Weekend Reflections

 

It's been a rather windy week here, but it calmed down just in time for Weekend Reflections... No long walk yesterday, but I did go down to the riverside for a bit.

 

I can't quite decide whether this looks like a spidery creature rising from the water, or aliens having landed from above. As I have been walking past the place for years, though, I know it to be the last remnants of an old wooden jetty, which had been an obvious safety hazard for years. So when I just recently found most of it gone (at last!), the only thing that puzzled me was why this weird-looking support structure had been left standing. Was it just because they didn't have the right equipment to remove it - or does it have something to do with this measuring stick attached to one of the legs? (To do with checking the water level in the river, I have always assumed - even if personally I can't figure out how to "read" it...)

 

 

Linking to Weekend/Street Reflections #217

 

Peek-a-boo

Guess what else that was missing around here has turned up again?

Today

 Yes! The red birdfeeder is back!

I stood and stared at it for a while before it hit me what was different about it. It was obviously the same one - apart from one thing... Can you spot it?

Before

Before                                                     After

 They have given it a larger roof. I suppose the reason is that the old roof was smaller than the feeding board at the bottom; and a larger roof provides a bit better protection. (?)

 

The Mystery of the Missing Watch

 

It's not just bird feeders that mysteriously go missing around here. (Cf. my recent "Weekend" post.) Yesterday, when I was going to the hospital for my scan, I couldn't find my wristwatch. I only wear the watch when I go out; but especially when I'm going somewhere by bus, and/or have appointments to keep, I really miss it if I'm not wearing it. (My phone usually rests in my handbag except when I'm using it to take photos.) When I get home, I normally (automatically, by habit) take it off and put it on top of the chest of drawers in the hall. And if it's not there, I will usually find it either on the kitchen table, my bedside table, the coffee table next to my TVchair, or the desk in my study...

Yesterday, it was not to be found in any of those places, so I had to leave home and manage my bus travels and hospital appointment without it (frequently checking the time on my phone instead). 

When I got back home, I resumed my search. Besides the most likely places, I also looked for it in a lot of extremely unlikely ones - but to no avail. 

I also could not remember when it was that I had last worn it. Sunday, I did not go out all day. Monday, I was only out for a very short walk. I might have worn the watch then - but not necessarily. Tuesday was laundry day. I probably did not wear the watch then as I had the phone with me down to the laundry room. And last week I did not walk any further than the cemetery either, and might or might not have worn the watch... But if I did, could perhaps the wristband have broken so that I had dropped it somewhere outdoors...? It did not seem very likely, but then neither did it seem likely that I had managed to "lose" the watch within my own flat!

After another indoors search this morning, I gave up, and decided that I had better just buy a new one. My "lost" one was very far from new anyway, and of no great value. It was another sunny day without snow and ice, so a good day for errands. I went for a walk into town, to a watch shop there, and bought myself a new, cheapish, rather similar one.

After that purchase, I took a bus to the shopping centre "across town" for some other errands (more about that in some other post); and from there another bus back to the railway station, and then another 15 min walk back home from there. 

Later in the afternoon, I was going to take out some garbage to the bins at the corner of the building. I opened a drawer in the hall bureau and grabbed my set of "basement" keys - which includes the keys to the laundry room and my basement storage rooms, and is on a neck strap.

As I picked them up, something came loose from the knuckled up neck strap... Guess what?

Mystery solved. Obviously, on Tuesday - laundry day - my watch had been lying in its usual place on top of the chest of drawers in the hall. Coming up from my last turn to the laundry room, I had put down the key-strap on top of it, and then when I put the keys back in the drawer, the watch had got entangled in the strap and went down in the drawer with those keys... Just a look in the drawer during my serach was not enough to detect it; and when going out yesterday and today, I used another set of keys that I keep in my handbag.

So now I have two...! (Old one, left. New one, right.)

I had to laugh, because I even said to the girl who sold me the new watch in the shop, that "if nothing else, buying a new one is probably the best way to get the old one to turn up"...

