Skywatch Friday / Weekend Reflections

 

 

A grey and foggy Thursday morning turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon with a definite feeling of "spring in the air"... I made use of it for a walk into town for some errands, but of course also had to make a few stops for reflection photos...

Skywatch Friday

 Weekend Reflections

Snowdrops

 

I had better luck in my search for signs of spring today, as I found some snowdrops in a flower bed in my neighbourhood. Not the kind dripping down from above, but the kind springing up from down below! :)

 

Do Not Be Hasty

 

I'm trying to recall what I've been "doing" over the past three days, but I'm coming up with nothing. The icy weather conditions that kept me in on Friday went away, and just turned to grey and wet and muddy. I've been out for daily short walks around the cemetery for a bit of minimum exercise, but no more.

 There was one afternoon (Sunday?) that seemed to inspire various invisible birds to a new kind of spring-like intensity in their singing - but that's as close as I've come to finding signs of spring so far. Trees and flowers are still biding their time...

Some of the big old moss-clad trees kind of remind me of the Ents in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings story. (The ones in my photos above are all lindens, if memory serves me right.)

“But I spoke hastily. We must not be hasty. --- I must cool myself and think; for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.”  

 

(This one I nicked from somewhere on the world wide web...)

Whatever I did over the weekend, or today, none of it was done in great haste. On Friday I had groceries delivered, which did inspire some cooking on Saturday (pieces of chicken baked in the oven with various herbs + pieces of mango, to then be frozen again in portions). I also took the vacuum cleaner for a walk around the flat. Most of Sunday I ended up in front of the TV, catching up with five episodes of a British detective series (Ludwig) that for some reason had escaped me. (Sixth and last episode turned out not to be available here until next Saturday, though. So I have no alternative but to practice some patience with that!) 

Today I logged into my bank account to pay some bills, but ended up having to fill in a long questionnaire that they claimed necessary if I want to continue to use their services (=access my money) at all. Like: Where does my money come from, what do I intend to do with it, how much do I think I'm going to use my credit card, do I intend to send any money abroad, and will I be withdrawing any cash - and if so, what am I going to spend that on?? - Made me wonder who on earth they think I am... Some kind of oligarch?? And will an AI bank robot be checking up on my guesses vs actual transactions at the end of the year?? (As far as I can recall, my "business" with foreign countries over the past 15 years or so has been solely with Amazon/Audible, buying e-books and online audio books...) 

 

Mackerel Sky

 

Mackerel sky is supposed to forecast that the weather is about to change. This photo was taken yesterday afternoon, and it was indeed followed by snow/rain/slush/ice during the night and morning. As nights had been very cold for quite a while, the change to milder temperatures meant icy and slippery roads and streets. Weather warnings were issued, and in the morning, many trains and buses were cancelled. Luckily I did not have to go anywhere. I had ordered a home delivery of groceries, which even arrived on time (around noon), in spite of the icy streets. 

My local newspaper, on their website, reported about extremely icy conditions in our city centre in the morning, though. Below are a couple of "slippery slope" screenshots that I snapped from their video:

 

 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Audible Review: The Jane Austen Collection

 

    Narrated by: Claire Foy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw,
Billie Piper, Florence Pugh, Emma Thompson
    Length: 45 hrs
    Unabridged Audiobook
    Release date: 11-05-20
    Language: English
    Publisher: Audible Originals
    Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics

From mid January to mid February or so I've been having a Jane Austen month, listening to a collection of dramatised readings of her novels (included in my current Audible membership). The "storytelling" parts of each book are read by a main narrator, while the dialogues are performed by a full cast of other actors. 

I did like some of the performances better than others; but that may also be related to the fact that it differs a bit how much I like the books. And two of my favourites happened to also be narrated by one of my favourite actresses - Emma Thompson.

Jane Austen lived 16 Dec 1775 - 18 July 1817.

- - - - - -

The introductary summaries below are from Audible's website.

 Sense and Sensibility (1811) - narrated by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Austen introduces us to the Dashwood sisters who upon the death of their father are left with little money or status and without their family home. Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her.


Pride and Prejudice (1813) - narrated by Claire Foy.

Pride and Prejudice is centred around the Bennet family, their five unmarried daughters and their mother’s desperation for at least one of them to make a wealthy match to save the family from destitution. When Charles Bingley moves into Netherfield, a nearby estate, it seems that Jane, the eldest daughter, may have found her match, but it also introduces our heroine Elizabeth to Bingley’s friend, the aloof Mr Darcy.

Mansfield Park (1814) - narrated by Billie Piper.

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on business, Mary Crawford and her brother, Henry, arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them London glamour and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis.

Emma (1816) narrated by Emma Thompson.

Emma is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage; nothing however delights her more than matchmaking her fellow residents of Highbury. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

Northanger Abbey (1803/1817)* - narrated by Emma Thompson.

A coming-of-age tale for the young and naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey takes a decidedly comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. Revelling in the sensationalist —and extremely popular—Gothic fiction of her day, the story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the Tilneys, where her overactive imagination gets to work constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney, which threatens to jeopardise her newly forged friendships.

Persuasion (1817)* - narrated by Florence Pugh.

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish Sir Walter Elliot, is woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. Eight years before our story begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret.

* Northanger Abbey and Persuation were both published after the author's death in 1817.

- - - - -

My personal No.1 favourite among Austen's novels is (and has always been) Emma. One reason may be that this book was included in my English literature studies at university, a long time ago - which means I read and discussed it it more thoroughly than any of the others. But another main reason why I love it is the underlying theme of the main character being a bit too full of herself to start with, but learning by her mistakes along the way. And I think it's rather brilliant how the author manages to let the reader be one step ahead of the heroine most of the way.

