Midsummer

 

In Sweden, we celebrate Midsummer Eve this Friday. Once upon a time it used to always be on 23rd June, whatever day of the week that happened to be. But in 1953 it was decided to always celebrate Midsummer Eve on a Friday; and Midsummer Day on the Saturday. So that's the way it's been my whole life. (Midsummer Eve is not a public holiday, but Midsummer Day is. So Midsummer Eve is treated much like a Saturday as to what's open or closed etc.)

This is a scheduled post; but this year I'm not very likely to attend any big Midsummer celebration. The museum park that I have sometimes visited to listen to some traditional music and watch folk dance performances on this day is too far away for me to walk to now - plus it's always very crowded at Midsummer, so one can't count on finding anywhere to sit down either.

  

I think my best photos from such a Midsummer celebration are those I took back in 2014. One of them copied above, and if you want to see some more, you can revisit my post from 2014 here.

But this year I'll most likely just be going for one of my usual shorter walks closer to home, and then celebrate quietly at home... 

... with Barbie and Skipper... ;)

 

Paradise?

 

I'm not sure of the name of these flowering bushes, but my Google Image searches indicate that it's pobably what you call Beauty bush in English, while in Swedish it is known as Paradise Bush (paradisbuske). Anyway, there are lots of these in bloom in the old cemetery just now; and that's as far as my walks took me over the weekend. Heat + grass allergy had me rather tired, and uninspired for longer outings.

On Saturday, I made the discovery that there now seem to be at least three hares living in the cemetery, because first I spotted the two I already "knew" to the left of me, but disappearing into a hedge before I got the camera out - but then when I turned my head, there was this one sitting on the other side of the path... 

(Little fountain in the cemetery)

Today the midsummer heatwave broke. I haven't heard any actual clashes of thunder nearby, but we had some torrential showers, and the temperature has now dropped considerably. I optimistically thought I'd manage a short walk to a convenience shop 5 minutes away before the worst of the rain... But ended up in one of the worst downpours - and even if if somewhat protected by my umbrella, that does not help much against additional sudden flooding on the ground... My shoes (supposed to be fairly weatherproof) and socks got thorougly soaked in just a couple of minutes... 

As I was so close to home, no major disaster, though! ;-) 
 

Midsummer Eve

 

It's Midsummer Eve; and after varying weather forecasts earlier in the week, it actually turned out quite a nice day for traditional Swedish Midsummer celebrations - even if  windy, and a bit on the chilly side towards evening. 

For my own part, however, I did not feel tempted this year to go for a long afternoon walk to watch people dancing around a maypole. So if you're curious to see some of that, I'll just refer you to what is probably my best blog post from another such an occasion in the past -way back in 2014. It even has a video with folk dancers in traditional costumes (recorded by me). 

There's been a lot of grass pollen in the air this week, and sometimes when I've been out for a while, I find that I've lost my voice when I get back in (like when a neighbour started talking to me in the lift, and I could not produce much of an answer), and I've also had various violent attacks of sneezing. (In spite of taking my allergy meds.) And I guess feeling generally rather tired (for no other obvious reason) can probably be ascribed to the same cause as well. (I've been allergic to grass pollen ever since my teens.)

So tonight I felt content to just let Barbie and Skipper dress up for Midsummer Eve, while I'm just going to stay home and have a cup of tea and some strawberries, and watch TV or some film... (Not quite decided yet.)

 

 Happy Midsummer!

(The mug has motives from Midsummer in the Moomin Valley) 

Midsummer Eve, part 2

 Continued from yesterday's post.

Walking home from the Museum Park, I chose a different (and more roundabout) way than I came. First (instead of going down the very steep footpath) I chose to walk along a nearby side street back down to the lake. Along one side of it, opposite the park, there are some rather "posh" villas.

I couldn't help noticing that on this one they had put up privacy screens just like the one I just bought, on the inside of their see-through railings along the terrace to the right... ;-)
 

Back down on flat ground near the lake.

 Zooming in the little islands belonging to the (former) bird sanctuary in the lake. I don't think they keep many rare birds there any more - now it seems to be mostly the usual wild ones that come and go as they please.

 

Looking back across the lake to where I came from. The museum park is on top of the hill to the right (hidden from view from below).

Having passed the lake, I had to walk for a while on a walking+cycling path along a big  road and a major bridge crossing the railway near the station. (No photos - too busy keeping an eye on traffic and traffic lights etc!) Over on the other side, I made a little detour to the kiosk at the travel center for the buses to buy myself an ice cream; and sat down on a park bench for a while to rest while I ate that. Nearby, I noticed a new "sculpture" thing - a big golden wreath. It may not be a permanent installation, but just on loan for this summer's art festival. I have not yet found any details about it.

