Happy 397th

Yes, another reminder of how the years keep rolling on… Yesterday Borås traditionally celebrated its 397th birthday with free birthday cake for those who happened to be able to meet up in the park at noon. (We keep practising for the big 400 in a few years!)

It was a lovely day for it this year – sun shining from a perfect blue sky (not a single cloud in sight), and yet not to warm either, but around +20 C and a pleasant fresh breeze. (I wish to order this weather for a holiday trip later in July, please! Does anyone know a booking site for that??)

Now what kind of strange bird is this? ▼

▲ Answer: A fake bird of pray trying to scare off guests not welcome at the party – like seagulls and jackdaws…

Even more water lilies in bloom now… (cf previous post)

But hey, there’s also something else floating about in the river just now…

Seems we’ve suddenly got our very own “Nessie”! According to the local newspaper, it’s supposed to be a rainbow-coloured unicorn. (Since when do unicorns have wings – and swim??) It’s here for the Pride Festival that is also taking place this weekend. (To be honest, it was already looking a bit deflated yesterday, compared to when I first saw it a couple of days earlier… Photos below taken with my mobile phone then.)

FMTSO: Favourite Corner

Yesterday offered perfect weather for a Folk Music/ Dance/ Arts & Crafts festival in our Museum Park – with something going on in every nook and cranny, so that it was really hard to choose a favourite corner…

 

A nyckelharpa ("keyed fiddle", or literally "key harp") is a traditional Swedish musical string instrument with keys.

Friday My Town

FMTSO ‘Fruits of the Season’ (Harvest Festival 2014, part 2)

As the month of May is not a season of fruits here, I’m taking you back to the Harvest Festival in September. There was so much going on back back then that I think I left some pictures unposted. I did a Part 1 , but as far as I can find, I never got round to Part 2. Here it is. 

 

A pumpkin competition. There may have been more contributions added later. Between these three, I think there is no doubt!

Ecological vegetables, locally grown.

Locally produced honey.

Bottles and jars of this and that.

Hanging cherry tomatoes

Mushrooms – edible or not?

Help and instruction was offered.

Linked to Friday My Town: Fruits of the Season

September Harvest Festival, Part I (Inside)

Borås Cultural Centre contains the town’s Art Museum, Library, Theatre, and a café.

In September, the annual Harvest Festival usually takes place here - with market stalls and music and other activities going outdoors between the Cultural Centre and the nearby early 20th century church…

… and free apple pie and custard served indoors, in the theatre lobby:

This year there was so much going on in September (both in town, and for me personally) that I never got round to posting my harvest festival pictures back then. They came to mind now, however, when I was looking for something to post for Friday My Town Shoot Out.

The FMSTO theme this week is ‘Inside’, so I start with  some photos I took from the upstairs balcony of the theatre lobby (where I also found a quiet corner to enjoy my own piece of pie!) …

While we’re here, we might also take a peek into the Library, which I have to confess I find rather unpersonal these days:

I must confess I still feel a bit daunted by the ‘robot librarians’... Haven’t actually had much to do with them yet. I can browse the catalogue online from home, and then pick up vs leave borrowed books at a small branch library closer to where I live; where they still have human staff behind the counter. Or at least they did last time I visited! My reading habits have changed a bit over the last few years, with 1/ Kindle, and 2/ special (disability) license to download library ‘talking books’ directly online. This does not mean that I read less, but it means that I mostly read Swedish books ‘by ear’ (and some English ones too) and with my eyes in English on my Kindle (classics for free + buy some); and so do not really need to borrow a lot of regular books from the library any more…

(Postcard recently received from book-loving friend in England – thanks John, I do still love to look at printed books even if I prefer reading on the Kindle now for practical reasons!)

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I’ll save the rest of my harvest festival photos for another post (or two), I think.

This November month has been all wrapped in grey clouds so far, and seems likely to continue the same way…