Postcrossing Anniversary - and Apple Blossom

 

Ornamental apple trees in my neighbourhood blossoming now...

 - - -

On Friday, I  received the email below from Postcrossing.com. How time flies...! ;)

Today’s the day — it’s your Postcrossingversary! You joined Postcrossing 13 years ago, and we’re floating by with balloons and fanfare to celebrate this magical occasion.

Did you realize you’ve been teleporting joy across the globe with tiny rectangles of paper for 4748 days now? You’re a special kind of postal magician ✨, and we hope you’ll keep enchanting mailboxes everywhere in the years to come!

Postally yours,

The Postcrossing team

I have cut down a lot on postcard-exchange with strangers all over the world via Postcrossing in later years, but am still keeping my account open by sending a card now and then. (And the system is self-regulating, so when one does not send, one also does not receive.) - When I first joined, back in 2013, I sent a lot, because the reason I started at all was that I had inherited a lot of still usable stamps from my dad that I didn't know what else to do with. (And I had no need of selling them for money.) I learned about Postcrossing from other bloggers (primarily from John Edwards, aka Scriptor Senex, who sadly passed away two years ago); and decided that the most fun I could have with those stamps would be to send them out into the world on postcards. After all, that was what they were made for...  Looking back, I'm glad that I did it when I did; because since then, postage has just kept going up, up, up... Now being almost ridiculously expensive. With the old stamps of low value that I still have left now, I'd need so many for one single card abroad that it wouldn't even leave room to write the address!

Over the past 7 months I have sent very few postcards or letters at all, as after my famous fall back in October (famous in the sense that I keep mentioning it!), even the nearest postbox has seemed a long way away. That distance seems to have shrunk a bit again with the arrival of spring, though - so having received this reminder of my Postcrossing anniversary, I decided to "celebrate" by sending at least one card this weekend. One has no say in where to, but the address allotted to me this time turned out to be in Russia. Now I just hope that the post office staff over there are good at reading our Western alphabet, because my printer went on strike and I couldn't print out the Russian version. (As i often do when sending card to countries not primarily using the Latin script.)

Anyway, after a rainy weekend, the sun came out for a bit this afternoon and I was able to go out and post the card.

If you were ever a writer of letters and postcards - are you still keeping that up, or have you switched entirely to using the internet for written communication?

After the Storm...

 We have a proverb in Swedish that is probably used in English as well: "After the rain comes the sun". Looking it up now, I learn that the origin is Latin: "Post nubila phoebus" ("after the clouds, the sun"). 

On Tuesday Storm Dave had moved on. It left quite a bit of debris behind, but in my immediate neighbourhood, and along the way I chose to walk into town, only "minor" stuff. (I.e. while there was still a mess of minor broken branches etc here and there, I saw no fallen trees, or roofs blown off, etc. - Our local newspaper has reported some such events as well, though, from other parts of town and its surroundings.)

When I approached the city centre yesterday, it seemed that the winds from the coast had also brought (or been followed by) a sure sign of spring, though: The seagulls are here now, and making their voices heard to let us know. There was a whole flock of them circling over that footbridge in the photo above - but before I got the camera up, they had temporarily scattered...

Branches/trees decorated with feathers are an old tradition and probably still the most common Easter decoration here (besides eggs). I noticed these outside an hotel near that bridge. (There were two of them, one on each side of the entrance, but I found it made better photo to just focus on one of them.)

My main purpose for the walk into town was not to take photos, though, but to get a haircut. I had called my hairdresser in the morning and asked if the could fit me in, and she could. 

I walked both into town and back, which means around 3+ km or 2 miles; which is still enough to make not only my left knee but also the rest of me tired. So not a whole lot more got done yesterday. 

Today was another sunny day, but a short walk to the nearest corner shop for some bananas felt like enough. Later I put some energy into cleaning the outside of the windows in my living room, from the balcony outside. The Easter rain had somehow managed to make those dirty rather than clean them. I also gave the (metal) floor out there a brief mopping while I was at it. If the sun continues to shine for few more days, I might even bring my foldable chair up from the storage room... 

 

Spring Equinox

Not only did my calendar say Spring Equinox today (vårdagjämning in Swedish) - the sun was shining, it felt like spring in the air, I found the first spring flowers at last - and even spotted the first butterfly! 

After lunch I went for my usual Friday "recycling walk" to bins located some 10 minutes walk from home; and after I was done with my sorting there, I went to check on a nearby flowerbed along a south-west facing facade - a place where I do often find the very first spring flowers in my neighbourhood... 

