Library

A Big Happening in my little world took place this week: My neighbourhood got its district library back. 

When I first moved to where I live now, 16 years ago, there was a district library only five minutes walk from home for me. A number of years later (I can no longer recall exactly when), they had to leave those premises, and ended up being merged with another district library - too far away and in the wrong direction to serve the purpose for me. At the time, it was actually easier for me to get to the main library downtown (but up a hill), by bus. The main library, however, had by then already got rather "impersonal"... (Searching my blog now, I found this post from September 2012 describing that.) So ever since the nearby small library closed, I've really not frequented any physical library much, but mostly kept to Kindle and Audible + now and then some online library services.

The reason that the district library is now (temporarily) back in my neck of the woods is that the building where they resided over the past X years is now about to be torn down and replaced by a new assisted living facility for elderly people. After that project has been completed, I understand the library will probably be moving back there. But meanwhile, they have now moved into a charming old wooden building some 7-8 minutes walk towards the town centre for me. It used to serve as a preschool, but has now been empty for a while.

They opened on Monday, and yesterday afternoon I thought I'd go and check it out - only to find that on Fridays they close early. So I had to settle for just having a good look around the outside to start with. Good opportunity for that, though, as there were no people about!

I'll be returning to check out the inside another day. Even if I prefer reading on Kindle and "by ear" these days, I'm looking forward to some browsing - and just a place like that within easy walking distance, not least in winter.

Between Seasons

 

Today I got out for an "early" walk, as in around 10 a.m., before it got too hot. We're still in that rather unusual September heatwave, which at the moment seems likely to last into next week. At the same time, certain trees are turning more and more yellow already, and also dropping quite a few leaves to the ground. The sensations one gets from one's eyes vs the warm air touching one's skin don't quite add up, somehow.

 

Who drops one sandal on a footpath without noticing??
(It's not a really small child's shoe.)

 A high summer flowerbed starting to look a bit "wild"...

 

Time is Out of Joint

 

 

 

Photos from a flowerbed in my neighbourhood, snapped about a week ago. I was surprised to see the pansies, as they are normally spring flowers!

A Shakespeare quote comes to mind: "The Time is Out of Joint"... (Hamlet)

Another proof of that is that today is 4 September, and in the southern parts of Sweden we are setting heat records for this time of year, with temperatures around 28-29'C (82-84'F)

Laundry day for me anyway, so I had a good excuse to just stay in. Even with the dryers going, the basement laundry room felt nice and cool compared to my balcony...

Colour

At the end of yesterday's post I mentioned that from recent visits to a couple of clothes shops in our town centre, my impression was that we seem to be facing a rather "beige" autumn... (Which did not really appeal to me at all.)

In the hope of finding other options, today I took the bus "across town" to my favourite clothes shop in one of the malls there. To my relief, there I was indeed met by a wider and more colourful selection. I ended up buying two items from their end-of-summer sale (a thin pink cotton cardigan with zipper + a dark blue T-shirt with print), and three from the autumn collection: Two T-shirts with long sleeves (one burgundy and one dark green), and one pair of stretchy burgundy trousers. Those are all basic colours in my wardrobe since before, and the new items therefore easy to match with older ones.

The downside, I suppose, might be that no one will actually notice I bought anything new! (The upside, though, is that I'm pretty sure I'll feel comfortable in them.)

 

 

Quote/image copied from I'm not sure where...

Hello September

 

September is traditionally counted as an autumn month here, even if weather forecasts seem to indicate that in spite of a few yellowing leaves here and there, summer intends to go on for at least another ten days or so, with temperatures around 20-26'C (68-78'F), and only occasional rain showers.

Yesterday and today the weather has been very pleasant - sunny but not hot. Yesterday I walked into town once again, in spite of nothing but a glue stick on my shopping list. (I would have bought that the day before if I had known then that I needed it - but I didn't discover until that evening that my old one was all used up and needed replacing...). Stopped for an ice cream in the park on my way home; and took the photos above on my walk along the river.

Today I spent part of the (late) morning catching up with some correspondence (of the postcards and letters kind), and then after lunch went for a walk to post the results. 

On the radio I've been hearing people talking of the start of autumn as "Girly New Year" (Swedish: "tjej-nyår") - apparently something trending on TikTok at the moment. I don't use TikTok - but from the radio comments I understood it to refer to a trend that even I remember from my own school days: Just like we make new year resolutions at New Year, autumn is another time of Fresh Starts. As we go back to school or work after summer holidays, we also (perhaps especially girls??) tend to make new resolutions (about losing weight, eating healthier, studying more, or whatever). And to help us along, we tend to also like to get New Things... You know: new fresh school books, and pens and notebooks and and bags; and also some new autumn clothes, and shoes, and whatever...

Even though I'm now 69, I still feel it myself: It's in the very air, this time of year. The stationery I bought the other day is proof enough! And on top of that I'm also feeling a certain urge to go shopping for clothes etc. I have had a look in a few shops downtown but didn't see anything I really wanted (alas, so far we seem to be facing a rather "beige" autumn)... So a bus trip to the shopping malls across town may be coming up as well.