Weekend Reflections

 

Linking to Weekend/Street Reflections #300 

Monday this week (19th October) did not only offer blue sky and amazing autumn colours in the trees, but also perfect river reflections... :) 

The photo at the top shows a view across the river to the city park (in Borås, Sweden). The second one shows an old industrial complex along the same river. (Those who have been following this blog will no doubt recognise it from many previous photos - but on a day like this, I can never resist just taking one more...) Not sure what kinds of businesses reside there now, but originally they were no doubt to do with the textile industry. 

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).

On Second Thought...

 ... perhaps I was a bit premature in declaring a sense of autumn in the air already?

Anyway, today we were back to a clear blue sky with just a few decorative fluffy white clouds, and pleasant summery temperatures around 21-22C (~70F), with only a light breeze.

I phoned my hairdresser in the morning, and she was able to squeeze me in for a haircut  at 1 pm. So I just had sandwich for lunch, and then set off on a walk into town around 12:15. 

 

The city park and the little square across the river from there were full of people enjoying the sun.

See that low wooden chair in the foreground? That's new for this summer and the woman sitting in it seemed to find it the perfect place to spend her lunch break (or whatever! - maybe she was still on holidays...) 

After my haircut (which only takes about 20 minutes), I also took the opportunity of a couple of other minor errands. As so often when in town, I visited the tea shop by the main square and stocked up on some loose leaf teas. Then I passed through one of my favourite clothes shops - just to have a "peek" really, but my eyes happened to fall on a denim shirt that I liked... So I tried that on, and ended up buying it. Not quite an impulse buy, really, as I have been on the lookout for something like it for a while. I bought it in a size large enough to wear on top of a t-shirt, so it can also be used as a light summer jacket.

 

On my way back, I stopped at the ice cream café in the park, and had small beaker of vegan mango ice-cream at one of their tables outdoors, before taking on the rest of the walk home. 

In my previous post I mentioned Goldenrod in bloom (Swedish: gullris), but didn't supply a close-up - as on that day I hadn't actually been up close to them... Yesterday, I did come closer to some in the old cemetery, though. So if anyone is still feeling unsure of what kind of flower I was referring to, here's a photo:

We have a proverb in Swedish that would translate "A beloved child has many names". And of course it's also quite common that many children have the same name... So to clarify: The Latin "family name" for this plant is Solidago - while the variety common here in Sweden /(since way back) is Solidago virgaurea. Historically it's been used for various medicinal purposes, without any known negative side-effects (Wikipedia says). It's also not known for causing allergies/hay-fever - and is not regarded as invasive. 

Some other (from our point of view 'foreign') species of Solidago have also been spreading in Sweden in later years, though, and are regarded as invasive. I think (or assume) that the ones that I see around where I live are the old trusted kind, though. 

Wet and Dry

 I had a few comments on my previous post about how it still looks rather green here - and as I replied to some, for one thing we've not had the same long-lasting extreme heat as further south in Europe (Britain included); and for another we've probably also had more rain (even if mostly rather unpredictable showers combined with thunder). 

In our area/town there has also so far been no ban on using sprinklers for watering, which means that the places where I usually walk and snap photos - like the old cemetery nearby, and the park down in the city centre - have had extra help to remain predominantly green. 

However, today I walked a different way down to the riverside, and snapped the photo below to show you one example of places nearby where it's more obvious that it's really "fundamentally" rather dry around here too:

 
This is the grassy hillside below the cemetery up on the hill; and on the other side of the street, a slope down to the railway running in a valley further down below looks much the same.

But then down by the river, it's quite easy to forget about the drought again for a while. (There are dams at the northern vs the southern end of town to adjust the water level through the city centre, and it has been kept normal so far.)

 Water lilies are now in bloom in certain places in the river - here, yellow ones. (Alas as I only had my phone camera, I could not really zoom in the flowers properly.)

 

Entering the Month of May

 

Above, my photo calendar picture for the month of May (photo from mid April, 2025).

As we enter the month of May this year, there are also still cherry blossom trees in bloom.

