It rained and it rained and it rained

"The atmospheric conditions have been very unfavourable lately," said Owl.

"The what?"

"It has been raining," explained Owl.

"Yes," said Christopher Robin. "It has."

"The flood-level has reached an unprecedented height."

"The who?"

"There's a lot of water about," explained Owl.

"Yes," said Christopher Robin, "there is."

~ Winne the Pooh, Chapter 9 ~

Young seagull, zoomed in from my window.

Borås, although generally reputed to be one of the rainiest towns in Sweden, is not flooded. Other parts of the country are, though. In the province of Småland in the south-east for example, the situation has been officially declared as a natural disaster. (See video clip at YouTube.)

Personally I’ve been having a tired and aching kind of staying-in day today… but I’m keeping dry!

A Beach Boy In Town

When going to the supermarket today I didn’t bring my camera. Big mistake. My mobile is excellent for some photos but not for zooming in birds from a distance. Like when you happen to come across an Oystercatcher (Swedish: strandskata) walking about outside an industrial complex, looking like it’s wondering why the shops aren’t open.

As far as I know the Oystercatcher is supposed to be a wader and preferring the sea, or at least a lake. Admittedly, we did have quite a heavy rainfall yesterday, but not all that much…

It wasn’t very far from the river, but I’m sure I’ve never seen one in town before. Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one before!

A Shopping Spree

One never knows what each day is going to bring.
The important thing is to be open and ready for it.
~ Henry Moore (British sculptor, 1898-1986) ~

Today I woke up to a nice summer day promising pleasantly warm weather, and decided that it was just the day for me to go ‘across town’ and play tourist at the big shopping centre.

By tourist shopping I mean leisurely browsing rather than hunting for things I’m desperately in need of.

There was only one ‘serious’ (or half serious) item on the shopping list in my head – a new swimsuit.

Bathing/working out in the hospital’s rehab pool twice a week  - most of the year - I actually literally wear out about one swimsuit a year. So a visit to a certain outlet at the shopping centre has become part of my summer traditions, whether the need is ‘urgent’ or not. It’s so much easier (not to mention more inspiring) to go shopping for swimsuits in the summer than in winter!

I was lucky and found one this year, too:

(You didn’t really expect me to show it to you with me inside, did you!)

I also came home with another pair of shoes. No, not those red high-heeled ones… A pair of soft black ones that hopefully won’t give me blisters…

And since I was touristing… I just couldn’t resist this summer souvenir, even though it was obviously not one of a kind :

Sold as napkin rack, but for me it will serve as letter rack to hold my summer postcards from friends.

While enjoying an outdoors McD hamburger with fries and Coke (another summer tradition) I was being entertained by these colourful young street musicians, part of some summer performance project (supervised by the woman in white in the background).

Y for Ystad (ABC Wednesday)

Photo from www.travelgatesweden.se

Ystad is a town in the province of Skåne, Sweden, with 18,350 inhabitants (2010). The settlement dates back to the 11th century. The town is a busy ferryport, a local administrative centre and quite a tourist attraction.

Promotion video for Ystad on You Tube.

Since the 1990s Ystad has become famous as the town in which Henning Mankell’s detective novels about Kurt Wallander are set.

Myself I haven’t been to Ystad since 1992.
Back then it seemed a rather peaceful little town!

I recall it as rather difficult finding my way in the old town when driving, though, because the narrow old streets were all one-way. (Probably nowadays one isn’t allowed to drive on some of those streets at all. I can’t say, since it was so long ago I was there.)

My own photo from the beach near Ystad in 1992. Some of you may recognize this photo. I used it for quite a while as header picture on my first blog.

ABC Wednesday - Y

Watership Down

Does the title give you a clue what to look for in the photo?

Watership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbits - in their natural environment, but anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology.

There were six or seven of them grazing in this corner of the cemetery when I happend to be passing by in the early evening. They are very much on guard, all the time… When they hear you approach, they first freeze and sit still, hoping to be invisible. And then if you take one more step - they’re off to hide in the bushes.

For Straight Out of the Camera Sunday