Sleeping Through the Thunderstorm

 

Last night after I went to bed (late, I think after 11 pm) I could hear a thunderstorm going on. I did not get up to look, and the blackout curtains were drawn in my bedroom, so I don't know if there was also lightning to be seen. (The images above are courtesy of Bing Image Creator...)

Not sure when I fell asleep, but I know I woke up and went to the bathroom around 2:30 am. Usually (and especially in summer) I wake up several times during the night - but this morning when I woke and looked at the alarm clock beside my bed (no alarm was set) I was astonished to see that I had slept through until as late as 10:30 am! And I could not recall having been up again after 2:30. If not, that must be the first time in "ages" that I slept a solid eight hours in a row like that (plus probably a couple of hours before 2:30 as well).

July has continued to be rainy and with much cooler temperatures than June. I haven't been out on any great adventures; but the rain has come mostly in showers, so I've usually managed to get out for at least a short walk every day. Apart from a bit of thunder, the whole past weekend was also blissfully quiet. My noisy neighbour must have gone on holiday and taken her screeching bird with her... (I asked Big for illustrations, but I fear I might get sued for defamation if I made those public.) 

Yesterday afternoon, I also fell asleep for a while in my chair, watching TV. I suppose I'm just making up for sleep deprivation earlier during the summer... 

Bing: "Woman enjoying a quiet weekend at home, Carl Larsson style" (The only acceptable image out of eight, and even here the AI is still having problems with details like hands and feet and whatnot... She also looks more tired than enjoying herself; but I can accept that, as it happened to rather fit my own mood...)

 

Buddy Bears

 

A couple of months ago I got a bear card sent to me by one of my blogging friends who has also become a "penpal". The bear on the card looked very much like my "buddy bear" - so I put the card on display next to him, and took these photos, with the intention of blogging about them. I didn't get around to blogging part until now, though.

The Buddy Bears is/was the name of an international art project with exhibitions that went on tour in many countries; including Borås, Sweden in December 2012. I blogged about The Advent of the Buddy Bears back in December 2012. Towards the end of that exhibition I also bought My Very Own Bear - an unpainted miniature copy that came with six mini jars of paint and a brush, for you to paint it yourself. Which I did... Later, I entrusted it with the job of holding my most recently received Postcrossing cards, until I store those away elsewhere. 

Oops, I almost forgot:  I also just tested what the Bing Image Creator would make of the instruction "buddy bear holding up postcards". This is the one I liked best:

 

 

Watching Trees Grow

 

 

 

The Ornäs birch, (Swedish Ornäsbjörk) is a variety of silver birch which is also the national tree of Sweden. (Wikipedia)

The original Ornäs birch was discovered in 1767 in the village of Ornäs, in the central Swedish province of Dalarna. The man who discovered it sent a description of the tree to the University of Uppsala botanist Carl Linnaeus. Cuttings were taken from the original tree, from which all Ornäs birch trees have been propagated. The tree fell in a storm on 26 May 1890. Two new trees were planted in its place, taken from cuttings of the original tree. 

In 1985, the Ornäs birch was named as the national tree of Sweden, and examples have been planted in central locations in Swedish towns from Trelleborg in the south to Kiruna in the north.

The one in our town park here in Borås was planted in 1986 - which happens to be the same year that I moved here to live. So I'm used to just passing it without giving it much thought. But the other day I happened to stop and read that plaque on the stone, and ponder for a bit... No doubt the tree must have been quite small when it was first planted. But having walked by every now and then for 37 years, I can't say I really ever noticed it growing...

I asked the Bing Image Creator for a "woman watching a birch tree grow", and this is what I got:

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

 

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Got my first butterfly close-ups for the season yesterday. This one was enjoying its flower so much that it didn't mind me bending over it with my phone to snap photos! I'm not sure of the name of the flower, but I think it may be one of those also called "butterfly bush"!

Unter den Linden, Part 2

The other day on Facebook I came across an "infinite zoom art" video. Have you ever seen one of those?

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a YouTube link to another one:
https://youtu.be/bcndjzLhAsU 

There are also plenty of more examples on YouTube, including instructions how to do it - using certain apps. 

I've not tried that, and am not sure I ever will - but I sort of still had that "wow factor" at the back of my mind when I went out for a walk yesterday, looking for more linden trees in my neighbourhood... I.e. how we see different things when we look at something from a distance, vs when we go up close...

If I walk in the opposite direction compared to when I go into town, I come to this park down by the river. There are some huge old linden trees there, too (cf my previous post). 

 

Standing under that tree, looking up...

 

My phone camera not the best for zoom photography, but you probably get my point about how we see things differently depending on where we stand, and if we're looking at something from a distance, or up close...