Spring Market 2025

 A long standing tradition in my town is the Spring Market, which takes place on the Friday and Saturday after Ascension Day. A good time for it, as children are then off school, and quite a lot of grown-ups too take the opportunity to get an extra day off work if they can.

It was an overcast day, but not raining, so I went for a stroll downtown to practice some "street photography"... 

 

This man wearing a sunflower hat stood out a bit among all the more common kinds of market stuff! He was selling sunflowers made out of concrete! (No, I did not buy one.)

There always seems to be innumerable stalls selling balloons.

The table tennis table and chess game aren't part of the market as such, but probably there for the duration of the summer - to liven up the square a bit even on less crowded days. 

For my own part, when it came to actually buying something, there was only one market stall that I was looking for - and I found it in the same place as usual. Time to stock up on stockings! - or rather, some summer socks... 

There used to be one other stall that I always visited (and bought something from) but they seem to have given up now, as I haven't seen them around on the last two or three markets. They used to sell cheap postcards and birthday cards (and in the autumn, Christmas cards). But I suppose with the outrageous cost of stamps these days, people also tend to buy less cards... (I've cut down a lot on Postcrossing myself in the last couple of years. So maybe just as well I was not tempted to buy more cards. I do still have quite a good supply left at home...) It was always a fun market stall to visit, though! 

At one end of the square they had gathered the food trucks, and added a few pick-nick tables where people could sit down for a while. (Good idea. I was not tempted, though.) 

  

Walked back home through the city park to check on the huge rhododendrons there - but found that those are not yet in full bloom. 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections (#227)

 

Skywatch Friday: Happy Clouds vs Heavy Clouds

 

▲ Thursday
  ▼  Friday     

This week has offered some rather "moody" weather.

Linking to Skywatch Friday 

Ascension Day

 Ascension Day, (celebrating the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, 40 days after Easter) is still a public holiday here in Sweden, even if many people now probably only have a vague idea of its origin, and just welcome it as a "day off", or even a long weekend (those who can often take Friday off as well). 

Traditionally, Ascension Day was often celebrated here with an early morning church service and picknick outdoors. I have to confess it's been a long time now since I myself (not an "early morning person") partook in any such event; but I remember some such occasions from back in my youth. (Back in 2021, I posted some photos from 1975 + one of my grandfather's from 1924).

Today may also have been a rather good day for people feeling up for a morning outing, as it has been sunny and not too cold. (Rather windy, though!) 

For my own part, I had a lazy morning, though - with just a little bit of "potting" on my balcony before lunch:

I re-potted two rubber plants (Ficus elastica) that have grown too big for the window sills indoors, and put those out on the balcony; where I think they go rather well with the fake green leaves on the "privacy screen". That corner of the balcony is also farily well protected from strong winds. (I still have one more Ficus plant indoors, and they're easy to take cuttings from.) 

In the afternoon, I went out for my usual walk around the cemetery, checking up on the azaleas and rhododendrons and whatnot. I also saw one of the hares, and managed to snap two photos (one zoomed in). The other day I saw two of them, so there is at least a pair of them still living there.

Lots and lots of elm tree seeds on the ground and whirling about in the wind today -  like snowflakes in the air, and making a rattling sound on the ground, almost like dry leaves do in autumn.

Yellow azaleas beginning to "droop"... But on the whole, they're still offer a blast of colour:

The Adventurous Bumble Bee

 

There are lots of bumble bees about around here just now, trying to make the most out of the rhododendrons. However, some of them also seem to be looking for I'm-not-sure-what - and in really unlikely places...

 

The photo below is AI generated, but a surprisingly good reconstruction of what I found yesterday morning when I came to raise the venetian blinds in my kitchen window.

 

What I may not have quite succeeded in explaining to AI is that my blinds sit inside triple-glazed windows. Even so - yesterday morning, underneath the bottom of the blinds, there was a bumble bee lying completely still on its back. After I had raised the blind it was still lying there, in the same position, trapped between the outer and inner glass panes. So I was convinced it was dead. How on earth it had managed to get in there still goes beyond my understanding. That window had not been opened in weeks, and even if I open it, the window frame is held together by two 'latches' that I need tools to open. The last time I washed that window was when I put up my new curtains a couple of months ago - but then I only washed the outside and the inside, without taking it apart. Where the bumble bee  managed to find an entry in between the glass panes from outside remains a mystery. (Not to mention the question why it would even get the idea to try!) 

 

Anyway... It bothered me to have a dead body inside my window, so I found a tool and managed to get the window frame apart... 

 

... And then I possibly gave a scream (at least internally!), because the dead body suddenly started to wave its legs about... 

In the midst of shock, I temporarily forgot all about what I recently read on Janice's blog about First Aid for weak bees, and just went ahead with my original plan - which was to gently lift the body bee with a piece of paper and throw it back out from where it must originally (somehow!) have come... 

 

However, right down below that window there are rhododendron in bloom. So if it was able to crawl about at all, hopefully it was also able to find its own nourishment. And if not - well, at least it got an adventurous life, and a half decent burial... 

