Catching Up

 

I asked Bing Image Creator for "Two 70 year old women with short grey hair and wearing glasses, holding tea cups, sitting and chatting, in the style  of Matisse". None of these images really resemble neither me nor my friend very much at all - but I find the "Matisse" twist a refreshing change from the "cartoon" style that I've usually asked Bing for! :)

A friend of mine since nearly 50 years got in touch recently and said she'd be in my town for a few days, working. She's an optician by profession; retired since a few years, but substituting now and then. And the chain she used to work for has shops in various cities; so sometimes she makes it into a kind of "working holiday" to go and help out somewhere different than in her own home town, for a week or so. 

Anyway, this time her stay also included a work free Sunday. So I invited her to spend part of that day with me. She came to me for lunch, and as we had a lot to catch up on, she also stayed on for afternoon tea before she went back to her hotel.

We got to know one another in our early twenties up in Karlstad (where we both lived back then), via a church and a youth gospel choir there. Now we are both turning 70 in August. Hard to grasp!! 

The last time we met was a couple of years "before the pandemic". During the course of our conversation this afternoon we found ourselves using "before/after the pandemic" as a time marker so many times that it struck us both that covid really did bring about quite a few changes in people's social lives (both our own and other friends'). 

Over the last seven years or so, we have also both lost quite a few mutual old friends (although not actually to covid, I think). So there was a lot to reminisce about.

And as many times before in later years (whenever getting together with other old friends approaching 70), I was once again reminded of Simon & Garfunkel's song Old Friends/Bookends. Even if today was a summer Sunday, and we were sitting indoors rather than outdoors on a park bench (and it was definitely not cold outside either!)

Old friends
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
 

---

Can you imagine us
Years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy 


Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears

Time it was
And what a time it was
It was . . .
A time of innocence
A time of confidences

Long ago . . . it must be . . .
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you

From 'Old Friends' by Paul Simon

Related posts:

Seeking Shadow (2020) 

Old Friends (2024)

Blessed Silence

As some might recall me mentioning before, back in spring/summer I was having problems with being frequently disturbed by a neighbour's noisy bird.  

It started last winter but kept getting worse, and during summer became even more annoying, as then the neighbour also kept their balcony door open most of the day.  

I kept thinking of complaining to our housing company's office; but I hate conflicts, and could not really think of a "solution" other than the neighbour getting rid of the bird altogheter, which I wasn't sure was something I could demand.

It was also more about being frequently disturbed, rather than each session always lasting very long. (But that one would never know until afterwards!) Was I to try to report an ongoing disturbance by phone, it was likely to stop (pause) before I managed to get through to anyone. And in the nighttime I did not hear it. (I imagine the owner throwing a blanket over its cage in the evenings and until next morning.)

Summer came, and with it the usual period of noise from big birds outdoors: seagulls, crows and magpies fighting each other over food, and anxious to protect their own young offspring. And with that background noise added, it seemed even harder to "plead my case" about the single pet bird next door (even if to my ears, that was still much worse!).

In July, neighbour + animals (there's also a dog) went away for three weeks or so. Blessed silence reigned for a while in their absence - and my nerves calmed down... But at the same time, that also made me realise how much the frequent daily screeches from that bird had really come to affect me!

Sounds of silence

... And as soon as they were back from their holiday, it all started again. 

After my own mini holiday in August, I decided to keep daily notes for a while (time of day, for how long, frequence etc); and after a couple of weeks of that, I did try to sum up my complaints in an email to the landlord's office.

After a week or so I got a reply back that they had talked to my neighbour. (Their general policy is discretion towards both parties, so no details about what was said.) I did not really expect any sudden major change... But after that, it did actually seem like the owner was probably at least trying not to encourage the bird to chatter away as much as before.

 

However: Since the beginning of October I haven't heard a single chirp. And as there have still been sounds/signs of normal human activity, I'm actually beginning to think (fingers crossed!) that a new home must have been found for the bird - somewhere else entirely. (Hopefully permanently, and with someone living in a house of their own this time...)

Blessed Silence

All illustrations in this post created with the help of Microsoft Bing Image Creator.

Elsewhere and in Another Time

Oops, I see that somehow a week has flown by again without me posting anything new here. The rather summery temperatures have continued - but changing now, and it seems to be getting a bit more autumn-like again. I've been out on my daily walks, but just along the same old paths as usual; and for the most part I've let the camera rest. 

The thing is, in my head I've spent a lot of this week Elsewhere and in Another Time - which is not all that easy to illustrate by photos from the Here and Now...

