Spring Market 2025

 A long standing tradition in my town is the Spring Market, which takes place on the Friday and Saturday after Ascension Day. A good time for it, as children are then off school, and quite a lot of grown-ups too take the opportunity to get an extra day off work if they can.

It was an overcast day, but not raining, so I went for a stroll downtown to practice some "street photography"... 

 

This man wearing a sunflower hat stood out a bit among all the more common kinds of market stuff! He was selling sunflowers made out of concrete! (No, I did not buy one.)

There always seems to be innumerable stalls selling balloons.

The table tennis table and chess game aren't part of the market as such, but probably there for the duration of the summer - to liven up the square a bit even on less crowded days. 

For my own part, when it came to actually buying something, there was only one market stall that I was looking for - and I found it in the same place as usual. Time to stock up on stockings! - or rather, some summer socks... 

There used to be one other stall that I always visited (and bought something from) but they seem to have given up now, as I haven't seen them around on the last two or three markets. They used to sell cheap postcards and birthday cards (and in the autumn, Christmas cards). But I suppose with the outrageous cost of stamps these days, people also tend to buy less cards... (I've cut down a lot on Postcrossing myself in the last couple of years. So maybe just as well I was not tempted to buy more cards. I do still have quite a good supply left at home...) It was always a fun market stall to visit, though! 

At one end of the square they had gathered the food trucks, and added a few pick-nick tables where people could sit down for a while. (Good idea. I was not tempted, though.) 

  

Walked back home through the city park to check on the huge rhododendrons there - but found that those are not yet in full bloom. 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections (#227)

 

Weekend Street - Spring Market

 

This Saturday was an unusually busy day for me. First of all, it was Spring Clear-Out Day on the housing estate where I live - which is the one (1) day per year that we can just put out things we want to get rid of, and have them picked up and transported away for free. 

Until last year we needed to bring the stuff ourselves to where the collection trucks were parked, about 10 min walk away for me. But now they've made it easier, and we just need to put the items by the bins at the corner of our own apartment building. 

So I spent Saturday morning rummaging through my basement storage rooms (I have two of them) and get that sorted. I have been rather good at making use of the previous annual clear outs, though, and this year I didn't really have all that much to get rid of - and nothing really heavy. - Well, that is... I do actually have quite a bit more that I want to get rid of; but those are things I'm thinking should go to a charity shop rather than just be thrown away. But since there is no such place just nearby, and I don't have a car, I need to organise help with that some other way... some time... (hrm)...

Anyway, as I did not have to put too much physical energy into the clear-out today, I also had some energy left over for a walk into town a bit later, to have a peek at the annual Spring Market. Our annual spring and autumn markets (each lasting two days) are a tradition that in the past used to fill most of the streets in the city centre; then dwindled to only a handful of stalls during the pandemic; but now seems to have grown back to something "in between"... (Still not quite back to what it was in previous decades, I think.)

Here are some market "street photos". It was a tricky day for photography, though, because there were such sharp constrasts between light and shadow. (I had to do quite a bit of editing to bring some people out of the shadows!)

As usual at the market I bought some new socks. (Ankle socks for summer, this time.)

And as usual I could not resist looking for the Impossible Magic Handbag. (I.e. tiny on the outside, weighing nothing, but with room for a library and a fully equipped three-person tent - like Hermione's bag in the last book in the Harry Potter series...) I know I'll never find it, but I'm thinking this one might do for short walks close to home (just to hold my phone and keys, and some tissues, and my asthma inhalor, and some cough drops, and...) 

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections

 

More from the Spring Market

 Yesterday (Saturday), I went back for another peek at the Spring Market, this time with my 'proper' camera - which hasn't got to be out and about much since I bought the new phone. I also took some photos along the way downtown (choosing a different walk than on Friday).

Lilacs are now in bloom...

 

And rhododendron at one of the entrances to the City Park.

 

Strawberries were sold in more than one stall. Probably all imported though, because I don't think the Swedish ones are ripe yet. (I did not buy any as I was not going straight home and did not want to carry them around with me...)  

 

I also passed on the chance of trying out what I might look like with pink or blue hair...

One pedestrian street was lined with 'flea market' tables selling all kinds of stuff.

Looking up at the church on the hill behind.

Looking back towards the main square.

I decided to walk on towards the University though (with more rhododendron and trees in bloom outside to tempt my camera). And having gone that far, I decided I might as well also look in at the Textile Museum while I was in the neighbourhood anyway... 