Kitchen window with venetian blinds raised.

"An adventure always has an element of the unknown.
Being adventurous means you're willing to go
where you haven't been before and do things
you've never done, even if you don't know
how it's going to turn out." 
(Vocabulary.com)

More Spring Beauty

 

The azaleas are dropping some petals to the ground now, but it feels like the cooler weather lately has slowed things down a bit - making spring last longer...

Had a bit of sunshine on my walk today, but it's very windy, and rain showers come and go.
 

I just can't resist taking yet another photo...
... and perhaps just one more...
... and...

Purple rhododendron in the cemetery

Pink/red ones "right on my doorstep" at their best just now.

 

"In the spring, I have counted 136
different kinds of weather inside 24 hours."
— Mark Twain

Linking to Mersad's Through My Lens #485

Lilacs and Global Warming

May 16

 

May 16

May 24

Lilacs are in bloom now, and have been for a while. Back in my childhood/youth I used to associate lilacs with the end of the school year, i.e. the first week of June or so.These days they seem to come into bloom at least a couple of weeks earlier. 

Even scientists seem to agree that spring does start earlier than it used to; connected to global warming. 

Do you have the same feeling where you live, connected to memories of your own?

Hanging Out with Doves

 

Passing through the park in the city centre on Monday this week, when the weather was summery and warm, I noticed this group of girls hanging out peacefully with a flock of doves.

A question for my readers from various corners of the world: 
Do you call them doves or pigeons? 

The internet tells me there's no difference: 

They're all from the same big “Columbidae” family of birds. “Pigeon” is simply the name the French gave to them – from the Latin “pipio” for the peeping sound chicks made. Meanwhile, “dove” was named by Germans – for the bird's diving action. But there's no difference.

In Swedish we call them "duvor" (sing. duva, pl. duvor).
The German word is Taube; and Swedish is more closely related to German than to French.

Linking to Skywatch Friday and Weekend Street/Reflections. 

A Rainy Day

 

As predicted, a rainy and chilly day today - but I ventured out for my usual walk anyway. (Dressed in four layers, with rain coat on top; and rubber boots on my feet!)

The azaleas didn't seem to mind a long, cold shower... :)

At home, I took in my geraniums from the balcony last night, just to be on the safe side... Probably not necessary, as they stand on the bench close to the wall - but I think I'll keep them indoors for another day or so. (I'll definitely not be sitting out there looking at them tomorrow either, according to the weather forecasts...) 

Photo from a week ago (on the balcony).

"Mother and babies"

I've been taking cuttings from a coleus plant that survived the winter, and planted those yesterday. (They're super easy to propagate.) Some of those will also go out on the balcony later. I'll be keeping them in individual pots as that makes it easier to rearrange things according to the weather etc.

Rhododendron

 

From summer temperatures yesterday, we were back to a maximum of around 11C (52F) today - and my hooded warm jacket and more weather-proof shoes back on for my usual afternoon stroll around the cemetery... 

The azaleas are still glorious, but I'll be focusing on rhododendron in this post. They are a bit later than the azaleas and not all of them are in bloom yet -  and that will probably be slowing down further with the return to cooler temperatures. (Expected to be even colder tomorrow.) 

The three photos above are all close-ups of flowers on the tree in the top photo - which is facing south, and has been getting quite a lot of sun. (On the north side of the same tree, most of the buds are still "closed".)  

This arrangement of rhododendron + other bushes and plants in varying colours is found in the "central park" of the housing estate where I live.

More rhododendron can be found right outside some of the apartment buildings.
(All flower beds are a little different from each other, though.)

More Azaleas

 

We've been enjoying a couple of summery days here, with sunshine and temperatures above 20'C. (24-25 today)  Apparently, that's not going to last though -  they're now saying that in a day or two we should not be too surprised to even see some snowflakes mixed with the rain...! (It's very dry, so we could indeed do with a bit of rain - but snow seems rather "unnecessary"...)

Anyway, yesterday I decided to give both myself and my new tablet a rest from the headaches to do with app installations etc, and try to enjoy the outdoors instead. 

So I went for an "early" walk into town for some errands (not super early - but before lunch, rather than after). And in the afternoon, I was able to sit for a an hour or two on my balcony in relative peace and quiet, under a parasol, relaxing and listening to an audio book, without feeling neither too cold nor too hot. (A rare occurrence, as it's usually either too cold, too windy, too hot, or too much noise from neighbours to spend much time out there...) And a bit later still, I went for a another walk around the cemetery, to check on the azaleas - and to try out a new pair of summer shoes that I had bought in town:

Very light and airy and comfortable, at least for a shorter walk. (Upper part and lining textile; sole underneath light plastic, reminding of crocs.)

Today turned out even warmer - but also windy, so not a "balcony day". But it was also laundry day for me anyway; so that didn't matter much. I was able to both start and finish early with that task, though, so I also had time for another "azalea walk" afterwards...