Linear view vs. Masonry View

Tag Archive for ‘Life’

Himalayan Balsam

Himalayan Balsam

This beautiful flower (Impatiens glandulifera) is considered an invasive species. Introduced to Europe by Dr John Forbes Royle 1839, from the Himalayas. In Swedish it is called “Jättebalsamin”, probably connected to the height of the plant, up to two meters. “Jätte” translates to giant.

Some funny English names, policeman’s helmet, bobby tops, copper tops, gnome’s hatstand or kiss-me-on-the-mountain. Just picture that, a gnome kissing a policeman in the sunset on the mountain while the copper mere rides up the hill.

Sowing the seeds of love, ha de Gött!

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Autumn colors

Autumn colors

tone from green
yellow and red
gust chilly wind
gently single down
birds formation fly
far away land
left behind
on the ground
fade and dry
yellow parchment
wind tossed
in shorter days

I wrote this to the autumn, inspired by the colorful leaf. Forming the words, I realized it was about me being left behind. Some days you just feel like a fading leaf, ha de Gött!

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Storage Building

Storage Building

An old storage building by the waterfront at Kalvö. The technique for the foundation stones are not uncommon in this area. Scrap stone that didn’t split the way they should found use in the houses built. You got to be impressed by the craftsmanship to make it work. This is built directly on the flat rock so one can clearly see the foundation stones.

Even the odd can fit in, ha de Gött!

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Water Rings

Water Rings

Rings on the water, a brief moment alone
Expanding rings connect, overflow and gone
Tossed in to the world, flat stone slightly curved
Flying elegantly with a bounce, one, two, three, four, five
Then sink to be sunk, stone bound to take a dive

Sometimes on a Monday evening those moments just appears, ha de Gött!

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Three more

Three more

I promised in a comment to write about the three additional letters we have in the Swedish alphabet, so here it is. Yes it’s true we have three more letters after A to Z as in the English alphabet. Åå, Ää and Öö. Not to be show off’s, they have these with a different spelling, and pronunciation, in Danish and Norwegian also. Let’s just say it’s a Scandinavian thing.

Lets start with Å. A friend of mine tried to explain this in a London pub when we were young backpackers. “It’s an a with a prick on”, he said. Took a while to figure out why the men laughed and the girls blushed. Dot is in Swedish “prick”. It is pronounced as ooh. Even for native Swedish it’s sometimes difficult to know when to use O or Å.

Moving on to the A with two pricks on, Ä. Pronounced eah. If you have sheep close by listen to them, they go bäää. Use Google translate to listen. Just copy from this text and paste in Google translate. Very common use and a real struggle for all English speakers moving to Sweden.

So the last letter the O with two pricks on, Ö. This is actually also an entire word that translates to island. You just have to listen to this on Google. There is nothing even close in English that I can think of. I think this is a happy little letter. Used to drive my teacher crazy when I made a smiley of it.

Just remember that sometimes less is more, ha de Gött!

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Adam Ant

Adam Ant

Adam the adventures ant
Left with a bold chant
Walked out the anthill
Fearlessly into the evening chill
Strongest of animals I am
Six times my size, god damn
He ran out of luck
Six legs was stuck
Had to succum'
To a chewing gum

You never know what to ant-icipate, ha de Gött!

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City View

City View

Sometimes Forestry Ulle dress in civilian clothes and walk the city streets like a normal person. Last Friday was such an occasion. The city was Göteborg a two hour drive from the meadows of home.

You see “Stora Hamnkanalen” or “Main Harbor Canal” in the photo. City hall with the German Church behind on the right side. If some of my Dutch readers feel at home you’re probably not mistaken. City planners and engineers was hired to build the city and gave it the nickname “Little Amsterdam”. Later during the industrial revolution many British entrepreneurs found their luck here, so the nickname changed to “Little London” and that remains still today.

The city was founded in 1621 by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf. With its strategic position as a wedge to the west and the North Sea between Norway and Denmark, it was built as a fortress. Surrounded by high walls and canals in a marshland with the river Göta Älv on one side. From there ships could unload goods to smaller boats that then was rowed in to the Hamnkanal.

You can often hear my catch phrase “ha de gött” in Göteborg when people leave a shop or a tram. Stay tuned for more pictures, ha de Gött!

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Hairball

Hairball

In the garden by the pond we have a variant of a clematis with small yellow flowers in the summer. Now in the late summer sum they turn into small hairballs. Makes me think of Chewbacca the Wookie from Star Wars.

May the force be with you, ha de Gött!

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Pine by Lake

Pine by Lake

Travelling just 30 kilometres east from my home is a large lake named Bullaresjön. To be precise it is two lakes North and South Bullaresjön. The north point of these narrow but long lakes, in total 28 kilometres, ends at the Norwegian border. As a child, up to seven years old, I spent my summers in a small cabin by the shore of the north lake. This weekend I went there to take some pictures. I shot this picture from the small beach I used to play at as a toddler.

Sometimes you have to walk down memory forest, ha de Gött!

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Oat

Oat

Oat (Avena sativa) is a widely cultivated grain where the seeds are used for both human and livestock food. The Swedish name is “Havre”. The oat fields are now turning yellow as the plant matures in the late summer sun. In just a few weeks it is time for harvest. This annual plant grows best in the temperate zones.

I have a condition called “Celiac disease”, commonly referred to as “gluten intolerance”. I cannot eat anything made from grains like rye, wheat or barley with oat being the exception. Oat meal does not contain any of the gluten protein that triggers the disease. So you can understand that I like oat. NOTE! For it to be safe for a coeliac to eat any product based on oats it needs to be produced with special care and be marked gluten free. It’s NOT safe to eat regular oat products!!

Don’t worry there are some gluten free beer available, ha de Gött!

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