the basement, to do laundry… Dear internet, I hope you’ll let me post this before I go. Then you can take a break for a couple of hours if you like!

Watery Wednesday: The Fence Is Not Much Help…

2011-12-14T10:23:00.001+01:00

The fence along the river is not much help just now, except to show that the water level is indeed higher than normal.

Linking to Watery Wednesday.

‘V’ for Vision of Light – St Lucy’s Day

2011-12-13T17:11:00.001+01:00

Like a vision of light, St Lucy – Lucia – appears on our doorstep in the early morning of 13th December; once upon a time believed to be the darkest night of the year. Lucia represents the victory of light over darkness.

Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to take St. Lucia's life when she was sentenced to be burned. The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; --- the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness. Each Scandinavian country has lyrics in their native tongues. After finishing this song, the procession sings Christmas carols or more songs about Lucia.

Our modern day visits from St Lucia have their roots in various traditions of the past. The veneration of St Lucia here in Scandinavia may have been introduced as a counterweight to the superstitious fear of a vicious “Lussi” creature supposed to haunt this night of the year in old times.

It was particularly dangerous to be out during Lussi Night. Children who had done mischief had to take special care, since Lussi could come down through the chimney and take them away --- The tradition to stay awake through the night to guard oneself and the household against evil, has found a modern form through throwing parties until daybreak.

Read more in Wikipedia: St Lucy’s Day

The modern tradition with public Lucia elections and processions in the cities started in Stockholm in 1927 and spread from there. Today most cities in Sweden appoint their own Lucia. Voting is often part of the election process. Lucia and her maidens will visit shopping malls, old people's homes and churches etc during December; often also collecting money for charity.

The pictures in this post are from Swedish television this morning (photographed by me from the TV screen).

ABC Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday: Santa’s Busy Day

2011-12-12T18:06:00.001+01:00

The magic table where you can write your wish-list

Hello! Santa waved at me!

Linking to Ruby Tuesday

Mosaic Monday: Baking

2011-12-12T13:00:00.001+01:00

13 December we celebrate St Lucia/St Lucy’s day in Sweden.
(The link will take you to a blog post of mine from last year.)

One of my staying-in-days last week (with the storm going on outside), I got it into my head to try something I haven’t done for years: bake my own saffron buns, which are traditional here for Advent and especially Lucia/St Lucy’s day (13 December). They are made from sweet yeast dough, usually with saffron and raisins, and the most common shape (at least around here) is the reversed S-shape like above.

Over the last decade, because of my neck/arm problems, I’ve been avoiding recipes that involve manual kneading, and lifting of big heavy hot baking sheets from the oven; keeping to ‘simple’ cakes, lighter ovenware, and bread made in the bread-maker. So I only made a half a batch of dough now, which was probably a good decision. (My right arm confirmed it afterwards…) My kitchen in this flat is also rather small, so baking takes some planning from that point of view as well. But it was fun.

Back in “the good old days” I often took a day off from work this time of year and spent the whole day baking for Christmas. Used to bake my own traditional gingerbread biscuits/cookies as well. (Now I sometimes do a simpler kind with the same spices, but no use of rolling-pin and cutting into different shapes involved.)

Linking to Mosaic Monday

The Finished Ice Sculpture

2011-12-11T16:29:00.001+01:00

Ice sculpture by Ragnhild Brodow Sandelius (Borås 2011)

Inscription: “stjärnbilderna stampa i sina spiltor”
= “the star constellations stamping in their stalls”
Words from the poem Storm* by Tomas Tranströmer,
Swedish poet awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2011

I my previous post Straight Out of the Ice you can see the artist
working on the ice sculpture. Luckily I was able to go back today to take a photo of the finished work as well. (How long it will remain standing depends on the weather, and the weather just now is rather unreliable!)

This ice sculpture is a tribute to Sweden’s probably most popular living poet, Tomas Tranströmer, who received the Nobel prize in literature yesterday.

* I found a translation of the poem at BookBrowse:

Storm
The man on a walk suddenly meets the old
giant oak like an elk turned to stone with
its enormous antlers against the dark green castle wall
of the fall ocean.

Storm from the north. It's nearly time for the
rowanberries to ripen. Awake in the night he
hears the constellations far above the oak
stamping in their stalls.

