Yesterday offered perfect weather for a Folk Music/ Dance/ Arts & Crafts festival in our Museum Park – with something going on in every nook and cranny, so that it was really hard to choose a favourite corner…
A nyckelharpa ("keyed fiddle", or literally "key harp") is a traditional Swedish musical string instrument with keys.
This summer most of my reading has been in the form of audio books – of which quite a few have been old favourites revisited.
At bedtime, for example, I often prefer a familiar story that doesn’t require too much concentration…
One of the many things I appreciate with Amazon’s Kindle/ Audible is that with many free Kindle classics, it’s also often possible to find Audible recordings of them quite cheap. At best they are even synced so that (if you’re on wifi) you don’t even have to remember yourself which device you last used to read or listen… The next one you pick up will check it for you and ask if you want to go to the furthest read location.
On my re-reading/listening list this summer have been the classic novels by Jane Austen: Mansfield Park, Emma, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey (listening to that now) and Persuasion (downloaded, but remains to listen to).
I think Northanger Abbey may still be my favourite, because of the way she makes fun of the whole Gothic Horror Romance genre that was popular at the time. (Finding it even more amusing now, after actually reading Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho some years ago – which is frequently referred to in NA.) A strong contender is Emma, though, because in that one too, Austen manages (and in a more subtle way) to present an ‘imperfect’ heroine.
In between the Austen re-reads I’ve been listening to some other audio books as well, though.
Last week, for example, I was held captive by a new biography about Joy Davidman, the woman that C.S. Lewis married rather late in life. This I bought only as audio (not finding any “package” deal).
Joy: Poet, Seeker and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis – by Abigail Santamaria
Some of you may know a bit about their love story from the film Shadowlands (1993). It’s been a good while since I last saw or read Shadowlands (I think I shall have to return to both book and film for comparison). But my impression is that this biography gives a fuller portrait both of Joy’s early life (including her first marriage), and of the complexity of the relationship that grew between her and Lewis. And one thing I did not know or did not remember from before was that besides being Jewish and having been (for a while) a member of the Communist party in America, Joy was also (for a while) a follower of L.R. Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) and a practiser of Dianetics. (I suppose I may have read this before, without paying much attention – but as it happened now, by pure coincidence, only a week or two before I bought this biography I had watched a TV documentary about Scientology, from which I learned a lot more details about that movement than I ever knew before.)
I found Joy: Poet, Seeker… (etc) a very interesting read, easy to follow and with facts well presented. I also found the audio narration by Bernadette Dunne quite excellent and easy to listen to. (I have to confess I sometimes find it harder to listen to audio books in American accent –being more used to British English myself – but in this case it was no problem; and as Joy was American, it also ‘felt right’.)
On our way back from the locks, still in heavy rain, we stopped at Trollhättan Church to have a look inside.
Trollhättan – the town growing around the building of the canal and locks in the 1800s – did not get its own parish until 1857; and the church, in neogothic style, built between 1860-62, was actually a gift from the New Trollhättan Canal Company. The manager of the canal company, Nils Ericson, gained fame both as canal and railway builder, and was given a Swedish title of nobility corresponding to ‘baron’ in English. It was he who promoted the forming of the parish as well as the building of the church.
This stained glass window from 1896 (“The Shepherds’ Adoration”) used to be in the chancel but was moved to the western wall in 1962 when a series of new windows (by artist Ralph Bergholtz) were added at the front.
Altar piece by Albert Eldh from 1935.
Still raining outside…
Linking to
Trollhätte Canal is part of the longer Göta Canal, constructed in the early 19th century to connect lakes and rivers from Göteborg (Gothenburg) on the west coast all the way to Söderköping on the east coast. The construction of the Göta Canal, finished in 1832, was by far the greatest civil engineering project ever undertaken in Sweden up to that time; requiring 22 years of effort by more than 58,000 workers.
The first series of locks at Trollhättan (above) was built between 1795-1800. By the time the whole canal was finished, though, the locks at Trollhättan were already too small, and new ones were built between 1838-1844.
This is the upper of the second set of locks.
The locks from 1844 were used until 1916, when the they were replaced by a third set still in use today, which can take cargo vessels up to 4000 tons.
To be brought up or down an impressive 32 metres at Trollhättan, the boats here now go through a series of four locks.
The maximum dimensions for a boat to traverse the canal are:
These pictures are from the upper lock.
There weren’t any big ships waiting to go down the locks just when we happened to visit. Much of the summer traffic on the canal consists of smaller private boats.
I have left all the photos in this post unedited… The day really was just as grey and rainy as it appears!
It’s possible to go on a tourist tour through the locks on board this old canal boat from 1875 – M/S Elfkungen. (The name might be interpreted as either King of the River or King of the Elves/Fairies.) You have to set aside at least three hours for that adventure though.
Instead, we took the car down to the bottom end of the flight of locks, where we got to watch a couple of smaller boats go through the last one.
In the following pictures – note the water level sinking.
Finally the last gates were opened and the boats were let out.
By this time it was raining really heavily again!
Linking to Good Fences
The day we spent in Trollhättan the sky was grey and it rained nearly all day. Ah well… Our plan included looking at a lot of water anyway (locks and waterfalls). So what’s a few more drops from the sky?
However, we decided to dodge the first heavy shower by a visit to the Canal Museum.
Old lock keeper’s cabin outside. And some other things.
Indoors in the museum they have models of the canal and locks, and lots of old photos and documents and various objects.
Furniture from a captain’s cabin.
Collection of signs with various titles for people working at the canal and locks – including for example canal inspector, port guard, lock guard, extra bridge guard etc.
Left: The sense of time-travelling enhanced by meeting myself in a large mirror. Right: Old diver’s suit.
Linking to Our World Tuesday
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