How To Spend A Rainy Day

Today has been a thoroughly grey and rainy day, and by now (~ 5:15 pm) I've given up any thoughts of going out. The photos of colourful maple leaves in this post were taken one day last week, when I remembered to bring my "proper" camera on my walk (with better zoom capacity than my mobile). 

 

 

 

Of course I thought this morning that if I'm not going out, it will be a good day to get some "housework" done. 7 hours later, I can't really say I managed that either. As so often these days, I seem to have spent most of today struggling with "tech stuff" like updating apps not working as they should (or me not understanding how to get them to do so).

 

The main "hiccup" today was trying to update a (Swedish) library app (for e-books) that I hadn't used in a good while. The library had changed their login procedure, and I in turn wasn't even sure I remembered the old one correctly... So that took a while to sort out. I finally managed that part - but then I still had to struggle for a good while longer to also borrow the e-book, download it, and learn how to make (and keep!) the settings of font, text size and keeping track of how far I'd read etc. I finally managed to actually also read about 100 pages it (out of 700 something) today, though.

 

What motivated me was that I had just read a review of this newly published book, which is the fourth and last installment in a series of which I have read the previous three - and also have those in print. I'll probably end up buying this last one as well (to have the series complete); but as I do find it easier to read enlarged text on my tablet these days, I decided to try the library e-book for now. (The author, Susanna Alakoski, is Swedish-Finnish, and these four novels have to do with the history of textile industry in both countries - also involving Borås where I live. Alas I can't find that any of her books - neither this series nor others - have been translated to English.) 

 

So that more or less sums up my day: Struggling with a library app, reading a few chapters, and then blogging about it... 

 

AI-generated image from 2024. (I'm not in the mood just now to check if since then AI has learned to keep the rain outdoors...)

 

Weekend Street/Reflections

 

After a mostly rainy day yesterday, the sun somewhat reluctantly decided to come out again today. It had still not quite "got out of bed" yet when I decided to go into town, but it showed its face again before I got back home.

I took the bus half the way there today (two stops), because my errand this time was not to go shopping, but rather the opposite: To drop off a bag of discarded clothes to a charity shop. Having done that, I felt a little big lighter, and walked all the way back home instead.

Walking through the park on my way back, I came across this rather unusual sight: A usually naked statue dressed in a skirt and a knitted hat - both pink. From where I stood, I could not read the whole sign, but I recognised the pink symbol at the top: A reminder that October is Breastcancer Awareness month. (I think this is global, not just in Sweden?) 

 

Made me think of several old friends who fought that battle. (♥) 
Too many sadly died... but I do also still know one or two who survived. 

Walking along the river back home, the sun had come out, and I caught this water reflection - with the reflected sky looking even bluer than the one above! 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections #297

Entering October

A sunny autumn day yesterday (30 September), and I took advantage of it for a walk into town and back for an errand. As always, trying to "combine business with pleasure" - or the other way round! (My "business" this time was to get a couple of things from the pharmacy before the prescription expired.)

 

 

 On the way back I passed by an even older cemetery (closer to the city centre) than the one I usually walk in. I only passed it on the outside of the wall, but spotted this 'tricolor' tree whose bottom branches were still green, while the top of it was all red.

Another view of treetops from the same cemetery.

And a young Rowan tree about half way on my way home.
With red leaves as well as red berries!

 

Home is a less peaceful place than usual these days, at least on weekdays, as the project of turning the old football field nearby into a park is now fully under way... 

These two photos were snapped one afternoon last week when I happened to be passing while the workers were on a break. Except for a break now and then for coffee or lunch or whatever, they're pretty much "at it" all day now - and very noisily. They've dug up the whole field and are putting new layers of gravel and sand and soil on top. I think most of the noise and vibrations just now are to do with flattening it all out again with heavy machines running back and forth... A tiresome constant background noise throughout the day, which also penetrates closed windows. We're having another fine autumn day today, but just now I can't escape by going for a walk, as I'm waiting for a delivery of groceries...

... Ah, a machine just stopped and it became all quiet... For a blissful minute...

I keep telling myself that it's temporary, though - and even if I'd have preferred the old (and usually empty!) field to be left alone, after all it's better that they turn it into a park than if they had decided to build more apartment blocks... (I suspect the ground there is not the right kind of foundation for building more houses on, though.)

The photo above is from 25 September last year - and was my chosen picture for October in my own photo calendar for 2026. (Just now I'm not sure why, as there's not all that much autumn colours in it!)

...

