Weekend Reflections

Sunny days have been few and far between in January and there hasn't been much to inspire photography. Last weekend snow and ice was washed away by rain again for a few days. To me that was a relief, as it meant I was able to walk into town for a few errands. On Monday, I even managed to fit in a long overdue visit to my hairdresser (my last haircut before that was nearly five months ago). Winter + corona restrictions is rather a tiresome combination...

Since Wednesday, we're back to a white world again. Temperatures have been down to -8°C or so, so going out takes some preparation (multiple layers of clothes etc). But there's only a thin layer of snow on the ground just now, and less hard ice, so less slippery. And yesterday, a sunny day to lift the spirits as well - so it seemed worth while again to take the camera for a walk down to the river.

Don't Try This At Home

Back in December, a week or so before Christmas, when walking across the old cemetery nearby (as I often do), I noticed that they had just been trimming hedges, and I got the idea to pick up some branches for a winter decoration on my balcony. I found a vase-like ceramic pot in my basement storage room to put them in, and thought it looked really good...

... until the outdoor temperature dropped after New Year, and one morning...

(I did not hear the pot cracking during the night... I hope no one else did either!) 

Lesson learned... Branches still standing, but transferred to a more flexible container: 

(plastic pot within one made of felt fabric)

Inspired Sunday - Allerum Church, Skåne

Going back to my holiday photos from 2019, it struck me that I probably have some church photos left that never got blogged about. (And should I happen to repeat something - well, never mind...)

Allerum Church (Allerums kyrka) is a church in Allerum, Skåne, Sweden. The tower and chancel of the church are medieval, while the rest of the church was heavily rebuilt during the 18th and 19th centuries.

 

 

As I know I've mentioned several times in other church posts in the past, votive ships are common in Scandinavian churches. They were usually given as gifts to the church by seamen as a thanks for being saved from a shipwreck.

 

Graffiti Wall (2)

(Continued from the previous post.)

At least two of the works on the graffiti wall included people wearing respiratory masks. Whether related to corona or to air pollution, I'm not sure. Perhaps both?

Not sure what this one is supposed to represent, but s/he does not look happy to me.

A lot of the the graffiti was of the "tag" kind (I think it's called??) - and did not really "speak" to me at all. But I suppose there may still be a lot of symbolism hidden there even if I'm unable to interpret it.

 THE END

Graffiti Wall (1)

Scrolling through my blogger reading list today, a post by Eye Candy reminded me (thanks) that I still have some graffiti photos from back in September/October that I never got round to posting. I did several posts on the official big murals painted during the No Limit street art weekend  - but on one of my walks I also took a little detour to visit a public graffiti wall where anyone is allowed to practice painting. I'd heard of it, but it turned out to be a much bigger (or longer) wall than I had imagined. There was no one at work there just then, however, so I just walked along it and took some more or less random shots. 

 

Here is one part of the wall, with a work entitled MENTAL PRISON:
 

I have a few more photos, but I think I'll save the rest for another post and leave you to ponder about the "mental prison" for now...

On the Ledge

 In a comment to my recent post A Tale of Two Paintings, Sandra asked me to post a close up of the picture shelves above my sofa that could be seen on the last photo. I replied that if you google picture shelf or picture ledge, you'll find similar ones at for example Ikea or Amazon. They are also called floating wall shelves in some ads, and they can be used for displaying anything from paintings to photos to small objects and figurines; with the advantage that you can easily change decorations around without making new holes in the wall.  I bought mine in a local shop when I moved into my present flat (12 years ago). Not that I usually move pictures around all that much, but it happens.

Today I started taking down some of my Christmas decorations - starting with tomtar, i.e. little gnomes and Santa figurines. (Just as I put up decorations gradually during December, I also tend to take them down gradually during January, one category at a time.) 

As it happens, one tomte family of little dolls knitted by my mum, spend their Christmases on one of those picture shelves. And just as I stretched out my hand to take them down to send them back to their rest-of-the-year-home (a box in my storage room), I heard tomtefar (Father Christmas) say: "Hey! How about some photos? I know it's on Sandra's wish list, and it would be a pity to keep her waiting until next Christmas..."

So, here is a collage showing the shelf at Christmas vs the rest of the year:

The painting of Tower Bridge is one that my parents bought from a "street artist" in London back in 1969, on our first family holiday to England/London. And it's one of the paintings from my parents' house that I wanted to keep, as I remember so well when we bought it. I thought I might even have a photo of the artist with his works spread out on the pavement. But when I check my photo album, there is no such photo there - only in my memory.

A Tale of Two Paintings

Recent reading of other people's blog posts on topics as varied as winter bathing*, Christmas decorations and Art reminded me that I haven't posted about a purchase I made back in December, as a sort of Christmas present from me to myself. I have an old friend (well, my age, but we've known each other a long time) who is a water-colour artist. She paints mostly coastal and maritime views from the Swedish west coast where she lives, the province of Bohuslän (north of Gothenburg, for those of you who know where that is). I follow her on FB and in a post there I saw and fell in love with two little framed and signed prints made from her originals (each 25x25 cm, frame included). So I contacted her, and she wrapped them up well together in one parcel and posted them to me. I put them up on my wall the same day I collected the parcel from the post office - no point in waiting until Christmas! ;)

Just to give you an idea of the size, they are two little ones next to the window. As they are small, I've hung them so that I can stand close to look at them. And the chair is a swivel chair so I can easily turn around and enjoy them from there as well.

*(PS. If anyone is wondering why winter bathing would make me think of these pictures, the answer is that she who painted them is one of those people who love to take a dip in the sea even in winter. Brrr!)

Snow

The past week was mostly grey and dull and windy - with a bit of snow in the air now and then, but only just enough to make the streets either icy or slushy (or both). Yesterday I didn't go out at all. But today, for a change, I woke up to a proper winter world with blue sky, crisp air, no wind, and the sun shining on a fresh layer of white snow. Unfortunately I had the laundry room booked in the afternoon; but after having put my first load into the machine at noon I was able to go out for a walk around the old cemetery nearby, while the washer did its job. One has to grab the moments...

Animal footprints - hare/rabbit, and some bird

Rabbit and Humans...

The sun is still low even at noon,
and hence making looong shadows...

Someone else had been really happy about the snow,
too, and expressed it creatively in a piece of snow-art...

What tomorrow brings, remains to be seen!
(Temperatures still hovering around freezing point.)