ABC Wednesday–Ale’s Stones

Two weeks ago I blogged about Ystad, a town in  southern Sweden. Within Ystad municipality, at the small village of Kåseberga, you’ll find the Swedish equivalent (perhaps) of Stonehenge: Ale’s stones (Ales stenar).

The photo above is my own from 1992; and so is the one below of wild poppies in a field nearby:

The following images are from public websites.

Ale’s stones is a stone ship 67 meters long formed by 59 large boulders of sandstone, weighing up to 1.8 tonnes each. According to Scanian folklore, a legendary king called King Ale lies buried there - the cousin of king Hrothgar of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.

Sketch of Ale’s stones by C.G.G. Hilfeling, 1777

“Between the sea and heaven cants the coast
there Ale raised a giant ship of stones,
recumbent where the glare of light dispersed,
in the darkened stillness of the forms reconciles,
a saga obscured shrouded to the tones of the Baltic,
a memorial whose secret alone it conceals.”

Anders Österling (Swedish poet 1884 – 1981)

The stone ship has been restored on two occasions – in 1917 and 1956. The 1917 resoration was probably quite minor compared to the one that took place in 1956.  Major digging and bulldozing work was then carried out without supervision by archaeologists.  A military facility built on the site during World War II had contributed to a state of disrepair. Since the 1980s, several archaeological and geological excavations have been carried out. The stone ship was probably erected between 500-1000 CE; but boulders from older graves in the same field may have been used. More speculative theories have also been proposed to suggest the stones were once used as a solar calendar.

(Info from Wikipedia + Ystad Municipality’s website.)

ABC Wednesday – Round 11 – A

“Just ‘Cos I Could”

When I took the photos below, I was thinking of my blogging friend Sandra the Mad Snapper. Partly because of her post Time Stands Still and partly because I probably know no one who lives more by the motto “just because I could” – well, when it comes to photography anyway…

I’m also sending thoughts to Ginny of Let Your Light Shine, another inspired blogger who’s been forced to take a break for a while.

♥ Hope you both get well soon! ♥

 

So… can you guess what this is, below?
It is, of course, a photo that I took “just ‘cos I could”.
But what of?

Those of you who visited my last Friday Shoot Out post may have a fair chance of guessing. The rest of you will presumably have some difficulties.

What happened was that I wanted to peek into something, but it was too dark to do so. But then it occurred to me to use the flash on the camera...

In some circumstances, I would not not recommend the procedure. Like if there is someone at the other end of the thing, standing ready to use it for its original purpose. But as there wasn’t, in this case I was safe…

Okay, I think I’ve chattered on long enough now to show you what it was I was looking into:

One of two cannons at the main entrance of our old regiment (now disbanded and the buildings used for other purposes; and the cannons hopefully used for no other purpose than as a reminder of history).

Anyway, I took lots of photos “just ‘cos I could”…

“These cannons are replacements for the two cannons that were captured by the Royal Regiment of Älfsborg at Neu-Kalen 1762 and which got lost during the war.”

This would have been the Seven Years War between Sweden and Preussia 1757-1762, formally ended on 22 May 1762 by the Treaty of Hamburg between Prussia, Mecklenburg and Sweden - a treaty which reaffirmed the pre-war status quo.

I find the wording on the sign amusing in a sad sort of way. Can’t help wondering who got yelled at because they left the original cannons behind… The proof that they’d won at least that one battle…

Sweden has not officially been at war since 1814.

A ghost of a soldier of our regiment in 1683.

He would not have seen these buildings  though, they weren’t built until in the early 1900s.

A memorial tells where soldiers were trained in the past.

Ringlet Butterfly

I caught sight of a small butterfly today that I did not know. It sat down and spread its wings quite some distance away from me in the high grass beside the path where I was walking. I was afraid to scare it away, so first I tried to zoom it in from where I was... And then I gradually tried to get closer to it step by step.

Quite pleased with the result, I have to say.
Finally I even got close enough for a sharper macro:

When I got home, I also managed to identify it:
It’s a Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus).
(Luktgräsfjäril in Swedish.) It’s quite small, I’d say no more than 4 cm or so.

Apparently this is a female because the male does not have those spots on top of the wings but are plain brown. She looks a bit worn, poor thing… I learn from the English website that it has a short lifespan, no more than a couple of months in the summer.

Linking to Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

Rainbow

So at which end of the rainbow is the pot of gold supposed to be?

“In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, red facing toward the other one, in both rainbows. This second rainbow is caused by light reflecting twice inside water droplets.”

There was a full rainbow over the football field last night… But, unfortunately, before I had managed to remember how to do a panorama view, half of the bow had vanished.

Remains to be seen whether I’ll get another chance to se a full rainbow this summer.  I have seen it in the same place before. But catching it is another thing… I can’t get the full view from my windows and before I get out there, more often than not it’s already gone.

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Booking Through Thursday

This week the question comes from SammyDee who asks:

What book(s) have you read that you’re secretly ashamed to admit?

Now there’s an intriguing question if ever I saw one; depending on whether you put the focus on being ashamed to admit, or on being secretly ashamed… Which implies you might be willing to admit you read the book – but trying to hide feeling guilty about it!

I suppose it shifts with age and circumstances and experience, what one might feel “guilty” about. The first “adult” books one came upon in childhood/early teens, before perhaps feeling quite ready for them oneself. Or still reading children’s books after one is supposed to have outgrown them. Reading anything for pure pleasure when one is supposed to be reading (or doing) something more serious. An “ungodly” book in a religious context, or a religious book in an ungodly context… I’ve probably been there, done that with all the categories! No specific titles pop to mind though. Except… I think I did hesitate for a moment once upon a time before borrowing Lady Chatterly’s Lover from the library. It did seem such an obvious title - although by that time I’m sure I’d read other books with content just as bold.

 

“Books... are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.”

~ Dorothy L. Sayers ~

 

Linked to Booking Through Thursday