Trains / Trams (Postcards for the Weekend)

My dad was both a stamp collector and a railway/trains enthusiast. The first five cards I found when sorting through his study a few years ago. The first two are still in my possession; the next three have been sent out into the world on new adventures, and I only have the front scanned (not the details on the back).

The first three of those cards are British:

 

 I'm pretty sure this one was issued at the same time as the first two. In fact the first two should have the same framing as the third. It's my present scanner that for some reason refuses to recognise vague contrasts like beige/white. (The third card was scanned with my old scanner.)

The next two cards are Swedish. If memory serves me right, I think they are from a railway museum in Nässjö.

To finish off, two British tram cards from John in Britain:

 

 

(Received September 2015) Liverpool Trams at St. James St---

 (Received August 2016) Eastgate Street [Chester?] c. 1905

Winter Walk

After a rainy and foggy New Year the weather suddenly turned very cold this week. Yesterday and today we had -13°C in the mornings, and still -8°C or so in the afternoons. Only a very thin layer of snow around here – but it’s on top on a layer of ice, which makes walking (as well as driving) rather precarious… So I haven’t been going very far! But this afternoon I ventured out for a walk around the old cemetery close to where I live. 

The sun is still very low in the sky, casting long shadows… The photo below was taken with my phone yesterday, around the same time of day (~ 2:10 p.m.)

Linking to:

Read in 2016 / Gone With The Wind

Going through my list of books read in 2016, I count 48 titles. Sounds about right. It happens that I forget to put some on the list; but I do usually end up with an end-of-the-year average of about one book per week. And some of the audio books were very long ones…

Some books I’ve read with the eyes and others as audio books; some in Swedish and some in English. Some have been charming new acquaintances - like the Mrs Hudson series by Martin Davies. With others I’ve seriously struggled – for example Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson. And (as already mentioned) some of the audio books I read lately were massive ones – like Bleak House by Charles Dickens (35h), The Mists of Avalon (51h) and – finished this morning! – Gone With The Wind (49h)…

[Some months ago, I joined Audible as member, and have been making good use - I think - of some of their bargain sales…]

Gone with the Wind

• Written by: Margaret Mitchell
• Narrated by: Linda Stephens
• Length: 49 hrs and 7 mins

I remember first reading Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (first published in 1936 and a best-seller from start) back when I was in my mid/late teens (i.e. in the early 1970’s). I also know I watched the film the first time back then (at the cinema). I am not sure whether I saw the movie first  or read the book first. But I’m pretty sure I read the book twice, both times borrowed from the library in the town where I went to school in my teens (not from the small library in the village where I lived); because I still have a “physical” memory of the copy of the book, and even roughly where in the library it stood. It had a red library binding, was thick as a Bible, and also printed in the same way – with two columns on each page. (I had never seen that with a novel before – and also not very many times since!)

As most readers of my blog probably know, the story is set in the southern United States in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction Era following. If you want to refresh your memory of the plot further, you can check out the Wikipedia article.

Since I first read it (40+ years ago), I’ve seen the movie again a couple of times, but haven’t reread the book – until now. Sometimes it’s an odd experience rereading a book after such a long time. In my memory, I recall the novel as “romantic”. But what struck me when listening to it now was its realism. The characters certainly have their romantic dreams (don’t we all?), but they are also to a very high degree stripped of their individual youthful illusions in the course of the story. And what stands out for me now is more what I perceive as a high degree of realism in the descriptions of the horrors of war, the compromises involved, and the struggle for people throughout life to rebuild and adapt and change our lives according to circumstances more or less out of our control. And how now and again there are those defining moments and choices that perhaps more than others contribute to making us “who we are”… Both as individuals and society.

All in all, I found the novel well worth rereading. Reading it now also made me think about how the world has changed – and how I have changed myself – over these 40-something years.

Moomin-go-round

Experimenting with uploading a video clip...
From my phone via email to the computer,
from the computer to YouTube,
from YouTube to Blogger...
(Is there a simpler way?)

Just wanted to show you this rotary candle holder with Moomin characters... a Christmas gift from my aunt. The Moomin mug next to it is also new - it was a Christmas gift from myself to myself! :)

Another Year (2017)

And once more we’ve said goodbye to an old year, and welcomed a fresh new one. It’s odd how every new year always starts with having to clean up the mess remaining from the old one, though!

It’s a long-standing tradition for me and two old friends (going back to when we were neighbours in the same building for many years) to celebrate New Year together. One friend’s sister, who lives in another town, usually comes too. For some years now, the other friend’s mother has been with us as well. And again this year, all four were able to come. For various practical reasons, we’re always at my place, and keep pretty much the same simple menu and routine every year now – I make quiche, and they bring salad and cider and snacks (and help with the first load of washing up!) We also always watch a film (back in the early days, on VHS – nowadays DVD). This year The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)  - sequel to The Best… (from 2011 – but watched by us in 2013). With that bunch of star actors - like Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Judi Dench, Richard Gere – you really can’t go wrong…

In spite of rain and fog, there were a lot of fireworks going on outside all evening as always, with climax around midnight. A law some years ago against launching fireworks in densely populated areas without permission hasn’t made any difference whatsoever that I can notice. Some of the major store chains having stopped selling them also does not seem to have stopped anyone from buying them; nor has a law against buying or handling them if you’re under 18 had much effect. (If anything, it all seems only to increase every year!)

So… something that’s not even really worth trying on New Year’s Eve around here, is going to bed early in the hope of sleeping through the midnight hullaballoo…

Usually the worst of the fireworks has died down around 00:30, though, allowing my guests to go home (by car). After they have gone, I always need some time to wind down – so while the rest of the year I almost never stay up after midnight, on that very first night of the year I rarely get to bed before 2 a.m. 

And as a consequence, my New Year’s Day morning is always lazy, and the rest of the day is usually spent slowly restoring my home to sort of “normal”… (Not taking down my Christmas decorations though. They stay up at least over Twelfth Day / Epiphany.)