December 24 - Christmas Eve

~ Merry Christmas, Everyone! ~  

Closeup details from the astronomical clock in Lund Cathedral

 - - -

"It did seem to me there was a quality about time
which had nothing whatever to do with clocks or calendars."

Quote from the novel Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker (1940).

---

This is the last of my prescheduled "Advent Calendar" posts.

December 23 - Monday

Stained glass window and votive ship

Allerum Church (Skåne, Sweden) 

"Every day is a journey through a sea of time.
To live is to travel from yesterday to tomorrow."

(origin unknown)

December 22 - 4th Advent Sunday

Seven-branched candlestick in Lund Cathedral.  

The seven-branched candlestick is to remind of the Menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem. The one in Lund Cathedral is from the 15th century and made of bronze. It was made in Hamburg and was transported to Lund in three parts.

The four figures at the bottom are the traditional symbols of the four evangelists in the New Testament: Angel (Matthew), Lion (Mark), Ox (Luke) and Eagle (John).

In the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel describes a vision of four living creatures, each of which had four faces (and wings): "Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle." (Ez 1:10)

A similar scene is described in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament: "In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures ... The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle." (Revelation 4:6-8)


Very early on in Christian tradition, these creatures became symbols of the authors of the four gospels in the New Testament.

 
 

December 21 - Saturday

From Malmö Old Town: A market stall selling clogs, in front of an old half-timbered building. Half-timbered houses were/are common in Skåne (the southernmost province of Sweden); and clogs belong in their traditions as well.

December 20 - Friday

"On the road" ... somewhere in Skåne

Typical landscape for Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden.

December 19 - Thursday

Interiors from Sofiero Palace,
Helsingborg (Skåne, Sweden)

Sofiero used to be one of the Swedish royal family's country mansions. It was built in the mid 1860s for Crown Prince Oscar and his wife Sophia. In 1905, they gave it as a wedding gift to their grandson Gustav Adolf when he married his first wife, Margareta from England. They had five children together before she died in 1920. In 1923, Gustav Adolf got married again, to Lady Louise Mountbatten from England. In 1950, he became King of Sweden (Gustav VI Adolf). He still liked to spend the summers at Sofiero, until his death in 1973. But when he died, he left the palace and park to the city of Helsingborg to be enjoyed by the general public. 

 

Image of the palace from Swedish Wikipedia

The palace is surrounded by a large park with lots to explore. Inside, there is a restaurant and café, art exhibitions, and also a museum showing a bit of the history. I liked the rooms above for the details bearing witness to the palace having been "loved and lived in" - books read, travels planned (the atlas), creative talents explored, children playing...

December 18 - Wednesday

Fountain in the Old Observatory park in Lund (cf. my post December 16)

 “Where the waters do agree,
it is quite wonderful the relief they give.”
― Jane Austen

December 17 - Tuesday

From Lund, Skåne, Sweden

The city of Lund is full of charming old houses.
And in July, hollyhocks and roses in bloom everywhere.
Often flourishing in seemingly impossible places!

July 2019

December 16 - Monday

The Old Observatory in Lund (Sweden)

Lund Observatory is the official English name for the astronomy department at Lund University. The old observatory building from 1867 is located in a cultural-heritage protected park. There is a new observatory (from 2001) at the new university campus.
 

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,
during the time of King Herod,
Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked,
"Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
(Matthew 2:1-2)

 Yes, my Christmas crib is up again. :)

December 15 - 3rd Advent Sunday

Old Bible in St Nikolai Church, Halmstad, Sweden
(open at the book of the prophet Jeremiah)

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

St John 1:1 (NIV) 

 

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

 Jeremiah 1:4-5 (NIV)

 St Nikolai * Church, Halmstad 

* Saint Nicholas of Myra (15 March 270 – 6 December 343) was an early Christian bishop of the ancient Greek city of Myra in Asia Minor during the time of the Roman Empire. He is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus.

 

December 14 - Saturday

"A rose is a rose is a rose"

/The line is from Gertrude Stein's poem Sacred Emily, written in 1913 and published in 1922, in Geography and Plays. The verbatim line is actually, 'Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose'/

(The Phrase Finder)

December 13 - Friday - St Lucy's Day

From Lund Cathedral (Skåne, Sweden)

On 13th December here in Scandiavia we celebrate Lucia or St. Lucy's Day; a festival of light which in the past coincided with the Winter Solstice.

