Autumn Street Market

 

It's the last weekend in September, so time for the annual autumn street market. (We have two major market weekends here - spring and autumn.) The autumn weather just now is perfect for it, so I went for a stroll into town to have a look around, even though there was nothing special I wanted.  
 

Basically there are, or used to be, three kinds of market stalls that I tend to feel drawn to at these events: Socks, handbags and postcards. (My camera is also drawn towards balloons! But I never actually buy any of those...)  

There used to be a stall selling cheap postcards (plus some other "paper" stuff), always at the same corner of the square - but they haven't returned after the covid years, when the whole market was very much reduced. I guess the increase in postage has contributed to not many people being all that interested in buying and sending postcards any more. (Even I don't send very many now - and I still have a good supply left from earlier years.) 

There were several stalls selling handbags, but I had sternly reminded myself before going out, that I'm not in need of any new bag at the moment. (On the contrary, I have a bag full of  bags that should be handed in to a charity shop!!!) 

My favourite sock stall was in the same place as usual - but I had also checked my supply of socks before going out, and realised that I also have a good supply of socks bought at previous markets, that should last me at least until next spring...

So I returned home without having spent any money at all. Moreover, when I checked my camera, I realised I had only taken two photos! The market was simply too crowded!

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections

The Times They Are A'Changing

Once upon a time (1624-1998), the town where I live (Borås) had a Regiment (of the infantry kind). When I moved here to live, about 40 years ago, the regiment was still active; but I'm not sure I ever went to have a closer look at the buildings until after they were "demilitarized". But it's not all that far from where I live now, so over the past 16 years, I've probably been walking that way perhaps at least once every two years or so. Anyway I've watched the area change and grow... Initially, just the old regiment buildings converted to house businesses and apartments instead. Then some modern apartment buildings added in between the old ones. And from there it has continued to develop to a whole new housing district... Today it occurred to me that it had been a while since I last checked it out, so I decided to walk that way again and check out the newest additions. Doing so, I realised that now it really must have been more than just one year since I was there last. 

 Just approaching the old main regiment buildings from below, they still look pretty much the same. There are even still a couple of cannons standing in front of the main building, to remind of "old times". 

 

The old entrance gates have been kept, too.

 

But behind the old regiment buildings, there are lot of new buildings now.

 

Still a bit of a mix between new and old here and there...

 

But there are whole streets of new tall apartment buildings added! 

Who are all the people living here?? And do they like it?? I haven't got a clue!! 

Statistics tell me that the town's population has increased by 18.6% since 2000, though - and is now around 114 000. And in another decade, the number is expected to have grown to 140 000 (at least according to Google AI).

On my way home I had to pause at a railway crossing to wait for a train. So did a lot cars (no doubt in a lot more hurry than I was). I did not take any photos of the queues waiting on both sides of the crossing; but they were long... Which made me realised that I also happened to be out in rush hour traffic (around 4 pm) - which is something that I normally have the privilege of being able to avoid, these days.

While waiting, I was also pondering the political changes we've been through since the old regiment was closed in 1998. Back then, Sweden was in a phase of disarmament. Now, we're part of NATO, and in a phase of strengthening our defense again... Not sure if there will ever be a new regiment stationed just here again - but old military training grounds in the area are still being used. (We just recently had a such a weekend when constant shooting cold be heard "in the background" from where I live.) 

 

 

Shadow Art, Pretty In Pink, and the Anatomy of Socks

 

Sitting in my TV chair by the window, I happened to glance the other way, and my eye caught this shadow, which seemed very appropriate as a celebration of the Autumn Sun...

 It was caused by the sun hitting the vase with leftover leaves from my birthday bouquet, and casting a sharp black shadow of them on the back of my hoodie sweater, draped over the back of a chair. (The thin horizontal lines are also shadows, from the venetian blinds in the window.) 

To go with the pink theme, I'll also throw in this photo of Barbie and Skipper (mainly for Meike, who asked after them in a comment on my previous post). Barbie is enjoying the luxury of wearing a new pink top that I managed to make for her out of the cuff of a sock. (Skipper says magenta doesn't go with her hair colour, so she'll wait for me to wear out something that would suit her better... Her striped top was sewn by my mum in the 1960s.) 

 

Sometimes, and especially when one is blogging in a foreign language, a blog post may take an unexpected turn before it reaches its end. Like, when one can't think of the name for the upper part of a sock, and has to go searching for it... 

Now I want to know if all of you with English as your first language would have been able to name all seven parts of a sock correctly?? 

"Autumn Is a Second Spring"

 

23rd September, 2025

▲ These trees at a parking area near the river in town are as eager to display beautiful autumn colours in September, as they were to show off cherry blossom back in May. (Photos taken from different angles, but it's the same place.) ▼

19th May, 2025

 "Autumn is a second spring, 
when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus 

 

Autumn Equinox

 

Sunday sunset photos from my balcony, yesterday evening - giving a hint of the weather changing from rainy to sunny, but also from summer to autumn. 

The first three weeks of September have offered a mix of sunny and rainy days, but have on the whole still felt more like summer than autumn. 

This Monday morning, however, there was a definite change to cooler air, and need of slightly warmer clothes - in spite of the sun shining from a blue sky.

 And here and there, also a hint of autumn colours in nature now... 

Linking to Mersad's Through My Lens

 

Autumn Flowers

 

 

 

29.8

For my birthday at the end of August I recieved this lovely bouquet of flowers - "all the way from Scotland"... Even if of course the actual bouquet was put together by a florist here in Borås, Sweden. I was quite impressed that they had managed to incorporate flowers to actually remind me of Scotland, though: Thistles (which I recall is the national flower of Scotland) + something resembling heather. (Having done a bit of research now, I think they probably aren't heather though, but some sort of sea lavender.)  

The bouquet seemed to remain totally unchanged for about 1½ week! (I just changed the water in the vase a couple of times.) But then the carnations and chrysanthemum started to fade a bit; and I decided to break up the bouquet. The 'heather' and thistles felt like they had just dried, so I hung those upside down to dry some more for another 1½ week. Two twigs of green leaves still looked just the same, so I put those back in water in a different vase. They still look the same after three weeks!

20.9

Google Image Search identifies these as Ruscus hypophyllum - "a species of shrub in the family Asparagaceae". According to some forums they may remain unchanged for weeks, in water; while other people have apparently managed to get them to grow roots. I guess I'll just have to leave them and see what happens! 
 

The dried thistles and whatever-it-is I have now put in a vase without water, on the shelf by a coastal landscape painted by my friend Lena N; an original water colour of hers which I bought when visiting her exhibition in Smögen on the west coast of Sweden a couple of years ago.

 

No-one is truly sure of how the thistle came to be Scotland’s national flower. A well-known story though attributes the thistle being chosen as the emblem of Scotland to the Battle of Largs (a coastal town in Ayrshire) in the 13th century. A Norse army journeyed to Scotland, intent on conquering the land. The legend has it that they left their ships under cover of night, and were planning to ambush the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to be as quiet as possible, the Norsemen had removed their shoes. However as they crept across the countryside, one of them stepped onto a thorny thistle. His cry of pain roused the Scots, and the warriors rose up and defeated the invaders. 

https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-thistle-scotlands-national-flower 

Mr Churchill's Secretary (Book Review)

 

Mr Churchill's Secretary
A Maggie Hope Mystery - Book 1  
By Susan Elia MacNeal ©2012

Audio book narrated by Donada Peters (9:45 h)

This is an audio book that I bought very cheap a couple of years ago but didn't listen to until now, as more recently I also happened to buy another book in the same series on sale - entitled Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante (No 5). It wasn't until I had already bought that one that not only did I discover that I already had a previous title by the same author - but it was about the same character! 

Checking out the whole series, I found that there are by now no less than 11 titles about Maggie Hope - who seems to have had quite an extraordinary carreer, to say the least - even for a fictional character! ... Which in itself made me feel a bit "wary"... But as I already had No 1, I decided to start with that one. And as far as that one goes, I have to say I found myself liking it better than I had expected.

It starts in London in 1940, just after Winston Churchill has been sworn in. Maggie Hope is an intelligent and well educated young woman, but because of her gender, she has to accept just getting employed as a typist at No. 10 Downing Street. However, her real talent is in mathematics and codebreaking; and as the war progresses, she also gets opportunities to demonstrate that - which no doubt lays the foundation for future adventures in the later books, implied in titles like Princess Elizabeth's Spy, His Majesty's Hope, The Prime Minister's Secret Agent, Mrs Roosevelt's Confidante, The Queen's Accomplice... etc. 