 

Light and Dark

The sun keeps shining - but the same cannot be said about the basement lights ...

We're having another glourious September week, with afternoon temperatures reminding more of high summer than autumn. 

On Monday I walked into town for a haircut, and also could not resist snapping a couple more reflection photos.

On Tuesday I walked in the opposite direction, to the supermarket for a few things (no photos).

Wednesday (yesterday) was Laundry day for me, so then I did not go far from home - just a turn around the neighbourhood when I was done with that. 

 

Red berries in the old cemetery;
their name unknown to me.  

Before that, my laundry afternoon was a somewhat spooky adventure this week, though. First of all, the lights in the (windowless) basement corridor weren't working. They're of the kind that are supposed to come on automatically when sensing movement - but yesterday only the one just opposite the lift (elevator) was functioning... It was ok inside the laundry room itself, though.

When I got back up to my flat, I made an online report of that, and also a separate report of having noted that the dustpan was missing from the laundry room cleaning equipment. 

Next time I got down, both brooms had disappeared as well! So then I thought okay, someone must have borrowed them all temporarily... (Why first only the dustpan, and then also the brooms, still mystifies me, though!)

However, when I got back down the last time to collect my final load from the drier, all three cleaning tools had been replaced. It was not the same old ones that had been put back, though, but different ones. Definitely not brand new (very far from) - but also definitely not the same ones. I can only presume that the service staff must be keeping a secret stack of old runaway brooms and dustpans somewhere and circulate them when needed...

AI generated image

 (As for the lack of light in the corridor, after my first wander in the dark, the next times I went down I brought a pocket flashlight with me...)

Swedish whitebeam tree. There are several of these around the housing estate and street where I live.
 
Today, I walked into town again in the morning - this time for a pharmacy errand - and on the way, I noted a definite change of colour now in certain trees...
 

In the afternoon, I also went for a shorter walk to the nearby district library again, to return the book I borrowed last time, and look for another (ended up borrowing two). 

 

This time, I also remembered to take a photo of an interior detail that caught my eye already on the first visit - these wonderfully decorated dark door frames... Most of the doors have been removed to enable visitors to circulate through the rooms, but I also noticed one now with the door still there, and closed.

Not easy to do photographic justice to, but enlarged and with some adjusting of colour you can see the pattern:

 

Pretty in Pink - and Red!

 
I don't have a lot of flowers on my balcony this year; but one of my geraniums, which had pink flowers when I bought it back in spring, has recently surprised me by producing red ones as well, on the same plant. And even stranger (?) - some that are part pink, part red!

 

 

Linking to 

Read in January 2020

The Royal Baths Murder
#4 in the Yorkshire Murder Mystery series
by J.R. Ellis (2019)
Kindle + Audible (9:46 h)
Audio narration by Michael Page

A writer of crime novels is found murdered at the Victorian baths in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate. The murderer, whoever it was, seems to have mysteriously vanished into thin air - and on top of all, it all took place during a crime writing festival! Another challenge for DCI Jim Oldroyd and his team... 

This is the fourth (and so far the last) in the Yorkshire Murder Mysteries series, which I happened to come across back in the autumn. I read the first two in October, the third in November, and this last one in January. I'd say you probably don't necessarily have to read them in the right order, as the individual mysteries in each book really come before the private lives of the detectives in this series. Myself, I bought the first one at cheap special deal price; and then decided to get the others as well as they weren't too pricey either. They also all came with a cheap deal on the audio version if you bought the Kindle as well. I like being able to switch between text and audio - and when dialects are involved (in this case Yorkshire), it's extra nice to get some "audio support" for the right atmosphere. 

The Vanishing Box
# 4 in the Stephens & Mephisto series (set in Brighton)
by Elly Griffiths
(Kindle)

I love another mystery series by Elly Griffiths, which is set in Norfolk and with the forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway as lead character.  However, until now I had not read any book in this  series, which is set in Brighton in the 1950s, and in the world of variety shows and stage magic. When I happened to find this one at special deal price for Kindle, I decided to give it a go, even if it's the 4th in the series and I hadn't read the previous ones. 

