Halfway

 

24 Nov 2025, 14:00

"Believe you can and you're halfway there." 
— Theodore Roosevelt —

We had another sunny November day here, with temperatures hovering around 0'C - but pavements dry and looking "walkable"... I decided to believe myself able to walk at least down to the river and back the same way. But once I reached the bridge, I decided to prolong the walk by crossing that, and walking back along the path on the other side to the next bridge (behind the buildings in the background); and from there up across the old cemetery back home. Which according to my own caluclations should mean that I  managed a walk of at least 1 km. (Only an interim goal; but still worth celebrating!)

Tomorrow is laundry day again, which is likely to keep me busy enough at home. 

The afternoons are very short this time of year...    

Sunrise Today:	8:12 am
Sunset  Today:	3:36 pm

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 ...

  

Skywatch on a Wednesday

 

From the same bridge today, the first photo looking north, and the second one south.

And why not "wrap up" with this view at the eastern end of the same bridge...

I suppose just some renovations going on here; but it made me think of the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude - artists famous for wrapping various kinds of famous buildings and other landmarks in fabric...  For example the Berlin Reichstag building (1995); and an installation of 7,503 gates made of saffron-colored fabric in Central Park in New York (2005) - and many more examples can be found in the Wikipedia article linked to above. I also see there that Christo died in 2020, though; and his partner already in 2009. So I suppose I can't blame them for this one... ;-) 

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

 

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

Icy Cold

 

Another cold and sunny day today, and I took my Sony camera for a walk down to the river to look for more ice and reflections. (It has a better zoom than my phone camera...)

Taking a photo of my own shadow taking a photo of... etc... 

 

 

Weekend Reflections

 

For Valentine's Day (Swedish: Alla hjärtans dag = All Hearts' Day) we had one of those rather rare cold winter days of sunshine and blue skies, and yet no ice/snow on the streets. And this big heart is once again in place in the square, right in front of the old court house in the background. (It has been moved around between a few different locations since last February when it first appeared.) 

The water level in the river is low, due to construction work on a bridge going on upstream. From the spots of ice along the temporary "beach" (not normally visible!) you can tell that it is really quite icy cold even if there is no snow or ice to be seen elsewhere!

 

Looking back towards town on my way home.

As you can see from the reflections in the river it was a very still day - no wind blowing.
 

 A frozen shallow pond, on the other side of the path along the river that I was following.

I was glad to be able to take advantage of the sunny day for a walk. Today we're again back to cloudy and grey - and also a bit of snow whirling about outside my windows just now...

 Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections

 

Weekend Reflections, and a Mystery

 

The Sun made an appearance today, for the first time in I'm-not-sure-how-long, and I extended my walk down to the riverside, hoping to catch a couple of reflection photos.

 * * *

After that, I walked back via the cemetery, where earlier in the week I had noted the sudden appearance of an unusual birdfeeder ...

 ... and then, yesterday, the disappearance of the same!

It was still gone today (just a hole in the ground to show where it was), and I could not find that it had been put up somewhere else instead. So for now I'm left with guesses, like: Was putting it up in the first place perhaps "unauthorised" - as in not approved by those in charge of the place? Did someone object to the bright red colour? Or did it just not work as intended, or in that particular spot?? Or did a random passer-by fall in love with it and decided it would look better in their own garden??? ... 

Unless it turns up again in some other spot, I guess I shall never know!!!

Meanwhile, here is another bird feeder in the cemetery. This one has been there for years, is still standing - and seems to be well looked after, and "doing its job".

 

Weekend Reflections

 

After a very grey and rainy week, this morning offered a glimpse of blue skies, and I made use of that for a walk downtown for a few errands. And couldn't resist this perfect mirror image of this impressive mural that was painted back in the summer; seen from the park.

The Christmas tree in the main square. 

 

Display of Christmas trees inside a shopping mall.

 My favourite tea shop, situated at the main square. I've been buying my loose leaf teas there for as long as I've lived in this town - which will be 39 years in January. Today the small shop was crammed with people when I arrived, so I preferred to wait outside for a while, and then snapped this photo of one of their windows.

Yesterday I took this photo of an old wooden house closer to home, because of their display of an electric candle holder in each window upstairs, and a star in each window downstairs. The building is used for offices these days.

 Reflection photo from yesterday, all in subtle shades of November: grey, black and brown, with just a hint of some green grass on the ground... (We only had a few frosty days so far.)

Linking to Weekend Street/Reflections