Walk in the Park

After a rather rainy and windy week (or so), the sun showed its face again today, and tempted me to go for a walk into town after lunch. 

When I reached the main square, I almost wondered if they had had  a particularly bad storm raging there...? But of course they were just in the process of trimming the trees growing along both sides of the square. (I don't know what kind of trees these are.) 
 

I once again visited the charity shop near the square to drop off a couple of items of clothing that I'm no longer using. (As I have no car and can't carry much at a time, I've been having a "gradual" wardrobe clear out...) And before turning back home, I also visited my favourite tea shop by the square, and the pharmacy for some over-the-counter items. And then walked back home through the park and along the river. 

While many trees I see from home have lost nearly all their leaves now, the park still provides quite a colourful autumn display.

These trees are what I call cherry blossom trees (the ornamental kind). I spring they are covered with pink blossoms; in autumn they provide a different kind of beauty!
 

  

 

 

 

 

One of my favourite sculptures, the green rabbit with revolving eyes - which means its facial expression keeps changing. Its official title is "Mate Hunting", and the artist behind it is Marianne Lindberg De Geer. 

I took even more tree photos on my way home, but I think I'll save some for another day - not yet sure how much I'll be getting out and about the rest of the week (or what the weather will be like!) ... 

Leftovers

 

A few "zoom" photos from a sunny day earlier in October, taken with my compact camera.

After a sunny weekend and start to this week, we're now (Tuesday) back to grey and rainy weather again - and today I haven't been out at all. Today that actually suited me just fine, though, as I had the laundry room booked anyway, and three loads to wash...  

Sunny Sunday

     

This morning started out foggy - but later it turned into a amazingly crisp, clear and sunny autumn day. I went for another walk down to the riverside, and back home via the cemetery. I live only a short walk from both - but today I walked slowly on purpose, just for the pleasure of staying out for a while (an hour or so).

Skywatch Friday

 

Linking to Skywatch Friday 

It's been a week of more clouds than sunshine, and also quite a bit of rain on and off - but still quite a few colourful autumn leaves "hanging on" to brighten up the views. 

It's also been a "going round the mulberry bush" kind of week (i.e. a week of various repetitive household chores). (We have the song in Swedish, too - but here we go round a juniper bush!) 

On Monday afternoon I went for a walk down to the river and back. Tuesday was laundry day for me. It was also raining more or less all day, and I don't think I got out at all. 

Wednesday was sunny, and I got some "autumn cleaning" done on my balcony: Taking down the "privacy" trellis from one side of the railing (most of its fake leaves "gone with the wind" now anyway!); and then getting the (two) plastic rugs off the (metal) floor, and hanging those on the railing to dry in the sun that afternoon, and then rolling them up and put them to spend another couple of days in a corner of my bathroom - before I finally got them down to the basement storage today. (They're getting old and stiff, and so am I, so I'm not sure they'll be laid out again next summer...) 

Thursday was grocery delivery day (in the late morning, before lunch). In the afternoon I got out for a while, for my usual walk around the old cemetery. Today, Friday, it was raining most of the day again; and on top of that it was another day of constant noise and vibrations from the park construction work going on nearby: Still just a huge muddy field that seems to be craving endless layers of grit, sand and soil to raise it to the same level as the surfaces next to it... I did manage a short walk during a break in the rain, but stayed even closer to home (i.e. did not go over to the cemetery). 

 

Grand Finale

 

Rowan Tree

  

Unidentified bush along the river

We have an expression in Swedish that doesn't have an exact equivalent in English. I would say about these dahlias that they "sjunger på sista versen", which literally means "singing the last verse". Trying to find an equivalent in English, the nearest I come is that they're "on their last legs". (?) - But I guess both expressions can apply: both to flowers still keeping upright, even if some of their neighbours have already given up, and also to trees still hanging on to the major part of their leaves, while knowing the next storm may change that all to quickly...

Huge Horse Chestnut Tree (in the cemetery)

Grand Finale: "A particularly elaborate, high-energy, or spectacular ending, often featuring special effects like fireworks or a full ensemble."

Silence is golden

 

I'm finding it hard to distinguish one weekday from another just now... Monday through Friday this week have been filled with constant background noise and vibrations from the construction work going on in the nearby old football field, to turn that into a park. (Actually harder to imagine now than when they first got started, as just now it's just a playground for huge excavators and trucks and ground flattening machines playing around in wet mud... I'm finding the noise (and especially the vibrations) very tiring as it makes it hard to concentrate on anything at all; but at the same time I also don't have the energy to escape from home for very long at a time. 

Photo from Wednesday
(when it was still mostly dry)

On Thursday it was raining all day, and I didn't get out at all except for a very short walk in the late afternoon, after the moving around of mud had stopped. I know I managed to get some vacuuming done (competing with the noise from outside) - but as for what else I may have been able to get done (or not), I've already managed to forget...

Friday offered somewhat better weather (at least not as wet!) so I went for another walk to the charity shop in town around noon, to donate another old winter jacket. (If this very noisy stage of the park project keeps on much longer, I might end up with a proper wardrobe clear-out!) 

Today is Saturday, though, and no over-time going on in the muddy field - so it's been blissfully quiet! I slept late, and have then been trying to catch up with a bit of this and that - but mostly just appreciating the silence... (Noting to myself that I've not even really wanted to have radio/TV on much!)

Grey sky, but not raining in the afternoon, so I also got out for a quiet (...) walk in the cemetery...

 

 

Snapping these photos of gardening tools in the cemetery may have been inspired by me having read Jenny's (of the blog Salt&Light) post about "Red Things" earlier in the day! ;) 

Wednesday Walk

 

Yesterday was laundry day for me, and I did not get out until late afternoon, when I was finished with that - and then just a short walk. The photo above is from some other day, but autumn is in steady progress here now - every day more and more yellow leaves dropping to the ground, and (on weekdays) leaf blowers at work both in the cemetery where I usually walk, and around the estate where I live. And on top of that, the noise from the excavators and other machines at work to transform the old football field to a park... 

Today I again woke up to noises and vibrations of that kind, but also to a day promising a bit of sun. So I decided to try and escape my noisy immediate surroundings for a while by going for a walk into town - again combined with handing in another bag of clothes to a charity shop. This time, just one item, but a rather bulky one: An old winter coat, which I had decided to consider replaced by the new one that I bought on the shopping day with my brother when he was here at the end of August. And as I noted last time I was in the charity shop that they had started a special collection for winter clothes, that was a reminder for me to include my old coat in my washing yesterday; and then no reason to wait further to also get it off to the shop. 

The fountain in the main square was "up and running" today; and some new plantings had been made for autumn.

 

One of the bridges across the river, leading to the park, is decorated with pink symbols to remind of October being breast cancer awareness month. The "dressed statue" in the park had lost her knitted hat (cf my Saturday post), but was still wearing her pink skirt + message. (I did not take a new photo today.) 

While I was in town, I also popped in at the book shop to ask for the book mentioned in my Monday post. They had it, so I bought it. (The fourth and last in a series of which I already had the previous three in print.)

 I walked back home along the river. In some places, on a calm day, not all easy to sort out what's "real" vs reflection! ;)

 And at the "riverside" entrance to the cemetery, there were new autumn plantings, too:

 

How To Spend A Rainy Day

Today has been a thoroughly grey and rainy day, and by now (~ 5:15 pm) I've given up any thoughts of going out. The photos of colourful maple leaves in this post were taken one day last week, when I remembered to bring my "proper" camera on my walk (with better zoom capacity than my mobile). 

 

 

 

Of course I thought this morning that if I'm not going out, it will be a good day to get some "housework" done. 7 hours later, I can't really say I managed that either. As so often these days, I seem to have spent most of today struggling with "tech stuff" like updating apps not working as they should (or me not understanding how to get them to do so).

 

The main "hiccup" today was trying to update a (Swedish) library app (for e-books) that I hadn't used in a good while. The library had changed their login procedure, and I in turn wasn't even sure I remembered the old one correctly... So that took a while to sort out. I finally managed that part - but then I still had to struggle for a good while longer to also borrow the e-book, download it, and learn how to make (and keep!) the settings of font, text size and keeping track of how far I'd read etc. I finally managed to actually also read about 100 pages it (out of 700 something) today, though.

 

What motivated me was that I had just read a review of this newly published book, which is the fourth and last installment in a series of which I have read the previous three - and also have those in print. I'll probably end up buying this last one as well (to have the series complete); but as I do find it easier to read enlarged text on my tablet these days, I decided to try the library e-book for now. (The author, Susanna Alakoski, is Swedish-Finnish, and these four novels have to do with the history of textile industry in both countries - also involving Borås where I live. Alas I can't find that any of her books - neither this series nor others - have been translated to English.) 

 

So that more or less sums up my day: Struggling with a library app, reading a few chapters, and then blogging about it... 

 

AI-generated image from 2024. (I'm not in the mood just now to check if since then AI has learned to keep the rain outdoors...)

 

Entering October

A sunny autumn day yesterday (30 September), and I took advantage of it for a walk into town and back for an errand. As always, trying to "combine business with pleasure" - or the other way round! (My "business" this time was to get a couple of things from the pharmacy before the prescription expired.)

 

 

 On the way back I passed by an even older cemetery (closer to the city centre) than the one I usually walk in. I only passed it on the outside of the wall, but spotted this 'tricolor' tree whose bottom branches were still green, while the top of it was all red.

Another view of treetops from the same cemetery.

And a young Rowan tree about half way on my way home.
With red leaves as well as red berries!

 

Home is a less peaceful place than usual these days, at least on weekdays, as the project of turning the old football field nearby into a park is now fully under way... 

These two photos were snapped one afternoon last week when I happened to be passing while the workers were on a break. Except for a break now and then for coffee or lunch or whatever, they're pretty much "at it" all day now - and very noisily. They've dug up the whole field and are putting new layers of gravel and sand and soil on top. I think most of the noise and vibrations just now are to do with flattening it all out again with heavy machines running back and forth... A tiresome constant background noise throughout the day, which also penetrates closed windows. We're having another fine autumn day today, but just now I can't escape by going for a walk, as I'm waiting for a delivery of groceries...

... Ah, a machine just stopped and it became all quiet... For a blissful minute...

I keep telling myself that it's temporary, though - and even if I'd have preferred the old (and usually empty!) field to be left alone, after all it's better that they turn it into a park than if they had decided to build more apartment blocks... (I suspect the ground there is not the right kind of foundation for building more houses on, though.)

The photo above is from 25 September last year - and was my chosen picture for October in my own photo calendar for 2026. (Just now I'm not sure why, as there's not all that much autumn colours in it!)

...

To end with some good news, the blog list on my side-bar seems (at last!) to be updating properly again, since yesterday. While I've noted here and there that others seem to have got theirs fixed much sooner, I was beginning to fear mine would remain "stuck in the past" forever... But it seems one should never give up hope - even with things like that!! :)