Postcards for the Weekend – Transportation + Easter

London, Westminster Bridge (~1900)
”This turn of the century view shows Big Ben to the left of the tram and Scotland Yard to the right. Apart from the traffic, little has changed.”

From John in England, 2018

From GB in Scotland, 2018

Constanza Droop "Felix auf dem Rad"
Postcrossing card from Switzerland, 2017

Swedish Easter Hag, setting off on her broomstick to Blåkulla
(A card I bought and sent flying to the Netherlands for Easter, 2018)

Swedish folklore involves stories of witches flying off on broomsticks on Maundy Thursday (or Easter Eve), to meet up with the devil at an imaginary place/hill/island called Blåkulla (Blockula) … In some places Swedish children still dress up as påskkärringar (Easter hags), and sometimes also go knocking on neighbor’s doors for treats, much like American children do at Halloween. I remember dressing up like that in childhood, at my grandmother’s house; but don’t think it involved going round to the neighbours. “Proof” below from my childhood photo album – artwork by my mum, from Easter 1962…

Glad Påsk = Happy Easter!

We also used to have bonfires and fireworks for Easter; but that tradition has been on the decline around here in later years. (The big fireworks night nowadays is New Year’s Eve; and bonfires on 30th April, to welcome Spring.)

The tradition of filling vintage style decorated Easter Eggs with candy still seems to be as popular as ever, though; judging by this photo that I snatched at the supermarket earlier in the month…

I have some old paper eggs like these myself, but nowadays serving only as decoration:

Postcards for the Weekend 79: Transportation

Good Friday Shadows and Reflections

Playing with reflections and shadows on a playground today!

These shiny objects can be found in a little park near a tall apartment building close to the river.

In spite of sunny weather, it’s still bitterly cold.
The snow is melting away in sunny spots;
but in the shadows, winter still reigns.

Hmm… I think I’d better turn round and take another way here…

Later on, my heart took a little jump for joy when I spotted these tiny signs of spring on a sunny edge of the town park:

Only a few steps ahead, it still looks like this:

That mural cheers one up on any day, though!

Postcards for the Weekend – Spring

♫ Tulips from Amsterdam… ♫
– or at least from the Netherlands! –

*The Spring* by Racey Helps (1913-1971)

Looking up this name in Wikipedia, I was somehow surprised to find it to belong to a male artist. (I must be suffering from prejudices!) Angus Clifford Racey Helps was an English children's author and illustrator. His first notable success as an author and artist came during World War II with stories written for his young daughter Anne. He and his wife Irene, with their young daughter Anne (born 1937), were living in Shepton Mallet in Somerset. Besides running a hairdressing salon, the Helps became hosts to American soldiers; and little Anne was sent off to some place considered safer. She had been used to her father telling her bedtime stories every night; and when they could no longer be together, Helps wrote the stories down for her, with illustrations, and sent them to her. On one occasion a publisher happened to drop in at the Helps hairdressing salon, and picked up one of the handwritten, illustrated booklets; and Helps was invited to London to discuss publication of future work.

…

All three postcards above sent to me from Jarina in the NL during the very cold month of March, 2018… While here in Sweden we’ve been plodding along in snow; and in the Netherlands they’ve been ice-skating on the canals!

Postcards for the Weekend: Spring

Postcards for the Weekend–Sunrise/Sunset

Doesn’t matter which part of the world we’re in – we all seem to marvel at the sunrise/sunset!

Postcrossing card from Finland, 2014

Postcrossing card from Switzerland, 2014

Postcrossing card from Ukraine, 2014

Postcrossing card from South Africa, 2014

And to see a sunset from Sweden, go to Maria’s blog:

Postcards for the Weekend 77: Sunrise/Sunset

Bring on Spring (2)

In spite of Spring Equinox being less than a week away now, winter is still holding Sweden in rather a firm grip. There were a couple of days at the beginning of the week though, when the temperature climbed above 0°C (freezing point) - at least in the daytime. On Wednesday, it actually looked as though some of the main walkpaths might be just about ice-free; so I decided to attempt a walk into town, without the help of anti-slip devices or walking poles. Felt good to be able to “stretch my legs” a bit again, even if lately I’ve become so used to all the safety-devices that I almost felt a bit wobbly without them!

However, keeping to the main walk/cycle path along the main street, I did manage to find enough dry ground for my feet to take me to the city centre. My destination there was a flower-shop, in order to bring home a bit of indoors spring feeling, even if the outdoors will probably keep us waiting for a while yet.  

“Mission accomplished” - including having changed back to my spring/summer curtains in the kitchen this week.

PS – Posted separately below, a YouTube video of the snow situation further up north in Sweden…

Spring in Sweden (video)

Love this YouTube video, shared by a friend on Facebook yesterday...
I should add that here in the south, we haven't got quite that much snow... But it is still/again very cold (well below freezing point all day again today - and windy).

"Finally, the first month of spring is here! Sunshine, singing birds and
the best things of all; being able to hang out the laundry to dry in the
fresh air! :D" [Jonna Jinton, "Spring in Sweden", Mar 14, 2018]

Sun, Snow and Swans

We had a rare glimpse of sun and blue sky over the wintry cityscape today. Appreciated by both people and birds – and even sculptures!

No one sitting on the stairs leading down to the water, though!

There was a flock of (whooper) swans swimming in the river by the park.

“A swan may stare at a human, as well as the other way round!”

One thing I love about the camera is the option to just zoom in on the things I want to see…

(… and ignore, for example, the highrise buildings on the other side of the river…)