Red Windmills at Störlinge, Öland

Road Trip 2018, Part 13

 

There are seven windmills at Störlinge, but not all so close to one another that it was possible to get them all into one photo…

Linking to:

Ruby Tuesday Too

Our World Tuesday

Through My Lens

Autumn Colours

We’ve had quite a bit of rain lately, but some days I’ve managed to get out for a walk in between the showers.

Bold Colours

This rock near the railway station, covered with ivy, always looks magnificent in autumn. (Photos taken a couple a weeks ago, in late September.)

But what on earth is going on up there on the top of the rock?
I had to zoom in with the camera to see properly…

I’m not sure I’ve noticed this sculpture before… And it’s not included in the brochure for the summer’s sculpture biennale. How long has it been there?!

Checking up on it, I find articles on the web telling me that the sculpture’s name is “Passion Extreme”, and it was actually put in place on top of that rock in mid May this year; in commemoration of an adventurer, climber and extreme skier who grew up in this town (Tomas Olsson) but died ten years ago in an attempt to ski down the north side of Mount Everest. The bronze sculpture was made by the Swedish sculptor Richard Brixel and donated to the town by a couple of local entrepreneurs.

I have to admit that personally, I’ve never really “understood” the kind of adventure spirit that makes people want to try extreme things like that. But I suppose that without that kind of people, a large part of the world would still remain unexplored, and many things we now take for granted would never have been discovered or invented…

Linking to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

Old Mill – Vänga Kvarn

The place where my brother and I had arranged to meet with our aunt and uncle last Sunday was an old countryside mill (at a village called Vänga). It has been preserved partly as a museum, and partly as a café – very popular in the summer. (They’re open six days a week in the tourist season, and weekends in autumn and spring.) They also have a little shop where they still sell locally produced flour (and a few other things).

I have blogged about the place before at least once, a few years ago. (We were in better luck with the weather this time!)

The wooden sign says Welcome.

We had lunch indoors up in the loft this time.
(Photo deliberately blurred, using a focus zoom filter in Picasa.)

And then we went for a little stroll outdoors around the premises.

The store has an old-fashioned interior too, of course.

Sweet temptations on display outside.
(No, I did not buy any!)

“We sell kerosene.” (Hm. Once upon a time, maybe…)

(Trolls like this place too.)

. . .

I’ll be linking to:
Through My Lens
Ruby Tuesday Too
Our World Tuesday 

Going Fishing

Artwork by Joe Iurato for the NoLimit Street Art Festival. Well at least he had a roof over his head to protect him from the rain when he did this one (located under a bridge)…

The octopus on the wall behind was painted last year, I don’t remember by whom.

Linking to Our World Tuesday & Ruby Tuesday Too

Ruby Tuesday – Alingsås (3)

Café Storken (‘The Stork Café’), Alingsås

This is the where we had lunch on the first day of our trip. As I mentioned in my first post about Alingsås, this little town is quite famous for its many cafés - about one per 1000 inhabitants.

According to a tourist brochure I picked up, the bakery and café traditions here can be traced all the way back to the industrial revolution in the 1700s. When women were employed in the textile manufacture, they no longer had so much time to bake and cook at home.

Anyway I doubt we could have stumbled across a more charming place than this little backyard café in (and outside) a classic old red wooden building. I think to most Swedes this kind of scenery more or less sums up the “essence” of Swedish summer…

Linking to
Ruby Tuesday
Our World Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday

Some more photos from my walk to the Textile Fashion Center & Museum on Saturday.

Colourful flowers on the railing of one of the many bridges crossing the river in Borås town centre.

  

This plant in one of the parks was recently mentioned in our local newspaper. It’s an agave plant. When grown in greenhouses (as ours are – they are taken in every winter and planted outdoors again only for the summer), it is rare for them to bloom – and it takes decades before they do. But this one is about to now. Whether I’ll happen to be passing again at just the right time to take photos of it at its best, remains to be seen.

The Textile Fashion Center, including Textile Museum and Textile College, café/restaurant and a number of textile related businesses.

The sculpture House of Knowledge by Jaume Plensa, acquired by our town last year and placed in a symbolically powerful position between the Textile College and the rest of the University.

Lounge area in the entrance hall within the Center.

The sculpture Cloned Frogs on Gala Dress by William Sweetlove (that for a while seemed to appear all over town) now resides here, too.

You’ll find several older posts of mine both about the Textile Museum and the sculptures by clicking on the label Textile Fashion Center below.

Linking this post to Ruby Tuesday Too

Queen of the Castle and Captain of the Ship

A new playground is being built at the bird sanctuary lake. The old one is situated higher up on the hill but I guess the new position closer to the water will provide easier access (especially for those with prams to push!) - and a nice lake view for the parents.

I think this construction is meant to resemble a ship:

Ruby Tuesday Too

Textile Fashion Center (2)

The first thing that met my eye when I entered the foyer of the new Textile Fashion Center was the sculpture Cloned Frogs on Gala Dress by William Sweetlove.

Those of you who have been following my blog ever since spring 2010 (when the blog was still called The Island of the Voices), will probably remember it… That sculpture was somewhat of a soap opera in our local media (as well as on my blog) for a while back then!

Here are the links:

1. A Dog May Look at a Frog
2. Biting the Grass
3. Frogs Going AWOL
4. Don’t Climb What You Can’t See
5. Sweetlove and Cloning
6. To Give or Not to Give Away
7. Never-Ending Stories
8. Walkabout

I’m not sure if I have posted any more updates on it after that, but between then and now, the sculpture has had its home a/ inside the temporary library (while the main one was being renovated), b/ in the foyer of the town’s Cultural Center (library, art museum and theatre), and c/ (until now) in the machine hall of the Textile Museum.

Enough about that! Let’s go on to the reception desk:

▲I liked this paved ‘street’, creating a connection between outdoors and indoors. There’s also a small stage for various kinds of performances.▼

 

▲ An exhibition showing the works of graduating students from the Textile College.

▲ The Textile Museum will be moving into these premises too (next year).

▲ Back entrance looking out over the wooden decks I showed more of in my previous post.

▲Going up in the lift/elevator.
▼Looking down from a window on the top floor.

▼Walking down the stairs, looking at the artwork:

▼Looking down from the 1st floor to the cafeteria:

▼ There’s a cosy corner down there too…

▼ And here’s looking down at the foyer from above:

Linking this post to: