Golden Hour - SkyWatch Friday

▲7 April (18:22)

Spring sunsets from my balcony

 ▲ 9 april (~ 19:02) ▼ 

 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Magnolia, Daffodils and the Easter Rooster

 

Walked into town again today (Wednesday). As it got colder again over the weekend (and still), the magnolia tree in the park still looks much the same as it did on Friday.

 

Back on Friday I bought a pot of daffodils (or whatever name for them that you prefer)* for my living room table; and today I also bought a very small yellow kalanchoë for my Easter Rooster. 

*In Swedish we call them 'påskliljor' = Easter lilies

My other Easter decorations will soon be put up as well. This purple rooster does not hibernate together with my other Easter things, though, but in a more easily accessible cupboard with vases and candle holders etc. So he's usually the first one to come out! 

(In Sweden, Easter Roosters are more common than Easter Bunnies.)

Progress of Spring

Most of last week was sunny and warm, and it almost became a tough job to keep up with the progress of spring! 

Last Thursday, April 3rd, I found that the wood anemones had shown up in a half-wild woodland spot that I sometimes walk by.

 

Scilla could also be seen here and there, and I also spotted the first dandelions.

And freshly painted park benches turned up here and there around the estate where I live!
 

On Friday I walked into town for a dentist appointment, and in the city park, I found various bulbous plants in bloom in the flower beds along the river, and also the big old magnolia tree.

 

 

Alas the pollen season is also here... (witch hazel tree in the park)

On my way back, I found cemetery staff busy planting pansies.

Another sign of spring is that the sea gulls arrived from the coast on 1 April.

 
Two gulls zoomed in from home, sitting on the roof of a neighbouring building. 

Over the weekend it turned a lot colder again, though. Still sunny, but frosty nights, and it was back to wearing a winter coat for walks in the day time, too. (Typical of April here: Almost summer temperatures sometimes in the afternoon, but still high risk of frosty nights, and might even snow a bit, even if it won't stay long on the ground...)

50 years ago in Llandudno (Sepia Saturday 769)

In a blog post written yesterday, Yorkshire Pudding mentions going to Llandudno in Wales for the weekend. "Yay!" said I to myself - because I remember the place, from having visited it some 50+ years ago, on one of our family holidays in Britain back in my teens. I wasn't quite sure whether 1971 or 1974 though (we visited Wales on both those trips), so I had to check my photo albums. It turned out to be in June 1974. 

The colour photos and postcards glued into my album half a century ago have no doubt lost much of their original colours; but I decided to copy them with my camera, do what I could with them in Picasa3 (the simple photo editing software I've been using ever since I first started blogging - which is almost ancient history in itself now), and use them for a Sepia Saturday post.

This view of Llandudno, with the long beach, matches the memories that came up in my brain as soon as I read the name.

My dad was a big railway enthusiast, something that also very much had its influence on what places we visited on our travels in Britain. In Llandudno, it wasn't a steam train that took us up in the mountains on the Great Orme Railway, though, but a tram. Checking Wikipedia now, I see that nowadays it is indeed called the Great Orme Tramway; and that this was also it's original name. But between 1932-1977, it was known as the Great Orme Railway (cf the postcards above) - until 1977, when the name was changed back again. According to Wiki, it is Great Britain's only remaining cable-operated street tramway, and one of only a few surviving in the whole world - and "still open seasonally from late March to late October, it takes over 200,000 passengers each year from Llandudno Victoria Station to just below the summit of the Great Orme headland". 

Maybe a more recent visitor to Llandudno can provide information about how much the price for a trip up to the Summit has gone up since 1974??

A photo obviously taken on our way UP...

A 1974 Sepia version of yours truly, up on the Summit.

On the hill in the background, people had used white stones to create huge images/patterns/letters/messages, visible from afar. Does anyone know if they are still there? (I know that hill figures, and especially white horses, are an old tradition in Britain; but a quick google search I did now didn't mention Llandudno in that context.)

My parents and brother standing outside/below what I assume is probably the hotel where we were staying. (No note made in my album about its name, and that sign on the wall isn't readable.)
 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 769

 

Spring in the Air

 

We have had a sunny start to this week, with quite warm afternoons, which has inspired some typical spring activities - like going through my wardrobe, and spring-cleaning the balcony.

Alas the inspection of my wardrobe once again reminded me of this quote:

Calories (noun)
"Tiny creatures that live in your closet and sew
your clothes a little bit tighter every night."

On Monday, I took a bus "across town" to a big shopping centre there - primarily with one particular shop in mind: the one where I usually end up buying most of my clothes...

After some further depressing correction of my self-image in the store (i.e. optimistically imagining myself to be able to fit into smaller sizes than I evidently currently need), I did end up buying two new pairs of summer trousers. One pair of jeans (light blue) with elastic waist and very wide legs; and one pair of off-white thin cotton trousers with more normal leg-width. (I refrained from looking at any tops this time round - it was a comfortable pair of summer jeans that I was primarily after, and I know I have several tops that still fit.)

 Easter decorations in the entrance to the mall.

 
Tuesday was laundry day, and as I was also washing bedlinen that took most of the afternoon. I also shifted some winter/summer items between my wardrobes upstairs and my basement storage room, as I'm hoping that at least I won't be needing my very wintriest winter coat or boots again this season...

Today I went for a walk to the supermarket for a few things; deciding to postpone my next online order with home delivery until next week, as there wasn't all that much that I "urgently" needed. The supermarket has also recently finished a big re-organisation of the entire store, and I'm trying to get re-aquainted with where to find things when I go there in person... 

With the very sunny weather continuing this afternoon, I also got inspired to do a bit of spring-cleaning on the balcony, and get my plastic floor-mats and a chair up from storage. I also took up the privacy screen with fake leaves on it that I bought last year. Haven't put that up yet, but might do that tomorrow. (Live plants for the balcony will have to wait a while yet, though, as we can still expect frosty nights in April...)

On Friday I have a dentist appointment to "look forward to". (Just an annual checkup and there's nothing special that I've noticed, but one never quite knows...)