Spring Shadows, Sunshine and Ice Cream

 

 

With warmer weather this week, even the shadows on the ground have now grown to show that spring is here for real... (The shadow above is from a horse chestnut tree just beginning to unfold its leaves.)

 

The old cemetery is looking greener every day as well.
 

Wood Anemones

On Friday afternoon I bought the first ice cream stick for the season (classic chocolate-covered vanilla), and sat down for a while on a bench in the neighbourhood playground park to eat it.   

 

Quiet Midsummer

 

Midsummer in Sweden is a popular holiday weekend, with Midsummer Eve always celebrated on a Friday, which is not officially a public (bank) holiday, but generally treated as such a day anyway. Traditionally it is celebrated with people gathering in the afternoon and/or evening to play and dance around a pole decoraded with leaves and flowers. City centres are practically deserted, while the coast and anywhere near a lake is likely to be crowded.

Sometimes in the past I've visited afternoon midsummer celebrations at our museum park with old cottages; but not since the pandemic. The only photo I'm able to find just now is this one below, from 2014 (possibly even older).

They had a similar event in that park this year too, in the afternoon of Midsummer Eve; but I was tired and did not feel up for neither the walk there and back again, nor for mingling with a lot of people. Although this weekend hasn't really been excessively hot, I still soon get enough of being out and about during the hottest hours of the afternoon.

What I have been enjoying this weekend though, is the (relative) quiet that comes with quite a few neighbours being away... Not all of them: there have still been kids playing in the nearby football field until late in the evenings. But, for example, a wall-to-wall neighbour and their 'menagerie' (consisting of a frequently screeching bird + a sometimes howling/barking dog) have been away for four days, and that does make a difference... 

And a general fire/barbecue ban (because of the drought) also means no one has been throwing parties on the lawn just outside my building. 

My own balcony is still way too hot all afternoon, though, so I've not been out there much except to water my plants (usually late in the evening).

The flowers in the top photo, with the flag, are not mine; it's a photo I snapped during one of my walks. They belong to an apartment complex (condominium kind) down by the river.

Yellow water lilies are in bloom in the river itself.

 

Before the weekend, I bought some ice cream. My vegan favourite when I can get it is vanilla ice cream made from oats (brand called Oatly). Not only because they sometimes come with "questionable words of wisdom" hidden under the lid... ;-) The other ingredient in the glass above is a mango/passion sorbet (of other brand). - What's your favourite?