Foggy Head, Foggy Future

 

I'll let this foggy photo from Sunday morning represent two different things. 

First, the fact that over the past week the inside of my head has been feeling rather foggy as well; as during the previous weekend I managed to contract a cold, involving all the usual ingredients, from a sore throat and headaches to running nose and a barking cough. No point in trying to pin down exactly where I might have caught it from, as last weekend, with my brother here, we spent three days visiting several different restaurants, shops, museums - and public restrooms...

Second, the foggy view may also represent the fact that we have a general election coming up in Sweden next Sunday. As usual (every four years) we have three elections at the same time: National (parliament), regional and local. So both national and local media lately have been full of political debates, and little else - and that will continue for a while yet!

In our parliament we currently have eight parties, divided into two opposing "blocks". The previous election result four years ago took a long time to sort out and ended in a right-wing government. We're probably in for a similar situation once again this time - i.e. that it may again take time to sort out the results, and who is willing to cooperate with whom, to form a new government.   

While nursing myself through the various foggy stages of cold symptoms this week I've also personally spent a bit of time looking at "vote compasses" online.  I actually did five of them (three national, one local and one regional). As they all came out rather alike for me, I decided yesterday that I'm not likely to change my mind, but might as well go and vote early (which we're allowed to do). I've made use of that a few times in later years, to avoid the queues on the final election day; and did so again today. It's still a week of "wait and see" ahead until votes are counted - and even longer until we have a new government sorted. But at least for my own part I won't have to worry about whether it will be raining or not on Sunday...

If anyone would like more details about the election as such, see Wikipedia: 2026 Swedish general election

Chasing the Rainbow

Last night when I looked out of my living room window, around 19:40, the sky to the south-west had strange colour - and when I stepped out on the balcony for a closer look, to the east I could also see part of an impressive rainbow (and even a double one).

The first photo taken with my phone, 
the second one with my Sony camera shortly after.

As I could only see part of the rainbow from my balcony, I decided to go outside to check if I could see more. 

Alas I found that the high fence around the old football field (about to turned into a park and just now partly dug up)  didn't make it easy to take photos from the ground either...

But by walking a bit further to the left, and finding a wider hole in the fence, I managed to get a wider view - but still couldn't fit the whole rainbow into the same photo. 

But at the cloud-free other end of the wide bow, the sky was blue!

Back up on my balcony a while later, looking west rather than east, with the evening sun hitting the clouds in the sky, it was a strange (and even somewhat ominous) shade of glowing pinkish orange:

 Linking to Skywatch Friday 

Textile Art Exhibitions

Sunday 30th August turned out rainy, so we (my brother and I) decided to abandon the idea of another excursion into the countryside, and instead visited the Art Museum and the Textile Museum in town; which were both still showing exhibitions of textile art connected to the past summer's Art Biennial. (I did not get round to visiting either museum on my own during the summer.) To further enhance the holiday feeling we also had lunch at the restaurant in the same building as the Art Museum.

Kulturhuset = Cultural Centre; with art museum, library, theatre and café
(My own photo from July 2024)

  

 

From our table in the restaurant/café we could look out on the nearby Gustav Adolf Church from 1906. (The yellow tables are outdoors, and you can see why we preferred to stay indoors on this day...)

Me sitting in the grand foyer in between café (left), library (behind you), theatre (right) and art museum (entrance in the background).

 

 

Don't ask me what the textile "work of art" behind me is supposed to symbolise - I have no idea!  

 

 On the upper floor, a selection of objects from the museum's own collections are on display. This sculpture was one I could not recall having seen before: A tiled stove lying down - and serving as tunnel for a small car with lights lit. (Again, I have no answer to "why"... The best I can come up with is something to do with climate - but if you have a better suggestion, feel free to share!)

 

(My own photo from August 2021)

 From the Art Museum we went on to the Textile Museum, incorporated in the Textile Fashion Center, together with schools and businesses related to textile industry as well.

 

The official poster for the art biennial

 

 

 

From the big exhibition hall at the Textile Museum

Somehow I managed to forget to bring my phone with me on that day. The colour photos above were  taken by my brother; while the two black&white ones are my own, from the past. (Edited to b&w to tune in with the grey weather we were having now.) 

PS. In three of the photos I'm wearing the green rain jacket that I bought the same weekend. 

Antiques for Weekend Street/Reflections

After our visit to the glass museum at Limmared last Saturday, we also went for a little stroll to have a peek in the windows of some antiques/second hand shops nearby. We kept strictly to "window shopping" and did not really step inside any of them... But when looking at some of my photos afterwards, it's a challenge in itself to sort out what's supposed to be inside vs outside!! :)

 

With this one it may even be hard to guess what that "thing" is supposed to be in the foreground... It's actually an old "double-sided" rocking horse (with the seat in the middle).

 These animals are easier to identify, but I have no idea where or when they were made.

 One  or two shops had put some big stuff out on the street as well - like rusty coat hanger stands...

 Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections

 

A Visit to Limmared Glassworks

The photo above was copied from a brochure about the village Limmared, about 30 min drive from Borås. It's famous primarily for its glassworks (Swedish: glasbruk), founded in 1740, and still running. Internationally it may be best known as the manufacturer of the Absolut Vodka bottle - which visitors are now reminded of with the entrance to the museum "House of Glass" (Glasets Hus) being designed to resemble that shape.  

At the museum you can watch glassblowers at work, look at examples of their production through the centuries, and buy more recently made glass souvenirs. They also have a café where you can have lunch. In the village there are also several antique and second hand shops, selling both glassware and other things.

- - - 

My brother drove down here from Karlstad on Thursday last week (27 August). On Friday we had lunch at the restaurant in the park in the city centre, and after that drove "across town" to a big shopping mall for a few errands. Primarily I needed a new rain jacket; and managed to find one. (It will probably appear in a later post, with me wearing it.) But I also happened to find another item on my wish list - a new winter jacket/coat (fairly long, but not quite reaching my knees). I was glad to also get that rather bulky purchase done while I had the company of a chauffeur/carrier! ;) 

"On the road again" - driving to Limmared, 29 August 2026

Saturday the 29th was my 71s birthday; and to celebrate that we drove to Limmared to revisit The House of Glass. We've been there together once before, but that was several years ago now. (Neither of us could recall exactly when. I thought it might even have been back in Before Blogging times - but a search now informs me that it was in 2013.) 

When we arrived, we had a look around in the museum first, then had lunch in their cafeteria, and after that explored the museum a bit more, plus got to watch a professional glassblower giving a "lesson" in that noble art to another visitor (who had pre-booked and no doubt paid extra for that experience). 

I took quite a lot of photos, and might save some for "later", but here is a selection:

Model of the village in the past. The glassworks is the building with the tall chimney.

 

Various old items from the past

 

 

 

These may look like ceramics, but they are actually painted glassware.

Here you can see the "ghosts" of my brother and me reflected... ;)

 

Old tools

 

 

▲ Items for sale ▼

I bought the dark blue bird as souvenir and birthday present for myself. 
Back home, it got to join an inherited blue glass bird on the window sill in my bedroom: