The Adventurous Bumble Bee

 

There are lots of bumble bees about around here just now, trying to make the most out of the rhododendrons. However, some of them also seem to be looking for I'm-not-sure-what - and in really unlikely places...

 

The photo below is AI generated, but a surprisingly good reconstruction of what I found yesterday morning when I came to raise the venetian blinds in my kitchen window.

 

What I may not have quite succeeded in explaining to AI is that my blinds sit inside triple-glazed windows. Even so - yesterday morning, underneath the bottom of the blinds, there was a bumble bee lying completely still on its back. After I had raised the blind it was still lying there, in the same position, trapped between the outer and inner glass panes. So I was convinced it was dead. How on earth it had managed to get in there still goes beyond my understanding. That window had not been opened in weeks, and even if I open it, the window frame is held together by two 'latches' that I need tools to open. The last time I washed that window was when I put up my new curtains a couple of months ago - but then I only washed the outside and the inside, without taking it apart. Where the bumble bee  managed to find an entry in between the glass panes from outside remains a mystery. (Not to mention the question why it would even get the idea to try!) 

 

Anyway... It bothered me to have a dead body inside my window, so I found a tool and managed to get the window frame apart... 

 

... And then I possibly gave a scream (at least internally!), because the dead body suddenly started to wave its legs about... 

In the midst of shock, I temporarily forgot all about what I recently read on Janice's blog about First Aid for weak bees, and just went ahead with my original plan - which was to gently lift the body bee with a piece of paper and throw it back out from where it must originally (somehow!) have come... 

 

However, right down below that window there are rhododendron in bloom. So if it was able to crawl about at all, hopefully it was also able to find its own nourishment. And if not - well, at least it got an adventurous life, and a half decent burial... 

Kitchen window with venetian blinds raised.

"An adventure always has an element of the unknown.
Being adventurous means you're willing to go
where you haven't been before and do things
you've never done, even if you don't know
how it's going to turn out." 
(Vocabulary.com)

Air Balloons and Polar Bears

In Gränna, besides polkagrisar, you will also come across a lot of air balloons, polar bears and the name Andrée.

A wooden balloon sculpture in a roundabout; made by Calle Örnemark (cf. earlier post The Giant).

Polar bear offering home-made ice cream.
(We did buy a portion of this - guess what flavour??)

And if ice cream sounds too cold, there are alternatives… like ‘McAndrée Burgergrill & Pizza’ (?!)…

… or ‘Engineer Andrée’s confectionery wholesale’…

This may all seem puzzling – unless you have done your homework beforehand, and already know that Gränna is also the birth town of S. A. Andrée (1854-1897): A Swedish engineer, physicist, balloonist and polar explorer; and the leader of an attempt back in 1897 to reach the Geographic North Pole by hydrogen balloon. The expedition was unsuccessful, however, and resulted in the deaths of all three of its participants. There is a whole separate museum dedicated to this adventure. ´

So let’s go and have a closer look at that! (in the red building to the right)

S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an effort to reach the North Pole, in which all three expedition members perished. S. A. Andrée (1854–97), the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. He was accompanied on the journey by Nils Strindberg (1872–97), photographer, and Knut Frænkel (1870–97), another engineer. The main scientific purpose of the expedition was to map the area by means of aerial photography.

      

There was a lot of media fuss about the expedition beforehand. And then – they just disappeared! For 33 years the fate of the Andrée expedition remained one of the unsolved riddles of the Arctic – until a chance discovery was made in 1930 of the expedition's last camp, on Kvitøya (White Island) in Svalbard. Some of the items from the expedition were salvaged, including Strindberg’s undeveloped photos (some of which could be saved) and Fraenkel’s journals with meteorological observations; providing answers to some of the mysteries.

Photo from the takeoff from Svalbard in 1897
(Postcard bought at the museum)

After they lifted off from Svalbard in July 1897, the balloon lost hydrogen quickly and crashed on the pack ice after only two days. The explorers were unhurt but had to trek back south across the drifting icescape. Inadequately clothed, equipped and prepared, they did not make it to safety. As the Arctic winter closed in on them in October, the group ended up exhausted on the deserted Kvitøya (White Island) in Svalbard. This is where they died, and where the remains of their camp were found 33 years later.

One of Strindberg’s photos showing all three of them pushing their boat/sled over the ice. Strindberg used a cable release to take the photo. (Postcard)

Modern researchers all seem to agree that Andrée's scheme was unrealistic. He over-optimistically relied on the winds blowing more or less in the direction he wanted to go, on being able to fine-tune his direction with the drag ropes, on the balloon being sealed tight enough to stay airborne for 30 days, on no ice or snow sticking to the balloon to weigh it down - etc.

Click here to read the full Wikipedia article (and see more photos).

Below are my photos from the museum.

Strindberg’s camera

A temporary member of the expedition

Authentic basket from a smaller test balloon

Replica of the balloon used in the film Flight of the Eagle (‘Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd’) from 1982, directed by Jan Troell.

Polar bear, 1½ years old, from Greenland (1974)

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.