Just across the road - and railway...

 

 My favourite sculpture, The House of Knowledge by Jaume Plensa (...again...)

... But I think I'll save the photos from inside the Textile Museum, and the way back home, for another post! ...

Spring Market

The annual Spring Market in my town is back to its usual crowded crazy self this year, after the restraint of the "corona years" behind us... And with sunny weather on top!

 

 

There are basically three things I often buy at the spring and autumn markets: Cheap postcards, socks and handbags... 

This time, I skipped the postcards.  I did seek out that market stall and had a look; but since the cost of stamps has kept going up a lot in the last few years, I have cut down on Postcrossing (with random strangers); and I know have more than enough cards in stock at home to meet my needs for a while. (Besides, I did not see any really interesting ones this time...)

I did stock up half a dozen pairs of socks from my favourite stall, of the kind I prefer (not too tight but still staying up). 

One or two readers may remember that just over a week ago, I bought a red handbag at a second hand shop. I was really happy with that purchase for about a week... Until one day I suddenly noticed that two items of clothing I'd been wearing that week (one denim jacket and one thinner denim shirt) each had got the same odd reddish-brown stains or 'scuff marks' on the back of one shoulder... A closer inspection of the shoulder strap of that bag confirmed my suspicions. Even though that bag looked "like new" when I bought it, the surface of the material it was made of obviously had not aged well... Ah well. I guess I'll just have to consider the money I paid for that one an extra donation to the Salvation Army. (I was able to pretty much remove the stains by scrubbing them with washing-up liquid. Hopefully a spin in the washing machine next week for both items will finish the job.)

Sooo... I ended up looking at handbags at the spring market, too. And at the second stall of bags I found another red one of similar size and that I don't think will leave any stains... However, I kind of suspect already that this one too may have a weak spot that I didn't think of immediately (a magnetic lock unnecessarily strong, so likely to cause some damage to its immediate surroundings in the long run). 

Ah well. Qué será, será... Maybe it's my Fate to eternally keep looking for The Perfect Bag...! ;-)

* Qué será, será
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see
Qué será, será
What will be, will be

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflection #12

Spring Market

 

Friday-Saturday after Ascension Day is traditionally Spring Market in my town. In the past it used to fill not only the main square but also the streets nearby, and was always crowded. I used to mostly keep on the outskirts of it just because of preferring some elbow-room... 

In 2020, after the outbreak of the corona virus (and before vaccine), the market was reduced to only a handful of stalls well spread out over the huge square. In 2021 (after introduction of the vaccine), it was expanded with a few more stalls, but still nothing like usual. 

Now in 2022, there are no longer any formal restrictions about distance etc. Yesterday I didn't see any ads in the local newspaper about a market though, and I thought maybe they had moved it to some other weekend. But today, there was an article about the spring market being "back", even if still not as big as in the past; so I decided to go for a walk into town and check it out. It was livelier than last year, but pretty much still limited to the main square, and with space between the stalls. I heard some people being disappointed; myself, I felt they'd found a sensible compromise.

There are three stalls I usually look for at the big markets - and I found all three pretty much in their usual spots. So personally, I have no complaints. ;) One is a stall where they sell cheap postcards. That one was back in its usual corner of the square, and I took the opportunity to stock up some new cards. Another thing I often buy at the market is socks - even if that's something that I can of course also find elsewhere. The third thing I nearly always at least look at, is handbags. I've also over the years fallen for many that turned out too small, too big, too heavy, not having enough compartments, not rainproof, or whatever...

This year, at least I had a pretty clear idea what I was looking for (having searched for a while for a replacement for a worn-out favourite). And, apart from the usual compromise of still not being able to find the equivalent of Hermione's bag in the last Harry Potter book (small, elegant, and weighing nothing, in spite of having room for a tent big as a small flat + the major part of the Hogwarts library), I think I found one as good as  could more realistically be expected:

Besides plenty of compartments, a zipper around the edge can be used to make the bag a little bit wider vs flatter.

An odd experience at the market today was a feeling of "shopping for free" because I was paying in cash with money that had been sitting idle in a drawer and my wallet for two years. During the pandemic it has become increasingly common (and preferred) here that we pay even very small sums by debit (or credit) card (or using phone apps). Some places don't even accept cash payment any more. But at the market today, no one objected.