Dramatic Graduation Day

Yesterday, Friday 9 June, was Graduation day here in Sweden. Every country has its own traditions to celebrate high school / upper secondary school graduation, I suppose - and here it includes wearing special white hats, running out from school class-wise, getting greeted by friends and family on the school yard, and then go riding around town on the back of lorries or other open vehicles, making a lot of noise. We did this even back in my day (49 years ago), and they're still doing it - just making even more noise these days (or so at least it seems to me...)

At my own graduation (7 June 1974), it was rather chilly, and even raining. Yesterday's graduates here got perfect weather for the event, sunny and yet not quite as hot as earlier in the week. Myself, I did not know any student (graduate) personally (it's been a long time since I last did); but when I went out for a walk in the afternoon, I could hear the noises from far off, and decided to go towards the city centre and see if I could get a glimpse of the parade of vehicles. Actually I did not have to go very far at all to suddenly find myself in what seemed to be the centre of total chaos - which somewhat surprised me, as I seemed to recall that it's usually another street that is used for the main parade. Where they were driving now they were also mingling with lots of ordinary buses and cars not having any other choice. It seemed a bit odd (and not very well planned) but on the other hand, it's been years since I was last "attending" the event, so I didn't give it all that much thought (just "inwardly shook my head" a bit)...

Photos taken on my way downtown - a parked vehicle in a nearby street + a close-up of a lot of litter ('confetti'...) on the ground... (Who's going to clean that up, I wonder?!)

Ooops - suddenly here is all the action, and they seemed to be basically driving back and forth between two roundabouts at each end of a street also quite busy with normal traffic...

You have to imagine the noise: Constant honking of car horns (and possibly other instruments as well), plus hundreds of people shouting or singing at the top of their voices... 

For the top and bottom left photos in the last collage I went up the hill (to the right in the bottom right photo) and took the photos looking down from an old cemetery up there. Then I went back home, as I felt I had seen (and not least heard) enough, and found no reason to continue down to the city centre. 

 In the other cemetery, closer to home, sprinklers are on in various places pretty much all day now, because of the drought.

I took this shot of the football (soccer) field close to home, to show you just how dry the ground is when not being watered... And another dry "roadside" photo below:

Along my walk, more than once, I also heard sirens, which could mean either police or fire engines. Both seemed likely enough, on a day like this...

Checking my phone after I got home, I had an 'SOS' message, indicating a fire in central town. I checked the local newspaper app + local radio to find out more. At first it seemed to be "just" a fire on a balcony of an apartment on the top floor of a building (started by a barbecue) - but it soon spread over the whole top floor. All those living there had to be evacuated, and customers in the shops on the ground floor as well - and other shops in the neighbourhood had to close too because of the smoke. People living in the area were advised to stay indoors and shut doors and windows; and visitors to leave. The fire proved hard to put out, they worked on it all afternoon and evening and it wasn't until very late in the evening that it was considered safe. The top floor I understand was totally demolished, and probably apartments below damaged by smoke as well, and perhaps even the shops down on street level.

The two photos below I found online; published by one of our national evening tabloids.(Aftonbladet)

 

 

I learned later that the outbreak of the fire was why the graduation parade had to be redirected to the "off centre" street where I came across it - which explains the mix with ordinary traffic in that totally chaoitic way. Normally they would have been using a street now suddenly needed for fire engines and other rescue vehicles.

 

Some time after I got home, a sweet teenage girl from the Muslim family living above me knocked on my door to tell me they would be having a graduation party in the evening, for her brother - "just so you don't have to wonder what we're up to". I said I would probably have been able to guess :) and told her about having been out to see the parade. It was she who first confirmed for me that they'd have to move the parade because of the fire.

Fortunately the smoke from the fire was not blowing in our direction, but I ended up keeping my windows and balcony door closed most of the evening anyway - which also pretty much shut out noise from celebrating neighbours both indoors and outdoors. As for the family above me, I continue to be amazed at how little noise they normally make. I long ago lost count of how many children there are (or have been) in the family, because ever since they first moved in (many years ago now) there's seemed to be a constant range of them from babies to upper teens (with older ones moving out and new ones born). But I rarely hear anything from them except sometimes coming or going up/down the stairs (but they often use the lift which I don't hear). Even with their graduation "party" now there was just a bit of music in the early hours of the evening (and with my balcony door closed I hardly heard even that) + a little bit of extra noise from feet running back and forth over my head for a while. None of it lasting very late. I kind of doubt that anyone else but this particular family would even have thought it necessary to issue "warnings"!

To finish off this post, here is a collage from my own rainy graduation back in 1974. Me and my classmates were riding on that truck in the two bottom photos. However, as I recall it, we were pretty much just sitting down quietly rather than jumping up and down and shouting... (But then we were a rather well-behaved all girls class all through those three years!)

I did not have a graduation party, nor did I go to anyone else's, because the next morning, I was off on 3 weeks holiday to Britain with my parents and brother - the last long family holiday with all four of us.

Summer Heat

We've been in a long period of unusually sunny weather and drought in the southern parts of Sweden this spring/early summer. Not all that noticeable yet in the still fresh greenery in our town parks (being watered regularly), but on the news there are daily reports of fires, and farmers getting increasingly worried about their crops etc.

Yesterday was one of the warmest afternoons here so far (~27'C/81'F); which means I've now entered the stage of constantly trying to keep the sun and heat out of my flat, and spending my time indoors in summer semi darkness with blinds down, curtains closed, and fans in every room (not all of them whirring around the clock, though).