Just now, I let Bing Image Creator have a go at it, though. My first instruction was simply 'Time Travelling 1920s' - which, for some reason, only rendered pictures of Men. I added the word 'Woman' for another search; and then created this collage using images from both:

Time Travelling 1920s - Images by Bing Image Creator

I also tried the phrase I used above - "Elsewhere and in Another Time". Besides mystic images, that also seems to have inspired Bing to invent a whole new language...

 

The "real story" is not quite as mysterious as all that; but it involves recently having been contacted by A Stranger, who some time ago happened to come across two of my ancestors in his own research for a book. And then he found me via my family history blog... 

 

And it is a little bit delicate, as he's writing about people (including my two ancestors) who ended their lives in a certain mental hospital. His book project is about trying to bring some of those tragic fates out of anonymity. Besides a draft of his chapter about my relatives, he also offered to send me scanned copies of their hospital records that he'd been able to access from visiting a physical archive (most of the hospital records so old now that they're no longer confidential). As I've been digging into that part of family history a bit myself, none of it was shocking news to me; and I don't mind him writing about it. But I've not had access to the full hospital records before, so I said 'yes please' to that... And I'm now spending some time comparing those to my own private family documents, to see what I can perhaps add. So that's where my mind has been a lot during the past week!  

Reality Check

This message unexpectedly turned up on my screen the other day -  I think while I was trying to log into a hotel booking site. It took them a while (long enough for me to be able to grab the camera to snap the shot abouve), but eventually I was let in. So I suppose I must have passed the test!

'We are currently checking if you are human' - images by Bing (AI)

To retaliate, I later gave Bing the same message. They responded with various photos of masked people holding up signs in 'Gibberish' - plus the weird-looking man on the left whose face looks like it's been put together from two different photos.

I also asked Bing for illustrations of a woman making holiday plans. This was the best of those. There are no weird-looking airplanes (or palm trees) involved in my holiday dreams - but I'm very likely to need the umbrella.

The plan is that my brother will drive down here in a couple of days, and then we also hope to go off on a little trip together to the west coast (with one night away, which needed to be booked). We're still having very rainy weather though, so our plans still depend a bit on how the weather forecasts develop...

Swedish West Coast according to Bing

Anyway - if you don't see me around in the Blog World as much as usual next week, it may be beacuse I've managed to sneak off on adventures "out of town" for a change. (I don't quite believe it until I see it!)

Hello Again

 

Image by Bing Image Creator

1st August was not only "Hello August" (cf. previous post), but also an "Hello? Hello? Helloooo?" kind of day for me...

I got a phone call from my brother, who rang me on my "landline" number (nowadays on fiber cable broadband) to inform me that he was unable to get through to me on my mobile. At his end everything just went black and silent (no way to leave a message) - and at my end there was no indication whatsoever that anyone had been trying to reach me, or that anything was wrong...

While still on the cable phone to my brother, I tested making a call from my old spare mobile to the new one, and the same thing happened. No call came through. I then tested the other way round - and that worked just fine! So I could make calls, just not receive any... That made it even harder to guess how long it may have been like that. (Could be a few weeks without me having wondered about it, as I wasn't expecting anyone in particular to call, and I was still able to make calls myself.)

What did come to mind was that at the beginning of July I had changed from "cash card" to a monthly subscription. I know I made some outgoing test calls after that change, to check that everything was working. But I'm not sure it occurred to me to also test the other way round - as I've never heard of a phone only working in one direction...

After having finished talking to my brother, I googled "no incoming calls" and found that obviously, the situation must be more common than I thought - as I easily found various tips on things to check if this situation arises.

I followed a number of them - starting with restarting the phone, and then following a list  of different settings to check. The last thing I did was to reset my "phone network" settings, and after that, it was working again. (At least I can now call myself from my other two phones, so I assume others can as well.)

If it was about the phone network settings, it still mystifies me how I was able to make calls, just not receive any... And I still don't know if it was caused by some automatic update gone wrong, or something I happened to do myself... Ah well. I suspect I'll be calling myself a bit more often in the near future, just to make sure. ;) (And I think I'll be keeping my two extra phones as well, although I'd been thinking of giving up at least one of them.)

As you can see above, I asked Bing for an illustration. Below are some more, just for your entertainment. Obviously Bing is still having serious problems with arms, hands, legs, people holding things - and even defining what a "phone" is... (My basic simple instruction was "woman waiting for phone to ring"...)

Rose Garden

 

We had a sunny afternoon on Thursday, and then I went for a walk to the park in town - where the roses are now in bloom. Many of them did look a bit battered from all the heavy rain lately - but they do still offer a welcome splash of colour.

