Spring Rolls

We had a wonderful early spring day here yesterday.
Sun shining from a blue sky, and nature beginning to show some colour again. I took the camera out for a walk, and as sometimes happens, it took me for a somewhat longer stroll than I had expected. It was that kind of day – and I was not the only one to think so. The first sunny spring day always brings about a remarkable change in city life:

Students sitting on the stairs outside the college.

The outdoor tables at the riverside café suddenly very popular again; and not an empty park bench in sight.

The playground in the park crowded.

And the mallards proudly pruning themselves!

 

Silence is Golden

View from my window this morning

One disadvantage of living with or among other people at all, is that one is not in complete control over sounds vs silence. Today was one of those days for me. A distant irritating bass beat was forced on me by a neighbour for hours on end (will that youngster never go out?!) – not really loud enough to formally complain about in the daytime, just still loud enough to slowly drive me mad... The only way for me to distract myself then is to put on other music of my own choice, but too loud for my own taste – while what I really want a lot of the time is just plain silence (or from time to time an audio book, which does not go well with music either)…

The most welcome sound to my ears lately has been when the constant background beat suddenly stops, followed by hasty steps running to and fro for a bit, then the slamming of a door, and finally someone rushing down the stairs… Phew!

Start of the Day (FMTSO+Weekend Reflections)

Alas, this week neither I nor the Sun have been in the mood to get up and start the day early. So I picked this photo from my archives.

When the sun does choose to show its face in the morning, I can see it rising over the horizon from my kitchen window (which faces north-east).

This photo however, was taken from my living room, and shows the sun using a window on the next building as a mirror. (Almost exactly a year ago.)

The Magpie’s Nest

Two magpies are building a nest in a tree I see from my kitchen window. They seem to be doing a somewhat better job of it than the ones (or were they the same??) who tried it in another tree close by last year.

Those two last spring must have been newly weds and inexperienced at nestbuilding, because they kept bringing one twig after another, but just couldn’t make them stick in the tree – invariably, they dropped right down to the ground again! (It was rather amusing to watch them.) After a few days of trial and error they gave up and left. Whether they found a better tree, or decided to take a building course before they tried again, I’ll never know.

The Magpie's Nest
from English Fairy Tales
by Joseph Jacobs (1890)

Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!

ALL the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests. For the magpie is the cleverest bird of all at building nests. So she put all the birds round her and began to show them how to do it. First of all she took some mud and made a sort of round cake with it.

'Oh, that's how it's done,' said the thrush; and away it flew, and so that's how thrushes build their nests.

Then the magpie took some twigs and arranged them round in the mud.

'Now I know all about it,' says the blackbird, and off he flew; and that's how the blackbirds make their nests to this very day.

Then the magpie put another layer of mud over the twigs.

'Oh, that's quite obvious,' said the wise owl, and away it flew; and owls have never made better nests since.

After this the magpie took some twigs and twined them round the outside.

'The very thing!' said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day.

Well, then Madge Magpie took some feathers and stuff and lined the nest very comfortably with it.

'That suits me,' cried the starling, and off it flew; and very comfortable nests have starlings.

So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests, but none of them waiting to the end. Meanwhile Madge Magpie went on working and working without looking up till the only bird that remained was the turtle-dove, and that hadn't paid any attention all along, but only kept on saying its silly cry: 'Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.'

At last the magpie heard this just as she was putting a twig across. So she said: 'One's enough.'

But the turtle-dove kept on saying: 'Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.,

Then the magpie got angry and said: 'One's enough, I tell you.'

Still the turtle dove cried: 'Take two, Taffy, take two-o-o-o.'

At last, and at last, the magpie looked up and saw nobody near her but the silly turtle-dove, and then she got rarely angry and flew away and refused to tell the birds how to build nests again. And that is why different birds build their nests differently.

FMTSO: Stained Glass

This stained glass window is found in the Gustav Adolf Church in Borås, built in 1903-06.

The apostle depicted is St Peter, to whom Jesus said “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Gospel of Matthew 16:19).

At the bottom of the window you also see the town’s coat of arm, which consists of two sheep shears.

 

(The window to the left, on the wall next to the pulpit.)