The Times They Are A-Changin'

Swedish Whitebeam trees in bloom now in my neighbourhood. (Lots of them!)

Lately, every time I sit down to do something at the computer, it seems that some problem or other pops up. 

The other day (I've already forgotten why or how), I managed to get logged into the wrong Blogger account on the Google browser on my computer, and never got round to blogging whatever it was I then indented to write about. There seems to be so many layers of extra security and pincodes and cross-references and back-up accounts everywhere these days that my aging brain is (evidently!) finding it hard to cope with it all...

So when I started the computer again tonight, I first had to try and sort out the mess it seems I unknowingly created last time. (I seem to have succeeded, for now, but alas I'd not be able to retrieve my steps this time either...) 

That (+ more) reminded me of the Dylan song - but when looking that up on YouTube, I also discovered (or rather, re-discovered) that YouTube has removed Blogger from the symbols of places to easily share to. So I had to get into the mysteries of using "embedding" and HTML view instead. (If I was successful, the video will appear at the bottom of this post when I eventually get round to posting...)

The Times They Are A-Changin' also kind of sums up that the past week or so has been rather full of information about other things about to change. 

Last week I mentioned having been to listen to info about the plans for an old football field in my immediate neighbourhood to be turned into a public park. 

Yesterday I attended another info meeting; this time about plans to install "entrance phones" in the buildings on the housing estate where I live. Last summer, problems in some buildings caused the (municipal) housing company to suddenly, around midsummer, lock the entrances 24/7 - and keep it that way until... February, I think it was, when it suddenly got back to normal again (i.e. only locked at night). 

For me the main problem with the doors locked around the clock was my regular food deliveries. I had to go down (and because of my knee, use the lift rather than walk) to open the entrance door for the delivery guys - but still needed them to help me carry everything all the way up and into the hall of my own flat. So personally, when the doors suddenly were unlocked again some 7-8 months later, I felt only relief. So much easier when no explanations needed every time! 

Now (a few months after the doors were unlocked again) a notice was put up inviting us (I think probably a few buildings at a time) to information about plans to install an entrance phone system. The meeting was held in the basement of a neighbouring building, and I guess we were around 20-30 people. I had looked up some info beforehand about modern such systems, so didn't find it too hard to follow. Apparently nowadays they connect the entrance phone with one's own phone number. So in the future, when visitors push a button with my name on it at the entrance, the call comes in on my cellphone, and after verifying that it's someone I want to see, I can just push a button on my own cellphone to let them in.  Sounds easier than having to go down in person to open the entrance, at least! 

However, the installation of this system will also add an extra fee to our monthly rent. (Which might be considered a problem by tenants already struggling as it is.) So what they're doing now is trying to get the info out to everyone and make sure we understand; and they're also collecting our consent - or not. And it seems they have decided to go democratic on this for each individual building. If 51% of the tenants in a specific building wants the system, it will be installed. But if 51% of the tenants in a specific building do not want the system, it will not be installed there (and the entrance left open in the daytime, locked at night). So in the area as a whole, we may end up with some buildings having the entrance phone system, and others not.

I signed a form giving my personal consent already at the meeting - also weighing in the info I took part of last week, about the transformation about the nearby field to a park, which is likely to bring more "visitors" (not least teens) to this neighbourhood. 

What will become of it all in the end, still remains to be seen - but I'm thinking that either way, The Times They Are A-Changin' ...

I  might add that as far as I can recall, this is the first "info meeting" of this kind that has occurred during the 18 years I've been living here. (Inviting anyone interested instead of just discussion between landlord and representatives of a tenants' association.)

For me, the meeting made it a bit clearer to me what kind of problems started the whole discussion in the first place. It seems that it's people living near the playground in the middle of the estate who have been having the most problems with youngsters not actually living here hanging around there in the evenings, and also entering nearby buildings. 

After the meeting, outside, I got talking to a woman of around my own age who turned out to be my current wall-to-wall neighbour (next entrance). I think it was last autumn that she moved in. (I've never seen her properly, as there's frosted glass between our balconies and neither of us is so tall that we see over it). She's been a much quieter neighbour than the one who lived there before her, so when I understood where she was living, I introduced myself. Someone else had mentioned earlier incidents in our close neighbourhood (including the entrance where she lives) and I felt a bit of time perspective might be in place... I have lived here 18 years, and while there have undeniably been a few scary incidents - seen in the longer perspective, I still consider  it a good neighborhood "on the whole". 

