Up On the Mountain

The town of Gränna is situated between the shore of Lake Vättern, and a steep mountain (berg) raising up to the east.

The sloping square where we parked the car; looking in the direction of the lake.

Turn around, and there’s the mountain.

Somewhere up there, I knew there would be tea and sandwiches waiting for us (i.e. a  café), but how to get up there? Well, as I definitely did not feel like trying the steep wooden staircase that Per spotted, we had to get back in the car, consult our Google map guide, and go for a little detour by car… It was worth it!

Gränna church tower with the mountain in the background.

View from up on the mountain. Church tower on the right.

The café is situated in an open air museum park with old buildings.

Detached small but robust buildings like these were used for storage of food etc.

Not a church belltower, but an old town hall belltower.

Another kind of bells…

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Outdoors Wednesday

Today started out sunny but not too hot, and I decided it might be a good day to go on some little adventure in the afternoon (after an early lunch at home). 

However, this week there's way too much adventure for my taste going on in the central parts of my town, as in Borås we are just now hosting the Swedish Championship, with lots of different sports going on all over the place every day for a whole week. 

One consequence is that some streets have been turned into racing tracks etc, which in turn means that not all buses go where they usually go; and you can't even be sure of being able to walk where you intended to to walk...

Sports enthusiasts and holidaymakers may be having the time of their life; but for ordinary citizens just wanting to get their ordinary errands done, it's a hassle!

As for me, I have next to zero interest in these sports events; and after my fall some 6-7 weeks ago, even less desire than usual just now to rub elbows with crowds of excited sports spectators...

So I decided to seek quieter adventures in a part of town not so much involved in all that.

Just recently, we had some changes in the (permanent) bus routes within the city; one or two of which can actually be helpful to me - as they make it possible for me to travel to certain places without passing the city centre and/or changing buses. So I decided to try out one of those today. Not all the way to its destination (I might try that some other time); but part of the way, taking me closer to our museum park (open air museum, with old buildings). There's still a bit left to walk from the bus stop, but it is the least boring part, as I don't walk there so often. 

Just where I got off the bus, there is another little park which I also decided to have a look around before going further. But I'll save those pictures for another post. 

However, walking that way, I came out somewhere else than I usually do; and as a result also ended up "getting lost" for a bit - not being so familiar with the narrow old streets in this part of town. (Didn't get so far off the mark that it really mattered, though!) But a street that I thought would take me straight to the museum turned out to go down to the lake below instead...

Along the way I happened to catch sight of this old wooden house.  I've seen it before but not from this direction, I think. Anyway it reminded me of Villa Villekulla - the fictional home of Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking...

From the lake I had to walk back up a hill again to get to the museum... but I preferred to take a longer sloping street rather than the "shortcut" straight up these stairs:

Monument honouring the founder of the park (~ 100 years ago).

Old phone booth at the museum. No phone inside, though!

The yellow building houses the reception and exhibition halls (for temporary exhibitions) - and offices and workshops, I think.

Ooops! Dark clouds gathering from that direction... I may be in for more of an adventure than I thought!

Old wooden church from the 1690s, originally built somewhere else (a smaller village), but moved to this park in the early 1900s. There are no regular services held in this church now - it is more of a museum - but it is popular for weddings in the summer season.

As it is the tourist season, the church was actually open for visitors today. (It's only open when they have guides there, as there are so many valuable historic objects inside.)  I took the opportunity to go inside and take some photos. (First visit with my new camera...) I'll save those for another post though, as this is Outdoors Wednesday! 

Old milestone (to tell the distance to/from somewhere).
And a hops/herbs garden in the background.

(Selfie...)

The midsummer pole is still up in front of the old inn; where there is also a café open in the summer afternoons (with tables indoors as well as outdoors).

Lucky for me! as thunder was now rolling in the background, soon  followed by heavy rainfall... 

So I ended up sitting in that café for a good while. But finally had to get out into the rain anyway, in order to catch my bus back home (about 15 minutes walk to the bus stop - the "straight" way).

But I did have a rain cape in my little backpack; and as I was going straight home, and could get a dry change of clothes as soon as I got in... Well, never mind!

 

I Spy...

I spy with my little camera eye... Do you see what I saw?

Mrs Mallard with her young ones out for a swim in the river - rather well camouflaged among the water-lily leaves.

Mummy, look! We can walk on these things floating in the river...

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Balcony in Bloom (oh, well...)

Someone (you know who you are) asked me for me a "balcony in bloom" post. Actually there isn't all that much in bloom at the moment. However, I suppose one advantage of blogging is that there's nothing really to prevent me from mixing present and past!

The thing is, my balcony is very much exposed to Wind and Weather; and we have been having quite a lot of both.

The month of May was rather chilly with a lot of frosty nights; which means most of my "gardening" consisted in covering and uncovering my faithful perennial survivors: the two clematis plants climbing up a trellis on the wall, and one small balcony box of small strawberries. 

The clematis seemed to appreciate my care and rewarded me by being very lovely at the end of May and beginning of June, though:

 By now they're well past their prime - but still rather decorative in a more subtle way:

(A bit later on I'll probably be cutting off many of the seedheads to try and tempt the plants into producing a few extra flowers instead.)

The strawberry plants have grown green again and it seems I can look forward to a few berries too (if the birds don't get them first!)

The orange flowers are kalanchoes which I bought in full flower and just put out in the pots in which I bought them (in holders that one can hang on the railing). I've often had kalanchoes indoors but it struck me that being succulents, they might actually be able to cope with the varied climate on my balcony too. (Ice cold showers one day, and hot burning sun the next...) So far, so good - even if these too are about to lose their prime glory now. (I've had them for just over a month.)

On the balcony table, I have a geranium which I can easily just take inside if the outdoors climate gets too extreme. (Like this week, when it's been sunny but still so windy that one day the pot just fell over, in spite of being in the most protected spot... It's also been too windy most days to have the parasols up. Which means I haven't really been out there myself much either, except to give the struggling plants some water when needed!)

I never got round to buying any pansies this year - partly because of the frosty nights, and partly because the neighbourhood florists' shop closed down earlier this year. (So no longer just a spur of the moment thing to go and buy a plant or two...)

What I did though, actually on the day before my Famous Fall towards the end of May ('famous' only among devoted readers of this blog), was to prepare a box for planting some nasturtium seeds. And as I had done everything except put the seeds into the soil, I did manage to do that a day or two later (in spite of my sore arm).

This is their status a month later (yesterday evening). Six out of seven have come up. Whether they'll also produce flowers remains to be seen!

That's it! - for now. 

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Outdoor Wednesday

Pretty in Pink

Photos snapped with my mobile phone today in the Town Park. The cherry blossom trees in this park are of a kind that bloom a bit later than those in some of the other parks around town. I like that, because that means we get to enjoy lovely pink trees for a longer period of time…

I also couldn’t resist these lovely pink tulips covered in raindrops. The rain had stopped when I walked into town (after ten) but it was misty, humid, and very still. And the birds in the trees giving a joyful concert!

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