Postcards for the Weekend: Touristic Multi-View

The Castles of Ireland
Postcrossing card from Ireland, January 2017
”You will find a host of castles in Ireland. They were fortified homes for chieftains, or Anglo Norman settlers and were designed primarily for defence. Many of these castles are medeival in origin, dating from the 11th to the 15th century. While some of the more elaborate and elegant castles you may find owe their origins to the flamboyant Georgian era or the neo gothic revival int he Victorian Age.”

Maltese Archipelago
From Maria, April 2017 (sent from Malta)

4 jaargetijden van Drenthe
From Jarina, March 2017
Four seasons in Drenthe, a province in the Netherlands.

Historic Lewis
From John, August 2017 (sent from Lewis)
“Top left: Norse MIll and Furnace, Shawbost; top centre: interior of Arnol Blackhouse; top right: Dun Carloway Broch; below: Callanish Standing Stones.”

Postcards for the Weekend 55: Touristic multi-view

Street Art Reflections

More street art from the No Limit festival at the beginning of September. This colourful abstract mural now livens up an industrial wall along the river. The photos above show the “work in progress” (7 Sept); the ones below were taken three days later (signed and finished). The artist is JM Rizzi, born 1975 in Brooklyn, NY and graduated from School of Visual Arts NYC in 1997. His work can be found in NYC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Shanghai – and now Borås, Sweden.

The reflections in the water also become a reminder of the history of this location, because in the past, this was a textile industry dye-house; and back then, they did not think about pollution, but just let all the excess dye straight out into the river. So it is said that the colour of the water in the river used to vary according to what dyes were used in the factory at the moment. Better this way, I think… The paint on the wall, and only reflected in the water!

Weekend Reflections #418

Autumn Trees

Photos from this week

Up Above the Treetops

Another mural from the recent No Limit Street Art Festival. This one is on the wall of an hotel, best seen from the Town Park across the river. The artist is Fintan Magee, a muralist based in Sydney, Australia (born 1985).

3 September, work in progress

Revisited on 23rd September – now finished.

Postcards for the Weekend – Fall Scenes

From Ginny in the US, July 2017
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, Virginia

(Not sure whether this is supposed to be autumn or just evening… But it reminds me of early autumn colours anyway!)

From Jarina in the NL, September 2017

From John in England, July 2017
Langdale Pikes reflected in Blea Tarn, Lake District, England

From GB in Scotland, July/August 2017

Postcards for the weekend 54: Fall Scenes

Inspired Sunday - Norra Fågelås Church

As hinted at in my last post from Hjo, from there we continued driving south along Lake Vättern, back down to Jönköping. On the way, we stopped at four old countryside churches. The first was Norra Fågelås (norra=north), only about 5 km south of Hjo.

There has probably been a church here since back in the 12th century. The first document mentioning the church is from 1225. Some of the walls are supposed to be from the original church. The building has been reconstructed and repaired several times over the centuries, though.

The wooden bell tower was added in the 1300s. Originally, the tower was probably of a more open construction.

Walking around the church, we noticed this sculptured stone slab in the wall. I haven’t found any info on it online, but my guess is that it may once have been set in the floor indoors, as a funeral/memorial slab. (It was common in medeival times for the most wealthy and important families to have their graves within the church rather than in the graveyard.) This church wasn’t open when we were there, so we could not go inside.

 

Waiting For The Sky To Dry

The first week in September, we had another street art festival here in Borås, adding even more murals around the city. Some of the works I saw more than once while they were still “in progress” – like the one below: Lonac’s “Waiting for the Sky to Dry”.

▲ 2 September

▲ 7 September ▼

 

Artist: Lonac

▲ 14 September (finished)

See more at Lonac’s own blog here.

“Wating for the sky to dry” is a very good title for a mural in one of the rainiest cities in Sweden… Wise from experience, though, the organizers let this festival run from one weekend to the next; a time span long enough to let the artists finish their works even in “mixed” weather (some sunny days, some rainy).

Linking to
My Town Shoot Out

Autumn Colours

We’ve had quite a bit of rain lately, but some days I’ve managed to get out for a walk in between the showers.