Time And Time Again

 

It's That Time of Year again - i.e. time to repeat once again that I don't get the point of "daylight saving time", and probably never will, and that I wish they'd put a stop to all that nonsense once and for all... (Etc etc. You've heard it all before!)

Grudingly, I changed all of my manual clocks and watches before I went to bed last night (probably except one, that I won't discover until later). But of course that did not help my "inner clock" in the slightest.

So this morning I had breakfast at 10:30 (clock time); and two hours later, of course my stomach still does not agree with the clocks about it being time for lunch already.

Outdoors, Nature is keeping its own slow pace; still mixing sunny days with more grey and foggy and rainy ones with lower temperatures. (Today seems to be one of the latter kind.)

 

Having whiled away a while writing this blog post, it might now be time to start preparing a "late" light lunch after all... (Clock on my computer screen showing 13:20.)

 

High and Low

 

Walking into town on Monday afternoon, via the city park, I happened to see this very tall crane at work, lifting something onto the roof of the hotel with the big mural. I found it better to stop and wait until the crane had safely finished turning to the side, rather than having to pass right under it while it was still moving... 

Continuing straight forward past the hotel, my eyes fell on this old brick building, which in "style" reminds a lot of some of the bigger old industrial buildings in my previous post. 

Because of big city fires back in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, there are very few wooden buildings still standing in our city centre; but in the background in the photo above you see one or two of them. The statue at the entrance to this pedestrian shopping street is called Knallen, an old local dialect word here meaning "The Pedlar" (i.e. "a person who goes from place to place selling small items"). So what he is holding is a sack with rolls of fabric in it. Pedlars were very common in this part of Sweden in the past, and Borås was and is still known as a textile city. 

However, my errand in town on this Monday was to a small "health" store situated in one of those old wooden buildings behind the Pedlar. Primarily they sell things like dietary supplements and other non-prescription "alternative medicine" stuff; but what I was after was a new pair of comfortable indoor sandals to replace my old Birkenstocks (which  served me well for many years but are now almost starting to fall apart). 

I was lucky, as the second pair I tried on immediately felt very similar to my old ones, although they're of a different (Swedish) brand - Embla. So I bought them. And so far no regrets - they're very comfortable indeed, and I hope they'll continue serve me well for another number of years ahead.

(When it comes to buying shoes, my experience is that quality and comfort is usually worth the money, rather than just looking for the cheapest price tag...)

New shoes

Old shoes

 

 "A good pair of shoes is like a best friend,

always there when it counts the most."

 

My Town: Industrial Architecture

 

1

The river that flows through my town is lined with many old industrial buildings; most of them nowadays converted to serve other purposes. On Saturday (when out walking without any special goal in mind) I passed one such complex that I've probably walked past at least a thousand times before, and it suddenly it occurred to me to walk in among the buildings to explore a bit more. 

2

 Nowadays these buildings house a lot of different businesses, but as it was Saturday, the whole place was pretty much empty - which left me free to take as many photos as I liked, without anyone wondering why...

3

▲ Fire escape staircases and their shadows such as these always fascinate me. ▼

4

 

5

6

 I also love how much work was put into the architecture of factory buildings in the past... Lots of little details, like decorations around windows and doorways etc.

7

 

8

9

▲ I found that I was able to walk all the way down to the river and look over to the path on the side where I usually walk. (There's another old industrial building there as well, which is also nowadays home to several minor businesses.)

10

▲ Other (and uglier) old factories have been torn down and replaced by modern apartment buildings (condominiums).

11

▲ Finding one's way in Borås can be quite tricky, and not least for pedestrians, as besides the river there is also a railway and motorway to take into account, none of which can be passed just anywhere. On this occasion, I had to return to the street I came from and walk through an underpass below the motorway, to get to the other side of that. 

12

▲ On the other side of the river, there is nowadays a special underpass for pedestrians, where you walk on a wooden bridge just by the water. Walking under there (as I often do when walking into town and back), I'm often fascinated by the geometrical patterns formed by light, shadows, and reflections.  ▼

13

14

15

 

14

▲ Looking back across the river to where I stood to take photos 9 and 10. ▼

15

 

16

(Photos 12, 13 and 16 were taken earlier in March - a note mostly as reminder for myself.)

Weekend Reflections

 

It's been a rather windy week here, but it calmed down just in time for Weekend Reflections... No long walk yesterday, but I did go down to the riverside for a bit.

 

I can't quite decide whether this looks like a spidery creature rising from the water, or aliens having landed from above. As I have been walking past the place for years, though, I know it to be the last remnants of an old wooden jetty, which had been an obvious safety hazard for years. So when I just recently found most of it gone (at last!), the only thing that puzzled me was why this weird-looking support structure had been left standing. Was it just because they didn't have the right equipment to remove it - or does it have something to do with this measuring stick attached to one of the legs? (To do with checking the water level in the river, I have always assumed - even if personally I can't figure out how to "read" it...)

 

 

Linking to Weekend/Street Reflections #217

 

Keep Warm, Keep Cool...

