Revisiting Familiar Grounds

Last Sunday, while my brother was visiting, we had made an appointment to meet our aunt and uncle for lunch at a place about half an hour’s drive from town. We took a bit of extra time getting there, though, as we wanted to make a couple of short stops in the neighbourhood of where our parents used to live.

First we went down to the beach by the lake close to our former house. It was a very windy day with risk of rain, so the beach lay all empty when we arrived.

(Photo edited as painting in Paint Shop)

We also had a look at our old house (sold two years ago). In the past we would have had to cross the railway and walk up close to the property and peek through a high hedge to see more than a glimpse of the roof… Now the house can be seen from a distance because trees and hedges have been cut down, opening up the views. The house itself still looks much the same - except that we have never really been able to see it from afar like that before. So familiar and strange at the same time! I’m glad the trees and hedges did not have to be taken down while our parents still lived there (the secluded garden was one of the things they loved about the place). But for the new owners and for the future, probably the right thing do – starting afresh, creating the garden they want. And none of our business any more, anyway!

We also stopped at the village church and made a tour around the churchyard to check on the family graves.

New cross added to one of the old graves – in memory of my dad’s cousin, whose funeral I attended earlier this year.

Memorial chapel.

Peaceful countryside surroundings.

Weekend Reflections – Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…

Another great spot set up for “selfies” at the Science Center*  

*(same place where they also had the dinosaur exhibition)

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Friday My Town: Touch the Sky

Until just the other day, I always thought of the end of the rainbow as always out of reach, and something that you’d never actually get to see, because it would always seem to be going down behind some trees, or disappearing into the open sea… Now, however, I have learned that the rainbow can actually bend like a waterfall over trees and come down on the solid road right in front of you!

So we actually drove right through the rainbow on our way back from the coast on Monday (I’ll write more about that trip in another post). And yet, even after we had driven through, there it still was on the sky in front of us… (Or was it another one?? Looking closely at the photo above, you can actually see two.)

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Friday My Town Shoot Out: Touch the Sky

Skywatch Friday

Out And About

I had my brother visiting for a few days, also coinciding with my aunt and uncle being in town on Sunday. Having tried to make the most out of a couple of intense days also means a lot of photos to sort out afterwards… And when it comes to blogging, I hardly know where to start! But why not from the beginning…

Per arrived on Saturday for lunch. The weather was rather dull, but in the afternoon I suggested we might go and see an exhibition at Navet Science Center here in Borås – a place which I have never got round to visiting at all before (inside), as it’s mostly a place set up for kids to explore various mysteries of natural sciences, technology and mathematics in a playful way. But this summer they also have a special life-size exhibition about dinosaurs going on.

Now some of you may be afraid that I’ve been struck by sudden dementia, because you are feeling quite sure that you have already seen a dinosaur exhibition on this blog quite recently… Don’t worry! You’re right; and I remember it too. That was a different exhibition, though – a travelling one, only in town for a few days, and a bit more circus-like. For some reason, dinosaur exhibitions must be very popular just now! This one is not permanent either; but here for a few months (all summer). But my overall impression is that it felt a tad bit more serious than the other one, somehow. (If serious is the right word…)

Anyway, my brother was pleased to see that these dinosaurs seemed at least to be updated enough in Dino fashion to show some fur and feathers.

(The bottom left one for example seemed to at least have enough hair to have what I’d call ‘a bad hair day’.)

This (above) is a photo from last year, but it shows some of the exterior of the (old, industrial, but modernised) building housing the Science Center. Below the window to the left of the entrance, you can see a tiny little something… It is one of the street art paintings by David Zinn from last year’s street art festival. This one has been well protected in its rather sheltered position:

 

We also took a look at a couple of the contributions to this year’s sculpture biennale in the neighbourhood. (I’d seen them before, so you might have, too! But my brother had not.)

Me in the background, behind Ernst Billgren’s Guardian Angel.
And below, the sculpture as seen from where I was standing.

…Among the birches, the sculpture Skyddsängel (guardian angel) keeps watch. The artist says that the way we perceive a place is not logical. What is it, then, that makes a place feel safe or unsafe?… (Quote from the sculpture biennale brochue)

Can’t say that sculpture makes me feel much safer…
Nor the next one:

Sarkofag L (sarcophagus) – by Matthias van Arkel
“ This artwork leans nonchalantly against the sapling (… and…) reminds us of our own mortality. In the textile city of Borås, the details of the work and its bale-like shape readily suggest bundles of used clothing ready to be sent off for recycling…”

Sharing with Outdoors Wednesday.
(Well, at least the modern sculptures are outdoors! – and the original dinosaurs, waaaay back in ancient times, would of course have been too…)

Pokémons and Butterflies

Has your part of the world got hit by the Pokémon Go fever too? Mine has! The past couple of weeks, our parks and streets have been swarming with people using their mobile phones to chase pokémons (and sometimes getting dangerously blind to anything else)...

The media have even been reporting that hospitals are facing a novel problem in how to diagnose “Pokémon-related injuries”...

Can’t say that I personally have yet witnessed any particular reason to see it as a big problem, though. I have just been a bit bewildered and amused to see all these people walking about, obviously very deeply engaged in the game.

The funniest game-related conversation I overheard so far:

(Father and child, each with their own mobile):
- Dad, I can't catch it. It's on the water!
- Must be Jesus... He can walk on the water...

Myself, I have so far been content with just chasing butterflies with my camera. (Which can probably look just as curious to people who have no idea what I’m up to!) There have been quite a few butterflies fluttering about as well lately, on sunny days – even if just the most common kinds. But a larger number of them than I’ve seen around the last couple of summers. 

Perhaps butterflies like the company of Pokémons too? (Or else it’s just the result of the warm weather we had in the late spring and early summer this year…)

Small Tortoiseshell wearing its invisibility cloak (wings closed)

  
Common Brimstone - Gonepteryx rhamni – Citronfjäril
(these seem to always keep their wings closed while eating, trying to look like green leaves)

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae – Nässelfjäril) showing its colours

Peacock - Inachis io – Påfågelöga

I think that this one, upside-down, was trying to imitate a Pokémon…

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