And when I got close, I was happy to find not only snowdrops, but also the first few crocuses - and one butterfly, probably still feeling dazed from winter hibernation... (And making me wonder if it, too, knew exactly where to look for the first flowers, because there are certainly not many of them to be seen yet!!)

 

 

"The small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) (Swedish: nässelfjäril) is a colourful Eurasian butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Adults feed on nectar and may hibernate over winter; in warmer climates they may have two broods in a season.  --- Eggs are laid on the common nettle, on which the larvae feed." (Wikipedia)

Standup Paddleboarding - Weekend Reflections

April 24, 2025

The man saw me snapping this photo, and then waved and shouted: "Now it's spring!"

I was standing up on the bridge to the left in the photo below:

It was an unusual sight to see on this part of the river, because he was between this bridge and another one just a couple of hundred meters further down (to the right in the photo), where there is a dam and a waterfall, making it impossible for any kind of boat or board to pass:  

So either he had just started out close to where I saw him; or else he must have come from the other direction (the city center) and had just turned around. 

Linking to: Weekend Street/Reflections #222

Home Sweet Home

 

On my walk around the old cemetery today, I noticed this birdhouse up in a tree. I only had my phone camera, but did my best to zoom it in with that. I'm pretty sure it must be new, or I think it would have caught my attention before. Whether anyone has moved in yet, I don't know...  (I'd be interested to know how prospective tenants feel about the decorated roof!)

On the ground, I spotted the first primula veris of the season. I do think these flowers deserve a prettier name than the English "cowslip"! In Swedish, we call them gullviva - to with their golden colour. 

Progress of Spring

Most of last week was sunny and warm, and it almost became a tough job to keep up with the progress of spring! 

Last Thursday, April 3rd, I found that the wood anemones had shown up in a half-wild woodland spot that I sometimes walk by.

 

Scilla could also be seen here and there, and I also spotted the first dandelions.

And freshly painted park benches turned up here and there around the estate where I live!
 

On Friday I walked into town for a dentist appointment, and in the city park, I found various bulbous plants in bloom in the flower beds along the river, and also the big old magnolia tree.

 

 

Alas the pollen season is also here... (witch hazel tree in the park)

On my way back, I found cemetery staff busy planting pansies.

Another sign of spring is that the sea gulls arrived from the coast on 1 April.

 
Two gulls zoomed in from home, sitting on the roof of a neighbouring building. 

Over the weekend it turned a lot colder again, though. Still sunny, but frosty nights, and it was back to wearing a winter coat for walks in the day time, too. (Typical of April here: Almost summer temperatures sometimes in the afternoon, but still high risk of frosty nights, and might even snow a bit, even if it won't stay long on the ground...)

Weekend Street/Reflections

 

Another sunny early spring afternoon today, and I went for a walk downtown to the city park (Borås, Sweden).

 

They have recently finished a project of reconstructing some of the paths within the park (to make some of the upper parts more easily accessible, I think - but I did not go up to the top to explore that further today).

 

I often walk here, so regular visitors to this blog will no doubt recognise some of the views and buildings - but I can never resist taking yet another photo on a good "reflection" day...

 

Besides what happens in nature, one of the true signs of spring is to see the terraces of the street cafés along the river full of people again...

 

... and also people sitting on park benches, and on the stone steps leading down to the water.

 

This is a bit blurry because it's a selfie reflection photo taken towards one of the curved and tinted windows in the café building in the park.

 

 The big green bunny is looking a bit extra sad as he seems to have damaged one eye over winter.

 

 

Could this be the smallest crocus in the world?? It was only about the size of my thumbnail, and definitely the smallest one I've ever seen in this corner of the world, anyway...  I might also add that it was also the only crocus in bloom that I found on my walk today.

 

I also passed by these snow drops planted along the river on my way back home, though. 

 

Linking to Weekend/Street Reflections #215

Progress

The difference that one sunny day can make this time of year... (Photos from the same flower bed as in yesterday's post.)

Today must also have been the warmest day here yet this year, + 11'C (52'F). Even if it's likely to get colder again next week, spring is definitely making progress.

My strained knee is better but I did not feel not sure it would be up for walking all the way into town and back just yet. I managed my usual short Friday walk in the opposite direction to dispose of some recycling stuff in the right bins though; plus a bit of an extended detour on the way back.

 Cars waiting for a train to pass at the railway crossing.

View from a shortcut woodland footpath connecting two streets.

Signs of Spring

 

Snowdrops can now be found in several flowerbeds around where I live, but today I also found the first tiny buds of yellow and blue crocuses in a particularly sunny spot. (In spite of the sun not really showing its face much this week.)

 

A different sign of spring could also be seen and heard around my neighbourhood today:
A street sweeper collecting the winter gravel from the walk/cycle paths.