On Friday 1st May (Labour Day and a holiday) I did not go very far, but just went for a stroll around the estate where I live. Even so, I caught quite a few "signs of spring":

 Narcissi, grapehyacinths and dandelions together in one flowerbed. (I'm guessing the dandelions weren't planted, but I quite like them in the mix...)

 

A single tulip next to a park bench where I sat down for a while.

 Cherry blossom in the playground park. 

 

On Saturday 2nd May, I took a bus into town and after my errands there walked back home through the city park and along the river.

 Chestnut trees unfolding their leaves.

The main square with the old Town Hall in the background, and fountain in the foreground. The Town Hall was built in 1910, and as the district court has just moved out of there to new premises, it's now under discussion what it's going to be used for instead. 

The fountain has images reflecting the town's history of textile industry.

The round building in the park is a restaurant/café.

 Yellow flowerbed along the river in the park.

The Green Rabbit, one of my favourite sculptures. It's official name is Mate Hunting, and its eyes keep moving (only a little each day) so that they're never quite in the exact same position as last time you passed by... Artist: Marianne Lindberg de Geer.

 

It was a summery kind of day, and people were even sunbathing along the river...

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections  (More "street" than reflections this time!)

High Water (Monday Reflections)

No, there is no linky site that I know of called "Monday Reflections"... Just some after-thoughts to yesterday's post, where I showed some photos of very low water in our river - to do with warnings for torrential rain, which in reality decided to take another way.

While the warnings issued, and the precautions taken, turned out not really necessary here - below is a collage of photos I snapped off my TV-screen, showing what happened in some other places in Sweden this past weekend:

Meanwhile, here in Borås (reputed to be the rainiest city in the country!) we were just staring at "man-made", unusually low water levels in the river for a few days - which have now been restored back to a peaceful normal. 

The photos below are from my walk along the river into the city centre today:

 Tree almost dipping it's lower branches into the water... 

... Blue skies and perfect reflections ...

  

Low Water (Weekend Reflections)

 

The water level in the river flowing through my town is unusually low just now.

 Ironically, what caused it was recent weather warnings for torrential rain and flooding! 

The water level in the river through the central parts of the town can be regulated by two dams, one at the northern end, not far from a lake; and one at the southern end, a short walk away from where I live. It's the latter that you see in the top photo above.

This past week, there were serious weather warnings for heavy rain and thunder in our area of Sweden, with high risk of flooding in certain places (but not really predictable exactly where). So the town authorities made the decision to take precautions to avoid the river flooding in the central parts of town. However - the worst of the rain and thunder took slightly different paths than expected, and just around here we only got rather normal amounts rain.

 
... Apparently, adjusting the water levels back to normal isn't quite as simple as just turning on a tap somewhere; so will take some time! ... 

(The explanation about what happened I read in the local newspaper.) 

 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections #241

 

Out and About

I'm still feeling a bit "knocked out" by the hot weather here. The temperature may have gone down a couple of degrees (C) compared to the weekend; but instead it's now more humid, with occasional thunder and rain showers. Still too warm indoors; and as my study faces south-west, I'm limiting my time at the computer... 

Today I managed to get out for a walk (or a "stroll") between 10-11 am; just my usual paths around the old cemetery, and down to the little park by the river for a bit. 

 

Yellow water lilies in the river, blurry because zoomed in from quite a long distance with my phone camera. 

 

 
A number of similar flowerbeds in blue are found in different "park" areas of the cemetery.

I have shown several photos before of the hares living in the cemetery - or at least I assume that they "live" there, as that's where I usually see them. However, it happens that they also visit the lawns between the apartment buildings where I live. But it's usually in winter evnings that I have spotted them there, and not least when snow on the ground, so I have kind of assumed that it's been when they've had difficulties finding food elsewhere.) But a few nights ago (Saturday) I saw one grazing on the lawn below my balcony, and it wasn't even dark yet! And certainly no lack of greenery in other places, less frequented by humans. (It was unusually quiet in the neighbourhood at the time, though - not children out playing etc.)

Multiple images of one and the same hare, zoomed in from my balcony on Saturday evening.