I also bought myself an ice cream at the ice cream café in the park. Mostly for a bit of "holiday feeling" as it was really almost too chilly to sit outdoors and eat ice cream.

 

I fed the Bing Image Creator a few variations of the theme "woman in rose garden eating ice cream" but wasn't impressed with any of the results. Just for fun, I'll show you some of the worst this time:

 

Top left: I started out with "Woman sitting on a park bench in a summery rose garden, eating ice cream from a beaker"... Have you ever seen anyone sitting in that position on a park bench?!

Top right: I added "cartoon style", and here I'm wondering 1/ what on earth is she holding? and 2/ why is the back of the bench twice as long as the seat?

Bottom left: I left out "beaker", and added "Picasso style". I don't think Picasso would have been happy - and what are those objects behind her on the bench?!

Bottom right: I tried Rembrandt instead, but I doubt he'd have been pleased either...

Sleeping Through the Thunderstorm

 

Last night after I went to bed (late, I think after 11 pm) I could hear a thunderstorm going on. I did not get up to look, and the blackout curtains were drawn in my bedroom, so I don't know if there was also lightning to be seen. (The images above are courtesy of Bing Image Creator...)

Not sure when I fell asleep, but I know I woke up and went to the bathroom around 2:30 am. Usually (and especially in summer) I wake up several times during the night - but this morning when I woke and looked at the alarm clock beside my bed (no alarm was set) I was astonished to see that I had slept through until as late as 10:30 am! And I could not recall having been up again after 2:30. If not, that must be the first time in "ages" that I slept a solid eight hours in a row like that (plus probably a couple of hours before 2:30 as well).

July has continued to be rainy and with much cooler temperatures than June. I haven't been out on any great adventures; but the rain has come mostly in showers, so I've usually managed to get out for at least a short walk every day. Apart from a bit of thunder, the whole past weekend was also blissfully quiet. My noisy neighbour must have gone on holiday and taken her screeching bird with her... (I asked Big for illustrations, but I fear I might get sued for defamation if I made those public.) 

Yesterday afternoon, I also fell asleep for a while in my chair, watching TV. I suppose I'm just making up for sleep deprivation earlier during the summer... 

Bing: "Woman enjoying a quiet weekend at home, Carl Larsson style" (The only acceptable image out of eight, and even here the AI is still having problems with details like hands and feet and whatnot... She also looks more tired than enjoying herself; but I can accept that, as it happened to rather fit my own mood...)

 

Watching Trees Grow

 

 

 

The Ornäs birch, (Swedish Ornäsbjörk) is a variety of silver birch which is also the national tree of Sweden. (Wikipedia)

The original Ornäs birch was discovered in 1767 in the village of Ornäs, in the central Swedish province of Dalarna. The man who discovered it sent a description of the tree to the University of Uppsala botanist Carl Linnaeus. Cuttings were taken from the original tree, from which all Ornäs birch trees have been propagated. The tree fell in a storm on 26 May 1890. Two new trees were planted in its place, taken from cuttings of the original tree. 

In 1985, the Ornäs birch was named as the national tree of Sweden, and examples have been planted in central locations in Swedish towns from Trelleborg in the south to Kiruna in the north.

The one in our town park here in Borås was planted in 1986 - which happens to be the same year that I moved here to live. So I'm used to just passing it without giving it much thought. But the other day I happened to stop and read that plaque on the stone, and ponder for a bit... No doubt the tree must have been quite small when it was first planted. But having walked by every now and then for 37 years, I can't say I really ever noticed it growing...

I asked the Bing Image Creator for a "woman watching a birch tree grow", and this is what I got:

Lone Islands, Annoying Birds, and the Art of Holding an Umbrella

Others among my blogging friends have been doing it lately, so I had to give it a go as well - the Microsoft Bing Image Creator...

Not feeling very imaginative, I started by just giving it the title of my blog.

Wondering what to try next, my neighbour's annoying bird started screeching again. (Even with doors and windows closed now that it's chilly and rainy outside, I still hear it through the wall...) So I gave the image creator the prompt "a really annoying bird in a cage". 

Now I have some suggestions what it may look like...

I added "cartoon" and tried again...

I then tried to create an image of myself walking around the cemetery in the rain - which is as far as my outdoor activities this week have stretched. 

Below is what I got from the instruction "68 year old woman walking in a cemetery in the rain, wearing a purple raincoat and holding a red umbrella".

Photo or cartoons, I have to say that I think there's still room for improvement... ;-)