Postcards for the Weekend – New Year

Some season’s greetings that dropped in after Christmas, but before New Year:

“Dreaming of a White X’mas” from Maria in Singapore

A “jumpstart” to the New Year from a friend ‘Down Under’

Classic British reds in the snow, from Scotland -
and from England, New Year’s greetings with a more modern touch:

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And a big THANK YOU for 2017,
and best wishes for us all for 2018;
from me to all my blogging and
postcrossing friends all over the globe!
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Postcards for the Weekend - NY Symbols/greetings

Midwinter Skywatch

(Thursday 28th December)

After having stayed under cover the whole day, the sun yawned and took a sneak peek out of the clouds in the late afternoon; but then went straight back to bed...
Feeling pretty much in the same mood myself this week!

Skywatch Friday – New Year’s Edition

Quiet Time [Through My Lens]

In the (late) morning of Christmas Eve, I went for a quiet walk into town to attend a church service centered on the Nativity.

Typical Swedish window decorations in December.

All that snow earlier in December, and this was all that was left on Christmas Eve… (No serious complaint from me, though, I have to confess - as I do prefer ice-free streets for walking!)

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ve probably seen this church before. It’s the oldest church in Borås, from 1669. But they say there was a stone church in the same place even centuries before that.

I was a bit early, so went for a turn around the block before entering. This little square close to the church is still called the “Haymarket”  - indicating that it has probably been there for quite some time, too!

Even on a very quiet grey Christmas Eve Sunday Morning, one really never knows what one is going to see next! Not sure if this ‘Santa’ was coming or going… or just “hanging out”…

Church window from outside.
(And oh, another speck of snow!)

An interior shot with my mobile (on silent) before the service began.

Central in the Nativity service is that the children get to be up front and help place the figures at the crib in connection with the story being told.

(After the service everyone is welcome to have a closer look if they want, and that’s when I got the camera out.)

“… and the star [the Magi] had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.” (Matt. 2:9-11, NIV)

Merry Christmas

Linking to Mersad’s

Through My Lens Nr 125:
In the Quiet Time

Merry Christmas

♫

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Such pleasure do you bring me
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Such pleasure do you bring me
For every year this Christmas tree
Brings to us such joy and glee
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
Such pleasure do you bring me…

♫

This little tree and I are celebrating 31 years together…
and wishing all our friends a Happy Christmas!

Skywatch Friday

Winter sky from my balcony today at 17:00 (5 p.m.)

Winter Solstice in Fog

This morning it was all grey and foggy outside my windows, and I didn’t think I’d get to see the Winter Solstice sun at all. It’s been thawing and raining on and off all week. Many streets and walkways are bare now; but still some snow and ice left on others. I took the bus into the city centre for a couple of errands; but didn’t bring my camera. Sometimes I still forget how much the winter climate can shift even from one part of town to another. I had my mobile, though, so when the sun unexpectedly showed up after all, and played its magic with the fog, I couldn’t resist - of course!

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MY TOWN SHOOT OUT

Hostility in the Air

Going for a snowy walk the othe rday I had a Hitchcock horror movie flashback… In the treetops above my head, there was very loud chattering going on. Looking up one tree I was rather surprised to see it full of magpies. Not sure if they were having choir practice or some sort of conference… ; ) In my experience, magpies don’t often appear in big flocks like that – a whole tree full. Then I looked at the birds in a couple of other trees nearby. The sounds coming from there were a bit different. Crows, or jackdaws... Anyway, both groups of birds seemed to be doing their best to be as noisy as possible – and I got a definite feeling of hostility in the air!

Refreshing my memory on the Hitchcock movie in Wikipedia just now, I find a recent paragraph added at the end of that article, informing me that the BBC is making a television series out of 'The Birds', to be broadcasted in 2018 -  set in Cornwall, and based more on the original Daphne du Maurier novelette than Hitchcock’s movie. Perhaps these birds were auditioning for it…They certainly did put up quite a show!

Postcards for the Weekend – Christmas Is Coming…

Christmas cards have started to drop in from around the world:

From England

From Germany

 

From the US

From Canada

From Sweden

Postcards for the Weekend 65: December Holidays

Weekend Reflection

A photo from 4th December. I haven’t been out much this week since Monday. The weather has been less photogenic since then! Still some snow on the ground, but mostly slush on the roads. And none of the white stuff left on the trees at the moment. (That could all change again over night, though. One never knows!)

Snow

Woke up to the sound of the snow plough this morning…

Went out for a little walk later on - to post some more Christmas cards for abroad, and to take some photos while the snow was still fresh and clinging to the trees. (Yes, well equipped with anti-slipping devices on my boots, and two walking poles to hold on to… The latter making it not all easy to also handle a camera! But I stopped here and there for photos.)

Weekend Reflections

From a walk along the river yesterday. A calm and sunny day in between storm and rain - and snow.

This morning, I was surprised to find a white world outside my windows again. Probably enough to make a snowman, had I felt so inclined!

This guy, however, is inside a display window in town. He keeps lifting his hat to passers-by – but alas my camera failed to quite catch that.