The kitchen (morning sun) is the only room where I don't need to keep the blinds down all day. The top left photo is my bedroom window (also morning sun), where on top of blinds I also have 'blackout' curtains drawn in the night (and still half-drawn in the daytime). In the living room (bottom left, afternoon sun) I have a blackout curtain in front of the balcony door (and two parasols outside, when wind conditions allow). In the study (also afternoon sun) no blackout curtains (as then I wouldn't see a thing in here) but blinds down around the clock  + now  the white curtains drawn as well... 

The major downside of hot summer weather is that the best time of day for getting anything done (whether indoors or outdoors) is the morning. Unfortunately, that's also the time when I usually get my best sleep...

In the mid afternoon on hot summer days, I often end up sitting behind drawn blinds and curtains watching episodes of the British TV show "A Place in the Sun", i.e. Brits looking for homes (or holiday homes) in places like southern Spain or Portugal. More often than not, they seem to enter a flat or house and immediately react with complaining that it's "too dark". Myself, I think what I'd look for first of all in that climate would be air conditioning and ways to seek shade...! ;-) (In Swedish homes AC is rare though, as the summer is after all fairly short - and sometimes also more rainy than sunny.)

Yesterday was laundry day for me, so I also spent parts of the afternoon down in the (fairly cool) basement, and didn't go out until 5 p.m. - and then just for a stroll around the nearby cemetery with big old trees providing plenty of shadow.

 

Today (one or two degrees cooler) I may venture out a bit earlier (soon after I've pressed "send" on this post). Will probably still be seeking shadow rather than sun, though...

6th June, Sweden's National Day

 

Today is 6th June, Sweden's National Day, and this year "extra special" since it's exactly 500 years since Gustav Vasa / Gustav I was elected king here; which is considered the foundation of "modern" (?) Sweden. The day has only been called National Day since 1983, though - before that it was celebrated as 'Swedish Flag Day'. And it wasn't until as late as 2005 that 6th June also got the status of public holiday. 

This year it's also 50 years since our current king Carl XIV Gustaf ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf (15 September 1973). So even more reasons to celebrate and wave flags about...

I remembered to put my small flag out on the balcony this morning (top photo); and there it's been waving in the wind all day.

We also got a perfect weather day for such celebrations: Summer temperatures around 23'C in the afternoon, and the sun shining from a clear blue sky.

There was a main celebration in our town park at 3 p.m. I took a little detour on the way there to buy myself an ice cream, as I suspected the queues to the café in the park itself would probably be endless (I didn't check once I got there, but no doubt they were). I arrived in the park just about when the program there started (a bit of music, and a few speeches), and I'm pretty sure there were more people gathered this year than I've ever seen before. There was no way to get close to the action on the stage, so I just kept way in the background. The music and the speakers could be heard even by us who couldn't see much, though. And I had both my cameras with me - the 'proper' camera as well as the phone - so I managed to get a variety of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Panorama view" shot with my separate camera. The stage is somewhere close to that black building (café) in the background between the trees...

 

From pretty much the same place where I was standing for the panorama view, my camera managed to zoom in this children's choir on the stage.

I didn't stay for the full program but left when I began to find it too tiring to stand still. 

Even Google is celebrating with us today,
I noticed when I turned on my computer at home:

 But I suppose that's just here in Sweden... (?)

 

Rhododendron

We've had another sunny week, but a bit chillier again - especially at night. For my own part, that's what I prefer, though - because then it doesn't get too hot indoors! ... 

Lower temperature also means that the beauty of all the flowering trees and bushes outdoors last longer. For example, the azaleas in the cemetery are still in their prime, as well as now also the rhododendrons.

Purple rhododendron to the left; azalea to the right.

Rhododendron

And these gorgeous pink ones I see every time I go out or come home... :-)

Alien Invasion

 This week started with what looked like an invasion from Outer Space...

 

We had been forwarned, though: The outside of our balconies (on the whole estate) were to be cleaned by pressure washing, starting this week and 2-3 weeks onward. So we were told to remove or cover objects on our balconies that could get in the way or be damaged by that. 

 

No exact date for each building was given, though, so not all easy to know when to start preparing. But already last weekend did I remove the extra wind break sheet that I put up on the railing back in April, + covered my wooden bench with a plastic tablecloth.

 

On Monday afternoon I noticed the UFO (skylift)  had already landed on the lawn beneath my balcony; so then I also hurried to move my boxes of strawberry plants from the railing to the bench against the wall... hoping that would suffice... 

 

On Tuesday morning when I got up I found they had already got started - although it was another fine day, it looked like a rainstorm was going on outside my living room... "At the last minute" I managed to stick out a hand through the door and take in my tomato plant - which I had also put on top of the bench, but had "second thoughts" about when I realised how much water was actually being splashed about... 

I remained a bit nervous about my other plants and things while it was going on, but it all went well. The strawberry plants took it well and my clematis plant on the trellis on the wall also survived the attack (though it lost the last of its fading flowers).

 

On Wednesday the Alien and his Machine had moved on to the next building and that's when I took the photos of him working (zooming in from my kitchen window).

 

I've now put things back in order on my own balcony, and I have also been to the supermarket to buy a few more summer flowers. (And with my grocery delivery last week, I also ordered a bag of potting soil so that I can do some replanting when needed.)

 

The orange one is a "million bells" (small petunia), the white one a regular petunia, and the pink ones are pelargoniums (geraniums). I prefer to have flowers in separate pots rather than in a box because of the unreliable weather conditions on my balcony - the threat of pressure washing may be over, but I know from experience that Mother Nature has forces of her own that makes it better to be able to move plants around... (Whether because of rain, wind or too much heat and sun.)