Lucia / St Lucy's Day, 13 December

Saint Lucy's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Lucy, is a Christian feast day observed on 13 December. The observance commemorates Lucia of Syracuse, an early-fourth-century virgin martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution. According to legend, she brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs, wearing a candle-lit wreath on her head to light her way, leaving both hands free to carry as much food as possible. 

Because her name means "light" and her feast day had at one time coincided with the shortest day of the year prior to calendar reforms, it is now widely celebrated as a festival of light. Falling within the Advent season, Saint Lucy's Day is viewed as a precursor of Christmastide, pointing to the arrival of the Light of Christ in the calendar on 25 December, Christmas Day. 

In Scandinavia, where Lucy is called Santa/Sankta Lucia, she is represented as a woman in a white dress symbolizing a baptismal robe and a red sash symbolizing the blood of her martyrdom, with a crown or wreath of candles on her head.

In Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucy carry cookies and saffron buns in procession, which symbolizes bringing the Light of Christ into the world's darkness. (Wikipedia)

 

Not sure if the video below will work for everyone world-wide, but I thought I'd give that a test. (Let me know if it works!) It's this year's (2025) Lucia Morning by Swedish Television (SVT); from Visby on the island Gotland, off the east coast of Sweden. 

It's a 1 hour show, and in Swedish. But of course you can choose for yourself how much of it to watch/listen to. It will give you an idea of the typical atmosphere, anyway.

"Inside the city walls of wintry Visby, this year’s Lucia brings atmosphere and warmth with choirs from Sankta Maria Youth Choir, Voices of Hope, and Gotland Boys’ Choir. In the ruins of St. Karin and Helge And, the Christmas songs ring out, and we also get to enjoy several soloists, the Gotland Wind Quintet, and a children’s choir in the historic surroundings."

    

https://youtu.be/QVc5rAzMQCs?si=toSBG8tjXE-Urfmg

The Tip of the Tap

 

Of course I was up and dressed at 7.15 today, even if it seemed unlikely that my flat, right in the middle of a building, would be the very first to get a visit from the plumbers who had forewarned that I could expect them to turn up some time between 7.15 am on Thursday and 4 pm on Friday (cf previous post).  

Actually I rather expected they wouldn't be showing up at my door until Friday - but they (two guys) did ring on my door just before 2 pm today. It also turned out that the whole job only took about 5 minutes rather than the predicted 20. In the kitchen it was only the "tip" of the tap that they replaced; and in the bathroom the shower hose and head. 

They also did some quick checks for leaks; but there was no exchange of the actual taps (faucets) involved. 

 I suppose the whole project is about trying to minimize waste of water. 

The new shower head is much larger than the old one and somehow looks a bit intimidating... I haven't tried it yet but suspect it may take some getting used to? 

While waiting for the plumbers, not knowing when or if they'd come, I was vacuuming the rooms that they would have no reason to enter; and it occurred to me to also undertake the very rare task of also pulling out the extra bed from under the sofa in my living room - which is a sofa-bed in itself, but also has an extra bed tucked in underneath. I had no idea when I last did that (it's been years since the extra bed was used), or what dusty horrors might be revealed... It wasn't too bad though. There's really very little room under there even for dust to gather. 

One surprise that turned up from under the sofa was this little guy, though - who I vaguely recall missing last Christmas...

 

 

I gave him to Skipper now, to look after until December...  
 

 ...when he can be reunited with the Santa Claus family...  

I was happy to find this classic Swedish Christmas song below translated to English on YouTube. Saves me the trouble of thinking of other ways to explain why my brain connects both "tip" and "tap" (cf the heading I chose for this post) with Christmas!

Was a Sunny Day

♫ Was a sunny day
Not a cloud was in the sky...♫  

... Ooops, not quite true: There was one ...

  

Rose Gardens & Politics

From a rose garden I passed by last week

 

♫ I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live or let go
I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden ♫

Lynn Anderson's old hit came to mind while I was pondering how to present this post, following up on the situation in Swedish politics. (Feel free to skip the politics, and just enjoy the roses and the music, if you prefer! Full Youtube video hopefully included at the bottom, if the link works out as intended.)

Today our parliament took another vote, this time with the result that our previous Prime Minister (recently resigned after a vote of no confidence against him in the parliament) made a comeback and was elected as 'new' Prime Minister. An outcome that was more or less expected - at least since Monday, when the opposition's candidate stepped down, declaring that he had not been able to find enough support to form a new government. 