To end with some good news, the blog list on my side-bar seems (at last!) to be updating properly again, since yesterday. While I've noted here and there that others seem to have got theirs fixed much sooner, I was beginning to fear mine would remain "stuck in the past" forever... But it seems one should never give up hope - even with things like that!! :) 

Horse Chestnuts

 

It was very windy over the weekend, so a lot of autumn leaves fell to the ground,
together with quite a few horse chestnuts "ripe for the picking" now. Looking them up in Wikipeda I see that they're actually not even good for horses to eat, though.

"The seeds, especially those that are young and fresh, are slightly poisonous, containing alkaloid saponins and glucosides. Although not dangerous to touch, they cause sickness when eaten; consumed by horses, they can cause tremors and lack of coordination."

Still, even though they're not really "good" for anything, I can rarely resist picking up some freshly fallen ones from the ground, this time of year. No reason except that I've always done that. Never to eat - only to look at and feel, and maybe put two or three in my pocket to take home. Just because they're smooth and shiny - and confirm that autumn is here.
 

Aesculus hippocastanum

The NEW New Testament

 (New 2026 Swedish translation of the New Testament)

I mentioned in my post about the autumn street market, that the only purchase I made that day was not from the market stalls, but in the book shop. 

New Testament 2026
(new Swedish translation)

 

What I popped in there to ask for was a brand new Swedish translation of the New Testament; officially released this past week in connection with the an annual big Book Fair in Göteborg (Gothenburg). 

The Gbg Book Fair as such started in 1985, and has kept growing to nowadays being a huge event with around 80.000 visitors (40% professionals, 60% public) over a week or so. 

I know I visited the book fair once in the early years, together with a friend living in Gbg back then.  Must have been in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It seemed "big enough" then, but has grown a lot since. 

Anyway, one major "event within the event" this year was the release of a new Swedish translation of the New Testament - also celebrating 500 years since the publication of our very first translation of the New Testament into the Swedish language in 1526 (followed by the whole bible in 1541). 

That first Bible goes under the name of "King Gustav Vasa's Bible". Besides the importance for the church, it had a major impact on our language (especially spelling and grammar) for centuries to come. In 1703 a revision was made, named after King Karl XII. That one in turn was not replaced until 1917, when there was a new translation made directly from the original Hebrew and Greek (while the previous ones had been translated from Latin). 

The 1917 Bible was the one still used in my childhood and youth, even though the grammar in it was by then old fashioned, and quite hard for many young people to grasp. During my first six school years, Christianity was still the foundation in our schools in Sweden. Every school day was started by singing a psalm (there was a pump organ in each classroom, and teachers were supposed to be able to play it); and prayers were said before we went to have lunch in the school canteen. And the school subject was called Christianity rather than Religion. This changed the same year that I started "junior high" (year seven) - in a larger school in town rather than in the village where I lived. Morning assemblies then also became less religious, and the school subject was renamed Religion, including a broader spectrum of beliefs.

But that same year, on Saturday mornings, I attended confirmation classes in the village where I lived, and also a number of Sunday church services. (Before that, I had rarely ever been to church, as my parents weren't church-attenders.) Most of my old classmates took the same classes. The Church of Sweden was still State Church (and remained so until 2000) - which meant (among other things) that most of us were born members of the church, because so were our parents (whether active or not). - In connection with the confirmation in our early teens we were also each given a copy of the Bible; which was then still the 1917 edition. (By my grandmother I was also given a more modern translation of the New Testament from 1965, though - which was my first encounter with alternative translations.)

I might add that personally I never had all that much problem with the 1917 Bible, as I was also used to reading other old books with "dated" grammar. 

From my mid teens on I also got involved (via friends) in "free" church contexts, and along the way I also attended an international and interdenominational summer camp held in English, which gave me even more insight into comparing translations - even before we got an official new Swedish translation of the New Testament in 1981, and finally also a revised Old Testament in 2000.

Back to 2026: Even if nowadays not "active" in church context, I still wanted to add this new edition of the New Testament to my collection. So when passing the bookshop in town yesterday, I popped in to ask if they had it. In spite of quite a lot of fuss being made of it this week in the media, here in our local book shop it was (rather surprisingly) not on display at the front - but they did have some on a bottom shelf in an obscure corner at the back... (And the shop assistant who helped me dig it out, and completed the affair, waved me good-bye with a somewhat ambiguous "remains to be seen if they 'got it right' this time!"...)

As with most books these days, the print is rather small for me to read; so I'll probably actually be reading more of it online, where I can adjust the size. I still like to also have a hardback copy, though. 

I'm looking forward to see if anything special "stands out" to me. (One thing I like already is that they've added a short introduction to each book, explaining a bit of the historical context.) - But I suspect that as for famous quotes etc, it will probably still be the 1917 versions that stick in my memory - whether I like it or not! ;)