The First Week of June

 

The first week of June offered rather "mixed" weather, with high risk of showers most days - so I've mostly been keeping to short walks. On Wednesday 3rd June, I managed a walk into town for a few errands and back again without getting wet, though. 

 

On my way  home, I passed by this really massive hedge of purple rhododendron in the park (photos above and below):

 

Besides stocking up on tea from my favourite tea shop, and a few minor things from the pharmacy - all of which I managed to fit into my small backpack - I also visited a flower shop to buy two flowering pelargoniums. Maneuvering a walking stick with one hand these days, one extra bag is as much as much as I can manage!

As I'm not (at least not yet) sitting on the balcony much, I placed the pelargoniums indoors for now. One in the living room (above) and the other one in the kitchen (below).

 

 

 

This time of year, I have a very green view from the spot at the kitchen table where I always sit - for example at breakfast. 

 

I bought a new black tea blend with strawberries, mango and lemon in it to try out. (I like it!) (A direct translation of the Swedish name to English would be "strawberry straw"...) 

 

Thursday afternoon was laundry day for me and I don't think I went outdoors at all - but from the laundry room down in the basement I could enjoy this "different" view of the rhododendrons outside (through a small window high up on the wall):

 

 

Friday the 5th was rather rainy, but dressed in a raincoat I managed my usual "recycling walk" + a visit to a small shop on the way back to buy some fruit & veg. (Fresh strawberries included! I think probably Dutch rather than Swedish, though.)

 

6th June is Sweden's National Day and a public holiday with  traditions attached. There are usually celebrations in the city park in the afternoon and I assume that was probably the case this year as well. The weather that afternoon also turned out rather good. But personally I didn't quite feel up for a walk into town just to mix with crowds of people this year. So I just went for a quiet stroll on my own in the cemetery, where the azaleas were still in full bloom:

 

 

 

 

And in the evening I watched parts of the national celebrations in Stockholm on TV. Below is an official photo I copied from the royal family's website, of them traditionally joining the crowds at the open air museum Skansen in Stockholm:

Princess Madeleine and her husband Chris O'Neill; Prince Carl Philip with his wife Princess Sofia; King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia; MrAndreas Norlén (Speaker of the Parliament), Crown Princess Victoria with son Prince Oscar and husband Prince Daniel. The queen and the princesses all wearing a national folk costume in yellow and blue (the colours of the Swedish flag).

Busy times for the royal family just now, as the King and Queen will also be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next weekend. (They got married 19th June 1976, but as in 2026 that date happens to be Midsummer Eve, the official celebration will be held the weekend before.) 

 

Congratulations and Celebrations

 

After a beautiful month of May with quite a lot of sun and not much rain, I imagine that this more "moody" (rainy and windy) first week and weekend of June, representing the start of summer, is having trouble quite living up to expectations with some people. 

For high school graduates, it has been Graduation Ball week; and in a lot of the photos on our local newspaper's website, umbrellas are dominating. 

People queuing to see the graduates walk the "red carpet" to the ball. (I blurred the faces of the couple as it's not my photo and I don't know if they want to get internationally famous!)

Yesterday, 6th June, was also Sweden's National Day and Flag Day, nowadays also a public holiday. Usually celebrated with some festivities in the city park, the weather yesterday (wind and rain) did not tempt me to go and check if they were still going ahead with the usual program there. (From the newspaper today it seems that at least the welcoming ceremony for new citizens had been moved indoors.) 

It's only since 2005 that our National Day has been an official holiday ("red day") in our calendar. Before 2005, the Monday after Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday) used to be a holiday; but then it was decided to switch those two days. This year, because of the National Day falling on the Friday before Pentecost, we still got a "long weekend", though. (Being a pensioner myself these days, I can't say it matters much to me! But it probably does to some working people.) 

If you want to see some photos of sunny National Day celebrations in Borås from a previous year, you can click here: 2023. 

6th June - Sweden's National Day

 

National Anthem of Sweden

I have blogged about Sweden's national day before. If you want to refresh your memory about its history, and see photos from a sunny public celebration, you can have a peek at last year's post. This year, after a whole month of early summer in May, the weather now seems to realise it made a mistake, and is trying to make up for it by going back to temperatures around 12-15'C (~57'F), with dark clouds, winds and unpredictable rain showers. 

I did manage a short walk in the mid afternoon without getting wet, but decided to keep it to my usual turn around the nearby cemetery - just out of sight to the right in the photo below - rather than continuing downtown to the park.