The new government will be pretty much the same as before, i.e. a minority government consisting of the Social Democrats + the Green Party. However, their position now may be seen as even weaker, as old agreements have fallen, and one minor support party, the Liberals, has joined "the other side". And the two support parties that remain, the Centre and the Left, agree on very little except that they do still prefer this government to a right-wing alternative which would include the "extreme right" party, the Sweden Democrats.

Whether the government will also manage to gather enough support in the parliament to pass their budget later on in the autumn, still remains to be seen, though. Our PM Stefan Löfven is known as a skillful negotiator but this may be his toughest job so far. On the other hand, no one on either side is likely to be keen on a snap election only months before the next regular election in September 2022... So I suppose they're hoping to make things work until then somehow, with compromises, and by postponing the most controversial issues.

Graduations and Celebrations

We’re still enjoying beautiful summer weather here.

Today was graduation day for lots of Swedish students.
One of the senior high school graduation traditions is that all the graduates go riding around town on lorry platforms. Often the sides of the truck are covered with signs painted by the students. This one indicated that they made it through their exams with the help of… Well, you can probably find a couple of familiar words in the picture. [Google, Wikipedia] I suppose they are all future Bloggers! :)

Celebrations go on all day (and night) – and it seems some started very early in the morning (unless it was last night), and that there is one thing they did not learn neither in school nor at home: to clean up after themselves:

(Town Park at 11.00 am)

Found a YouTube clip with the traditional graduation song.
It has very idealistic lyrics, all about bright hopes for the future.

Tomorrow, 6th June, is Sweden’s National Day and a public holiday.

(Photo from Wikimedia)

Book Review: Memories of the Curlew

Memories of the Curlew by Helen Spring (2011)
****

Amazon Book Description
'Memories of the Curlew' is based on the life of Gwenllian, daughter of the King of Gwynedd, who became known as 'The Welsh Warrior Princess'. At her birth in 1096, the famous Druidic bard Meilyr predicted she would become a great leader of the Welsh. Married to the young Prince of Deheubarth, she supported his mission to build a new Welsh army, while raising a young family in the extreme conditions of life in the mountains. The military struggle was mirrored by personal conflicts, with Gwenllian emerging as a true Welsh heroine. Her story is one of passion, courage and honour, and gives a fascinationg insight into Welsh life at this turbulent time.

The author says: ”In this fictionalisation I have been true to the few original documents which survive from the period, and where they are non-existent my inventions are what I believe to be most likely.”

I found this historical novel interesting in that it gives an image of what life might have been like back in those days (after the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066); but at the same time I have to confess I found it rather hard to properly get into the story and keep the grasp of who was who. For one thing some of the characters have the same or very similar names; like both Gwenllian’s father and her husband were named Gruffudd, and there’s also both an Owen and an Owain (now who of them was the bad guy and who was the good one, again?), and so on. As the names are based on historical facts, one can’t exactly blame the author for that… But it does not make it all easy to pick up the thread again when having had to put the book aside for a while. Gwenllian herself does stand out; it’s the various kings and princes that tend to blend in my head.

I read the book on the Kindle and I haven’t seen it in print, but I would have appreciated a list of characters at the front in this one.

Quote:

‘I can recall,’ said Gwenllian, ‘when my father talked to me of the curlew when I was a child. He showed me how to know it by its long curving bill, and said that its cry was a cry of mourning, a cry of heartbreak.’

Weekend Reflections: Time to Tear Down

Since 1st March, I’ve been following the slow demolition of this old factory/office building, which is to be replaced by new apartment buildings.

Noticing this Monday (11 June) that there wasn’t much left standing, I went round to the other side… And happened to be able to witness the final blow:

http://youtu.be/6p3Fag1PN8w

In case you haven’t got the time to watch the whole video, here is the short version:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

(from Ecclesiastes chapter 3)

Linking to Weekend Reflections
and Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

The Silver 70s

In December 2011, I blogged about having received an email request to use an image I had published on my blog back in 2009. It was not one of my photos, but a scanned image of an old ticket from Leeds Rolarena in 1972 - when at the age of 16 going on 17, I spent a month in Yorkshire, staying with an English family. (If you want to read or revisit that story, you’ll find it here.)

The request came from someone putting together a video for a 1970s exhibition at Leeds City Museum. The exhibition has come and gone (January – April 2012), but the videos from it can now be watched on YouTube (published by the museum). The clip where my ticket appears (briefly) - My 1970s: Going Out - is just one of 52 short videos on a wide variety of topics. If you’re feeling nostalgic about the 1970s, go to YouTube to watch some more…  Knock yourself out!

