Rhododendron are now also in full bloom. The photos below are from the cemetery today; the ones below from around the housing estate where I live, 2-3 days ago.
The last Sunday in May is Mother's Day in Sweden.
The tradition was imported here from America, and introduced here in 1919. The somewhat later date for it here is said to be because they wanted spring to be a bit further along, so that there would be more flowers about.
In 1920, a leaflet was printed and distributed, giving some suggestions how to celebrate:
1. If you have a flagpole in your yard, the Swedish flag should be raised in the morning.
2. Mother should be greeted with a song by the children in the morning.
3. While still in bed, she should be served coffee and buns, prepared by the children, and given flowers and a present.
4. If possible, Mother should not have to do any housework that day. The children should make the beds, sweep the floors, cook the meals, and wash up.
5. In the afternoon or evening the family should hold a small celebration in which Father also participates.
6. Children not living at home should send Mother a letter or telegram or postcard, especially made for the day, and sent in time for Mother's Day.
(From a Swedish museum website, translated by me.)
From my own childhood, in the 1950/60's, I recall it as a day when it was my Dad who tried to perform (some of) those tasks rather than Mum (who was a stay-at-home mum and wife ever since I was born, just over a year into their marriage). This primarily meant that on Mother's Day, she was served burned toast in bed in the morning, even though she did not like eating in bed. Later on, she managed to persuade us (dad) to at least let her eat her burned toast at the kitchen table... As for the rest of the day, I suspect she was probably allowed (for all our sakes) to do the cooking herself; but forced to let dad (or later on, me and my brother) do the washing up.
AI generated image
Not having children of my own, I haven't really kept up with the development of the Mother's Day traditions in later years! I usually burn my own toast all year round - and like my mum, I don't like eating in bed, but prefer to have breakfast at the kitchen table. (Lunch, on the other hand, I often eat in front of the TV.)
The azaleas in the old cemetery are at their very best just now. I've been going to check on them at least every other day or so, and just can't resist taking new photos every time...
May 24, 2026
May 24, 2026
May 27, 2026
May 27, 2026
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Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus Rhododendron. Azaleas bloom in the spring; their flowers often lasting several weeks. Shade tolerant, they prefer living near or under trees. Plant enthusiasts have selectively bred azaleas for hundreds of years. This human selection has produced thousands of different cultivars which are propagated by cuttings. Azalea seeds can also be collected and germinated.
What I did not know about azaleas until I looked it up just now is that this lovely flowering shrub is also highly toxic, and dangerous to pets - if consumed.
As I'm not in the habit of eating them, but just taking photos, I think I'm safe enough to just walk by and enjoy the abundance of colour they offer this time of year!
Intense blue sky today (Thursday 28 May). I went for a walk in the afternoon to post a birthday card. Along a side street I passed, I noticed this house surrounded by an incredible "hedge" of lilacs (syringa) in bloom. (In Swedish we call them syrén.) In the background you can see that there are lilacs all along the opposite side of the garden as well.
Yesterday, I also took the photos below of a "cluster" of lilacs in the old cemetery. Standing there, it did look to me like branches with two different colours of flowers are actually coming from the same trunk down at the bottom. Not all easy to tell! - but googling it now, AI informs me that lilacs can indeed be grafted:
Yes, lilac trees can be grafted. In fact, many commercial "tree form" lilacs (where a shrub is grafted high onto a single trunk) and unique multicolored varieties are produced this way. Grafting is done to change the plant's growth habit, control its size, or combine multiple flower colors onto a single base.
A bit more about Syringa (Lilacs), from Wikipedia:
Lilacs are small trees, ranging in size from 2 to 10 metres (6+1⁄2 to 33 ft) tall, with stems up to 20 to 30 centimetres (8 to 12 in) diameter.
The usual flower colour is a shade of purple (often a light purple or "lilac"), but white, pale yellow and pink, and even a dark burgundy color are also found.
The genus Syringa was first formally described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus and the description was published in Species Plantarum.
The genus name Syringa is derived from Ancient Greek word syrinx meaning "pipe" or "tube" and refers to the hollow branches of one species. - The English common name "lilac" comes from the French lilac.
Swedish Whitebeam trees in bloom now in my neighbourhood. (Lots of them!)
Lately, every time I sit down to do something at the computer, it seems that some problem or other pops up.
The other day (I've already forgotten why or how), I managed to get logged into the wrong Blogger account on the Google browser on my computer, and never got round to blogging whatever it was I then indented to write about. There seems to be so many layers of extra security and pincodes and cross-references and back-up accounts everywhere these days that my aging brain is (evidently!) finding it hard to cope with it all...
So when I started the computer again tonight, I first had to try and sort out the mess it seems I unknowingly created last time. (I seem to have succeeded, for now, but alas I'd not be able to retrieve my steps this time either...)
That (+ more) reminded me of the Dylan song - but when looking that up on YouTube, I also discovered (or rather, re-discovered) that YouTube has removed Blogger from the symbols of places to easily share to. So I had to get into the mysteries of using "embedding" and HTML view instead. (If I was successful, the video will appear at the bottom of this post when I eventually get round to posting...)