Lucia is celebrated in both private and public contexts. In most towns in Sweden, an official Lucia with a number of maids are elected at the beginning of December. They then spend 2-3 weeks visiting public places like hospitals and nursing homes, singing traditional Lucia songs and Christmas carols. Churches and schools and workplaces etc often have their own Lucia celebrations on the 13th of December as well.

 

Classic Lucia illustration by Jenny Nyström (1854-1946)
(God Jul = Merry Christmas)

St Lucy was a 3rd century martyr in Rome. According to legend she brought food and aid to persecuted Christians hiding in the catacombs, wearing a candle-lit wreath to light her way and leaving her hands free to carry as much food as possible. Nowadays she brings coffee and saffron buns and ginger biscuits - early in the morning while it is still dark.

(If you write Lucia into the search box on top of my blog, it will bring up more Lucia posts of mine from years gone by.)

December 12 - Thursday

Museum park 'Kulturen' in Lund, Skåne, Sweden

December 11 - Wednesday

Alcea Rosea - Stockros - Hollyhock

Lund, Skåne, Sweden

December 10 - Tuesday

A side entrance to Lund Cathedral, Skåne, Sweden

(A rather grand archway for a narrow door...)

December 9 - Monday

Red granite sculpture in three parts, Sofiero Palace Park, Helsingborg

This sculpture is in three parts. The ear was lying further away from the other two parts - too far apart for me to catch all three in the same photo, so I made this collage. When I was there, I had no idea what it was supposed to symbolize. I still don't, really - but I managed to find that the artist is a Canadian, George Rammell, and the sculpture (entitled something like "spirit of the tumulus") inspired from old Norse mythology, and the giant Ymer (Ymir). To cut a long story short, the world was created from Ymir's dead body.

December 8 - 2nd Advent Sunday

Skanör Church, Skåne, Sweden

Love always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:7

Cf. The Fourth Day (of our summer road trip)

 

December 7 - Saturday

Lighthouse, Skanör harbour
(Skåne, Sweden)
From 1881, still active

Cf. The Fourth Day (of our summer road trip)

December 6 - Friday

Pottery at Höganäs, Skåne, Sweden

Höganäs is known for its ceramics industry, Höganäs Keramik. From visits to Höganäs in the past (decades ago), I remembered the town as full of potteries and shops where you could buy locally made things. I knew that the main industrial production had been moved abroad, but I still hoped to find some smaller potteries in business. As it turned out, we now had trouble finding even one! But finally found this place. I did not need a huge garden pot, though. But I bought one of those plant supports with ceramic head. And I also liked the fence shaped like coloured pencils :)

The plant support I bought in Höganäs is still keeping my geranium company... I took in the geranium from the balcony when nights started getting frosty. My plan was to cut it back when the last flowers had withered. The plant seems to have read my thoughts, though. So just dropped a lot of leaves, but kept on flowering!

December 5 - Thursday

More from Kulla Gunnarstorp Castle (near Helsingborg, Skåne).


 
My posts for 2nd and 3rd December from this place caused so many questions that I decided I'd better show you the rest of my photos from there as well. Not all that many, as this was just a short stop way made along the way, on our road trip back in July. 

The old castle from the 16th century is not open for tourists to go inside; but one is allowed to go into the park and look at it from the outside. It is situated on a large estate, where there are other buildings as well. On the same estate there is also a 'new' castle from the 19th century, but that is in a private part of the park.



We parked near this building - "P" to the right on the map below. What you see sticking up behind the gateway in the photo above is the gable of the old castle; which on the map is the pink building with wings in the middle. It is surrounded by a moat, although that is not really made clear from the map.

Map borrowed from the castle's website.

 

 Gateway leading to the park - photo from my post Dec 2

 

Approaching the old castle from the side. Here you can see the moat, which perhaps wasn't really obvious in yesterday's photo:

The front of the castle, with bridge over the moat
- photo used in my post from Dec 3

The courtyard at the back of the building.

View across the moat from the castle. When we were there, I thought that perhaps that pink house was the new castle/palace/manor house. But having done more research afterwards, I know now that the new castle is a much bigger red building with towers (to the left on the map). I'm still a bit puzzled that we did not even see the top of it sticking up from where we were... But maybe it's on lower ground and thus hidden by the trees. 

There is a photo of the 'new' castle here (Wikipedia).