~ Tomas Tranströmer; translation Robert Bly ~

Straight Out Of the Ice

2011-12-10T18:54:00.001+01:00

An ice sculpture in the town square has become tradition since a few years back. This year the artist Ragnhild Brodow Sandelius had to work in rain and hard winds – not the best of conditions for this kind of job! As you can see she is working inside the block of ice this time. What she is doing is a kind of lantern, with an inscription of a few lines from a poem by Tomas Tranströmer – this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. The annual Prize Award Ceremony takes place today. 10 December is the anniversary of Nobel's death.

After thunder and snow and rain and storm the last few days, it was still raining this morning, but at least the wind had calmed down, and the snow and ice had thawed away from the streets (and pretty much from everywhere else as well). Next week we may be back to snow and ice and slippery roads again, so I decided today was probably as good a day as any to take the bus into town, post my overseas Christmas cards and letters, and shop some food.

Yesterday the outdoors Christmas market was cancelled because of the fierce storm. Today there were a few market stalls up, but the commerce still seemed a bit… well… washed out…

The ice sculpture was really the only thing worth while getting out a camera for. I took these photos with my mobile phone btw.

My internet connection is still really wobbly, it keeps breaking down every ten or fifteen minutes or so. Each time it goes down, I have to go restart the modem (which is in the living room), and then the browser. Seems just to be “micro” breaks, not lasting very long… But neither does the connection!!! Like someone got into a bit too much Christmas spirit and put the broadband on “blinking” as Christmas effect. I’m not a fan of blinking lights – and even less with my internet connection!!!

Writing this in Windows Live Writer (so thankful for that!) and hoping to be able to post it… sooner or later… and link to

Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday.

Weather Report

2011-12-09T20:25:00.001+01:00

Last night (Thursday) we had snowstorm with thunder. Not the most common combination! Today mostly rain, but still storm. The TV news earlier this evening reported hurricanes on the west coast. In Gothenburg they had to shut off one of the most important bridges and the sea water level was 1,5 m higher than normal. We’re an hour’s drive or so inland but this has certainly been a day when I’ve been thankful that I did not have any compelling reason to go out. Actually I haven’t been out since Tuesday, and even then I didn’t get far!

I’ve been writing some Christmas cards and letters this week. The ones going overseas should have been posted today… Sorry – not compelling enough reason to go out in this weather!!!

The internet has been been off and on all afternoon and evening too. So I’m just going to post this while I can (perhaps!).

The One Who Seeks Finds

2011-12-08T20:33:00.001+01:00

If someone had asked me this morning to guess what unexpected thing this day might bring, whatever I might have tried to suggest would have been wrong.

A few weeks ago Sandra, also known as the Mad Snapper, pointed out on her blog that “all of our images on our blogs are available to the public in Google/Images”. This was not exactly news to me but at the same time I also wasn’t 100% aware of how images are tagged by Google. I can’t recall ever finding one of my own pictures turn up in an image search just by pure chance. But that may be because if I already have my own photo of something, then I usually don’t need to use Google image search....

Anyway, what happened today was that I received an email from someone previously unknown to me, asking permission to use an image I published on my blog The Island of the Voices two years ago. The request was not for one of my own photos though, but an old ticket I had scanned, and had – somewhat over-zealously! – put a © stamp on along with my own photos in the same post.

The ticket was from a Rolarena (roller skating arena) in Leeds which I visited back in 1972. And the request I got today was for permission to use my image of it in a video that will be part of an 1970’s exhibition at Leeds City Museum next year.

What fun! I wrote back and said I can’t really claim copyright; and to make up for my over-zealousness in that respect I sent them a better (higher resolution) and un-stamped copy to use instead of the one they found and traced back to me.

Isn’t it exciting? In 1972, a Swedish teenager (me!) on language travel in Britain visits a Rolarena in Leeds, and saves the ticket. When she gets home, she glues it into her private scrapbook photo album. In her world back then, there are hardly even photo copiers or electric typewriters in use yet. She has absolutely no concept that 40 years later, she’ll have her own laptop computer, a combined printer/scanner/copier, digital camera and wireless internet; and use them for something called blogging. (Had someone suggested it, she’d have said: What?!)

