Inspired Sunday – Brandstorp Church

Another church from our trip around Lake Vättern at the end of July.

The Church at Brandstorp is a wooden church, built between 1694-1698. (Before that, there was a smaller wooden chapel in the same place.) The shape of the church is that of a Greek cross, with four “arms”. On the outside, the walls are covered with woodchips and painted red. It has been through a number of renovations over the centuries. In the late 19th century, it is said to have been “modernised” and painted yellow; but in the 20th century, again restored to its original colours.

Like some of the other churches we saw in this area, it has a separate bell-tower; added in 1708.

The churchyard is surrounded by a rather unique kind of timbered fence/wall.

There was a church service going on inside when we arrived, but we could hear that they were close to the end of it, so we waited outside until people were coming out… Then we went inside to have a look. The ceiling was painted in 1748 (by a painter named Johan Kinnerus, from Jönköping).

Postcards for the Weekend

Making things simple for myself with the “Anything You Wish” theme this week… All of these cards dropped in this past week; and quite by chance, they all also happen to share at least two other themes: art/illustrations, and animals!

These lovely deer came running on Monday
(from Ginny in the US, Virginia)

On Tuesday, this Night Watch owl came flying in from Russia
(postcrossing) … (please note the watch – so funny!)

… in the company of a cute swimming seal sea otter from California
(postcrossing)

These highland cattle came wandering my way on Thursday
(vintage card sent by John in England) …

… followed by a bunch of rabbits and a mouse seeking shelter from the rain on Friday
(from Jarina in the Netherlands)

All in all, my mailbox was rather happy this week!

(Thanks to everyone who contributed!)

Postcards for the Weekend 57: Anything You Wish

Building Reflection

We’re having something of a building/renovation boom going on in town. Now it seems they are not only planning to build high, but also going down under water!

(Just kidding!)

Autumn Skies

From a short walk in my neighbourhood today – the sun shining on the trees dressed in yellow autumn colours, and a background of dark clouds.

Duolingo Progress

It’s been a while (5 months) since my last Duolingo report. I like to make note of my progess here on the blog every now and then, as the Duo app does not show the history with each language (only where I am right now).

In Spanish, which I started learning (“from scratch”) in May 2016, I’m currently rated by Duo as 48% fluent. They made some changes in the Spanish course over summer, which means I’m getting more of a feeling of moving on there now (rather than just repeating the same old exercises over and over). I also recently read a few chapters of a free e-book without access to any English or Swedish translation. I decided not to finish it, but not because I found the language too difficult, but because I did not really like the characters and story. Meanwhile, I picked up a tip from a comment on someone’s blog recently about a Spanish TV-series on Netflix – Velvet: (“In 1950s Spain, the heir to a fashion house romances a beautiful seamstress who works for the company, despite the objections of his family.”) Luckily it comes with Swedish subtitles… Yikes, Spanish is a fast-flowing language!! (My brain’s deciphering of stray words and phrases always seems to come several sentences behind!) I see there are four seasons of this series though, so that may give me some practise in listening… ; ) (Watched three episodes so far.)

A Turkish TV series also made a come-back on Swedish television after summer: Paramparça (English title: Broken Pieces). I only recognize stray words and phrases – but perhaps (I like to think) a few more than a year ago (first season).

With Dutch and Welsh, Duo also recently added more exercises, which  I’m working my way through. With Dutch, understanding the written language is not too difficult, but spelling, listening and pronouncing it is a different matter… And with Welsh, it’s that and just about everything else… (Possibly I’ve got a teeny tiny bit better at pronouncing it. But as I’m the only one listening to me, who knows!)

I also recently added Russian to the list, curious to see how I’d cope with a different alphabet. So far, I have to confess I’m finding it very much a guessing game. Very difficult to relate the spoken words to the spelling; and the other way round… If I were setting my goals high, I’d be very frustrated. I’m not, though! (Knowing I can quit any time I like and I’ll still know more than I did before.) However, I think it will probably be a while before I try yet another alphabet.

[German and French: Just reviewing. In reality, my German is a lot more solid than my Spanish - and my French probably at least better than my Turkish!]