Pansies and Violets

Arrangement of garden pansies in large round planters at one of the entrances in the old cemetery. Earlier in the spring the pansies were combined with daffodils, but the other day when I passed, I noticed that the withered daffodils had been removed and more pansies added instead. Everything looking fresh, neat and colourful!

In a flower bed outside a building in my neighbourhood, I found these smaller ones below, which I think I'd call violets rather than pansies - although they are larger than the even smaller wild ones that I normally think of as violets...

The Wikipedia article on Pansy tells me that...

Modern horticulturalists tend to use the term "pansy" for those multi-coloured large-flowered hybrids that are grown for bedding purposes every year, while "viola" is usually reserved for smaller, more delicate annuals and perennials.

The name "pansy" is derived from the French word pensée, "thought", and was imported into Late Middle English as a name of Viola in the mid-15th century, as the flower was regarded as a symbol of remembrance.

Postcrossing Anniversary - and Apple Blossom

 

Ornamental apple trees in my neighbourhood blossoming now...

 - - -

On Friday, I  received the email below from Postcrossing.com. How time flies...! ;)

Today’s the day — it’s your Postcrossingversary! You joined Postcrossing 13 years ago, and we’re floating by with balloons and fanfare to celebrate this magical occasion.

Did you realize you’ve been teleporting joy across the globe with tiny rectangles of paper for 4748 days now? You’re a special kind of postal magician ✨, and we hope you’ll keep enchanting mailboxes everywhere in the years to come!

Postally yours,

The Postcrossing team

I have cut down a lot on postcard-exchange with strangers all over the world via Postcrossing in later years, but am still keeping my account open by sending a card now and then. (And the system is self-regulating, so when one does not send, one also does not receive.) - When I first joined, back in 2013, I sent a lot, because the reason I started at all was that I had inherited a lot of still usable stamps from my dad that I didn't know what else to do with. (And I had no need of selling them for money.) I learned about Postcrossing from other bloggers (primarily from John Edwards, aka Scriptor Senex, who sadly passed away two years ago); and decided that the most fun I could have with those stamps would be to send them out into the world on postcards. After all, that was what they were made for...  Looking back, I'm glad that I did it when I did; because since then, postage has just kept going up, up, up... Now being almost ridiculously expensive. With the old stamps of low value that I still have left now, I'd need so many for one single card abroad that it wouldn't even leave room to write the address!

Over the past 7 months I have sent very few postcards or letters at all, as after my famous fall back in October (famous in the sense that I keep mentioning it!), even the nearest postbox has seemed a long way away. That distance seems to have shrunk a bit again with the arrival of spring, though - so having received this reminder of my Postcrossing anniversary, I decided to "celebrate" by sending at least one card this weekend. One has no say in where to, but the address allotted to me this time turned out to be in Russia. Now I just hope that the post office staff over there are good at reading our Western alphabet, because my printer went on strike and I couldn't print out the Russian version. (As i often do when sending card to countries not primarily using the Latin script.)

Anyway, after a rainy weekend, the sun came out for a bit this afternoon and I was able to go out and post the card.

If you were ever a writer of letters and postcards - are you still keeping that up, or have you switched entirely to using the internet for written communication?

Skywatch Friday

 

12 May, 2026 - 19:02

15 May 2026 - 20:15

15 May, 2026 - 20:15

15 May, 2026 - 20:16

It's been a week of swiftly shifting skies. This afternoon after lunch I managed my usual "recycling walk" and even got a glimpse of the sun. Right after I got back home, it was raining again, and I could even hear thunder rolling... 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Ascension Day

We've been getting some rain this week, and the temperature has dropped as well - but nature no doubt welcomes the rain, and the trees keep getting greener every day now. The photo above (from today) is from an alley in the cemetery, lined with tall birches. And below are some budding azaleas I found back on Monday - I haven't been back to check on those since, but I suspect cooler and cloudy weather has probably slowed them down a bit.

Yesterday was laundry day for me, and as it started raining before I was done with that, I didn't bother about going out at all. 

Today is Ascension Day, commemorating the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Still a public holiday in Sweden; and traditionally a day for outdoors early morning church services and picnics. 

Back in 2021, I wrote a post including some old photos and memories of such occasions in a distant past. - Today, with rainy and rather chilly weather, I doubt a whole lot of outdoors Ascension Day celebrations were taking place around here, though.  (For my own part, I settled for just a short walk after lunch, between showers.  And even for that, I donned one of my winter jackets again...)

A local tradition in Borås is that our annual Spring Market is held on the Friday and Saturday following Ascension Day. Tomorrow I have a delivery from the supermarket coming in the middle of the day, though; and the weather forecast for Saturday so far isn't looking inspiring for market visits either. Ah well - "one day at a time"...

Weeping Silver Pear

I have long been wondering what kind of tree it is that is home to the "red birdhouse feeder" in the cemetery. Last year when I posted about it, someone suggested that it was an olive tree. Now the tree is blossoming again, and also another tree of the same kind in a different part of the cemetery. So today I took some close-ups of the blossoms and uploaded those to Google Image Search/AI, which gave me this answer:

This plant is a Weeping Silver Pear (Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula'), a popular ornamental tree known for its silver-green foliage and white blossoms in spring.

Flowers: It produces creamy-white, bowl-shaped flowers in clusters during mid-spring.

Foliage: The leaves are long, narrow, and lance-shaped, covered in a soft silver felt when they first emerge.

Growth Habit: This variety is known for its weeping or drooping branches, creating a distinctive aesthetic often likened to an olive tree.

Hardiness: It is highly tolerant of drought and heat, making it suitable for various urban environments and gardens.