A Field Day

Panorama view from 2015 (my own photo)

Very close to where I live (I can see it from home), there is a large old football (soccer) field. I've lived in this part of town 18 years now, and I don't think I've ever seen a "full size" football game played here (i.e. making use of the whole field). There are junior games played now and then, and practices in between, and occasional school sports days etc are held here. But most of the time, it's just a huge empty space where not much happens except a few people walking their dogs there or jogging around it for exercise. But the lawn gets mowed by machines regularly in summer, to keep the grass short.

If it's a rainy summer, it can be very green - and enjoyed by the local wildlife:

July 2015 (my own photo)

But in hot and dry weather, it does not get watered, and can get very brown and dry: 

August 2018 (my own photo)

It can be a great place from where to just watch the sky:

(my own photo)

And in winter, with newly fallen snow and fog, it can look very dreamy and mysterious.... 

January, 2016

... But it can also be a great place to enjoy walking in snow and making footprints...

January 2013 (my own photo)

January 2026 (my own photo)

A few years ago, the city decided on long term plans to create a long park (green area) more or less following the river through town, making it possible to walk on foot (or ride a bike)  from north to south, without having to worry about traffic. If memory serves me right, about 5 km in total - and turning this field into part of the long park area is included in those plans. It will no doubt be years yet before the whole vision is fulfilled, but just now, the turn has come to "our field"...

   

Image from our local newspaper, 2023

A week or two ago, flyers were put up in the entrances of the buildings around here, welcoming everyone to a presentation of the plans, to be given "on the spot" (in the field), this Tuesday afternoon, starting at 4:30 pm. Living so close, I was definitely curious to know more about the details, so I was at the main gate at the appointed time. And I had expected quite a few other people to be there as well - but found myself alone! Far out in the field, I saw a van parked, and three or four people, who I assumed to be those who were going to present the information. I hesitated to walk all the way over there, though, as I'm still not all that confident about walking long distances on uneven ground... (It was on a piece of muddy lawn that I slipped and fell back in October...) So I waited at the gate for a while longer, to see if more people would be coming. But no. There was just me! ... After a bit longer still, I started walking into the field - and one of the guys back at the van started walking towards me, so we met like somewhere in the middle. I forget his title but he was one of those in charge of the project, anyway. He showed me a couple of sheets with plans of the intended layout of what they're going to do, and explained. In short, it seems that at one end there's going to be a new basket ball court, sort of in the middle also still a football field (but not a huge one), and at the other end an area with two playgrounds for children (younger and a bit older), a public toilet - and a brand new stage structure for outdoor concerts and other events. 

After I got back home, I found an image online of what that stage is going to look like: 

Please not the size of the people they've put inside... It's going to be HUGE! 

Living close by, it's really the noise from presumptive "big events" that worries me the most - I can only hope that they won't be too frequent... 

While we were talking about this, two (2) more women + a dog entered the field and came up to us. I stayed on for a while, listening again as the man started over and pretty much gave all the same information again. The newcomers seemed more positive to the idea of big events than I am - but they were younger than me (one of them mentioned she was likely to have like 15 years left before retiring from work), and I also don't know where in the area they live (perhaps not as close as I to the field/park)... After a while, their conversation with the "planner" drifted off to other parts of town that I'm less familiar with; so I just said thanks for the info I had been given, and went back home to contemplate.

From what I could see from home, not many more people arrived in the couple of hours that the van remained parked in the field. I'm still surprised at that, as no doubt the transformation of that field into a public park is likely to affect all of us living here. Not that there is anything I can "do" about it, but for my own part I still find it better to have an idea of what it is they're planning, rather than just wondering over the next few months what on earth it is they're doing... 

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Field Day - AI summary:

A field day typically refers to a special day of outdoor sports and athletic competitions organized by schools or community groups. Figuratively, it means an occasion or opportunity for unrestricted fun, activity, or criticism—most commonly heard in the phrase "to have a field day".

The term is used in a few different contexts, including both literal and figurative meanings:

School Events: A day when classes are canceled so students can participate in outdoor games, relays, and athletic contests.

The Idiom (Have a Field Day): To seize the opportunity to criticize, mock, or exploit a situation. For example: "When the scandal broke, the newspapers had a field day criticizing the mayor."

Military & Professional Use: Originally a military term for a day of outdoor exercises, drills, or maneuvers. 

Pansies and Violets

Arrangement of garden pansies in large round planters at one of the entrances in the old cemetery. Earlier in the spring the pansies were combined with daffodils, but the other day when I passed, I noticed that the withered daffodils had been removed and more pansies added instead. Everything looking fresh, neat and colourful!