But in 2012, her old ticket will be in a video watched by visitors to an exhibition at the Leeds City Museum. Not that any of those people will know the story of that single picture (unless they serendipitously happen to find this blog post). But it still feels a bit like entering The Hall of Fame, even if anonymously!

I doubt I’ll live another 40 years, but if I do… I wonder what I might be doing then, that is not even in my imagination yet???

Mystery or Love Story

2011-12-08T09:15:00.001+01:00

The BTT question as usual comes from Deb at Booing Through Thursday.

All things being equal, which would you prefer–a mystery? Or a love story?

Now here we are with the “all things being equal” again…
As I’ve said before, in my opinion, “all things” are never equal; and my reading and my experience of it does vary with my mood and circumstances.

And what is meant by “mystery” versus “love story” anyway? (You might notice that I’m in a sort of contrary mood today. I am!)

How many mysteries are there that do not include a love story? And how many love stories that do not have a hint of mystery?

Actually I’d say many of the best stories include a bit of both.

What I’m growing rather tired of is the kind of mysteries too full of bloody violence (using the b-word in its literal sense). What I’d like to see more of is authors who know how to pinpoint the more ordinary mysteries of human behaviour – even when it does not go as far as murder.

I might be reading such a book just now, but I won’t know until I’ve finished it. I might return with a review when I have. There are certainly mysteries involved, and love stories hinted at as well, but it is not yet obvious how it all fits together. Remains to be seen whether the enchantment will last through the whole book or not. For now I won’t even give you the title because I really don’t want to know more about it until afterwards!

ABC Wednesday: U for Unusual Ungulate

2011-12-06T21:47:00.001+01:00

Sort of ugly and yet curiously cute

About three weeks ago a Northern white rhinoceros calf known as Zuri was born at the Zoo in my town (Borås). She is not only unusual but also quite unique in that she is the first rhino to have been born alive in our zoo.

The Northern white rhinoceros is a critically endangered species, which may even be extinct now in the wild. The rhinos at the zoo are part of a breeding programme. Zuri’s mother Zinzi has been here since 2002.

By the way, did you know that the rhinoceros is an odd-toed ungulate? This means it is a mammal with hooves that feature an odd number of toes. Odd-toed ungulates include horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses.

Here’s my own favourite rhino photo from the zoo, from two years ago. Going by the shape of the horns I’m thinking that Zinzi might be the one in the middle, but I’m not sure!

ABC Wednesday

More Than A Sprinkle

2011-12-06T19:09:00.001+01:00

Early this morning I was woken up early by a noise I have not heard for a while: The sound of the snow-plough.

I did not go out until mid-day but then all roads and pavements were still very icy and slippery. Snow may make the world look brighter, but it really does cause serious problems. And somehow no one ever seems to be prepared for the first snow and ice, no matter whether it comes early or late in the season, or if the weather forecasts have been predicting it for days. My morning paper today reported 13 local road accidents from yesterday, pointing out that these were only a selection of many more similar incidents.

I had to settle for a shorter walk than I had intended. Here are some photos from a footbridge over the railway near where I live.

Walking east about 1 km from here takes me to a supermarket. I wonder if I’ll see that place again before spring! (that’s the pessimist in me speaking…)

Direction north leads towards the town centre. Yeah, right. Piece of cake on a fine day with ice free streets. Today, I don’t think so!

Walking west to the bus stop would be a better alternative if I really needed to. But since I don’t really…

… I think I’ll just turn around and head home again and bake my own cakes…

Nature In A Twist

2011-12-05T21:45:00.001+01:00

Can’t remember now if I read it in the paper or heard it on the radio, but there was a warning issued for pollen allergists, that with the extremely mild autumn we’ve been having, we might expect problems with some tree pollen already around Christmas.

Walking through the town park today, together with the first sprinkle of snow (see previous post) I noticed this hazel bush (we call it snake hazel or witch hazel because of its twisted twigs) with big catkins on it already… Best check my supply of allergy sprays a.s.a.p.!

A Sprinkle of Snow

2011-12-05T21:00:00.001+01:00

When I woke up this morning there was a slight sprinkle of snow here and there, but not really covering the ground.

My conclusion from the cars I saw when walking into town is that it probably snowed more in some places outside town than in the city.