"Christmas 1953. Max Mephisto and his daughter Ruby are headlining Brighton Hippodrome, an achievement only slightly marred by the less-than-savoury support act: a tableau show of naked 'living statues'. This might appear to have nothing in common with DI Edgar Stephens' current case of the death of a quiet flowerseller, but if there's one thing the old comrades have learned it's that, in Brighton, the line between art and life - and death - is all too easily blurred..."

Much as I suspected beforehand, the showbiz setting and characters did not appeal to me the same way that the Ruth Galloway series does. For some reason I've never really been a huge fan of variety shows and stage magic - whereas I always had a certain fascination for archaeology and history. That said, I have to admire the author for her ability to switch between the two different (sub-)genres.

Read in Nov/Dec - Book Reviews

Trying to "catch up" with a number short reviews of what I've been reading and listening to in November and December...

 

The Murder at Redmire Hall by J.R. Ellis
(Kindle + Audible)
No 3 in the Yorkshire Murder Mysteries series


Lord Redmire intends to perform an impossible locked-door illusion on live TV. But the trick goes fatally wrong - and right in front of special guest DCI Jim Oldroyd... As Oldroyd and his DS Stephanie Johnson soon discover, nearly everyone at the event had a reason to resent the eccentric lord. But in this case, it’s not just a question of who did it and why - but how?

It may have been this locked-door mystery that made me look up and re-read another classic in that genre. (Which I've read before, in Swedish, but I always seem to forget the details of mysteries after a while, so usually fall for the same traps when I reread ...) 

The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (1922)
(Kindle)
 
Yes - by the author of Winnie the Pooh! Milne wrote other things as well, but I think this was his only mystery novel. The book was an immediate success when it was first published, frequently reprinted, and is still regarded as a classic in its genre. The setting is an English country house, where the owner has been entertaining a small house party, when a long-lost brother, the black sheep of the family, arrives - and is shortly afterwards found shot under mysterious circumstances. A friend of one of the guests turns up, and together the two friends take on trying to solve the mysteries in a Sherlock & Watson fashion.
 

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker (1940)
(Kindle + Audible) 

This is a book I got curious about after reading a review by Terra at the blog *Terra Garden*. I first read it on Kindle, but then decided this was one I'd also probably enjoy listenting to (and perhaps more than once) - so bought the audio as well. (I don't regret that. The audio narration is very good too.) 

The narration style reminded me a bit of one of my favourite classics, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. However, Miss Hargreaves also has a touch of magic to it - although I don't think the word magic is ever used in the story. (Mary Poppins also came to mind for me - even if I suspect that both Mary and Miss Hargreaves might resent the comparison...)

It is not a children's story, but it involves a great deal of whimsicality or "spur of the moment" ideas - and afterthought. It all starts when the narrator, a young man by name of Norman, and his friend Henry, are away on a holiday and visit a church as tourists. In conversation with the man showing them around in that church, they "happen" to invent a fictive acquaintance - Miss Hargreaves. This spur of the moment impulse comes to cause them a lot more trouble than they could ever have imagined...

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
 (Audio, 18:37, multiple narrators)

Quick summary: Not worth the time!!

I kept hoping that at some point I'd reach an 'aha' moment in this book... But it never came! It's a fantasy story, and like many great stories it starts with a door to a different world. However, to me this book read like a tedious computer game of the kind where ever so often you just come to a dead end, and have to start over; and then it's the same story all over again with very little change; until another dead end, and so on and so on. For a while I thought that perhaps to realize this was meant to be "the point" - but having reached the last page, I still couldn't really see it leading anywhere. So either I missed the point, or else there wasn't one. Only one thing seemed certain, and that was that I wasn't going to try and listen to it again to find out.  So for once, I actually made use of my Audible membership benefit to send back a book one didn't like (and get a credit to use for another instead).