In a flower bed outside a building in my neighbourhood, I found these smaller ones below, which I think I'd call violets rather than pansies - although they are larger than the even smaller wild ones that I normally think of as violets...

The Wikipedia article on Pansy tells me that...

Modern horticulturalists tend to use the term "pansy" for those multi-coloured large-flowered hybrids that are grown for bedding purposes every year, while "viola" is usually reserved for smaller, more delicate annuals and perennials.

The name "pansy" is derived from the French word pensée, "thought", and was imported into Late Middle English as a name of Viola in the mid-15th century, as the flower was regarded as a symbol of remembrance.

Postcrossing Anniversary - and Apple Blossom

 

Ornamental apple trees in my neighbourhood blossoming now...

 - - -

On Friday, I  received the email below from Postcrossing.com. How time flies...! ;)

Today’s the day — it’s your Postcrossingversary! You joined Postcrossing 13 years ago, and we’re floating by with balloons and fanfare to celebrate this magical occasion.

Did you realize you’ve been teleporting joy across the globe with tiny rectangles of paper for 4748 days now? You’re a special kind of postal magician ✨, and we hope you’ll keep enchanting mailboxes everywhere in the years to come!

Postally yours,

The Postcrossing team

I have cut down a lot on postcard-exchange with strangers all over the world via Postcrossing in later years, but am still keeping my account open by sending a card now and then. (And the system is self-regulating, so when one does not send, one also does not receive.) - When I first joined, back in 2013, I sent a lot, because the reason I started at all was that I had inherited a lot of still usable stamps from my dad that I didn't know what else to do with. (And I had no need of selling them for money.) I learned about Postcrossing from other bloggers (primarily from John Edwards, aka Scriptor Senex, who sadly passed away two years ago); and decided that the most fun I could have with those stamps would be to send them out into the world on postcards. After all, that was what they were made for...  Looking back, I'm glad that I did it when I did; because since then, postage has just kept going up, up, up... Now being almost ridiculously expensive. With the old stamps of low value that I still have left now, I'd need so many for one single card abroad that it wouldn't even leave room to write the address!

Over the past 7 months I have sent very few postcards or letters at all, as after my famous fall back in October (famous in the sense that I keep mentioning it!), even the nearest postbox has seemed a long way away. That distance seems to have shrunk a bit again with the arrival of spring, though - so having received this reminder of my Postcrossing anniversary, I decided to "celebrate" by sending at least one card this weekend. One has no say in where to, but the address allotted to me this time turned out to be in Russia. Now I just hope that the post office staff over there are good at reading our Western alphabet, because my printer went on strike and I couldn't print out the Russian version. (As i often do when sending card to countries not primarily using the Latin script.)

Anyway, after a rainy weekend, the sun came out for a bit this afternoon and I was able to go out and post the card.

If you were ever a writer of letters and postcards - are you still keeping that up, or have you switched entirely to using the internet for written communication?

Skywatch Friday

 

12 May, 2026 - 19:02

15 May 2026 - 20:15

15 May, 2026 - 20:15

15 May, 2026 - 20:16

It's been a week of swiftly shifting skies. This afternoon after lunch I managed my usual "recycling walk" and even got a glimpse of the sun. Right after I got back home, it was raining again, and I could even hear thunder rolling... 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Ascension Day

We've been getting some rain this week, and the temperature has dropped as well - but nature no doubt welcomes the rain, and the trees keep getting greener every day now. The photo above (from today) is from an alley in the cemetery, lined with tall birches. And below are some budding azaleas I found back on Monday - I haven't been back to check on those since, but I suspect cooler and cloudy weather has probably slowed them down a bit.

Yesterday was laundry day for me, and as it started raining before I was done with that, I didn't bother about going out at all. 

Today is Ascension Day, commemorating the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Still a public holiday in Sweden; and traditionally a day for outdoors early morning church services and picnics. 

Back in 2021, I wrote a post including some old photos and memories of such occasions in a distant past. - Today, with rainy and rather chilly weather, I doubt a whole lot of outdoors Ascension Day celebrations were taking place around here, though.  (For my own part, I settled for just a short walk after lunch, between showers.  And even for that, I donned one of my winter jackets again...)

A local tradition in Borås is that our annual Spring Market is held on the Friday and Saturday following Ascension Day. Tomorrow I have a delivery from the supermarket coming in the middle of the day, though; and the weather forecast for Saturday so far isn't looking inspiring for market visits either. Ah well - "one day at a time"...