The rest of the day I've "celebrated" very quietly at home in the company of Barbie and Skipper. I recently bought them a Swedish flag to celebrate summer. (I got it on a whim at the supermarket. Back home, I discovered that the label underneath says Made in China. So much for patriotism...)

 

Barbie and Skipper both wearing clothes sewn by my mum back in the 1960s. Skipper's trousers are made from the same fabric as Barbie's blouse.

6th June, Sweden's National Day

 

Today is 6th June, Sweden's National Day, and this year "extra special" since it's exactly 500 years since Gustav Vasa / Gustav I was elected king here; which is considered the foundation of "modern" (?) Sweden. The day has only been called National Day since 1983, though - before that it was celebrated as 'Swedish Flag Day'. And it wasn't until as late as 2005 that 6th June also got the status of public holiday. 

This year it's also 50 years since our current king Carl XIV Gustaf ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf (15 September 1973). So even more reasons to celebrate and wave flags about...

I remembered to put my small flag out on the balcony this morning (top photo); and there it's been waving in the wind all day.

We also got a perfect weather day for such celebrations: Summer temperatures around 23'C in the afternoon, and the sun shining from a clear blue sky.

There was a main celebration in our town park at 3 p.m. I took a little detour on the way there to buy myself an ice cream, as I suspected the queues to the café in the park itself would probably be endless (I didn't check once I got there, but no doubt they were). I arrived in the park just about when the program there started (a bit of music, and a few speeches), and I'm pretty sure there were more people gathered this year than I've ever seen before. There was no way to get close to the action on the stage, so I just kept way in the background. The music and the speakers could be heard even by us who couldn't see much, though. And I had both my cameras with me - the 'proper' camera as well as the phone - so I managed to get a variety of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Panorama view" shot with my separate camera. The stage is somewhere close to that black building (café) in the background between the trees...

 

From pretty much the same place where I was standing for the panorama view, my camera managed to zoom in this children's choir on the stage.

I didn't stay for the full program but left when I began to find it too tiring to stand still. 

Even Google is celebrating with us today,
I noticed when I turned on my computer at home:

 But I suppose that's just here in Sweden... (?)

 

Swedish National Day Celebration

Sweden's National Day is celebrated on 6 June in honour of two historical events: Gustav Vasa being elected king 6 June 1523, and the adoption of a new constitution 6 June 1809. 

This year offered a really warm and sunny day for it; which  meant that quite a lot of people turned up for our public celebrations in the park. Me & camera included! 

It's a good opportunity for "people watching"... But I try not to get too personal with the photography - taking most of the pictures from a distance or from behind. (Only zooming in on those up on the stage...) 

 

Parade coming from the other side of the river...

 

The children's choir is from the municipal music school.

 

6th June – National Day Celebrations

6th June is the National Day of Sweden, also known as Swedish Flag Day. The Flag Day has been celebrated for about a hundred years, but it wasn’t raised to the status of a national holiday until fairly recently (2005). Historic events related to this day go back to 1523, when Gustav Vasa was elected king of Sweden. In 1809, an important change of constitutional laws was also introduced on this date (something to do with the balance of power between King and Riksdag/Parliament).

Anyway, the public celebrations of the day seem to be growing. Here they include a special ceremony to welcome new citizens (inhabitants of our city who have been granted Swedish citizenship over the past year), and also a performance by the home guard music corps. When I arrived at the park around 3 p.m. it was absolutely crowded, I think probably the most people I’ve ever seen gathered there. It was hard even to find anywhere on the outskirts from where I could take photos showing the crowd! ; )

Against the odds I happened to meet a friend and together we joined the queue to the ice cream bar, and even more miraculously managed to find two free chairs in half-shadow outside that place when we came out. So we sat comforably for for a while and ate our ice cream, had a bit of a catch-up chat and listened to the music from a little distance.

In the evening, on TV at home, I watched some of the celebrations held in Stockholm, including the presence of the royal family.

Photo from my TV screen: The royal family outside the Royal Palace in Stockholm
The Queen and the princesses are wearing the official national costume ‘Sverigedräkten’
From left to right:
Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel
Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf
Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip
Princess Madeleine and her husband Chris O’Neill

6th June - Sweden's National Day

 

 

I didn't really properly "attend" the National Day / Flag Day celebrations this year - just passed by on the outskirts of the crowd gathered in the town park. The ceremonies include welcoming new citizens; and this year I think they also had more activities than usual for families going on in town during the day.