 Anyway I went up behind it and took this photo (looking south). The white whirlwind sculpture in the background has been there for a few years now, I think. Behind that is the travel center for buses. (The railway station is out of sight to the right.) The building across the road to the left is a school (secondary/high). My way home from here goes past that school, turning left at the corner, then across and along another street/road or two. 

Once I get to the old cemetery I feel I'm "almost home". I usually choose to walk along the inside of that wall in the shadow of the old trees for the part of the way that I can.

Midsummer Eve

 

Today we celebrate Midsummer Eve in Sweden - nowadays (since the 1950s) always on a Friday, followed by Midsummer Day (public holiday) on the Saturday. The Eve is not formally a public holiday, but is essentially treated like one, as that's traditionally the day of the main public celebrations - like folk music and folk dance performances, and dancing games for children around the Midsummer Pole. (Cf maypole traditions in Britain.)

Most people prefer to celebrate midsummer either in the countryside or at the coastside. It's definitely not a city festival. For those who remain in town, the public celebrations are held in parks on the outskirts rather than in the city centre.

For my own part, it's been many years since I last took more "active" part in any midsummer celebration; but if the weather is right, and I feel up for a long(ish) walk, I do like to go and have a little peek at the event in our Museum Park, up on a hill near a lake that is also kind of a bird sanctuary. There are no buses that go all the way there though - and on weekends, from where I live, none that will even take me half the way. (And just now, non part of that way at all, any day of the week, because of some major roadworks still going on.)  

But we were blessed here this year with rather perfect weather for Midsummer Eve: Sunny without being too hot, and no rain. So I decided to take on the long walk. On my way there, I took "the shortcut" - which instead is partly very steep, though. First, it includes climbing this footbridge over the railway:

(46 steps up and nearly as many down on the other side)

Crossing a major road (on the pedestrian crossing on the right); and then through an underpass under the motorway.

 Then to the right from this roundabout.

Walking on along the left side of the lake...

 

And a bit further on, up a very steep hill to the left. Alas in this photo the path comes out looking almost flat, but I can guarantee that's an illusion! (Luckily I found a bench half way up where I could rest for a few minutes...)

The park was crowded, and the music and dancing games for the kids had started, and I did not get anywhere close to the midsummer pole. This photo (above) was taken holding my phone way up over my head and just hoping for the best!

I did not actually hang around in the park for very long, as there was nowhere (comfortable) to sit... I did rest for a little while on a stone wall near the old church, though.

 

Signs said the café was open but I deemed it a rather hopeless mission to try and get anything from there (not to mention anywhere to sit down and consume it). So I did not stay very long (perhaps half an hour), but walked home by a different route. I'll save the photos from my way back for another post. (All in all I was away from home for a bit over two hours. Most of that time on my feet, though, which made it feel longer!)

Quiet Midsummer

 

Midsummer in Sweden is a popular holiday weekend, with Midsummer Eve always celebrated on a Friday, which is not officially a public (bank) holiday, but generally treated as such a day anyway. Traditionally it is celebrated with people gathering in the afternoon and/or evening to play and dance around a pole decoraded with leaves and flowers. City centres are practically deserted, while the coast and anywhere near a lake is likely to be crowded.

Sometimes in the past I've visited afternoon midsummer celebrations at our museum park with old cottages; but not since the pandemic. The only photo I'm able to find just now is this one below, from 2014 (possibly even older).

They had a similar event in that park this year too, in the afternoon of Midsummer Eve; but I was tired and did not feel up for neither the walk there and back again, nor for mingling with a lot of people. Although this weekend hasn't really been excessively hot, I still soon get enough of being out and about during the hottest hours of the afternoon.

What I have been enjoying this weekend though, is the (relative) quiet that comes with quite a few neighbours being away... Not all of them: there have still been kids playing in the nearby football field until late in the evenings. But, for example, a wall-to-wall neighbour and their 'menagerie' (consisting of a frequently screeching bird + a sometimes howling/barking dog) have been away for four days, and that does make a difference... 

And a general fire/barbecue ban (because of the drought) also means no one has been throwing parties on the lawn just outside my building. 

My own balcony is still way too hot all afternoon, though, so I've not been out there much except to water my plants (usually late in the evening).

The flowers in the top photo, with the flag, are not mine; it's a photo I snapped during one of my walks. They belong to an apartment complex (condominium kind) down by the river.

Yellow water lilies are in bloom in the river itself.

 

Before the weekend, I bought some ice cream. My vegan favourite when I can get it is vanilla ice cream made from oats (brand called Oatly). Not only because they sometimes come with "questionable words of wisdom" hidden under the lid... ;-) The other ingredient in the glass above is a mango/passion sorbet (of other brand). - What's your favourite?

A Quiet Midsummer Eve

It's Midsummer Eve, and just like last summer there are still a lot of corona restrictions in place here, so no big gatherings allowed - which is otherwise very much part of our Midsummer Eve traditions in Sweden. (See for example my Midsummer Eve post from 2019, which in turn contains a link to 2014.)

