More City Lights

Some of you might remember that back in mid October I posted about A New View in my town. Yesterday that new part of the walk along the riverside was officially inaugurated. The ceremony took place at 4 p.m., which is when darkness falls here this time of year.

Instead of cutting a ribbon, they tied one together…

… as a symbol of the new part of the walk connecting previously existing possibilities to walk along the river.

The plan is that in 2018, it will be possible to walk close to the river all the way through town, for about 2,5 km (~ 1,5 English miles).

In the old days of textile industry, the river was lined with textile mills, and chemicals from the dyeing works used to colour (and pollute) the water in the river. Now, coloured spotlights are used as a reminder of that not-so-pretty history of our town, and the changes it has gone through more recently to become more of a post-industrial centre of commerce and culture. Which, in a way, is kind of how it all began back in pre-industrial times… When the town was founded in the early 1600s, it was as a trading-site!

The Lights are ON

Yesterday, after a foggy frosty morning…

… we had a rare visit from the SUN, which has otherwise stayed well hidden during November.

So I went for a walk downtown.

These photos were taken around 10:40 am, so as you can see, the sun does not rise very high over the horizon now, even when it does show its face.

If you’re wondering what that round structure is, it’s a new building they’re working on in the Town Park. When finished, it’s supposed to be an Orangery with an all-year-round café (to replace the summers-only outdoors café that was there before).

In the late afternoon, I went back into town again, for the town’s official Tree Lighting Ceremony. This is not just about the Christmas Tree in the main square, but a number of trees in the park are lit up too.

… Approaching town …

 
A procession with torchlights and brass music starts from one of the bridges connecting the park and the town centre.

Drumroll… Tada! Everybody together now: Awww…

And on we march, along the river and towards the main square.

When I walked back home afterwards, around 5 pm, I got another view of the lit up trees in the park, and their reflections in the river.

All in all a great start to getting into the “Christmas spirit” for all of us who appreciate that (even if today the weather is back to grey and wet again).

Myself I also used the sunny day yesterday to get my own chain of Christmas lights up on the balcony.

Next Sunday is 1st Advent Sunday, so in the week to come, I’ll also start putting up my other traditional decorations indoors.

September Harvest Festival, Part I (Inside)

Borås Cultural Centre contains the town’s Art Museum, Library, Theatre, and a café.

In September, the annual Harvest Festival usually takes place here - with market stalls and music and other activities going outdoors between the Cultural Centre and the nearby early 20th century church…

… and free apple pie and custard served indoors, in the theatre lobby:

This year there was so much going on in September (both in town, and for me personally) that I never got round to posting my harvest festival pictures back then. They came to mind now, however, when I was looking for something to post for Friday My Town Shoot Out.

The FMSTO theme this week is ‘Inside’, so I start with  some photos I took from the upstairs balcony of the theatre lobby (where I also found a quiet corner to enjoy my own piece of pie!) …

While we’re here, we might also take a peek into the Library, which I have to confess I find rather unpersonal these days:

I must confess I still feel a bit daunted by the ‘robot librarians’... Haven’t actually had much to do with them yet. I can browse the catalogue online from home, and then pick up vs leave borrowed books at a small branch library closer to where I live; where they still have human staff behind the counter. Or at least they did last time I visited! My reading habits have changed a bit over the last few years, with 1/ Kindle, and 2/ special (disability) license to download library ‘talking books’ directly online. This does not mean that I read less, but it means that I mostly read Swedish books ‘by ear’ (and some English ones too) and with my eyes in English on my Kindle (classics for free + buy some); and so do not really need to borrow a lot of regular books from the library any more…

(Postcard recently received from book-loving friend in England – thanks John, I do still love to look at printed books even if I prefer reading on the Kindle now for practical reasons!)

~~~

I’ll save the rest of my harvest festival photos for another post (or two), I think.

This November month has been all wrapped in grey clouds so far, and seems likely to continue the same way…

400/400

I noticed some nice, even statistics on my Postcrossing homepage today.

I’ve also now started sorting received PC cards in albums and according to categories. Like…

Teatime

Fairy tale/children’s books illustrations

Owls

Famous places and buildings

Doors & Windows

(these are some of the most recently received cards)

Once Upon A Time (1989)

At long last I’ve got started on the project of going through my mum’s photo albums from “the Kodak years”, comparing hers to my own – with the purpose of reducing the number of albums to keep.

Mum and I were both in the habit of making chronological scrapbook kind of albums, with photos glued on refill pages, and adding notes of who, what, where and when. Of course many photos from family get-togethers are the same or very similar to my own; and tourist photos from for example holiday trips mum and dad made on their own after I moved away from home are also of little interest. So what I’ve decided to do is to just keep certain photos and pages from her albums, and add those to my own.

Yesterday I was looking at 1989, and and among the “keepers” from that year I found the photo above, which I did not have in my own album.

The tiger feet slippers were a Christmas gift from my brother that year. I had forgotten about those; as well as the wild type of perm hairstyle I had back then!