Saturday 10 December 2011

Straight Out Of the Ice

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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.

11 comments:

  1. These are AMAZING photos!!! What luck that you were there when she was! It actually looks like she is partially frozen in the ice!!!

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  2. Wonderful to see... thanks for sharing.

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  3. That is one dedicated artist! Well worth getting out the camera for. Hope your connection improves, I know what it's like, have similar problems myself from time to time.

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  4. Glad you were able to get out for groceries and how nice something noteworthy was going on for you to photograph! I hope the bad weather doesn't ruin the sculpture before it's even finished,

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  5. Ah, what a great share - an ice sculpture in progress.

    Good luck with the internet woes.

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  6. Ice sculptures are so cool! Fabulous shots, I wish I could see the finished sculpture. :)

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  7. Great, a tough job to do these unusually warm days in Sweden. Unfortunately it wont last for long this year. Have a great Sunday


    /Christina

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  8. I am watching a Christmas movie while I blog and the cable went down for 1 2 3 and back up, had to wait while the TV rebooted then fast foward through half the recorded movie to find where i was.
    you get Most Interesting Blog award for this ice sculpture. would love to see it and great camera in your phone.

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  9. what a cool project...hope your net heals soon...

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  10. It'll be good to see it when it's finished. In the meantime I am wondering why the ice block doesn't melt.

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