The weather has been fine though - mostly sunny but without being too hot.

I went for a walk into town in the late morning - quite forgetting that I did same thing last year and found everything closed. (I had expected some shops to be open part of the day.) Well, never mind. The camera and I got a bit of exercise anyway.

 
At the Travel Center there is a new sculpture waiting to be officially uncovered on the 29th (Tuesday) when they city celebrates its 400th birthday. Again, they can't make a really big public event of it because of the corona restrictions. I'm not sure how they will go about it to avoid people gathering, though, as at some point someone will still have to pull some actual piece of string to unveil the sculpture...

Anyway I don't expect to be there myself when that happens, as my 2nd covid jab has been moved forward to the 28th (Monday). It will be good to get that over with, but based on my experiences of the first one, I'm not counting on Tuesday as a day to go walkabout, as I might then be feeling more like this...

(...Only probably not quite as flexible, as I recall that one of the worst initial side effects for me with the 1st jab was rather bad muscle pain the first couple of days...) Anyway, this is a sculpture that has previously been in one or two other places in the city, but that I now found to have been moved  to the place in front of the railway station.

In the river by the park, there is a "text installation" (in Swedish) saying "Borås 400 years and influential". There is a pun involved which might come through even in English but even more so in Swedish ('flyt' can refer to influential, flow and float)

 

Walking back home along the river I came across these two ducklings swimming. (Mum and dad and siblings weren't far away, but my camera focused on these two.)

Skywatch Friday - Midsummer Eve

♫ Where have all the people gone?
Gone to the coast or countryside, everyone... (?)

I'm guessing the few of us left in the city are those who still stubbornly insist on keeping Social Distance! ;)

Last weekend, Sweden lifted restrictions about travels within the country. (For a while, we've been 'strongly advised' not to travel further from home than 2 hours by car.) Gatherings larger than 50 people are still forbidden, though, which means all usual public midsummer festivities have been cancelled. For this weekend, I'm guessing the problems with too many people getting together anyway will be bigger in the coast side towns than here in the inland. 

Today (Midsummer Eve), all the shops in Borås city are closed all day, and probably restaurants and cafés as well.  I'm glad I thought of going for a walk into town yesterday morning as well, as I then managed to buy strawberries from a temporary market stall in the square. They cost a small fortune, but never mind. (After all: Somebody planted them and watered them, somebody else -perhaps- picked them, someone transported them into town, and someone spent a hot day standing there selling them. And I get to eat them!)

Now I'm hoping for a cloudy afternoon, and that noisy neighbours choose to go somewhere else. (We're still in a heat wave here and on sunny afternoons, it gets too hot both indoors and outdoors.)

Happy Midsummer, World - and be careful out there...
(I'll be at home, washing my hands!)

Three Young Men (1922) - Sepia Saturday 475

Last week my Sepia Saturday contribution was a Sunday school group photo from my grandfather's photo album. On the next page in that album, there is this photo from "around 1922". My grandfather (Gustaf) is the one on the left. (Easier to identify in this photo than in that other one!) Born in 1904; so in 1922, he was 18. The guy in the middle is his brother-in-law-to-be (although they would not have known that yet!): my grandmother's brother Nils, born in 1902. The third young man is unknown to me, but according to the note in the album, his name was Gustaf too.   

My grandmother Sally was four years older than my grandfather. They grew up in the same village, but when exactly it was that romance started to grow between them, I don't know. They did not get engaged until September 1929 - when she was 29 and he 25. And they got married a year later, in 1930.

As the three young men here are all dressed up, it may have been a special occasion. On the other hand, perhaps just an ordinary Sunday, and they were dressed for church...

But if it was a "special occasion"... like a birthday...

My grandfather's birthday was June 23, which back in those days was always Midsummer Eve. That changed in 1953, so all my own life (I was born in 1955), Midsummer Eve has always been a Friday. But back in my dad's childhood, his father's birthday was always on Midsummer Eve; and used to include big family gatherings to celebrate. 

I'm not sure how big a deal it was back in 1922 to turn 18. Nowadays that is the age of majority here - as in a lot of other countries - so quite a major occasion. But back then, that was not until you turned 21...

On the other hand, it's Nils who is in the centre here, and not my grandfather. So perhaps it is his birthday - which was August 17. Checking the calendar (oh how easy these days to do that online!), I see that in 1922 that was an ordinary Thursday. In 1923, though, it was a Friday - and would have been Nils' 21st...

Ah well. Whatever the occasion for the photo: Tomorrow is June 23, and the 115th anniversary of the birth of my grandfather. (Sadly he died rather "young", at 64.) (I'm calling that "young" now because 64 is what I'll be myself in a couple of months!!) (Gasp!!!)

So besides the "threesome" theme, that's another reason for me to choose this photo for...

Sepia Saturday 475