 

Convertible

Last Sunday I came upon this beauty parked among all the typical family cars outside the supermarket. I’m embarrassingly hopeless at identifying cars – but surely this must be a Cadillac, right?? Coward that I am, I didn’t dare go too close (like lean in to take photos of the interior) – fearing I might set off an alarm or something! … ;)

http://youtu.be/Qe6UpGFlRGM

Cadillac – Hep Stars*

I’m dedicating this post especially to two of my blogging friends: Eva of Eva Ason’s Art who paints charming water colours of old cars (among other things) – and GB who might be missing his “handbag” (recently having returned from New Zealand to his other home in the Hebrides).

* The Hep Stars was a successful Swedish rock groups in the 1960s; outside the Nordic countries probably  best known as a launching point for keyboard player and composer Benny Andersson, who went on to enjoy worldwide success with ABBA. 

They were the first pop stars I “worshipped” back in my pre-teens … ;)

ABC Wednesday: P for Pink

Pretty pink cherry blossom tree

Pink butterfly served on a plate!

Pink Pansies

And while I was putting these pictures together,
an old song started playing in my head…

Scaffold: Lily the Pink

http://youtu.be/u7pHDoJrrz

Did you know (I don’t think I did, or I’d forgotten) that there is an actual story behind these lyrics? Lydia Pinkham (1819 – 1883) was an iconic concocter of a commercially successful herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" meant to relieve menstrual and menopausal pains. It is reputed to have been her son who came up with the idea, in 1875, of making a family business of the remedy. Lydia initially made the remedy on her stove before its success enabled production to be transferred to a factory. Mass marketed from 1876 on, Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound became one of the best known patent medicines of the 19th century.

For ABC Wednesday – P

Macro Monday Musings on 30th April

Suddenly, Spring is here. Just in time!

30th April is the traditional Spring celebration in Sweden – Valborgsmässoafton, Walpurgis Night, followed by 1st May which is Labour Day and a national holiday. As this year 30th April falls on a Monday, I’m sure a lot of people will be having a long weekend with the whole Monday off as well.

30th April is celebrated with bonfires and traditional spring songs; especially in the old university cities.

http://youtu.be/zj10eGkbsds

YouTube video from Umeå (university city in the north)
This is one of our traditional Walpurgis Night choir songs; the lyrics are all about winter giving way to spring and summer.

In some cities a carnival parade, arranged by technology students, is also part of the tradition. (See my Walpurgis Night post from last year.)

I’m not planning on any big spring celebrations for my own part this year. It’s been good to get out a little bit with the camera again over the weekend; but after weeks of bronchitis and other problems, I still find myself getting tired very quickly. Going out at night to breathe in smoke from a bonfire while trying to sing(!) does not seem like the best idea how to treat my still sore respiratory organs…

Outdoors photography is more than usual something of a gamble at the moment. My eyes are still very sensitive to light, and I have to keep my sunglasses on most of the time. The sunglasses are polaroid. The real challenge occurs every time I’m inspired to turn the camera sideways – with the sunglasses on – because then the screen on the camera goes black and I literally can’t see a thing! So occasionally I do have to take the sunglasses off to get a clue what I’m aiming at…

I have to compliment my camera on doing a good job with these cherry blossom macros though. On top of my eyesight problems and wearing sunglasses, there were also strong gusts of wind to deal with, so I had to hold the branches with one hand and manouvre the camera with the other! (These photos are all straight out of the camera, no editing.)

Happy Spring to all of you living in parts of the world where that may be applicable just now!

This post is linked to Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos.

L for Lemons and Love (ABC Wednesday)

I took this photo at the Home & Garden Fair I visited recently; and seeing the lemon tree there brought the old song to mind...

♫ When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
"Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree."
"Don't put your faith in love, my boy", my father said to me,
"I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree."
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower’s sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. ♫

Peter, Paul and Mary singing Lemon Tree
Listen at YouTube

ABC Wednesday – L

Rollermouse

About ten years ago, I got a wrist-rest like this with built-in mouse – called a Rollermouse – as a handicap aid to use with my computer. I got it on ‘permanent loan’ for free and very grateful for that, because back then I had very little money and an uncertain future (this was before I got my handicap pension) and it was a big help since I had (still have) problems using a regular mouse.

I should perhaps add that back then I had an old desktop computer. Now I use it together with a separate keyboard when I use the laptop in the study.