How Come The Sun

2011-12-04T13:02:00.001+01:00

Yule Goat: “A ubiquitous symbol of the winter holidays in Scandinavian countries. A throwback to Pre-Christian times, the Julbock is a Pagan Yule symbol that was gradually absorbed into Christian holiday customs.” (Definition from tyda.se)

We are having a very different early winter weather this year compared to December 2010, when we actually had snow in Santaland (=the town square) the whole month of December.

Statistically it’s quite normal for this part of Sweden to be snow-free for most of December; but because last winter was so very wintry, I think most of us – whether we love snow or not – are feeling a bit surprised that this year we got the exact opposite and that so far it has instead been unusually mild for the time of year.

From photography and blogging point of view, last winter was certainly more “interesting”. On the other hand, from walking point of view I do appreciate that the streets are still bare. On the third hand (don’t you sometimes wish you had one?) rain and strong winds don’t really make long walks very tempting anyway.

A sunny day back in mid November

Some days now it seems hardly to get light at all. I wake up, my inner clock keeps telling me it’s still night (whatever all the other clocks around the flat may have to say about it!), I go back to bed “just for a little while”, and oops, before I know it it’s almost lunchtime. By the time I’ve actually managed lunch, it’s getting dark again, and then the inner clock tells me it’s evening and the day nearly over. It’s a strange life. I always suspected there is a Moomin troll inside me… They go into hibernation in the late autumn and don’t (usually) wake up until spring!

Officially, sunrise around here just now is at 08:35 and sunset at 15:24 (3:24 pm). Most of this week though the sun seemed to be in worse mood than me and refused to get out of bed at all. Even for lunch.

While I wrote that last sentence, a few rays of light sought their way in through the window of my study. I just had time to think the thought “maybe I should take a short walk…” and then the sun drew the cloud curtains again and went back to bed; and rain started hammering against the window with renewed energy.

At the back of my mind, the lyrics by Tom Paxton pop up…

How come the sun didn't make it today?
Is it tired of what it's been shining down on?
Could it be God didn't wake it today?
You couldn't blame him.
Sometimes it feels like the sun just comes up out of habit,
And goes down as quick as it can.
These days you just have to grab it as it goes by.

Listen to Mary Hopkin singing it at YouTube:
How Come The Sun

Weekend Reflections: What’s Up?

2011-12-02T19:30:00.001+01:00

For Weekend Reflections

Which world is real, and which is not?

The bottom photo is the original – but a water reflection. The top photo is the water reflection turned upside-down and mirrored, with help of the computer.

BTT: Moody

2011-12-01T14:26:00.001+01:00

As usual, the BTT questions come from Deb at Booking Through Thursday.

Do you find that your mood affects the things you read?

Like, if you’re in a bad mood, do you tend to indulge in reading that will support it or do you try to read things that will cheer you up?

Do you pick different types of books on dreary, rainy days than you do on bright sunny ones?

For that matter, does your mood color what you’re reading, so that a funny book isn’t so funny or a serious one not so deep?

♥ Good question/s! Not sure I can come up with definite answers though - they keep changing with my mood... (haha)

♥ Sometimes I choose my reading to indulge the mood I’m in; sometimes to cheer myself up. (The same goes for DVDs.)

♥ The weather can certainly be a factor, yes. Both in the choice and in the experience.

♥ And yes, I’m sure my mood sometimes also colours what I read.

There is one reading experience in particular that I think will forever be connected in my mind with the weather outside, and that is one time when I read the whole book of Jeremiah in the Bible non-stop, with the sound of rain hitting my windows in the background. (I wrote a piece about that afterwards – in Swedish – maybe I should try and translate that into English some time.)

This time of year I sometimes reread Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which I have in an edition with beautiful detailed illustrations by Roberto Innocenti. My copy is in Swedish, but I found this cover picture on Amazon.com:

My choice of books otherwise is perhaps not so much connected to the story being set in a particular time of year. But then a lot of novels span over more than one season; and my reading of them may also extend over several days or even weeks. So my mood might change during the reading!

I have noticed that my choice of DVDs sometimes does seem to relate more to the season. For example in a summer heat wave I seem more inclined to watch people fighting their way through jungles and deserts; while films involving snow usually come to mind in winter. One might think it would be the other way round! But I guess the aim of my brain in those choices is to call up within myself the feeling of “things could be worse”.