I also always liked Northanger Abbey, and it struck me now that my reasons for that are rather similar to why I like Emma: Catherine too is a heroine who is prone to jumping to conclusions and letting her imagination run away with her...

All in all, I enjoyed getting reaquainted with all the books in this Audible format. One thing that I didn't really appreciate all that much, though, was that there was often music played in the background behind the narrative parts. That I found more distracting than helpful. 

Frosty Morning

 

I woke up to a very frosty and foggy morning today. Shortly after 10 am, when I set off for a walk into town for an appointment with my hairdresser, the fog had lifted; but trees and bushes were still covered with frost. With the sun shining, and no wind, it did not feel quite as cold as it looked, though. The photos above are from my walk into town, the ones below from my walk back.

Sculpture 'Vibrarion' by Xavier Veilhans (2014)

 

Mural by Mona Caron, Battling impatience, 2024.

Frost-covered bridge across the river between the city centre and the park.

 

At home, the tulips bought one a week ago (left) were definitely past their prime today (right), so on my way home I popped into the flower shop and bought a red begonia, which will hopefully last a little bit longer.

Birdwatching

The little Red House bird feeder in the cemetery has stayed in place since its last return; and the birds seem to appreciate it. The ones using it that I've managed to identify so far are Great Tit (very common around here), Bullfinch and (I think) Greenfinch. *

Not much use trying to capture any of them with my phone; but yesterday when I had my other camera, I managed to zoom some in from a "respectful distance".

* (Swedish: Talgoxe, Domherre, Grönfink.)

 

 

Icy Cold

 

Another cold and sunny day today, and I took my Sony camera for a walk down to the river to look for more ice and reflections. (It has a better zoom than my phone camera...)

Taking a photo of my own shadow taking a photo of... etc... 

 

 

Weekend Reflections

 

For Valentine's Day (Swedish: Alla hjärtans dag = All Hearts' Day) we had one of those rather rare cold winter days of sunshine and blue skies, and yet no ice/snow on the streets. And this big heart is once again in place in the square, right in front of the old court house in the background. (It has been moved around between a few different locations since last February when it first appeared.) 

The water level in the river is low, due to construction work on a bridge going on upstream. From the spots of ice along the temporary "beach" (not normally visible!) you can tell that it is really quite icy cold even if there is no snow or ice to be seen elsewhere!

 

Looking back towards town on my way home.

As you can see from the reflections in the river it was a very still day - no wind blowing.
 

 A frozen shallow pond, on the other side of the path along the river that I was following.

I was glad to be able to take advantage of the sunny day for a walk. Today we're again back to cloudy and grey - and also a bit of snow whirling about outside my windows just now...

 Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections

 

Playing with Tulips

 

I divided the large bunch of tulips that I bought yesterday into two vases, and put one in the kitchen window, and the other on my living room table. 

And today I took photos and played around with them in Picasa...

 

 

 

♥ All Hearts ♥

 

In Swedish, St Valentine's Day (14 February) is called Alla Hjärtans Dag = All Hearts' Day. Celebrating this day wasn't introduced in Sweden until the 1960s, though, and it wasn't until 1985 that it got officially added to our calendar.

So special decorations for Valentine's Day was not in the traditions back in my childhood and youth. February is still definitely a winter month here though, which means I usually keep some "Christmas red" in my indoor decorations at least past the mid of this month.

Yesterday, I recalled that I had seen these red hearts in an easily accessible drawer (i.e. not packed away with the Christmas things), so added those to my fake spruce branches; and also put a table runner decorated with hearts on the coffee table. 

This afternoon I also went for a walk to the supermarket and bought myself a bunch of red tulips. (No one else is likely to do it!) They're only buds yet, though, so will probably be more photogenic if I wait a day or two. 

The weather is also getting more winter chilly again here. No snow on the ground at the moment, but even with a bit of sunshine and blue skies this afternoon, it was still definitely wintry/icy cold, and no real sense of "spring in the air" yet. 

I'm prepared for when that feeling hits me, though... Last week, on my outing to the shopping centre across town, I bought myself a new set of kitchen curtains for spring/summer. But I probably won't be putting those up just yet. For now, it's enough to know that they are there in my wardrobe, waiting... 😉💕

 

 

School Shooting in Örebro, Sweden (4 Feb)

 

Some of you following this blog will probably already have heard through your national media about a very tragic event that took place in the city of Örebro in Sweden this week (Tuesday 4 February): A school shooting in which eleven people were killed - including the perpetrator - and six more physically injured. It is said to be the deadliest mass shooting in (modern) Swedish history, and has of course been dominating the news here all week. 

The shooter has been identified as a 35-year-old Swedish man, whose motives for the attack are still under investigation. He is believed to have acted alone, and then also killed himself. 

The school is an adult education centre. I think it was not until yesterday that all the victims were officially identified. They were all from Örebro (or around there). Those killed were seven women between 32 and 68 years old, and three men between 28-48 years old. Yesterday, five people were also still in hospital, and two of those still in intensive care. (I have not heard the latest update.)

Of course the whole city of Örebro is in shock - as usual, the closer to home something takes place, the more one "feels" it... Knowing exactly where it happened, knowing the victims or witnesses, or their families and friends etc. Or, until the victims are identified, wondering if one perhaps knows them...

For my own part (as far as I know), I don't personally know anyone directly affected; so I'm "just" one of all those who wonder what makes someone do something like that, and what can be done to prevent something similar to happen again - etc, etc. (Stricter regulations on firearms will most likely be one result, already proposed by the government.)

My main sources in English for details in this post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Risbergska_school_shooting

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3lpp9we4jo

The image at the top was cut from a photo in the BBC article. People have kept leaving flowers and candles outside the place where it happened, all week.