I did quite enjoy this first book though, as it seems based on quite a bit of research into the historical setting - and also including the character of Churchill himself, comparing my impressions from other books about him that I've read. I also quite liked Maggie... Not sure how much it may have to do with having worked as a somewhat overqualified typist /secretary myself - even if my own strength was never in the field of mathematics.

As the next book I already have in my possession is No 5 in the series, I guess I'll jump forward to that one next, though; before deciding if I mignt find it worth while to later also acquire the ones in between - or not.

Eye Rolling

 

13th Sept 2025 vs 17th Sept 2025

In my previous post I showed the photo to left of the green rabbit sculpture, and mentioned that "one of its pupils moves slowly round and round in a circle (like a clock), making its expression look different from one day to the next". I got some comments and questions on that, so when I passed it again today, I snapped another photo to show you. 

The eye rotates so slowly that you don't see the movement while standing looking at it. But if you walk by the sculpture again after a day or two, you will see that it has changed.

The sculpture's offcial title is Mate Hunting. It was created by artist Marianne Lindberg de Geer and has been standing in the park in our city centre (in Borås, Sweden) since 2008. Originally it was in a different location in the park, but was moved to where it is now in 2024. It has been sabotaged a few times over the years, and the rotating eye was recently repaired once again. 

Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream features the line "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven" [Google AI]

 

Round and Round

 

Most of the weekend (esp. Fri+Sun) was very rainy here, but participants and spectators of an annual race here in Borås on Saturday were lucky, and even got to enjoy some sunshine. For my own part, when I decided to walk into town, I did not even remember that the race would be going on in the city centre that day. I managed to keep on the outskirts of it, though - just snapped this photo in the park. My own errand was just to combine a walk with taking a few items to a charity shop in the vicinity of the main square.

 

Just now, I'm kind of wishing that I was writing this post in Swedish rather than in English. Why? Because the name of the annual race, in Swedish, is Kretsloppet - which means to run in a circle (or "closed loop"). And the same word is used in contexts to do with recycling and reusing things, like when donating to and buying things from thrift shops...

 

The eyes of the big green rabbit in the park have also been repaired again, which means one of its pupils moves slowly round and round in a circle (like a clock), making its expression look different from one day to the next...

Road Trip 2025 (16) - Torpa Stenhus

Wednesday, 13 August - Part 3
Torpa Stenhus 

Our last stop on the trip was an old castle between Ulricehamn and Borås - Torpa Stenhus (literally: stone house). We've been there together before, and I've also visited it a few times with other friends. 

 I'm starting off with a photo of the castle taken back in August 2022, because this time I failed to get a front view of the castle itself. The weather and time of year was pretty much the same then as now, though!

View of the lake from where we parked the car. (The castle is up the hill to the left.)

 

The castle is only shown by guided tours, and just at the same time as we arrived, so did a bus full of tourists with a pre-booked tour... So we did not go inside on this occasion. (Besides, I seem to recall from the last time that they don't allow photography indoors anyway...)

History (From the castle's website)

The first part of castle was built around 1470. The wealthy bourgeoisie of the time asserted economic interest in the trade along the prosperous shores of River Ätran and River Viskan. The end of the 15th century were unsettled times. Not only came the threats from Danish troops; local peasants revolted frequently. The first building was as much a defense and trade construction as a permanent residence for the Castle owner and his family.

During the 16th century the building was reconstructed and an extension was added. Initially, the stairway tower was constructed and later the southern part of the Castle was added. The extension was completed around 1550 and served as a dignified enough residence for [King] Gustav Vasa’s brother-in-law and father-in-law, Gustav Olofsson Stenbock. With its unique architecture and beautiful interiors Torpa Stenhus counts among the best preserved medieval castles of the nation. - The castle has never been sold but has been passed on through the generations by inheritance.

In the cellar of the castle, they have a shop selling local arts and crafts. I snapped a few photos of things on display there:

 

(This one is for Ginny...)

This is a big heavy "life size" painted stone cat, which managed to bewitch my brother to bring it home with him. No doubt the heaviest souvenir he ever bought! (At least on our travels together...)

 For my own part, I settled for a much smaller painted stone item: A fridge magnet...

Before leaving, we also had something to eat and drink at the café in the barn.

▲ A couple of other buildings on the premises. ▼

 

 

Finishing off with different view of the castle from back in 2012 (when we were there on a cloudy day).

 

 Linking to Weekend/Street Reflections #242