As for my mood colouring what I’m reading (or watching): One example might be that over the past few years I’ve sometimes found it hard to be amused by jokes about old age and dementia, and I’ve also been less keen on certain kinds of crime stories, involving too much death and tragedy, hospital drama and forensics. I think there was just too much of all that in my real world. So any reading or film involving those topics had to keep just the right level of respect and/or distance for me to be able to enjoy it. (Still does, really.)

I find that sometimes when the real world is “too much”, the fantasy genre can be of help to create that bit of distance.

It can also be comforting when the world seems uncertain to reread a book (or re-watch a film) where you already know the ending. I also think that by doing that, sometimes, it is also possible to learn something about dealing with our own personal histories. (Going back over a series of events, and seeing certain details in a different light, because when reviewing, we know the outcome.)

♥ ♥ ♥

Today is 1st December, which means I have started
the Advent Calendar in my Picture Book blog.
There will be one ‘Quotography’ post for each day
until Christmas. There is a button at the top
of the sidebar in this blog to take you there.
Click to open!

♥ ♥ ♥

For Scriptor Senex

2011-12-01T11:30:00.001+01:00

Scriptor Senex’s ramble today reminded me of this rather astonishing experiment, which I managed to re-find with a little help from our friend Google:

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Some of the emails circulating this information say that only 55 out of 100 can read it but I’m not sure if that figure originates from the same research. My guess is that most experienced readers won’t have too much trouble with it.

Anyway, it might be a comfort to know on such days when our fingers don’t quite seem to obey our intentions.

ABC Wednesday: T for Tea-Time

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000+01:00

It strikes me that I did T for Tea in the last round of ABC Wednesdays as well, but never mind. I do love tea! And I hope that even coffee-drinkers may enjoy looking at these tea-pots that I saw in the window of my favourite tea shop the other day. I was there to renew my stash of my favourite local blend (I have no idea what’s in it), + peppermint candy-flavoured black tea, + a spicy green Christmas tea, which is only sold this time of year.

ABC Wednesday

An Advent Advert

2011-11-29T10:50:00.001+01:00

From Thursday 1 December through Christmas Eve my blog DawnTreader’s Picture Book will be turned into an Advent Calendar. (For those of you who are not already following that blog, there will be a special Advent Calendar button at the top of the sidebar here to conveniently transport you there.)

Traditional Advent calendars here take the form of a large rectangular card with 24 windows; one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. Each window opens to reveal an image or poem, or lottery number. Some calendars have a small gift concealed in each window, such as a toy or a chocolate item.

My plan is to take you “window shopping” with me. Yesterday as I walked through town, I found myself stopping frequently at shop windows and entrances to take photos of decorations. A few quite clever and inspired; others trying to display every article in stock; some trying the approach that ‘less is more’; and then some that seemed like a tired sigh: ‘I guess we have to do something….’

I will be combining my photos with various kinds of quotes; and so I hope there will be something for everyone as we go along, whatever your feelings about Christmas – or shopping! – may be. I’m afraid you shall have to buy your own chocolate, though.

No, I’m afraid it’s no use clicking on the numbers!

Larch

2011-11-28T13:12:00.001+01:00

Although a conifer, the larch is a ‘deciduous’ tree which means it loses its leaves/needles in the autumn…

… So not recommended as Christmas tree! …

It’s Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos.

SOOC Sunday: Bird Conference

2011-11-27T17:43:00.001+01:00

Last weekend this flock of birds were holding a conference in some trees I can see from my windows. Reminded me of the Hitchcock movie! After chatting for a good while, they took off. Direction south… Probably a good decision!

I have not tweaked the colour in these photos, they were taken at twilight, shortly after sunset, and the sky itself contributed to the sort of ominous feeling.

Linking to Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday.

Weekend Reflections: Let There Be Light (2)

2011-11-26T16:31:00.001+01:00

Last weekend we had the official lighting of the Christmas lights in town. Since then, I have also been getting my own lights up. As this is the darkest time of the year here in Sweden, I enjoy getting my window lights up in time for the 1st Advent Sunday. Electric candlesticks and advent stars in the windows are very common here during the month of December.