Decided to "play it safe" with the next listen, and catch up with the latest Botswana No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency adventures... Oops, I found there were two I had missed...
 

The Colours of All the Cattle by A McCall Smith
(Audio, 8 h, narrated by Adjoa Andoh) (2018)
No 19 in the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series 

Mma Potokwane suggests to Mma Ramotswe that she run for a seat on the city council - against Mma Makutsi’s old enemy Violet Sephotho...

To the Land of Long Lost Friends by A McCall Smith
(Audio, 7:35 h, narrated by Adjoa Andoh) (2019)
No 20 in the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series 

Mma Ramotswe takes on a case for a childhood acquaintance; and Charlie is dreaming of getting married, but wondering how to be able to afford it.

McCall Smith is one productive writer...!
I actually found both these quite enjoyable, though.

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
(Audio, 2:07 h) 

Letters written by J. R. R. Tolkien (alias Father Christmas) for his children, between 1920 and 1943. The book was released after his death. I'm guessing it's best read in print with the original illustrations - but the audio presentation was quite nice to listen to as well (with Christmassy music interposed between the letters).
 

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
(Kindle) (2008)

I haven't quite finished this book yet, but hope to do so before the end of the year (or else, at the very beginning of the next one). Sarah Addison Allen writes novels classified as "magical realism" and "chic lit". I think I've read them all now; this was her second out of six. (They're stand-alones so the order doesn't really matter.)  
Typically the magic in her books has to do with food (especially sweets) - like women having inherited a special witchcraft kind of knowledge how to use secret ingredients to create certain effects. In this book, she also sort of gives new dimensions both to hiding things (or people!) "in the closet", and of books turning up just when you need them (even if you're not looking for them), giving you hints to what you ought to do...

Ismantorp Fortress, Öland

Road Trip 2018, Part 18

From Karum’s Alvar with the Bronze Age stone ship, we went on to also have a look at the ruins of Ismantorp Fortress; an old ringfort dating back to between 200-600 A.D.

I struggled with how to present this place, but decided to let you see it pretty much the way we did. All I knew beforehand was really that the fortress is the largest and probably also the oldest on Öland; but also has the unusual feature of no less than nine gateways in the wall.

The fort is situated kind of “in the middle of nowhere”; and from the parking space, we had to follow a woodland walkpath to get there.

When the woodland opened up, there was the ancient limestone ringwall in the background; said to have a circumference of approximately 300 meters and a diameter of 125 meters.

From the burnt grass and some trees already in autumn colours (this was 18th July!) you can tell how very hot and dry the summer was – and that we’re once again on “alvar” kind of ground (cf. previous post).

Entering “the main gate” in the wall (well, the one used as such nowadays, anyway!)

Within the wall are the foundations of around 90-100 buildings, with an open place in the middle.

Getting an overview of the place from the ground level is difficult… If not for the sign and map at the entrance (+ having read a little about it beforehand) I don’t think we’d have had much clue what we were looking at inside!

Because of the unusual construction with the nine gates in the wall + all the buildings inside, opinons seem to vary about the purpose of this fort. On the one hand, the layout is thought to be inspired by Roman military camps; but on the other hand, the large number of gates makes it seem unlikely that it was built primarily for defense. The buildings are said to have been homes, workshops, animal sheds and barns; but at the same time, archaelogical excavations have provided very little evidence of the fortress having served as a permanent settlement.

There seem to be three main theories – and I suppose they don’t necessarily contradict or exclude each other:
1/ A military training camp, perhaps also used for storage of goods, livestock and slaves brought back from raids abroad.
2/ A fortified trading site, like Gråborg (another ancient stronghold on Öland, which we also visited on the same day)
3/ A ritual/religious center. This theory is supported by the nine gates, as the number nine is important in the old Norse mythology. (For one thing, there were nine “worlds” all connected to the mythical tree Yggdrasil. Was there perhaps once a big tree growing in the middle of this fortress? Who knows!)

Aerial photo of Ismantorp fortress (1997), from Swedish Wikipedia