 

I added to my collection of Moomin mugs today. I blame my tea-loving Swedish friend Lena (also a water colour artist) for the temptation, because she has been posting a different tea mug every day this month on Facebook. I too have more mugs/cups than I need - but unlike her, not enough different ones to be able to show a unique one for every day of the month... (And I also really have no ambition to increase my collection to be able to do that.)

But... When in town today (for other errands), I passed through a mall where there is a home decor shop selling (among other things) the Moomin mugs. And on display near the entrance was this tall yellow one, which aroused my curiosity. It turned out not to be an ordinary porcelain mug, but a thermos mug - which gave me a good excuse to allow myself to buy it (as I don't have one of those before). 

 

With a metallic inside and a tight-fitting lid, it can be used to keep drinks either hot or cold; and I decided it might come in handy in summer, if I want to bring a drink outside... Or even just to keep a cool drink of water (or a warm cup of tea) at hand indoors by the TV... 

 

Below is a Moomin postcard with the image that obviously inspired the one on my thermos cup. They're not exactly alike, though - do you spot the difference?

 

 

 

 

 

The Frozen People (Audio book review)

 

The Frozen People (Ali Dawson, Book 1)
by Elly Griffiths, 2025

Audio book narrated by Julie Maisey
9 hrs 41 mins

Elly Griffiths is one of my favourite crime writers in later years. I have reviewed several of her books on my blog before - not least her series (15 books) about forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. Recently I discovered that she has started on a new series, which differs from her previous books in that it pushes the boundaries of reality. (I listened to it as audio book, bought with one of my Audible membership credits; but it is of course available in other formats as well.)

Her new protagonist, Ali Dawson, is a woman in her 50s, working with a "cold case team"  reputed to investigate "crimes so old, they're frozen". What most people outside the team don't know, is that they have even found a way to travel back in time to do research. So far they have only made a few minor experiments with this, but now it's time to try to both go back further in time, and stay there longer. So we get to follow Ali on a "journey" back to London in the 1850s, to find out more about a sinister secret socity of people calling themselves The Collectors. "Of course" things do not go 100% to plan - she finds herself stuck in the past longer than intended, not sure how to get back; and meanwhile, in the present time, her son Finn also finds himself in trouble...

I was a bit sceptical when I started listening, and even afterwards I'm still "kind of" in two minds about the time travelling dimensions... But Elly Griffiths is a very good writer, good at "painting images with words". So one does get drawn into it - even to the point of almost believing it... It probably helps that the characters themselves are also new to it all, and hardly know themselves how it is supposed to work!

As this book is advertised as "Book 1" I also assume this means that some things that still remain a bit hazy at the end may be further clarified in books to come. I'm pretty sure I'll at least remain curious enough to also read the next one when the time comes... And before that, probably also re-listen to this one at least once more.

Daffodils and Snow

Miniature daffodils in bloom on a sunlit grave in the old cemetery.

This morning I woke up to more snow on the ground (compared to the evening before), and outdoors temperature of around -9'C. But the sun was now shining, and in the afternoon, the streets were snow-free again, even if the lawns still mostly white. 

Going for a walk around the the old cemetery nearby, I observed that most of the gravel/sand graves were bare, while most of those with grass growing on them were still covered with snow. Not quite all of them though, which puzzled me a bit. Somehow it did not seem to be all about light vs shadow either.

 

 

Neither in the cemetery nor closer to home was it a good day to sit down on a bench to ponder about it, though!

Back to Black and White

 

Just for the record, these photos are actually colour, not black and white. It's was snowing through the night and has continued all day today, so we're back to rather wintry sceneries here. The temperature has been hovering just around freezing point, though, and the snow falling so far has been rather wet. In my immediate neighbourhood, so far it has only settled on lawns and trees, leaving the street black and wet. Or at least that was still the case when I went out for a short walk in the mid afternoon, to get a few items from a small greengrocer's shop some five minutes away. I was only out for about 15-20 minutes or so. 

Stairway to Heaven

 

Yet another beautiful spring day today; but they say colder weather is to be expected again tomorrow, and probably even snow... After lunch I set out on a walk without any clear idea of where to go. I walked towards town along the river but my legs and brain conspired along the way (as they often do) and ended up taking me up to the top of the city park to explore the recent changes made there, with some new stairs and paths - and, as it turned out, at the very top of the hill also a new lookout platform with views over the city.

▲Looking south, one sees our two tallest buildings (apartment blocks) sticking up over the trees. (I live some distance to the west of those, out of the picture to the right.)

▲Looking east, and down: A public swimming hall + parking lot. ▼ 

 

▲Looking north: A mini "adventure" golf course (not new), also on top of the hill.

▲ Looking down and north from the golf course ▼

(Zooming in the mural from a bit further downhill.)

▲ View from the golf course towards south-west, overlooking the new path downhill. And having walked down that, to get back home I turned left at the white building you see in the background, and then walked on another 15 minutes or so in that direction.

 

Linking to Mersad's