The Times They Are A-Changin' also kind of sums up that the past week or so has been rather full of information about other things about to change.
Last week I mentioned having been to listen to info about the plans for an old football field in my immediate neighbourhood to be turned into a public park.
Yesterday I attended another info meeting; this time about plans to install "entrance phones" in the buildings on the housing estate where I live. Last summer, problems in some buildings caused the (municipal) housing company to suddenly, around midsummer, lock the entrances 24/7 - and keep it that way until... February, I think it was, when it suddenly got back to normal again (i.e. only locked at night).
For me the main problem with the doors locked around the clock was my regular food deliveries. I had to go down (and because of my knee, use the lift rather than walk) to open the entrance door for the delivery guys - but still needed them to help me carry everything all the way up and into the hall of my own flat. So personally, when the doors suddenly were unlocked again some 7-8 months later, I felt only relief. So much easier when no explanations needed every time!
Now (a few months after the doors were unlocked again) a notice was put up inviting us (I think probably a few buildings at a time) to information about plans to install an entrance phone system. The meeting was held in the basement of a neighbouring building, and I guess we were around 20-30 people. I had looked up some info beforehand about modern such systems, so didn't find it too hard to follow. Apparently nowadays they connect the entrance phone with one's own phone number. So in the future, when visitors push a button with my name on it at the entrance, the call comes in on my cellphone, and after verifying that it's someone I want to see, I can just push a button on my own cellphone to let them in. Sounds easier than having to go down in person to open the entrance, at least!
However, the installation of this system will also add an extra fee to our monthly rent. (Which might be considered a problem by tenants already struggling as it is.) So what they're doing now is trying to get the info out to everyone and make sure we understand; and they're also collecting our consent - or not. And it seems they have decided to go democratic on this for each individual building. If 51% of the tenants in a specific building wants the system, it will be installed. But if 51% of the tenants in a specific building do not want the system, it will not be installed there (and the entrance left open in the daytime, locked at night). So in the area as a whole, we may end up with some buildings having the entrance phone system, and others not.
I signed a form giving my personal consent already at the meeting - also weighing in the info I took part of last week, about the transformation about the nearby field to a park, which is likely to bring more "visitors" (not least teens) to this neighbourhood.
What will become of it all in the end, still remains to be seen - but I'm thinking that either way, The Times They Are A-Changin' ...
I might add that as far as I can recall, this is the first "info meeting" of this kind that has occurred during the 18 years I've been living here. (Inviting anyone interested instead of just discussion between landlord and representatives of a tenants' association.)
For me, the meeting made it a bit clearer to me what kind of problems started the whole discussion in the first place. It seems that it's people living near the playground in the middle of the estate who have been having the most problems with youngsters not actually living here hanging around there in the evenings, and also entering nearby buildings.
After the meeting, outside, I got talking to a woman of around my own age who turned out to be my current wall-to-wall neighbour (next entrance). I think it was last autumn that she moved in. (I've never seen her properly, as there's frosted glass between our balconies and neither of us is so tall that we see over it). She's been a much quieter neighbour than the one who lived there before her, so when I understood where she was living, I introduced myself. Someone else had mentioned earlier incidents in our close neighbourhood (including the entrance where she lives) and I felt a bit of time perspective might be in place... I have lived here 18 years, and while there have undeniably been a few scary incidents - seen in the longer perspective, I still consider it a good neighborhood "on the whole".
The Sepia Saturdayprompt for this weekend shows photo from an old shoe factory, and the host Alan Burnett asks us to "search out your old photographs of factories, workplaces, shoes, boots, benches, leather belts .... or whatever" ...
At first I thought I have no photos like that... But then a summer holiday trip from the past popped to mind - made with two friends nearly 50 years ago (49, to be exact), to the Swedish provinces Halland, Skåne and Småland. The colour photos in my album from 1977 have faded - but since this is Sepia Saturday, never mind! ;) I managed to copy some with my phone camera, and edit them a bit.
The friends I was with on this trip were Gunilla and Lena. Gunilla sadly passed away three years ago. (She's the short one in the photos - she stopped growing when she was around 8 to do with health problems and medication with that side-effect.) Lena is the same age as me and since her official retirement (from teaching) is still keeping busy more or less "full time" as a water-colour artist, living on the west coast (where she was also born), and having several exhibitions there every summer.
Back in the mid 1970s, all three of us were living/studying in Karlstad; and that summer we went on a car trip together to the southern Swedish provinces of Halland, Skåne and Småland - where we visited several places do with different kinds of handicraft.
In Halland, we visited the workshop of an old shoemaker, still making wooden clogs by hand. (Wooden soles, leather tops.) I think this was someone Lena knew since before.
From Halland we went on to Skåne, where we visited a ceramics workshop or two in Höganäs - a village well known for several workshops and factories of that kind.
Here are my friends posing near one such place; and then going in...
The photo below is not my own but a postcard (glued into my album).
The province of Småland is best known for its many glassworks. We visited at least two of them, Boda and Kosta. I'm not sure at which of them the two photos below were taken.