Back in my childhood, I think most people had only one of each. Nowadays it is not uncommon to have one in each window. I say that to defend the fact that as of this year, I myself do have four electric candlesticks (one in each window) + two stars (on in the kitchen and one in the study) + a chain of lights on the balcony…

The 1st Advent Sunday is always the fourth Sunday before 25 December. This year 25 December falls on a Sunday, and therefore 1st Advent Sunday is as early as can be – 27 November.

I’m glad of that, because I don’t think I could have waited another week to put up my lights! That feeling may have something to do with the last three years being so full of worries (for my elderly parents, now both gone). This December, no worries of that kind; but still a lingering sort of melancholy, and trying to find my own way and will among old traditions and perhaps new ones, memories and future. Whichever way one turns, this time of year will always be full of reminders: lights and decorations, special kinds of food and drink, and spicy smells.

I decided to get a new electric candlestick for the kitchen window this year, to replace an old one which I’ve had too long. So I went to two different shops in town to have a look – and found one in each shop which took my fancy. One seemed more right for the kitchen though, so I bought that one.

However, a couple of days later I found myself going back to to buy the other one as well; because my mind had not let go of it, and just kept telling me how good it would look in my bedroom… As indeed it does!

~~Today~~ * Yesterday, with all the candlesticks in place, and the sounds of storm and rain outside, I was inspired to also add the delicious time-of-the-year smells of saffron and gingerbread to the atmosphere... First I made a saffron loaf in my bread maker; and then ‘shortcut’ gingerbread biscuits. So called by me because I let the food processor do most of the job, and no rolling-pins or pastry-cutters involved. But you still get the right smell and taste!

For Weekend Reflections

* Some technical problem got in the way of posting this Friday evening.
Hope for better luck today!

Booking Through Thursday: Thankful

2011-11-24T18:51:00.001+01:00

Each Thursday, Deb at Booking Through Thursday asks a bookish question, and readers put their answers on their own blogs and link up. Thanks Deb for keeping the book-discussion going. :)

What book or author are you most thankful to have discovered? Have you read everything they’ve written? Reread them? Why do you appreciate them so much?

I’ve been taking part in this meme almost every week for about 1½ years now. Inevitably, some topics tend to get repeated after a while. Even when the questions vary slightly, my answers tend to frequently sneak away in the direction of certain authors/ books/ genres which have remained my favourites for a long time.

Last year too, around American Thanksgiving, the question was about authors and books we are thankful for. You will find my answer here: Worth Reading More Than Once. And some followers of my blogs will probably know my favourite authors by now even without peeking!

So instead of writing yet another tribute to C.S. Lewis and/or J.K. Rowling, I’ll mention a book and author I’m thankful to have just recently discovered. In fact I finished the book only a couple of days ago, and before I bought it, I had never even heard of the author. But as it turned out I enjoyed it enough to feel curious try another one soon. Lucky for me it seems she has written four so far (not in a series but each their own story).

It’s not very often that I just go into a bookshop and buy a book without having heard of either the title or the author before. With this one I did just that, though. Went into the bookshop to browse around without anything specific in mind; and came out with The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen.

Here’s the cover and blurb that made me buy it:

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Why did she leave her hometown so suddenly? Why did she vow never to return?

But in a place where unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight, where the wallpaper in your bedroom changes so suit your mood, and where a neighbour bakes hummingbird cakes in the hope of bringing back a lost love, Emily will find that the answers are not what she expects…

In fact one of the things I found most enchanting about this book was the fact that until the end, I too did not have a clue what to expect, or even quite in what ‘genre’ to put it. But I also liked her use of language, and after finishing the book I have half a dozen little sticky notes sticking out it, marking quotes… Like:

He’d meant – absolutely – everything he’d said at the time, all caught up in the fantasy come true. But adolescence is like having only enough light to see the step directly in front of you, and no farther.

or

‘I’m homesick all the time,’ she said. ‘I just don’t know where home is.’

S for Sledges in the Sun without Snow

2011-11-22T18:42:00.001+01:00

Last winter we had snow already in mid November and it did not go away until April. I have to say I don’t really mind if we have to wait a bit longer for the first snow this year, even if it makes the sledges look a little bit out of place!

For ABC Wednesday – S