A few years ago, the Rollermouse showed a tendency to sometimes go partly on strike. It was the clicking of the roller-bar that stopped working. It was like that for a while, on and off, with my old laptop. But when I got my new laptop – ‘Bella’ - two years ago, then suddenly the Rollermouse started to work perfectly again with that computer; and has continued to do so, until a few days ago. I’ve connected and disconnected it any number of times during the last two years without problems. Until…

…. the other day it suddenly partly went on strike again, and wouldn’t reconnect whatever I did. When I realized how long I’d had it – really, 10+ years is quite a long time for any computer-related device! – I decided to just buy a new one of my own, since I can now afford it. Last night, I searched and found a web-shop from where I could order and pay by invoice, and on top of all it was on sale just now, and no extra freight cost. So I ordered one.

It’s just that… Guess what I just realized? In the meantime, the old one has once more mysteriously popped back into working order and is again responding as it should! Well, never mind… Actually the gel filled wrist-supports are getting worn too.

Anyway, it struck me that some of you might never have heard of the Rollermouse, and as I also happened last night to come across some YouTube demos of it, I thought I’d introduce it to you.

Swan Lake (Act 2)

http://youtu.be/U_Drjw6qT1E

As promised, here is a video clip of the whooper swans from yesterday, with sound. [Some day I shall have to learn how to edit videos! For now I’m glad if I manage to upload them!]

R for Retro, Rusty and Rustic… and Getting Ready!

… and a barrowful of Christmas Roses … for ABC Wednesday!

The Town has started getting ready for Christmas…

… and inspired by the goings on in town, I put up my own fairy lights on the balcony railing today. I haven’t turned them on yet though, except briefly to check that they were working. But the 1st Advent weekend is only 1½ week away! And today was a good day to get the job done – sunny and dry.

Paul Simon: Getting Ready For Christmas Day

Eye to Eye with a Butterfly

Lots of butterflies in my Butterfly Park today… Here’s a video of a Peacock butterfly, Inachis Io. (Inachus was a river god in Greek mythology, and Io his daughter, “born from his mouth” – a naiad, the nymph of a spring.)

The background sounds come from a railway crossing nearby.

Beach Video

http://youtu.be/h2rgtrzpMYs

My cutest beach finds – live! :)

Butterfly Bed & Breakfast

or watch it here: http://youtu.be/3luDNXGiIOE

Last night when I went out on the balcony to take in the cushion from the deck chair for the night, I discovered I had a visitor. A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly had parked itself on the floor. I went in to fetch the camera, and when I came back it was still there. It folded its wings as I got close but didn’t fly off. A while later it spread its wings, and seemed to have decided to stay the night.

It kept its wings spread all evening. It did not seem quite healthy, but it did still twitch a bit and move its antennae now and then. So I let it be. I really have very little idea of butterflies’ sleeping habits, even if (as far as I’ve noticed) none have chosen to stay on my balcony before. If they come to visit in the daytime, they usually don’t stay more than a few seconds on my flowers.

So when I got up this morning, I was curious to see if it was still there. It was – in the exact same position as I last saw it, and not moving. I thought it had probably died. It did not react to me approaching it with the camera again. But I decided to do a bit of internet research before I decided on any drastic burial ritual.

From Wikipedia I learned that

The adult is striking, with its dark body and red and yellow wings, which have a row of blue dots around the rear edge. However the underwings are dull, which helps to conceal stationary or hibernating individuals. When threatened, resting individuals rapidly open their wings, presenting the dramatic display of colours. This can frighten away young or inexperienced birds.

Wiki says nothing, however, about butterflies just lying still on the floor for more than 12 hours with its wings spread.

Then I came upon some stories about people rescuing dying butterflies by feeding them sugar-water. 

So to test if there was still life in the butterfly, I made some honey-water, and poured out a teaspoon-full just in front of it. This did activate the butterfly. Although it was still not moving its wings at all, it was definitely not dead. From the movements of head and antennae I would say it appreciated the breakfast. So I’ve kept on feeding it a few drops now and then (not quite knowing how much just disappears down through the plastic carpet, nor how much a butterfly eats!) But it is still not moving its wings.

Help. Any butterfly experts out there??? Now what do I do?

With any smaller insect I’d just put it out of it’s (supposed) misery and think no more about it. But a colourful butterfly just sitting there and thankfully drinking honey-water when I serve it…?

I hope the video works. It’s the first video I’ve ever managed to upload to YouTube!

ABC Wednesday: O is for Old(field)

Listen (at YouTube) to Sally Oldfield singing Water Bearer.

Or just look a while at these old trees in an old field…
Somehow they always remind me of the Ents in The Lord of the Rings...